Well, I'm back from Europe, and have been here in New York for almost a week, and it has taken me this long to formulate some sort of response to the insanity that has occured here in my absence. Returning to my hotel room in Barcelona, my wife and I got ready for a nap, and I flipped on CNN for a brief news check before taking a siesta and BOOM, I was hit by a story so incomprehensible I still have barely begun to wrap my brain around the implications of what had occured. What I now realized I noticed was the seeming lack of reality of watching this event on television from 3000 miles away. Routinely we, as Americans are bombarded with images of unimaginable horror from around the world and they frequently have the feel of being un-real, or seperate from reality because they are so far away and filtered through the lens of television. And I think how many times I have watched as thousands died in far off lands merely thinking "Oh, that's awful!" And this event had the same feel, except when my brain would every once in a while scream out "HEY THERE STUPID, THAT'S WHERE YOU LIVE! PEOPLE FROM YOUR COMPANY ARE IN THAT BUILDING!" And despite this voice of reason I was unable to really come to grips in any sort of meaningful way with these events until I returned to New York where I was immediately overwhelmed by a massive sense of grief, and guilt, and overwhelming saddness. But not anger. The majority response here has been anger. Let's kill those damn terrorists. And all I can think is where will it end! And that sounds trite and cliched, but the stupid blind anger and patriotism I see around me on a daily basis is the same kind of moronic mentality that spawned this type of attack in the first place. War and violence solve nothing. To bomb a country that has nothing makes us no better than the terrorists themselves. It almost makes me more sad that the terrorists have achieved their goal of disrupting our society. Sure, the Government is open again, the stock market is open again, people are at work and on the streets, but here in New York, perfectly rational people talk about bombing one of the poorest countries in the world because they "deserve it" and everyone and their brother feels compelled to wear multiple flags, and people who look Arabic are thrown off planes because people won't fly with them, and the police search our car whenever we drive into Manhattan.
In just over 24 hours I fly to Europe for what should be a really awesome trip. No work! No Band! No Friends except my wife! No hassles. Just Spanish Sunshine! Needless to say I am very excited, but before I leave I should mention this book I just read, because it was so amazing. It's called White Teeth by Zadie Smith, and my wife picked it up first, so she actually deserves the "finders fee" of cool, although she is presently proclaiming to be uncool and proud of it. The book takes place in England in the eighties and early ninties and it's about immigrants, particularly Jamaican and Bengalese, and their dillemmas regarding assimilation into British society. The book is extremely well written. When I first started it really felt like a first novel, but the writing seems to gain in confidence and complexity as the novel progresses, although I am pretty sure that is deliberate on her part. Several things struck me about this book. Firstly, it is geared towards my generation (born in the early to mid seventies), particularly in terms of cultural refrences and events that are mentioned in passing that someone younger or older may not even get or remember, or even have experienced the first time around. Also, racial relations in England are discussed at length, a subject I knew very little about previously. It seems, at least from Ms. Smith's perspective to be quite different than American racial relations, particularly because many of the immigrants in England seem to be from South Asia, whereas race relations in America have historically had to do with black and white, and more recently hispanic and asian. Because of this, much of the tension has religious undertones, whereas slaves brought to America had Christianity shoved down their throats so long ago, that their native religions are long forgotten, or at least so highly altered as to bear little resemblence to their original form. So now I am stuck, because I don't want to say much more and give stuff away. Let me just close by saying that you must read this book. Definitely my new favorite author.
Forgive me father for I have sinned. It's been a week since my last post. This weekend was really nice. My labor day was strikingly lacking in labor. Woke up at 10:30 and rushed out of the house to catch a movie, The Others, at the Magic Johnson Theater. They have matinee prices you see, a concept that seems to have eluded the geniuses who run Sony Theaters. "Where is the Love, SONY!" The movie was good and creepy, with a good Sixth Sense type ending. Then me and my love walked to Central Park via Morningside Park to sit and enjoy the warm end of summer air. Morningside Park is actually pretty cool. The view from the top of it is really impressive, and there are some good nooks and crannys. I have previously been afraid of this park for a variety of reasons. I know that it has gotten better. Columbia used to illegally lock the entrances near the campus to keep out undesirables (or maybe keep Columbia students from buying drugs in the park). Once, when my brother was jogging there in the early 90's, he and his friend saw some steps that said "CRACK USERS ONLY BEYOND THIS POINT!" in graffiti. He chickened out, but his large football player friend continued on, only to turn back shortly after witnessing crack use in its many wondered splendor. The south end of the park is a big sunny field that was full of children and families just staking out their cookout locations. We moved on to Central Park, where, despite the many no barbeque-ing signs, people were already in full barbeque mode.We laid out a blanket, removed the unnecessary clothing, took out our books, and the she promptly opened her seltzer which spilled all over her part of the blanket which then she wanted to be on my part of the blanket... As you can see, we had a lot to worry about. So we read in the sun and were reduced into a stupor of relaxation. It was great. We returned home late in the afternoon to eat take out, watch cable, and veg in a state of pleasurable relaxation while petting the fat cats. Needless to say, waking up the next moring for work and donning a tie for the first time since Memorial Day sucked... BIG TIME!
