Quote from: tekla on March 26, 2009, 03:18:02 PM
The quality of an observation has more to do with the observer than the view. It is possible to look at something your whole life and never understand what it is you are really seeing. In fact most breakthroughs kind of prove that, as they often come from outside, rather than inside, the field. So is it some kind of huge awe inspiring perspective, I doubt it. But something is more than nothing, for the most part.
Six months in the Kingdom didn't give me some great insight into Saudi Arabia, or Islam, but in at least brushing against it, it is no longer the 'other' to me, but rather something that is at least a small part of me. And, if nothing else, it makes it harder to just hate it out of hand. But, on the other hand, it gives me things to hate about it that few people who haven't been there know about.
So, The South of rural Mississippi is a long way from Louisville, and despite sharing a namesake, Louisville is not Louisiana, and Louisiana is not New Orleans. Because no place other than New Orleans, is New Orleans. Though I kind of prefer Memphis myself.
O my!! Gettin' all serious on me, are ya?
I do agree with like 99% of that. And ya prolly knew I would.
My disagreement is only about Memphis. If I could move the Rendevous, the Peabody and it's fountain and ducks, and Beale Street to a healthier, less hot and humid climate with a big-assed river running by the end of it all I'd love to abstract that Memphis from most of the rest.
Heck, I suppose I could say that about a lot of the South, OK, less than half. The other half I don't know. But someone does, eh?
Of course doing that would be about what the Magic Kingdom does now wouldn't it. Try to make something live when it's been jerked totally out of what's made it what it is.
So Memphis needs to be close to the Delta and the Delta needs to have had it's rancorous and heartless history or there are no blues to play on Beale Street which cannot be abstracted from where it is, what it was and where it's been. What's happened to make it. All the pain, all the degradation and the ability to still keep livin' somehow and making that pain real with a christ-beautiful music that grabs you by the soul and shakes ya to your Italian-toed pumps.
And in the meantime you can smell the Mississippi mud and feel the oppressive heat and the sweatless humidity and feel the pleasure of a cold beer or a cold margherita and worship AC as though it's some kinda deity.
It's kinda like me wishing to abstract my transition from the rest of my life and putting it at age 13. I mean in some way I can fantasize that all would be better; but how could it be? My children non-existent when they bring me such joy, pleasure, heartache and sorrow and the traumas and pain that somehow manage, when one realizes that she isn't living them right now, that manage to add sweetness and even accomplishment to her life. I mean, I didn't die from any of that did I?
And so Memphis, or Orleans or KC or St.L. or even Anaheim!! LOL!!
To not appreciate the truth, the life, and all the blood, sweat, laughter, tears and strength that brought into being what I love is to make it all a fantasy of something, someone, somewhere that isn't alive. Hasn't done a darned thing except clog my mind and soul for a minute, a year, or a decade and helped along my misery if I wanna live in it.
Things are as they are, and each one, no matter how miserable, is important, because it all builds the way it is now, no? I think we often fail to see just how sweet even the bad times can be. And so miss seeing the good and true ones as well. We miss sucking that plum for all it's juice and leave it, nibbled at, to dry unfulfilling on the ground as we walk away, wondering why life seems so bleak to us.
Now ya done it you intellectual provoker!!! LOL.
Thanks, Kat. Never change, or do, but keep the wonderful bits. OK?
Nichole
