TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

8:30 AM
Posted by jodi rose

Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Back in my original loft digs, visiting the girls. I seem to have picked up an extraordinary range of residences in new york - well, mostly in brooklyn, which is even better as I find manhattan a bit much these days. must be getting older, if not discernably wiser. It rained all labour day weekend, so didn't go to the beach party in the hamptons, but kind of a relief to be in the one place for, oh, almost a week now. lordy it's going to be hard to settle down when I come home. or maybe not, collingwood is calling!
The long weekend felt like three sundays in a row, sleepy, lethargic and grey, so I hardly left the 'hood. Walked around the block a few times for fresh air, watched numerous trashy movies on cable, saw not-so-trashy movies at cobble hill cinema - the good girl, with a depressed jennifer aniston which made me feel that my life was really ok; and possession, (from the a.s byatt book which I never did get around to reading, although her? short stories are amazing - 'elementals' and 'the matisse collection' in particular) with princess bland gwyneth and some forgettable american beefcake having a tedious present day romance, while the fabulous jennifer ehle and jeremey northam, all historic simmering passion and poetic longing.
It's strange watching too much american cultural product while in america, it seems to have produced a kind of displaced alienation from where one actually IS, in the images on screen everyone is having such a great time, fun fun fun. While in reality, if you're not 'making it' with the great american dream, life just struggles on towards nowhere in particular. Starting to understand some of the intense fascination with wealth, power, success and celebrity that is all-pervasive, as the alternatives of a life just getting by looks pretty grim. Being 'alternative' is a basic response to the barinwashing, dogma and hypocrisy of the moral majority.
Making me think, well, why do we give value and worth to certain people and not others? It's something I'm guilty of as much as the next person (new weekly anyone!!??) but having not had the inclination or spare cash to indulge my celebrity fetish while travelling, the allure of reflected gloss (dross) has worn off a bit. So here's a comgas tm excercise, in listening to the stories around you. If you don't already, make eye contact and smile at people walking down the street; say hi to the person next to you in line, start a conversation on the subway/tram/bus - sure someone's going to think you're a lunatic, but it's amazing how much more human the world feels when you interact with people in your orbit. And listen to their stories, everyone is 'someone', not just the people who get validated by having heaps of money and status and success. Turn attention away from those in the spotlight, who already get more than enough airtime for whatever they have to say, and onto the mundane, everyday lives of people you know - which probably aren't that mundane at all, but full of rich detail, ludicrous coincidence, chance, insight, emotion. Be tolerant and open and interested and passionate, and enthusastic, about your own life as well as other peoples, you deserve it! That's my pollyanna rant for the day - crystallised from thinking about how listening to the sound of bridges somehow resonates, for me, with listening to the voices and stories around you that go unheard, it's a way to connect, to share your experience of life for a moment, to hear someone else's unique story.
This is all going in my second book, a cynics self-help guide to living the passionate life you dream of!!!!!