Balance

Highway strangers: Yasser & I gratefully caught a rideshare off of Craigslist headed for Chicago. To meet our car host, we took a Metro North train way, way up and out of the city to the Katonah stop. Luckily, the 4th rider also missed the earliest train and we all met up on time. Our driver was headed to the DailyKos Convention in Chicago to see the Democratic candidates. A chatty and lively woman, she reminded me of my mom in many ways (and she also turned out to be descendant from Italian immigrants). The other rider was a tango dancer/teacher/extraordinaire, en route to creating a tango dance network that will span the nation. We all alternated with stories and sleeping and made good time to Toledo, Ohio where my mom was waiting to pick Yasser and I up. The U.S. really needs more ridesharing of this sort if we're gonna love cars so much. Heck, even I, environmentalist and activist that I am, romanticize the American Road Trip.

Michigan: A bizarre landscape when compared to New York. Slow-moving things, green, fields of crops, thick sweet-smelling air, dirt roads, empty streets, quiet. I felt restless and content at the same time. In NYC the constant bustle and noise and colors compel me to seek out action, life, people, music, anything. In Michigan, the calm eased me into accepting that I can be content taking a long walk, sitting in the cool air of the library, biking with neither destination or companion, sitting on the couch and reading a book. I was happy to see old friends, I really felt good in Kalamazoo. I was moving on my own time, accepting who I saw or what I did as they came and understanding the limits of my time there. I also got to spend some nice time with my mom, on her birthday and also for a few hours when we first arrived to Ohio and Michigan. And I was happy to see the rest of my family, I just never have enough time there. Returning to NYC after Michigan, I had that familiar feeling of not being sure whether places are changing or if it's just me.

Parks: I very quickly got back into the pace of things in NYC, subways, work, hurrying to wait and all. Chad came to town for a brief minute before his flight back to Cali and we wandered around Park Slope with a friend before getting Thai food. It was good that he arrived just as my roommate was going crazy or I would have thought it was me. Tuesday I saw some nice spoken word and singing in Tompkins Square Park. There was this little kid, maybe 4 years old, dancing like wild to the beats and dancing really well. It was impressive and it was very disappointing to me when a woman came over and grabbed him by the arm, leading him to a chair to try to get him to sit still. Being taught to sit still is one of the great tragedies of growing up, especially when it negates such a beautiful expenditure of energy like dancing.

Yesterday I saw a great outdoor theatre performance by the Bread and Puppets Theatre group from Vermont. When I walked up, I saw the flapping of large, steel-grey wings. Enormous metallic birds were circling the stage, making such a beautiful noise as their heavy wings rose and fell in clangs. They swooped around and behind the stage and soon smaller, more tinny-sounding birds hopped out and squawked a bit before disappearing. The show was very political and brought up a lot of points about accountability, autonomy, and personal responsibility. I really enjoyed the working class folks who wore great masks and plaid, overalls, and long, patched skirts. There was also a nice skit about the death (and rebirth) of agriculture. Gunny sack turkeys and a wild swaying cow fought side by side with the peasant farmer and his pitchfork-wielding wife against the suits for a triumphant victory in the name of small farmers everywhere. In a different skit, a terrifying computer-faced bird-monster screamed at complacent humans who also later put on computers for faces and screamed back at the monster, scaring it clear off the stage. I really liked that one a lot too. The band was great too, TWO banjos, an accordion and a buncha brass.

DN!: Time at Democracy Now! is winding down. One intern left yesterday, others are leaving soon. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time there, though I'm still unsure whether office work is for me or not. I just can't imagine working an office that's not just like the DN! office or the Peace Center. I also want to work with all my friends and be able to come and go as I please. Away with the self-exploitative work ethic, I say.