Here in Northern California we had a glorious seventy-degree day! What could be better really. I heard on NPR that a change is in the air. I'm sure they weren't just talking about the equinox and the weather either. Jay Leno hosted the first ever seated President on his show last night. Change! President Obama was articulate and had a sense of humor. Change! He (I read on another blog) is having a vegetable garden planted at the White House. Change! And, I really feel it is change for the better. As the saying goes "change is good". Yes, indeed!
We had friend visiting from Vancouver, B.C. a week ago and I asked them how Canadian's feel about Obama. They said that he is well-liked there and they see nothing but positive coming from the new administration. It is nice to be liked again. We don't have to feel like the kid on the block that everyone tries to avoid.
Speaking of avoidance: my daughter travels via train to and from work every day and pointed out to me today that she doesn't understand why everyone waves when the train goes by? She thinks it feels"weird" to watch people waving at the faceless windows of the train as though they know someone on board.
There was a day when we first moved here to the Sierra Nevada Foothills over 35 years ago that you could drive down the road and everyone waved to you as you passed them on the road. Even the local barber used to walk to and from his shop (complete with a barber pole) and as cars passed him on the road, his hand would come up and wave to every car that passed him by. And I mean every car. He didn't necessarily look up at you or at anyone, but he was waving. That kind of small town familiarity has seemed to go by the wayside.
Is it weird to want to connect with strangers? Is it weird to wave when you don't know someone? I don't think so but then again, I am a dinosaur. However, the internet allows people to connect to other people that they don't know. There is a familiarity to these people we "meet" on the internet. Do they remind us of ourselves? Do we see something familiar about their lives, their art, their writing that makes us want to "raise our hand and wave" to them, so to speak? Perhaps it is the "faceless window" that the internet affords us that makes us want to "wave", to say hello, to connect and have people recognize what is special in us. The world doesn't feel quite so big that way. We are all traveling on that train. To where is still yet to be determined.
We had friend visiting from Vancouver, B.C. a week ago and I asked them how Canadian's feel about Obama. They said that he is well-liked there and they see nothing but positive coming from the new administration. It is nice to be liked again. We don't have to feel like the kid on the block that everyone tries to avoid.
Speaking of avoidance: my daughter travels via train to and from work every day and pointed out to me today that she doesn't understand why everyone waves when the train goes by? She thinks it feels"weird" to watch people waving at the faceless windows of the train as though they know someone on board.
There was a day when we first moved here to the Sierra Nevada Foothills over 35 years ago that you could drive down the road and everyone waved to you as you passed them on the road. Even the local barber used to walk to and from his shop (complete with a barber pole) and as cars passed him on the road, his hand would come up and wave to every car that passed him by. And I mean every car. He didn't necessarily look up at you or at anyone, but he was waving. That kind of small town familiarity has seemed to go by the wayside.
Is it weird to want to connect with strangers? Is it weird to wave when you don't know someone? I don't think so but then again, I am a dinosaur. However, the internet allows people to connect to other people that they don't know. There is a familiarity to these people we "meet" on the internet. Do they remind us of ourselves? Do we see something familiar about their lives, their art, their writing that makes us want to "raise our hand and wave" to them, so to speak? Perhaps it is the "faceless window" that the internet affords us that makes us want to "wave", to say hello, to connect and have people recognize what is special in us. The world doesn't feel quite so big that way. We are all traveling on that train. To where is still yet to be determined.
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