communities natham, this is great. so interesting and, as catie said, brings up so many issues. this was exactly what i struggled with after coming back from india...suddenly surrounded by people in their cars with the windows rolled up, who won't make eye contact with you in the street, automated check-machines, even just having so much space in our houses here. i read a study that said the reason that so many people remember college as the best years of their life is because those were the 4 years they lived the way, deep down, we want to live - in a close community, surrounded by each other all the time. an awesome book that looks at this issue in the context of environmental sustainability is Bill McKibben's 'Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future'
keep up the good work. see you soon!
ah, thanks! thanks for this, nate. it's such a good christmas-time message, also.
I was so excited yesterday when a woman asked me where 79th street was. Then I was elated when she revealed she was actually looking for the "american museum of natural history". Ah, a chance to prolong this short conversation for a few more seconds!
this essay brings up a lot of interesting ideas- from globalization and "business" and "development" and how these things affects each of us on a personal, emotional level, to the impact of gender dynamics. I can easily say that when I'm in my neighborhood I generally dread people talking to me because 90% of the time it's a man harassing me. But again, this could be a result of the impersonal nature of living in NYC- people don't interact with those who live on the same street as them. These men don't see me as a neighbor they live with- someone who goes to the shops they go to, buys the same food, goes to the same street fairs, etc.
anyway, thanks for sharing!
Soccer-Football Gosh Nathan, In this piece you write with a fluidity which I do not think that I have encountered before in your writing. Your passion and grace are moving and I "almost" feel like kicking a ball around the backyard so that I too would be accepted in a pick-up game in Memorial park. This is an inspiring next step in your journey. Love, Mom
A father's reflection As someone who has lived you with a football(soccer) fanatic all these years I welcome the chance to finally hear about all the ways it has touched your life. I have been pleased to have shared in some of them.
I hope you do get a chance to travel the world and write about the pickup games you play in. Will you take a soccer ball made of socks to Africa?
Get It Up Nathan,
Nicely done! As an extrovert I've always been intrigued by those that have hang-ups about strangers. Your essay covers this topic well, with some good insight into people's personal spaces and how they conceive their "buffer zones". As an Elevator Constructor, I'm constantly amazed at the inherent fear attached to elevators. The Hollywood vision of an elevator plummeting 40 floors at 100 mph is bad cliche and, due to modern (being in the last 125 years or so) safety mechanisms and regulatory-body mandated safety inspections, not likely at all. Like your research shows, vertical transportation is a very safe way to travel. The multiple and redundant safety features and circuits make today's elevator a safe and reliable ride. If there is a mechanical malfunction or a value out of parameter in an electronic circuit the elevator will fault-out and shut down. This is a good thing. In the worst-case scenario I'm in an entrapment (the elevator is faulted out for some reason or other and has stopped at whatever point it is at in the hoistway) like Mr. Chen. The logical thing to do is not to panic, but to assess the particular car that I find myself temporarily inconvenienced in for which corner I might need to avail myself of if the duration of my stay requires it and then have a seat. Maybe take a nap like Mr. Chen. DO NOT attempt to escape the car ala Bruce Willis with two guns blazing as you leap through the "escape" door. This is in actuality an access hatch for service and depending on local regulations may be locked. This is where people get seriously hurt or seriously dead as the elevator may run on automatic at any time and will not even care that a flimsy human hero is scaling the hoistway wall adjacent to the car on its way for help. Take a break and wait. If you're lucky you might be on the clock like our Mr. Chen.
Life has it's ups and downs- Enjoy the ride!
The International Union Of Elevator Constructors -
Local 133 - Austin, Texas
"We Bring You Up When You're Down"
Interesting Hey Nathan, an interesting account but a bit disjointed with the insert of the introduction to culture at Madura. It could be sharpened by some condensation but all in all interesting. Love ya PBB
Wow! Your mom was right. You love(d) baseball! I see the same diligence with your writing. Maybe one day you can be a major league writer. Just don't wear our your wrists. Nice piece Nate.
ps. To all other readers... I hit the curve!
Wow You made me cry with that one Nate. Then again I lived through some of that with you. I'm glad time has enabled you to appreciate the hard actions that parents are forced to take and to value the result. Good work. I'm proud of you. PBB
I enjoyed your essay. I was in Gokarna briefly last year and the memories came flooding back. I even bought a necklace from a very friendly Tamil family - maybe the same people. If I had a criticism, it would be that your take on events could come across as a little smug. Your greater understanding of the real India, the effortless way in which you converse with and delight the stallholders, the intolerance of the hippies - I'm not saying these recollections aren't true, but a little more modesty might warm the reader to the story. I also thought it was a bit misleading to suggest that the hippies were quite so dominant. As I remember it, a large proportion of the tourists are Hindus from elsewhere in India visiting because of Gokarna's religious significance.
nice nice work nate! i think it turned out really well! really awesome! i hope you win the contest- i'd love to have a lot of people reading this! great job!
Mombo bites Nate, This may be the best thing that you have written. It is from the heart, I was rooting for Raj all the way and wanted to unplug Adam. You understood the longing and need to explore which Raj was consumed with. It would be interesting to see what advice Owen has for you. Mom
Wow. This is really really good. The emotions of the characters are visceral and powerful without being melodramatic. Email me a copy if you want me to make a couple suggestions for line edits. Holla! Your writing is getting mad good kid.
Fire Son, shit is fire. Here's what I've noticed since I've been at school- I use some Yackisms, but def not as often as when I'm chillin at home and especially not as often as when I'm chillin with you, Em, and Shane. Remember when we were in Spain? We went OD on the Yackisms, using at least two per sentence. Part of it was being with close friends from the same hometown, but part of it was that we were in a place where most people weren't gonna understand us anyway, so we were free to speak our basterdized yackspeak. I remember Shane sayin he used to drop yack vocab on heads when he was up at Vermont, but I wonder how thick your yack speak would be if you and Emi, and now Shane, had all gone to different schools. I'm not sayin I completely stop talkin like a yackhead when I'm at school, and sometimes my friends even pick up on ish, like refering to a friend as "my boy". It sounded maaad funny when my preppy friend Dave leaned over to me at a party when I had a friend visiting and said, "I like your boy." In yack speak, it would have been prudent to add "no mo", or something along those lines. Anyway, I've noticed that I'll only drop a yack word every once in a while, and definitely not two or three times a sentence when I'm at school. So my question to you is, if you and Em had gone to different schools, do you think you would use the yackilect as often as you do? Holla atcha boy.
fun I like it Nathan but found it a bit jumpy to read. Perhaps that is a function of reading off a computer screen. The start I found a bit hard to follow but liked the symmetry. Keep writing it's fun to read. PBB
Fantastic story Gnat! and very cute. I agree with Tad that it was somewhat heard to read in the format presented, I lost my place a couple of times and such.... but overall a real pleasure to read. There were a couple of sports (literally 2 I think) where I believe there were typos: a what that should've been a that and..... dammit I can't remember the other one.
thanks for the great entertainment.
sending <3 <3 <3
It's really good, although the lines are so long it makes it more dificult to read (I mean on the computer - I doubt you have any control over that)
just a question - does circumcision in itself equal conversion to judaism? Of course the meaning is still there regardless, but i just wondered
i really like the first one; the lines are really well chosen to tell the story, but incompletely. it's really hard to say what someone would say if they didn't already know the story... maybe ill introduce it to one
You have to chuckle What do you mean the story doesn't flow well? The style is fine. You can always write another tale with Raja in central position.
( Maybe you do. Haven't read the next blog )
Regarding the dreadlocked Brit. Well. You just have to chuckle don't you. I mean, they go with territory as much as we wish they didn't. Everyone seems to want to be the smartest, hippest, and
most goin' on when they clearly are not. My pushy answer to these polite restaurant owners in the future would be to show other people to the table, and force her to share. Might be the beginning of some real feeling and fun from her, or give her something to complain about when she goes home. I'm sure her friends have heard it all before!!
2 comments Looks like I'm currently your biggest blogfan Nata. I have two comments- 1- Different civilizations/cultures/socities (whatever you want to call it) have different approaches to learning. The most interesting cleavage in approach, in my opinion, is between Western (European) and Eastern (Chinese) civilizations.
In the West, the traditional approach is to introduce the student to a wide range of knoweldge, and gradually allow them to specialize based on their particular skills and interests. This is evident K-12, as we are required to take Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Gym, etc etc. To a lesser extent, this is also the case in college, where most schools require students to complete core courses outside their chosen major. The image one could draw of this style is a pyramid, starting with a base of general knowledge, and then narrowing as the student persues a specific interest.
In ancient China, the approach was signficantly different. A student was allowed to chose a subject based upon their personal interests right from the begining. The theory held that exploring this topic would introduce the pupil to other, related topics, and the student would naturally gravitate to these subjects in order to compliment and support their core subject. The image here would be of a spiral, starting at a signal point and growing wider and wider as the student developed mentally.
This leads me to my second point, related to what you said of incentive. My first semester at college, the adviser who 'helped' make my schedule 'encouraged' me to take core classes (a math course, a science course, a diversity credit art history course, and a study skills course) completely unrelated to my government and politics major. There was a lot of other issues going on that semester, but suffice to say I did terribly in my four non-major courses, and grabbed an A in my gov class.
Compare that doleful semester to the one I had last spring. I took five history and goverment courses, all of which related to one another in some demension. My Political Theory class could be applied to my Dictators of Latin America course; my history of Mexico could be applied to my history of Latin America course, and so on. I chose courses that interested me, courses which were engaging and interrelated. I was able to use concepts and information I had learned in one class in a paper or on a test in another. This was extremely helpful. Of course I worked much harder, was more focused, and happier last semester than my first at college, and all these factors contributed to my improvement as well. Suffice to say I went to work.
Holler atcha boy. And expect long comments from me from now on. If I've gotta read your long ass blogs, you're gonna hafta read my long ass comments. Peace.
Owen
awed Dear Nate, your chapter on community gave me the chills. It is so well-written and so sincerely from the heart. You have put a lot of thought into this work. I am humbled by your beautiful writing. Thanks so much for sending it to me. I saw a few very small editing issues.
Love you so much, Mom
I like this a lot, you have some good examples.. I really liked the part about the metrostars, as an example of insecurity. (it isn't so important, but Chirac is the President of France)
laura
non-member comment
communities
natham, this is great. so interesting and, as catie said, brings up so many issues. this was exactly what i struggled with after coming back from india...suddenly surrounded by people in their cars with the windows rolled up, who won't make eye contact with you in the street, automated check-machines, even just having so much space in our houses here. i read a study that said the reason that so many people remember college as the best years of their life is because those were the 4 years they lived the way, deep down, we want to live - in a close community, surrounded by each other all the time. an awesome book that looks at this issue in the context of environmental sustainability is Bill McKibben's 'Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future' keep up the good work. see you soon!