cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why, Hello America! I'm tempted to go out and visit with American culture somehow. Maybe there's some place I can go on Saturday evening after class is over. As I've written here before, I am pretty well disconnected from the culture that surrounds me. I mostly associate with a handful of people who practice unusual trades and skills (blacksmith, tracker & bow builder, herbalist, wildlife illustrator, etc.) and we've all pretty well dropped out. I don't even have access to a television, don't listen to commercial radio and I can't remember the last time I set foot in a shopping mall. I see names of people on the covers of magazines in the check-out at the grocery store and I have no idea who any of them are. The neat thing about this is that on those rare ocassions when I stick my head up and visit with mainstream America it can be like visiting a foreign country. Even standing in the kitchen of a modern American house is an amazing experience for me. Maybe I could go to a sports bar. One of those places where they have big screen TVs with basketball games and baskets of chicken wings and pitchers of cheap beer. That would be interesting. Yesterday I ran into Peter during lunch and ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes. Peter proposes that our society is stratifying into 2 levels with a high language and a low language. People who can only write in text speak will be stuck with the low language and consigned to menial jobs, while those who can write in proper English will have the better jobs and more money. We also discussed the finer points of the family life of beavers, as contrasted with raccoons (which I know less about, never having hunted them). Peter was a founding member of a huge, huge band that is a household name and plays sold-out stadiums. He gave it all up and left the band so that he can hang out downtown and talk about beavers. He is a guy who probably understands better than most people why I'm stepping off a cliff and quitting my day job. 9:57 a.m. - 2010-07-23 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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