As I was getting ready to type up a new idea for a possible future blog entry, I had the chance to browse the texts I had published so far, here at the Nova site. It occurred to me that most of the entries, if not all, focus on elements of culture and learning I admire. I suppose it is easy to write about the things we know and like. But what of those that rub us the wrong way? What of culture and lifestyle choices that we disapprove of, scold and try to have them removed from our purview? Could we write about them without the danger of running on empty?
Since I have spent the better part of this past month enjoying the company of my nieces and nephews, and their august advice on matters of friendship, sports, TV shows, disaster films, and of course, yummy foods, I decided to write about matters that do make me uncomfortable, cultural ails I would rather society did without. Borrowing from Naomi Klein’s terminology, and her work on ‘Fences and Windows’ (borders and break-troughs in the struggle against globalization), I will try to picket my own fences, and ask you to offer a way out of that fenced existence.
Fence 1: Trash. Not the human-kind, but the man-made one. What I do mind is how impervious we have become towards mounds and mounds of our own filth. We sit in our favorites outfits, sip on our favorite drinks, surrounded by love and valor (we hope!), all in the midst of so much filth: bags and bags of all sorts of remnants, to our eating, drinking and living habits. And we sit, and smile, and pretend not to notice. I often wonder, as we master the pretense where it might take us next – what else are we going to teach ourselves not to notice: pain, agony, violence, love?
Fence 2: Free Time. I am told that we live in the freest and most democratic of all human eras. I am sure you’ve heard the same. Indeed, there are so many benefits to being human today: from the medicinal to the technological. But it does make me wonder – if we have indeed improved, as individuals as well as a community, how come we have so little time to give ourselves, and one another? Do not get me wrong, I am the first to reap the benefits of surround cinema, but my thinking goes along the lines of ‘spending time with the ones we love’ or at least the ones we care about but are shy to admit how much. When was the last time we talked, took walks, played a game that did not involve a gadget? Laughed, without passing on judgment? I hear myself using this ridiculous phrase – ‘am so swamped today. Have a million things to do. no free time’. Really? Not even close. That I have a number of things to take care of, I do. That I love what I do, indeed that is a yes. That I am lucky I get to do what I love and believe in, sure. But ‘a million things’? No. Instead of escaping to the allure of the darkened screen, or the whiteness of the page, I can put on a pair of sneakers, and just walk out the door. No agenda, no pre-made plans. And if my parents, or my nieces, or my beloved wants to come, well, that I am sure is a gift. One that did not cost a penny or even asked for a tax receipt.
Fence 3: Language. I enrolled at the Department of English at Sts. Cyril and Methodius because of the love of language. When I think about my choice then, and the work I do now, I often wonder why English and not Comparative Literature. Was it the love, sheer want, to read and think and write in the language of my choice? It must have been. We seem to be born to a language, to a culture; if we are lucky to more than one. But in this cultural lottery we are not the ones buying the ticket. We simply need to learn how to live with the outcome. I have been lucky here as well: I got to like the ticket quite early on. Yet, the language of my education, the one of my professional literacy, plays by different rules. And I have spent the better half of two decades tracing its progress. Teaching helps. Reading is a necessity. TV and multimedia are a must. However, what I have noticed, when allowing myself that critical insight, is a significant change in all of my languages. And I am not refereeing to the inevitability of a change in register when the conversation’s interlocutors change. Verbs, nouns, pronouns, not to mention adjectives and adverbs, get ‘shelved’. We do not bother to even think things through: rules of grammar, the basics, no longer apply. Yes, we can blame hip-hop, text messaging, even Skype for ‘robbing us of the want to communicate properly’. Or whatever new piece of technology our scientific minds have invented to improve the standards of living in the 21st century. But that will take us only as far as our own backyard. The truth of the matter is, we, people of today, are lazy. And it seems, at least at the moment, that all this free time we have accumulated due to the nature of our digitalized lifestyles gives yield to more and more trash: cognitive as well as fecal. Shame.
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