Your mom. . . I'm glad that she said she was proud. That had to be validating. Admittedly, would've been more so witout the immediate "but would you. . .?" but still. Baby steps with people like that, sometimes. At the moment, you are making me happy, all with your clever and creative and pleased.
I end up having to fix everything on the PC because my camera's crap, and if I don't at least fix the levels, I end up with orange skin. Orange. Really. And while I realise that many people pay a large amount of money to be sprayed with tanning stuff, it's not very becoming to me.
I totally know what you're saying, about the politicians. I mean, barring some kind of divine or supernatural intervention, there's not going to be one great thing that's done that just magically brings us peace. There's not going to be one war to rid the world of terror, not one giant public service announcement to rid us of hate. I don't think that it's the grand gestures that wil change us. I mean, sure, grandness alters things superficially, but I sometimes think that really it builds more resentment and hate, because it's so rare that anything gets resolved without someone being steamrolled. I think that it's more the tiny gestures, the little things that half the time we don't even think about, you know? I read once that when a landslide starts, it's started by a single piece of gravel shifting. Not even falling, just shifting. Just a millimetre. But it's enough to trigger a chain reaction, and the whole thing goes. And I sometimes think that we're all little pebbles, all little pieces of gravel, and if enough of us manage to shift at once, the rest of the mountain will come down. Um. Allegory at four thirty in the morning isn't quite my strong poing, but I'm sure that you get what I'm saying.
The point, though, is that I feel strongly that the only way that there will be dramatic changes in terms of social policy or social justice will be if we all make enough small changes, enough small connections to other people, to let it grow to something larger. I think that so often, a lack of exposure to other cultures puts people off of them, makes them suspicious, and leads to. . .not hate, per se, but unrest, and it makes it easier to minimise the value in other cultures, other places. And I feel like art and music are the best way to learn about other cultures, shy of actually going and living there for a while, you know?
So I guess that in light of all that, it really depresses me that people minimise art, minimise artists. It depresses me that there's not money to fund art programs in schools, but there's plenty for football uniforms.
Also, I'm glad that you wrote down what you felt, because I think that this is fascinating, but also, it's amazingly reassuring to me that there are other people out there who feel the same way that I do, because it gives me hope that there are more people like us, and that we'll pass this on to our children, and maybe eventually there will be peace.
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Date: 2004-03-07 02:09 am (UTC)Your mom. . . I'm glad that she said she was proud. That had to be validating. Admittedly, would've been more so witout the immediate "but would you. . .?" but still. Baby steps with people like that, sometimes. At the moment, you are making me happy, all with your clever and creative and pleased.
I end up having to fix everything on the PC because my camera's crap, and if I don't at least fix the levels, I end up with orange skin. Orange. Really. And while I realise that many people pay a large amount of money to be sprayed with tanning stuff, it's not very becoming to me.
I totally know what you're saying, about the politicians. I mean, barring some kind of divine or supernatural intervention, there's not going to be one great thing that's done that just magically brings us peace. There's not going to be one war to rid the world of terror, not one giant public service announcement to rid us of hate. I don't think that it's the grand gestures that wil change us. I mean, sure, grandness alters things superficially, but I sometimes think that really it builds more resentment and hate, because it's so rare that anything gets resolved without someone being steamrolled. I think that it's more the tiny gestures, the little things that half the time we don't even think about, you know? I read once that when a landslide starts, it's started by a single piece of gravel shifting. Not even falling, just shifting. Just a millimetre. But it's enough to trigger a chain reaction, and the whole thing goes. And I sometimes think that we're all little pebbles, all little pieces of gravel, and if enough of us manage to shift at once, the rest of the mountain will come down. Um. Allegory at four thirty in the morning isn't quite my strong poing, but I'm sure that you get what I'm saying.
The point, though, is that I feel strongly that the only way that there will be dramatic changes in terms of social policy or social justice will be if we all make enough small changes, enough small connections to other people, to let it grow to something larger. I think that so often, a lack of exposure to other cultures puts people off of them, makes them suspicious, and leads to. . .not hate, per se, but unrest, and it makes it easier to minimise the value in other cultures, other places. And I feel like art and music are the best way to learn about other cultures, shy of actually going and living there for a while, you know?
So I guess that in light of all that, it really depresses me that people minimise art, minimise artists. It depresses me that there's not money to fund art programs in schools, but there's plenty for football uniforms.
Also, I'm glad that you wrote down what you felt, because I think that this is fascinating, but also, it's amazingly reassuring to me that there are other people out there who feel the same way that I do, because it gives me hope that there are more people like us, and that we'll pass this on to our children, and maybe eventually there will be peace.