A Diverted Eight
Thanksgiving is my new favorite holiday, although perhaps not for the reasons people most traditionally associate with the occasion (genocide and the like).
Last weekend I had a remarkable time in Wisconsin. Thanksgiving, it seems, is a brilliant way to make small talk with strangers. Asking someone about his/her/hir Thanksgiving is a casual and unobtrusive point of entrance into a very private dynamic. Discussing family relations and observances engenders an unusually rapid intimacy; it allows all sorts of precocious friendships to blossom. Store clerks, barflies, coffee baristas, even that random dude at Perkins: everyone was quite responsive and sociable.
Perhaps I should attribute the conviviality more to downtown Madison, but as I get ready to bury myself in the library for finals, I would like to imagine that this genial holiday spirit is occurring all over the map.
Last weekend I had a remarkable time in Wisconsin. Thanksgiving, it seems, is a brilliant way to make small talk with strangers. Asking someone about his/her/hir Thanksgiving is a casual and unobtrusive point of entrance into a very private dynamic. Discussing family relations and observances engenders an unusually rapid intimacy; it allows all sorts of precocious friendships to blossom. Store clerks, barflies, coffee baristas, even that random dude at Perkins: everyone was quite responsive and sociable.
Perhaps I should attribute the conviviality more to downtown Madison, but as I get ready to bury myself in the library for finals, I would like to imagine that this genial holiday spirit is occurring all over the map.
posted by d l wright at 12/01/2005 11:36:00 PM
2 Comments:
Last time I clicked on the link, there was a plug for Stapp's new cd in the middle of the page!
Isn't embedded advertising grand!
I've never been much of a 311 fan.
Too much suckage on their part, I think.
But that is pretty hardcore.
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