‘This American Life’
It’s been a while since I’ve logged on to write. I’ve been on the road, but that isn’t an excuse anymore. I’ve learned, watched, and felt a lot of good, and bad TV/Film, so it’s not a lack of things inspiring me. I’m just a little confused by the world around me right now, so it was tough to justify an entry when I don’t really know what to say anymore.
I don’t know what happened since last I wrote on this blog but I’m in a true tail spin as of late with how I feel about most things around me. No anger, or sadness, some frustration, but the more I analyze the human condition, politics, love, spirituality/religion and myself the more I struggle to find out what the next ‘life’ step should be. I got the professional one ironed out (I think), but the more transparent other variables of life become the less I know what to do or want; let alone how to react to them.
I needed some down time after three months on the road working on a travel show and the 13 countries visited in three months left me a little punch drunk. My bed, my laptop, comfort food, and my books were my escape and I decided it was time to watch the show which I’d only listened to once or twice before on NPR - ‘This American Life’. It gave me hope and a little bit of clarity.
Ira Glass and his team didn’t explain something to me that I didn’t know, or sell me on any view. They didn’t cater to any need for knowledge or play into political stances. The show these people made simply spoke, about fellow Americans, in a very intimate way, about different life themes. About things that hurt us, excite us and drive us. I saw people as people, and felt some clarity. My preconceived idea of who these Americans were, because of their accent, color, creed, or religious believes melted away as the episodes unfolded. It had been a long time since someone simply sat down and spoke to me, shared with me, about them. That’s what the show feels like, a conversation between my neighbor and I.
I pretty much spent a whole weekend watching the show and I gotta say I feel a little sad that two seasons is all there is. The radio show is phenomenal, but the show let the speaker stare into the camera, adding a layer that radio provides in a different way, and I liked that extra layer, that ability to see the eyes of those people I was conversing with. Then again, I’m probably just being a greedy viewer.
I guess the point of this rant is that the show made me feel okay with my confusion and it reminded me that we, the people stuck in traffic, or walking to the corner store to get milk, are the only thing that really matters in our country and we’ve forgotten how to nurture the fact that we are the fabric of this country. We’re beat up on a daily basis by newspapers, advertising, politics, and institutions, outside of our immediate communities that frankly we’ll never really have control over. (we as in, the average common folk). So why depend on these institutions so much emotionally and mentally? Why get pulled from side to side to a corner, and give into that tug? Yes, they’re there, yes, they run a large part of our surroundings, but what of it? The president isn’t standing beside me when I do decide to go buy milk on the corner, neither is the editor from the times, or the CEO of Nike. We need to remember that, as Americans, we depend on one another, the government and all the other institutions depend on us, we do not (in reality) need those people and institutions, and we’ve truly forgotten that; we put them there.
It’s time to start living, and to go back to being neighbors, not pawns on a chess board.
This is a bit of a letter to nowhere, but this is a slice of the feeling the show created in me, and I’m thoroughly happy I watched. I hope, if you haven’t yet, you give it a shot. It’ll be worth every second.
