Snippets

Sociable beasts

When I had dogs, I used to walk them through my condo complex, where we’d meet up with other dogs and owners and share a bit of neighborly sociability. Since my last dog died a year ago, I can walk faster and further so I never walk within the complex anymore. Walking today I took a route back from town that came in through the lower entrance of the complex. I ran into the lady with the basset hound and another woman who often sits out in front of her place and whose kids used to like to pet my dogs. It was nice to catch up with them.

Whenever I left my dogs with my parents when I was away, they loved to take them down to the beach. My mother especially loved that so many people would come and talk to them because of the dogs, people who otherwise wouldn’t give a couple of old folks, as she’d put it, a second glance. That’s a shame of course, and also a shame that in the condos where my parents live they can’t have dogs. Dogs provide company in more ways than one.

Sociable beasts, part 2

Last night we went to WaterFire and it was a beautiful night for it, not too crowded since it’s still early in the summer, but temperature-wise it was quite comfortable. I always marvel at the wide assortment of people of all ages, colors, shapes and sizes that are drawn to WaterFire. And that’s the point of it, to be a community ritual.

In participating together in the ritual, and entering the special psychological state induced by the sounds, the sights, the smells, and the presence of so many others, we come to feel a sense of solidarity with one another. Lines of social division that otherwise structure our lives and divide us — by age, gender, social class, or ethnicity — melt away.

– David I. Kertzer, professor of Anthropology and Italian Studies, Brown University

It’s conducive to all kinds of sociability. ;-)

Scary beasts

In Memorial Park last night, on the banks of WaterFire, a number of people were clustered around the monument. We couldn’t figure out at first what they were looking at. There were a couple of winged gryphons there that seemed to be made of the same gray stone as the monument, and in front of each was a box for donations to take a photo with them. A woman went up to the one nearest us, holding out money, and that “stone” gryphon slowly turned to her and opened up his talons, gesturing to the donation box. Then he cocked his head and stretched a talon out to caress her cheek – in a way could be interpreted as lovingly or as a prelude to devouring her! Creepy! These were actors costumed and painted gray and incredibly realistic as statues come to life. And when they were still they were absolutely still. Amazing.

Wings of Desire

I saw other winged creatures tonight on cable – they were showing Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire,” one of my all-time favorite movies. I saw it when it came out, in the theater, and it’s one of those movies where you walk outside afterwards and all the world has changed. Set in Berlin (1987 movie), it’s about an angel who falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist and decides to become mortal. He wants to experience the transient things of a mortal life – the actual taste of an apple or a cup of coffee, to know what color is, to feel the cold on his hands, and of course the experience of love. All the beautiful things that we take for granted, things that we fear losing and yet fail to fully appreciate when we have them.

I missed a lot of the movie this time, because I was home and therefore distracted with some of those very mortal things – making the spaghetti sauce, a little later than I planned; explaining to my housemate what she missed because she came in late; and talking with her about things of more immediate import than some of the endless ramblings in German (the angels listen in on the thoughts of mortals, but these being German mortals there is some heavy shit going on in there!). Peter Falk is wonderful playing himself. And Bruno Ganz, the angel who falls in love, may have the most beatific smile I’ve seen on screen.

By the way, there was a Hollywood remake you may have seen, “City of Angels” with Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan. I was prepared to hate it, but I think they did a pretty good job of transporting the basic story line to a completely different time and place and sensibility.

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