Street Philosophers

 I know I have lapsed in posting something for a touch, but familiarity does breed contempt, or so it's said.  One has to step away in order to be missed.  I have to say that I have enjoyed actually experiencing life again, away from social media and being completely invisible again.  My own observations, are my own and it's really not that important to be heard.  Often, the first jaded impressions are miles away from the truth and are contaminated by opinions that have influenced others.  So how does one have an uncontaminated view of the world?

Today I had a random conversation with an anonymous stranger who said, "I left Facebook for 6 months and I felt so much freedom.  It was like I got my life back."  I didn't ask why she went back on, but considered a key remark, "I was so happy."  We are in an age of self promotion, tweeting, texting, posting and to a lesser extent, even blogging all about the me, myself, and I...the importance of self and obsess over

what seems to be 'important'.  Eleanor Roosevelt is often cited for this quote,   "Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events and small minds discuss people."   Lately, I have been wondering about our world getting so focused on the 'self'.  This 'self-importance' that seems to be all about what we can get, what we can do and who we can have in our lives.   So lately, I have just tuned out the drama of social media of all types and put my ear to the ground.

Sitting out on the street, drinking a libation or two and minding my own business, sort of, with intrusions of conversations that would wander past.  Was Eleanor Roosevelt right or would I hear street philosophers cut through the white noise or garbled thought?

Uptown Minneapolis is a road show of avatars.  You see the flash of fashion plates, the indie goth, the 1980 Yuppies, Sid and Nancy punkers, Illustrated men and women, your transitional people, trangenders, fettish people, bikers, desperate housewives, afraid of dying mid-life crisis guy with daughter/girlfriend, visiting UK tourists and then there's me.  The native who returns home to see that Uptown Minneapolis is still the same, stuck in the 1980s and somehow is viewed as 'cutting edge'.   This is why we are the inspiration for "Portlandia'.

Uptown is uptight when it comes to being Politically Correct and incredibly sensitive about offending anyone.  You can find the uptight conservative Harley guy with leather and chains that hugs his M-16 at night sitting next to a guy named "Sue" who used to be a gal with black light tattoos and gages and piercings to ward off personal contact from anyone.  The strange and bizarre is glorified with a latte and a vegan lettuce wrap from a sustainable farm to table food truck that is powered by solar energy.

Politics are discussed in hush tones, though it's really no secret that the city is Democratic and the state is Republican.  It's kind of dysfunctional, because there is a kind of 'us vs. them' mentality though no one really knows who is 'us' and who is 'them'.  Like I said, I am invisible here.  I wasn't abroad, or at least when I was in Asia, I tried to be invisible, but was forced to accept the fact that I was going to stick out no matter where I went.  It was a good exercise in self acceptance.  Here, it's too easy to get comfortable with not being 'anything special'.

So as I sat back I listened to the ramblings of others.  A lot of people talked about people in a very, "I'm better than..." sort of way.  It's quite possible that's why reality television has dominated our lives.  We can't believe they are famous and we can't believe we are talking about them and aren't we so much better than them.  We turn our noses up at them and they cash their checks for being our freak show.

When I went abroad, one thing that amazed me was that due to our television industry, I became aware that I shattered the minds of many because of the image of America that is blasted all over the world.  "You're not fat, lazy, uneducated, chasing money or (insert favorite stereo-type here of a white middle-aged former military woman,  who is divorced with hispanic last name and graying hair)."  When we bust up an image that is assigned due to our lack of time (we aren't going to know everyone in the world).  We profile people each and every day and we often rely on the views of others to give us a snapshot of how it is.

We only get the backside of the world, the Cliff notes version of our existence is not about knowing the world at all, but trying to survive in this world by playing a game to collect as much monopoly money to pay for our place at the table.  Kind of crazy, isn't it?

So, in my small minded way, I have discussed people, events, ideas and myself, because the world is composed of all of it.  I am not justifying anything.   I am not defending our condition.  I am not even saying that Eleanor Roosevelt is wrong or right.  We are human and we discuss what we see, what we don't see and what we would like to see.  We are still little children that are learning the difference between our wants and needs.  We die and a new generation goes through it all again and so on it continues until one day we get it.  Hopefully the stuff we don't need doesn't get passed on to future generations and the ideas we do need makes it into the future.  Perhaps that is what Eleanor Roosevelt meant for us to glean from this remark, however, she never said this quote.  It's one of our great myths.  The earliest citation is quoted as an unknown sage.  Whenever there is an 'unknown sage' or street philosopher, it's a reminder that wisdom or common sense doesn't need an author, it just needs to be practiced.

So whatever is written about, places, ideas, people, good food or art...it's all related.