Soon I Can Rest

Last Updated on Monday, 27 July 2009 06:58 Written by Scott Wegna Monday, 27 July 2009 06:46

soon-i-can-rest

I’ve been up since 6am. I made Dorinda her coffee like I do every morning. Stuffed the Widget’s backpack with lunch, mess kit, rain gear, towel, change of clothes, bathing suit, sun screen, hat, and all the other bullshit that a kid needs for day-camp these days. I’ve got 3 more pages to go on Robo 3.5!.  Brian’s going to pop on in a few hours with a proper post, but I had a weird day yesterday and i thought it was blog-worthy.

I went to a party. A party I had not intended to go to, hosted by people I don’t even know. It was an anniversary party of sorts, for a middle-aged couple who had met each other later in life and were just so pleased that it was still working out that they decided to throw a party. One of the hosts of the party was a man from Persia. I’ve never been able to figure out if he identifies himself as Persian because that’s how he sees himself, or if it’s just a way of making his life easier since 99% of ignorant Americans don’t know that a big chunk of old Persia (maybe all, I need to investigate) is now a little place called Iran.

He’s been in this country since before I was born. Not by choice, but because he’s a political exile. He has made a very good life for himself, but it doesn’t make the fact that you can never go home again any less heartbreaking.

At this party I met people from Iraq, Iran, Greece, Mexico, England, a pair of young men who are exchange students from Turkey, and people from two other countries I have yet to identify. Muslim, Jew, Catholic, etc. I did my part to represent religiously-indifferent white America. There was a lovely old man who was a composer and conducted a major orchestra who played fiddle all afternoon. The wine and food were delicious.

At one point I was admiring a print on the wall. It was large, and it depicted a ruined city that had once been a seat of power in the Persian Empire over two millennium ago. It was destroyed for political and religious reasons. One of the guests at the party was telling me how he had grown up less than two kilometers from the ruined city and had played their often. He painted a vivid picture of what lay just outside the edges of what the camera had captured. And then a woman (from Greece I think) said, “This is ignorance.” I was a little confused but she gestured at the print, at this great pile of broken stones and half-shattered pillars. What she was saying was that here was a once beautiful thing, a way-point in humanity’s social evolution over tens of thousands of years, and it was destroyed out of hatred, religious fanaticism, and by political desire.

That’s the funny thing about getting to know people. It makes it almost impossible to hate them when they are no longer some faceless Other. I don’t mean we’d all be friends and love one another if only everyone took the time to know everyone else. Fuck that coombiya bullshit. I met someone yesterday who I disliked intensely the more I spoke to them. But it forced me to know them. And it’s very difficult to hate and fear that which you know.

Anyway, the point is I’m glad I went out yesterday. I had planned on staying home and working. Instead I drank, I danced, I talked, and I had my consciousness expanded.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 6:46 am and is filed under commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
  • http://www.youtube.com/user/tetsubo57 Tetsubo

    Welcome to compassion.

    I think you just leveled up. :)

    There are no enemies except within ourselves.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/tetsubo57 Tetsubo

    Welcome to compassion.

    I think you just leveled up. :)

    There are no enemies except within ourselves.

  • Josh B.

    Achievment Unlocked: Used Multiculturalism as an Excuse to Not Work

    ;)

  • Josh B.

    Achievment Unlocked: Used Multiculturalism as an Excuse to Not Work

    ;)

  • Scott!

    Tetsubo -It was hardly a moment of revelation for me. It was nice to be around so many different people again though. NH is a lot of good things. But diverse ain’t one of them. (Most of the folks were imported from Mass.)

    Since I was a kid I’ve felt that national and religious identities are one of the biggest barriers to humanity’s social progress.

    If everyone in the world could look at Earth from the edge of the solar system they might figure out how small and meaningless all of their differences are.

    Josh -Hell to the Yeah. Except I managed to get an entire page penciled and inked on Sunday before going to the party.

  • http://www.scottwegener.com Scott Wegna

    Tetsubo -It was hardly a moment of revelation for me. It was nice to be around so many different people again though. NH is a lot of good things. But diverse ain’t one of them. (Most of the folks were imported from Mass.)

    Since I was a kid I’ve felt that national and religious identities are one of the biggest barriers to humanity’s social progress.

    If everyone in the world could look at Earth from the edge of the solar system they might figure out how small and meaningless all of their differences are.

    Josh -Hell to the Yeah. Except I managed to get an entire page penciled and inked on Sunday before going to the party.

  • Josh B.

    Oh, then my put down is made of fail. I apologize for wasting your time.

  • Josh B.

    Oh, then my put down is made of fail. I apologize for wasting your time.

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    If I apologized for every time I insulted Scott or wasted his time, I’d never get anything done.

    Of course, all I do is insult him and waste his time, so either way nothing’s getting done.

  • http://www.nuklearpower.com Brian!

    If I apologized for every time I insulted Scott or wasted his time, I’d never get anything done.

    Of course, all I do is insult him and waste his time, so either way nothing’s getting done.

  • Mark Stegbauer

    I use this saying a lot, made it up myself:

    I thought about procrastinating, then decided to wait until tomorrow.

    Pages can wait, except when they cant. Power to ya brother for getting yer homework done before going out to play.

  • Mark Stegbauer

    I use this saying a lot, made it up myself:

    I thought about procrastinating, then decided to wait until tomorrow.

    Pages can wait, except when they cant. Power to ya brother for getting yer homework done before going out to play.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/tetsubo57 Tetsubo

    You just don’t hand out in the right parts of NH. I work at a factory where just in my department alone we have people of three different faiths and six different countries. Diversity is out there.

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/tetsubo57 Tetsubo

    You just don’t hand out in the right parts of NH. I work at a factory where just in my department alone we have people of three different faiths and six different countries. Diversity is out there.

  • Scott!

    Tetsubo- You’re right. I should start hanging out at airport factories to hook up with folks at whatever time it is you 3rd Shifters get off from work.

    In my daily life it is odd enough to encounter someone who is not white, or white but from a different culture, that it becomes noteworthy.

    You’re experience living in Manchester (our state’s only “city”, though its more like a semi-big town really) is obviously going to be different. But I’ve spent enough time in Manch to know its not that different.

  • Scott!

    Tetsubo- You’re right. I should start hanging out at airport factories to hook up with folks at whatever time it is you 3rd Shifters get off from work.

    In my daily life it is odd enough to encounter someone who is not white, or white but from a different culture, that it becomes noteworthy.

    You’re experience living in Manchester (our state’s only “city”, though its more like a semi-big town really) is obviously going to be different. But I’ve spent enough time in Manch to know its not that different.

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