When I'm 64

"People are strange when you’re a stranger."

Two weeks. Two weeks, and no matter how many times I listen to it on my ipod when I walk to school (a good 8 minutes, so 4 times all the way through), play it on the guitar at home, sing it in the shower, or write it down during class I cannot for the life of me get that song out of my head. I still like it, and maybe that’s the problem.

So we went to Paris, me and Jenny, and I wished I spoke French. Apparently studying it for 3 years in high school wasn’t enough. Does anything really stick in high school? I’m beginning to feel that those years are just a waste.

But I digress. It’s such a sexy language, and for this I am unsure where all this hatred has come from. Growing up I would hear about those toad-suckers who never won a war, pompous snobs who pretend that you are invisible if you don’t speak the language perfectly. Horrible hosts that only want the world for themselves, thinking that they are the most powerful country in the world, thinking they can have whatever they want and everything they do is right, no matter what it is. Don’t be worried friends. I’m still talking about France, not about the United States. It is a close assessment, however.

Needless to say we were surprised to find that not only was the city beautiful and spectacular but the people were incredibly nice for their stereotype. But since they’re stereotype is frog-leg eating snobs I guess a “bless you” to a sneeze would make them look like the pope. Speaking of popes I had a dream about him the other night. We both slept in late and when I woke up he was sitting next to me. The undertaker in the right room was angry, since it was already 10:27am. And so he went to the left room and wrote in the log that the church (my room) wasn’t properly opened with the pope’s blessing. Talk about a page turner.

I have to say that I wrote the first part of this email, the preceding part, more than a week ago. For the strangest reason I got writer's block, and was almost forcing my fingers to type, telling them that they had to, but neither my brain nor my hands had any more strength. I think it had something to do with going on vacation (from a vacation), relaxing and running around without worry, and then having to go back to school and get back in a "schedule." How that word makes me shake even when I write it.

To me a schedule is what we do when we aren't thinking. That is to say, when we get in to a routine we don't need to think anymore because everything we do is known. We become more like machines than we do anything else, and I think our souls hurt a little bit for it. Maybe that's why we have to sleep in so much on the weekends, and why we don't want to talk about work unless someone really wants to hear about it. Do we not want it to become our life? And for those who love work, is there any difference?

I know that in a given society, in the western world that is, (remember folks we're not the cream of the crop nor are we the only group of humans out there, capitalism isn't the ONLY form of economy, and republic isn't the ONLY form of government (even though it makes it much easier to believe everything we hear if we assume so)) a job is needed in order to live, that is, in the given society. Civilizations are born out of the simple fact that we need things to survive, and the best way to help each other is to work one job for your whole life, that way you can be really good at it (what Plato says) and eternally have to depend on others to do everything else (what I say). It's a tough bargain, and since we therefore need people in order to survive, in order to ensure our well-being (what Thomas Paine says) we need government.

Is there a way around this fact?

I'm not sure, but earlier today when I was listening to a boring and monotonous lecture I started thinking about government and the why, the reasoning behind it. Self-importance has to have something with it, because if the government found a solution that would ensure people wouldn't be dependent on it then the government wouldn't exist, but the government is put there to make sure we survive, and they never try to fulfill any personal agendas, right? "Of the people, for the people, by the people," and we only had to change our constitution 17 times after that!

It's interesting, a monarchy and a republic, and the differences that they think they have, the pros and cons that our republican governments tell us to think. I have to write a paper and do a presentation on the connection between the roman republic and that of the american and french revolutions. The first concept that jumps out is that of history.

What exactly is it?

Is it the study of the past? It can't be completely, because we are studying it in the present. But what are we studying in the past? We are studying the present, the past, and the ultimate future in the past (which sounds like the last email, so I'll cut it short). So we study all three, but from our own brains and our own eyes, and we use scholarly opinion as fact, since they continue to do the same.

So basically history is what we think happened, and since everyone is titled to their opinion we'll never really know for sure. Does that make any sense?

Another concept that bugs the hell out of me when it comes to history is the selfishness of it. We study humans, but only those in power, who wrote stuff down; the winners, that is. The american indians didn't write as many things down as the americans, so we don't teach their history, or at least we don't understand it because they are not as self-important and individualistic like we are. But shouldn't we be worried about individuals since we are a republic? Is it really that interesting to study the diffusion and reincarnation of various clubs and their colors and their members?

And this history that we make up has a way of valuing certain things over others, making some things more reputable than they should be, while leaving many things out i.e. the dark ages vs. the renaissance, roman history vs. italian history (at that time), and hitler during wwII vs. FDR during wwII. Ever heard of Japanese internment camps? Or the forced removal of Americans by their own government for no reason? But FDR was in a wheelchair, and he was a good man, so we don't hold him to horrible standards like we do hitler. Internment is short for concentration, don't let yourself be told otherwise. We did the same thing, but history talks about one and rarely mentions the other. At this point in my life I wonder about the why more than the how.

To make up for it: good old Ronald the actor said "sorry" and handed out checks.

Paris, in short, was huge, and roman. Day 1 we spent 5 hours at the Louvre after hanging out with Notre-Dame, then walked to the Eiffel Tower, then returned to the Louvre for another 2 hours before we made our way back to our hostel. Day 2 we walked all the way to the tower but on the other side of the river, and ran into some awesome looking buildings and parks. Day 3 we trekked all the way to the Arch after spectacularly finding Napoleon's piazza. Day 4 was filled with goodbyes and walking up the tower. The pictures are all up on the website (http://picasaweb.google.com/Jerseynumber53), and they tell a story that I could never possibly put in to words.

I hope I lightened up the atmosphere a little bit with a shorter email/blog thing. Nothing much new to the incredible story I get to live over here. I'm going on the field trip this weekend to northern italy (Padova, Mantova, and hopefully Venezia again), and this past week an article of mine was published in Vista magazine here in Florence. I'm also in the picture!

There is a good chance that I will be interning at the Regione di Toscana, translating documents from Italian to English. It should be good experience for being a bum later on in life. Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Anthony