Does anyone remember the Orange cinema advert about the 2003 New York blackout? In an ever so cheesey way,it shows the increased sense of agglomeration and community that rises alongside human tragedies. I kinda like that - because it talks about people and real emotions. The fierce storms that battered many parts of Great Britain yesterday made me reflect on a number of things. I had spent the best part of the morning at the office catching up with a number of people (friends and family alike) -- meanwhile bags and pieces of furniture were being lifted off the ground and blown up to our 8th floor window, creating quite a scene and a certain sense of giddiness and child-like wonder. Then the sky became darker and darker, bricks were falling on cars, people were being shifted about and roof tiles deadly hitting unsuspecting passengers. And then the caos, the panic, the mad rush home. 3pm: no trains running;3.15pm: no trams running;3.20pm:major motorways closed, busses derouted and many areas of town closed down. In all this, I couldn't help but admire the composedness of temperament of the Brits. I mean anyone who has been"stuck"(litteraly) on Deansgate for 2 and 1/2 hours(when normally it shouldn't have taken
much longer than 15 minutes on the bus to get home), has got the god-given right to be enraged; but not the Brits. They sat there and patiently waited.Elliott Smith's Satellite is playing in my ears and in what appeared like slow motion, a young lad is helping an old lady crossing the road, two orthodox Jews are talking to each other standing outside a bar at the frindges of the gay village, a Sick girl, a Muslim woman and an a grey-haired man are making conversation and laughing graciously. I didn't walk home because I was too afraid of stuff falling off the roofs (not to mention the vertiginously high heals I was wearing), but I also found a great sense of calm and good feelings in witnessing the "peace alongside the storm". And I got time to reflect.***To be continued***
3 comments:
I wish I could say that Blackpool didn't look like that on any other day of the year!
Do you think the Brits cope any better than any other nation with this kind of thing? We always seem to joke that we make a big drama of the weather despite the fact we never get the extremes that other countries suffer from. Perhaps that's the positive outlook that makes the difference.
Baron,I don't know whether it is "positiveness" or a "I-can't-be bothered-attitude". Either way,you definitively seem to react a great deal better to distruptions that your Latin descendent cousins do!And I admire that.
Ye,I couldn't resist that Blackpool pic!
What you call the calm temperament of the British others might consider cold, or unfeeling. But I think you're right, when we lose every major sporting event, year after year, and yet still manage to fool ourselves the next time that it's going to be different...
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