collegethoughts

Ready or not, here I come”-WildfireThe above was posted on a huge billboard by the side of the road.  I found it amusing and a little bothersome (odd to personify fire…).  Why do billboard makers and movie directors (John Polson) insist on twisting the childhood classic game “hide and seek” into something at once trite and morbid?Central/Northern California (by spelling that out I’ve labelled myself as non-native, but “NorCal”–really?) is everything anyone could want in a place.  Ocean, desert and mountains collaborate in a remarkably expansive display of beauty which draws undeniable parallels to the blurry nostalgic mess of a memory that is my high school home._________________________________________Steinbeck travelled across the country to reconnect himself with America, and he delighted in chronicling his meetings with “ordinary” people.  This trip was immediately attractive to me, until I realized that it bordered on condescending…while he liked rubbing shoulders with these quirky, average folk, he would never have been content to be one of them.  Did he have this notion of himself as the intriguing worldly traveller who was (on a subconscious level) better than anyone who stayed in one place?Actually Steinbeck did live among them for large chunks of his life.  Moot

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