How embarrassing - my virtual life hasn’t caught up with with my real life. So I returned from Germany over two-weeks ago, celebrated my oldest friend’s wedding in New Jersey, and have returned to the great north-east megalopolis of New York City. I’ve posted some photos from the trip - and a few with my friend Jenni Ottilie Keppler, designer and fabulous person, whose portraits this week of contemporary society activist-thinkers you should check out. Jenni invited me to stay a week out in beautiful Weder Havel, where, within three hours of landing in Berlin, we were biking and swimming in lakes. Traveling and returning are always an interesting chance to gain new perspectives. So, I have some thoughts. Germanys standard of living is higher than ours, and german peoples expectation that their government supports that high quality of life is intense. And the Germans I spoke with (a select bunch to be sure, but evidently, as their society and government policies would attest, not on the outside of public opinion) were fierce about what they believed were basic rights. What kind of things? Healthcare is affordable, and the government can foot the bill for those who can’t. Healthcare, then, is nothing like the anxiety-inducing, career determining factor it is the US. Similarly, University education has an incredibly different price tag. The public universities are top notch (with competitive admissions), and, at least in the arts, have a higher reputation than private schools, and attract the best professors. Tuition is small or non-existent (correct me someone if I misunderstood this), and students receive small subsidies to live off of. Students aren’t threatened with lifelong debt. One less giant anxiety. I got to witness a number of interactions between Germans and police and/or security officers. It was very strange to me - the German citizens knew their rights, and were in no way cowed by authority (some historical antecedents might explain this suspicion to authority). In one case, when an acquaintance and I were doing some legal street art with chalk, an officer gave us trouble (and criticized our art as shit; he said my enwrapped snakes looked like a smelly pretzel, a penetrating critical slight I’m still recovering from). My german friend listened, then stated that what we were doing was legal. The officer got fresh with her, so she got his boss’s phone number and called the officer’s boss, to complain about harassment. I’ve never seen someone gainsay an police officer and then find success. Lastly, oh god, the bike culture. Let me tell you friends: there is a land were the rivers flow chocolate, ale flows from the taps, busty milkmaids in traditional garb dance all night in the clubs, where the lamb lay down with the lion, and, most importantly, where bikes, pedestrians, and automobiles all get along together. And this land is The-Berlin-of-My-Mind. When I returned to New York, people asked me if there were any difficult transitions. I have to say, only the one: the spatial aggressiveness of people in the city. As a pedestrian, crossing the street with right of way, it’s not uncommon to have a turning car try to cut you off and/or pull close to you, with its ton of metal and engine with the muscles and fire of a cavalcade of horses, pressuring you with threat intentional or not, to RUN as you cross the street. Friends, this is not how it has to be! My experience in Berlin was that cars always gave pedestrians and bicyclists space, and didn’t try to cut off those with lower forms of locomotion. I love New York; I’m a little more aware of the palpable anxiety and aggression that we exhibit in public spaces as we each of us try to get, frantically, exhaustingly, from our A to B. Last note, in light of the Climate Change action tomorrow: There is an amazing spot on the earth located in Berlin, and it is called Tempelholf Feld, the defunct airport. Old landing strips and surrounding by big, open green land. In one corner is a giant community garden, with several different plots and projects. Kites, skate-boarders, and and skate-boarding-kite-pulled-riders (what’s the name for that) rush along the old landing strips, and picnickers hand out en masse in the open grasses. The grass is kept short, but the place is not overly manicured. Some people in the city had wanted to develop the land of the airport, and then the city put it to a public vote; the citizens voted to keep their open, green, communal space, a space free of billboards and lights and frazzle-dazzle. It’s wide, open, green, and calm. I went there a few times, and saw hundreds of people relaxing, meeting friends, exercising, and working in the gardens; but the space never felt crowded. Tempelholf Feld is a kind of space all cities need; and it’s a space the people - der volk! - argued for, and voted on, and got. It is always inspiring to see people, not just work for what they believe, but organize and effectively communicate and make concrete change. The space between what we want to have happen in the world and what is happening can be dizzyingly disenfranchising; it’s affirming to see success achievable. So there’s that. And the reminder that things don’t have to always be as they currently are. Chewing on that one. Just a few thoughts. If you think I over-projected and/or romanticized the Federal Republic of Germany, or misrepresented any facts, let me know!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 18:33:17 +0000
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