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Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter: November 2007

Dear Readers,
Once again, I'm writing to you from Lexington, Massachusetts of the Americas, looking out on to my back yard and the woods beyond it covered in a thin but lasting sheet of snow. Recently, I've been writing, reading, planning travel tours, and conducting top secret interviews. Since I last wrote I've crossed Pennsylvania (a surprisingly long state) and visited some very cool places in Upstate New York: in the Hudson Valley I stayed in the "greenest building in the Eastern US" called the Common Fire Housing Co-op(www.commonfire.org). They are connected to the electrical grid but through solar energy and extremely efficient design they actually produce slightly more energy than they consume over the course of a year. And the people living in the co-op were fun, warm, and welcoming.

I was impressed and inspired by a grown unschooler living there, Sean Ritchey, who at the age of 20 even before he moved into the house was becoming an expert at ecologically sound and energy efficient building renovation, design, and construction. It was great to see a grown homeschooler who is not going to college, doing his own thing, and making money at providing a service that is valuable because it saves people money AND provides people with warm homes and buildings that are sustainable. Go Sean.

The next cool place was Saratoga Springs where there was a stinky, stinky geyser. In the middle of a small stream is a huge, yellowy, boulder-like mineral deposit from whence a narrow stream of water shoots a few meters straight up. My guide, Teddi, an unschooling mother who's family has lived there a long time, has a photo of her grandparents standing by the geyser: the mineral deposit is tiny compared to what it is today. She insisted we "smell the hole" a spout that leaks out a sulphuric gas that causes stinging physical pain to ones nostrils. But it does clean the sinuses. And apparently drinking and bathing in the bubbly sulphuric water is also good for your health according to modern science and the Native American people who lived there hundreds of years. So of course I guzzled the stinky stuff! But it's a pity the extravagant bath houses sit there, no longer in operation: I miss the cheap, neighborhood saunas of Japan and Korea!

But back to Boston it was, when my friend needed to see his nephew play his last football game for Williams College in the northwest corner of Massachusetts and then make it to his cousin's wedding in Cambridge later the same day. Williams was playing Amherst in a televised game. There were seas of purple, which happened to be both teams' main color: all over the place were purple people and things. One student even had a purple pep rally yarmulke. We were at Williams' end zone and had a great view of one amazing, fully extended, diving touchdown catch at the beginning of the game. Williams had a lot of touch downs actually, enough that we felt confident leaving in the third quarter knowing they'd win, as they have for many years against Amherst.

Then we got on my good old Route 2 and headed east (I had no idea it went so far!). My mom, who thought I was in an another area of the country, was surprised when I called telling her I'd be by in a couple hours to pick-up a suit to wear to the wedding. It was at a hotel in Cambridge, right on the Charles River and for those who don't know the area, Boston is right on the other side of that river. And for those who do know the area, like my friend who was driving, it's still very easy to get lost in the Greater Boston Area: the streets are subject to natural geography, designed hundreds of years ago by wandering cows, and influenced by the Big(est and Worst) Dig. Still, as we drove back and forth along the Charles River I looked across at the illuminated skyline of Boston, my mind still in traveller's mode, wondering and observing, I said to myself: "What a beautiful city that is. Why didn't I ever quite notice it before?"

Eventually we got there and the wedding was a blast. We weren't there for the ceremony but apparently it was done half Catholic and half Jewish honoring the religion of the bride and groom respectively. But it carried over to the party with songs from the Godfather and chair lifting: the bride was really scared when they lifted her up but her Italian grandmother sat comfortably and clapped along to the music as the men carried her around on a chair high in the air with klezmer music playing. The drinks, the food, the music, and the dancing were all great. It was a very fun, very American day.

Since then, I've been home. It happened sort of accidentally but it was nice to be with my family for Thanksgiving again: it'd been three years since, I'm ashamed to say! It happens to be a sham holiday from its origins to its current function, but it's a nice sham! It has good food and good excuses for people to come together. We're coming on to the darkest time of the year here and it's pretty cool that we still make sure to have big celebrations that are about coming together and shining light. It's something to keep in mind in other times when we are surrounded by darkness that is less visible, so to speak! I agree with Mos Def and Talib Kweli of Black Star when they say: "We feel that we have a responsibility to shine light into the darkness.... We know, that we know how to make some music and that music ain't supposed to stand still." We've all got some light to shine, some music to play that "ain't supposed to stand still". May we all have the courage to shine our light. May we take that lesson from this season into every season.

Happy Season of Shining Light into the Darkness!

-Eli

p.s. I am soon leading a trip this winter to Mexico City and Oaxaca, two amazing cities in terms of sites, culture, history, and food! It'll be two weeks from Wednesday, January 23rd to Tuesday, February 5th, 2008. If you're interested, feel free to contact me with any questions: eli@eligerzon.com