INDEPENDENCE - CONNECTING WITH THOSE IT AFFECTS MOST I just read a great post by an arts person I know (a hugely important person in the arts scene) who is on the ground talking to the people of Glasgow about all things to do with independence. It talks about the imposed isolations we allow ourselves to live within, and the opinions and chances of others to experience interaction. This is what I wrote in reply to her, and her excellent post is underneath. It is very very much worth a read. Superb post/words/heart Phyllis. I will be sharing this. You are more human than I, as I sit in my little chamber of echoes, far away from being on the ground. I applaud and respect and am jealous. You are having the chance of a lifetime. I dont know if I would want such a precious thing as you to go into politics, with so much imagination and creativity for other things, but I know youd be good at it. xx ///////////////// Day 21 / 9 : go to the worlds door and knock I am in tears at home after a day out campaigning on Sauciehall Street, one of the main streets in Glasgow. I have done very few things so emotionally intense in my life. Some tears are for positive reasons, some for negative, some because I simply feel overwhelmed. It is incredible to have heartfelt, passionate and contradictory conversations with people of all ages, many nationalities, most genders. It is not small talk, it is the biggest talk, the biggest questions, the toughest things to answer. I love street theatre because it breaks into the bubble that people wrap around themselves in modern life. Smartphones have increased this isolation, the customised feed of only information and products that reflect who you already are and what you already do. I had a long conversation with a friend a few nights ago about my preference for pre-car cities, for the proximity of people and shared public space. I think there is a huge value to interacting with strange ideas, different people, being exposed to the unfamiliar. It is being backed up in research on allergies - that without interaction with foreign objects and external bacteria we are developing more asthma, more dietary intolerances, more skin problems. Without interaction and contradiction we become stale, limpid and unhealthy, unable to fight off imbalances produced by our own systems. We have so many options now to deny, refuse or simply avoid interaction that does not reinforce our expressed views and preferences. We are removing human interaction as a basic requirement of shopping, of paying bills, of socialising. I suspect that this makes us weaker. I also think that we are cautious more often than we are curious. If given the chance to choose between the familiar and unfamiliar we will tend towards the familiar, because of it possessing that quality. However if we are not given the choice, we can experience something enriching. What I hold in mind here is street theatre, particularly the fear that performers felt in the Subway Festival about being inside a train with passengers. Afraid that the introduction of something unexpected would cause trauma and misery. It brought joy to most. It brought laughter and connection. Today brought joy and laughter to me, in every single person who defied my expectations, who stepped forward to interact with sincerity. It comes at a cost, of being derided, mocked, shouted at. But I have spoken to more pensioners in this last few weeks that in the previous year. I am a thirty something and I exist in a world of other thirty somethings. If asked I will claim that I value age and wisdom but where do I get to interact with it? I have spoken to more working class people these last few months than in the previous year. That demographic is easier to encounter in Glasgow because people take a far less sacred attitude to personal space in this city - which generally leads to positive experiences, to a smile. On Sauciehall Street you are anyones, standing there to be judged, supported, questioned. I have had my hand shaken, conversed in French, been thanked, been cursed. I claim I work in circus to reach people. If that was really true I should go into politics. I am worn out, but I have taken in a different kind of information about the world in the last few days. I have looked more people in the eye, asked more questions and heard more answers. Information has come at me from soft-spoken Christians with crosses folded in their jackets, brisk matriachs in chest-wide glass necklaces and ex-midwives with densely folded handkerchiefs and equally carefully kept resentments. I spoke to two people from the Western Isles, some of the farthest flung and remote communities in our land - one elderly, white-haired and jelly-eyed, one young, tattooed muscular and hipster glassed. I have had schoolgirls in long square skirts moan and squeal at me, nervous handed young men wait for several minutes to ask their questions, men with punk rocker hair long grown out leave a precise insult in my cup and walk away. Half of the time I wanted to hide, to be less visible and less open. However the opportunity for so much interaction cannot be missed. I have never had another time in my life that so many people around me had something to talk about, something to share, something relevant. X-Factor be damned. It is difficult and painful, I do not know how we put ourselves back together as a community afterwards, but this tearing open is forcing us at least to be human. Not bolt-ons to our technology, our economy or our media. Humans, sharing space in a street, in a city, in a country, on a planet.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 10:25:28 +0000
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