Message #3770

[ecuworrier]

and so the road of the poor continues... limitations to resources access and exposure... here i am again without sound... and reminded of an event i went to in the poor area.. it was a community event intended to show case what was going on in the area... it was an odd mix due to the history of the area that had created pods of middle class activities represented and some low budget offerings...

...i say middle class activities with a sense of some irony.... two of the three middle class activities were very much low budget in outlay and drew on traditions of the cottage industry and something that might have been accessible in part.... both these were ... i had a sense though that middle class attracts middle class and that that is not though invited to engage .. stands back.... the middle class adooption of the cottage industry was a case in point... no longer were the crafts of essential housekeeping and creativity the preserve of the poor but now of the well heeled .... carefully researched carefully organised display carefully labeled in neat handwritten illegible but to the persistent... the good middle class folks were happy to explain .. so why did so few ask....

the asking of questions ... like what do you ask? ... well what do you want to know?  at what point in the formulation does it all go wrong? at what point in the answer does sentence construction lose the listener... what then .... i didn't really want to know? well if i had i would have stuck it out? where is the cutoff point of no return... is it the sociability of cottage industry that should allow folks to gather together to do and to chat and to share... they are stuck up .... but are they .... they are repulsed but are they? .... who would remain to stare? the middle class folks were really happy not to notice you and well with all that going on who would get involved?....  i came away with a leaflet i was hooked on the excitement of it all though thoroughly unlikely to actually do anything with that ....

i recently sat in a cafe and found myself sitting by two engrossed knitters..... a man and a woman discussing the basics of whether they should have rather stayed at home to cast on before coming out because they could concentrate better... the conversation of technicalities tripped throught the air.... knitting something once every self respecting household might have done? now the preserve of middleclass fanatics i envied them just for that time equals happening ever so slowly but time moves on and nothing becomes something ... well me i get very irritated irritability invades my motor ability and bang inactivity! but i can see that for others it might be grounding and creative and sociable.... what if you cannot read a knitting pattern though ... what if you fear not to be able to understand a technique explained to you by middle class person in that sort of context... what if you are not comfortable with folks socially?..... classes and learning are very much a middle class thing but the sad thing is that they are also available for whoever ... but if your friends can't go? it requires an insatiable curiosity the social space a desire to learn a knowing that you can at least try... i spoke to someone recently who many years ago had attended a  crafts class in order to make new friends.... they found themselves in a very unforgiving clique who weren't in a hurry to make new friends they found themselves ostracized....  humiliated and stopped going and that was pretty much that .... i was shocked... for me well if you wanted to learn something that's what kept you there surely? if you want to make new friends you join another class surely? the rising tiger of inhibition functions on so many levels against the i am alive therefore let's see wow!

cost is a factor though... one of the classes being offered appeared quite otherworldly and it was but that was it's appeal... i know that no uniforms provided none required and no accessories either but the cost modest by resourced standards becomes prohibitive when you have to justify it in terms of personal finance against all other costs or family finance.. you have to know why you want to do it or not to do it so why would you do an initial outlay to find that out?

the poledancing on the other hand caused great interest.... me i was thoroughly shocked... at the thought of that being one of the few activities available to do in poor areas... for obvious conotated reasons... how would one get into that in the first place....   it's like a degraded form of army recruitment .....  something that does well in poor areas simply cos well there ain't too many options open.... and canon fodder is not exactly the way it is posed...  still i was a bit awakened when i saw an exhibition by the regular teacher a bloke who made it look all about movement and strength and body toning balance and development while looking pretty artistic without looking limp.... a woman expert showed similar skill .... it looked quite interesting....  but still with circus skills rather than skills of seduction at the focus.... i wasn't entirely convinced... the juggling looked pretty good as an activity of concentration and meditation

some music groups were great.... one for the very young... i was really pleased for this level of participation ... music is best introduced to the very young and some more sophisticated efforts of a small band were also pretty good... but i reflected ... and the girls well they got to dance... which is a really great physical activity in a class but  is it with flashing cameras and young girls....  the exposure of the poor young women to what options exactly?

since then i wondered into a music shop.... i fantasise about what.... the if only ... money and somewhere to put the baby grand? well there i was browsing and someone was playing something on a keyboard when suddenly there was i looked it wasn't them.... they had gone some classical music was being played by a young person at suitable breakneck speed with startling accuracy and poise... and then another....  are there no prodigies in the poor area?.....  the ingredients to go into that ... it was amazing because a young person was making something technically challenging look startlingly easy therefore it was surely

GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,

so what was it i didn't do yesterday.... ah yes