changes
this is not really about dance. and yet it sort of is.
i was in starbucks a few minutes ago–there’s one at the base of the building where i work, so we’re all in and out of there all day long. it almost feels like home and i know most of the employees. and yet, there was a time when i was very anti-starbucks. i hated the idea of a chain, particularly for a coffee shop, a place that can be quirky and funky in ways that make it an ideal urban gathering spot. i hated the sameness of starbucks, and all the the packaging, and the boring people i felt frequented it.
that was the old me, the me who grew up in a hippie college town and, together with my alternative friends, rebelled against anything vaguely corporate or technological or, frankly, new.
but now i’m firmly planted here in dc, where you can’t go a block without tripping over a starbucks. and i’ve given in. in all honesty, i do like the coffee a lot, and they’ve got some new blueberry and raspberry scones that are great for breakfast.
beyond the offerings, though, i love the way it’s become a gathering place. drop into my neighborhood starbucks at just about any hour and it’s fairly buzzing with life. there are folks looking at their computer screens or staring into space, but most are in groups of two and three, talking resumes, business plans, ideas. the line is frequently almost out the door and people actually chat with each other while waiting! i’ve had lots of great conversations w/ strangers there.
this makes me sound like a moron, i know. it’s not cool to say that starbucks is cool. but clearly it’s filling some sort of need that american people have, a need for a public place to hang out and connect. as a major hang-outer and a massive fan of public interactions, i can only applaud the whole starbucks phenomenon.
i’m actually quite proud to be writing all this, because a few years ago i was much more set in my ways. i doubt i would’ve recognized or admitted to feeling any admiration for the starbucks phenomenon, because i would’ve had a knee jerk reaction to its newness and my fears of being manipulated.
but slowly i see myself relaxing about the ways our society is changing. yes, the starbucks thing is a real change, in some sense. another, much bigger change, is how technology has infiltrated and colonized our lives. i don’t even need to document it because it’s so very pervasive–email, the internet, cell phones, text messages, digital phones, easily produced video images, etc.
i used to hate all that stuff. perhaps i was reacting out of fear–but whatever it was, i felt wary and worried that we humans were losing our connection to that which is most real and fundamental in our lives.
that is possible, of course. but what i’ve also realized–which crystalized for me during the improv fest–is that technology has added to our ability to connect to and communicate w/ each other, and it adds more tools that can be used to further creative goals. the number of videos that folks took during the festival and immediately posted on blogs, the many photos and websites where they could be quickly accessed, the blogs themselves–it amazed me how well they helped to advance our goals of getting art into the world!
i may be the only person who had to overcome this particular hurdle, this former dislike of technology. i see maida withers, at 72, taking video editing classes and spending hours checking out dance videos on you tube. but i do think that the urge to hold on tightly to what is familiar, and to be suspicious of a new idea–whether it’s starbucks or cell phones or something else–is universal. it’s ok–but it does block our ability to really take advantage of what’s in front of us, to make use of all the tools and concepts at our disposal in order to further our creative objectives and live more fully.