of stairwells. and sliding.
Well, at around six this evening a downpour of freezing rain graced my fair city, canceling city buses as well as taxis, and forcing cars to wait it out on the shoulder. I was at Trent at the time. I ended up with a unique Canadian experience on my hands: frozen in, on Campus.
I was at a little summit discussing the use of live animals for educational purposes on campus. (an invigorating experience to say the least). I was with Dahn, and we ended up meandering (read, sliding) across campus to the Otonabee college caf, where an emergency dinner was being held for the stranded students. A crowd of vaguely disgruntled twentysomethings eating pizza held little interest for two small-talk weary vegans... so Dahn and I slid around the property until buses started running again.
I've got an affinity for little things like that. Snow days, rainstorms and blackouts. It's funny because interruptions often end up facilitating a deeper sense of community because it forces a group into a sort of makeshift liminal experience. The routine is briefly arrested. Control is briefly wrested from our hands. And suddenly tonight we have a community temporarily thrown together on one common ground, we can't get home.
So we eat pizza together, slide around and fall on our asses and help each other up. We talk to strangers. I saw students tonight crashing at their friends dorm rooms, who confided to each other that they hoped to be better friends at the end of the night. They didn't see me in the stair well as they walked past.
I sort of wish I could turn the power off every once in awhile. Or order some hazardous weather to get people to talk to each other again.
When it happens we wake up.
Well, at around six this evening a downpour of freezing rain graced my fair city, canceling city buses as well as taxis, and forcing cars to wait it out on the shoulder. I was at Trent at the time. I ended up with a unique Canadian experience on my hands: frozen in, on Campus.I was at a little summit discussing the use of live animals for educational purposes on campus. (an invigorating experience to say the least). I was with Dahn, and we ended up meandering (read, sliding) across campus to the Otonabee college caf, where an emergency dinner was being held for the stranded students. A crowd of vaguely disgruntled twentysomethings eating pizza held little interest for two small-talk weary vegans... so Dahn and I slid around the property until buses started running again.
I've got an affinity for little things like that. Snow days, rainstorms and blackouts. It's funny because interruptions often end up facilitating a deeper sense of community because it forces a group into a sort of makeshift liminal experience. The routine is briefly arrested. Control is briefly wrested from our hands. And suddenly tonight we have a community temporarily thrown together on one common ground, we can't get home.
So we eat pizza together, slide around and fall on our asses and help each other up. We talk to strangers. I saw students tonight crashing at their friends dorm rooms, who confided to each other that they hoped to be better friends at the end of the night. They didn't see me in the stair well as they walked past.
I sort of wish I could turn the power off every once in awhile. Or order some hazardous weather to get people to talk to each other again.
When it happens we wake up.
3 Comments:
Sweet, Meaghan...we got the freezing rain, too, but only hell stops the tee-tee-see.
i agree. i was in Kingston for the big ice storm a few years back, and for a week, all we did was help eachother clean branches off of front yards/porches, and eat together.
I also remember driving to a friends house on the night of the blackout a couple summers ago and seeing everyone outside, playing in the parks, going for walks, stuff that should normally be happening. I love it when electrical gadgets stop working and people are forced to live without for brief periods of time. I think we should have an annual government enforced no power day, random of course, just to keep us on our toes.
It's funny isn't it? It takes a jolt out of reality to realize what is real. As for staying at poeples houses, I'll get to that. I remeber way back when when you were in BC this summer and there was a large, albeit agrivating blackout. I spent more time with poeple having good times than I had in a long time. I forget most of what went on but I remeber the feelings of staight good ole comunity and wellbeing. Funny that. . .
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