So I try and try to describe Prague—the feeling I get here, the Bohemian-ness of it—I got perhaps closest when trying to describe/define hedonism.
But the other night when the Improv was there: We sat in the back and smoked a joint with our new friend Daragh, and the bartender Jeff (later described as “stoic” by one of the Improv trigger stories) had a hit off of it.
It’s not Starbucks for sure. Sometimes it takes awhile to get your drink. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes to get your sandwich. But you can be sure that Andy and Helen will do their best, that the ingredients are fresh, that the frozen strawberry or raspberry “Mafi-Osi” will fulfill your vitamin C requirement, that the beer is cool and fresh.
Sometimes Narnia is the exact right place for me, and sometimes there are people there with a vibe in which I don’t want to engage. Only once has it been too crowded (the whole place, not just Narnia) and I left soon after arriving.
The gentle tolerance there and desire to do good—to provide a place for the community, to create a community around art and music and pleasure and sustainability and locally sourced materials – gives me hope, as this is something I’ve been looking for since my first trip outside the US, when I saw that other worlds were possible.
It seems to me a manifestation of Arundhati Roy’s
For my students who found it too smoky, too chaotic, I’m want to say, life is dirty and chaotic and to engage with it fully, sometimes you get dirty too. I think their complaint about “smoky” is more about the smell of trava, with which they were obviously uncomfortable, and yet at the same time too repressed and hypocritical to mention.
I find it interesting in that zajimovy way that the most sheltered—student A and student B—seemed to be actually the most open, except for, of course, student Y, who was a delight with that sunny personality and willingness to find beauty, pleasure and charm in everything.
Another world is not only possible,
she is on her way. On a quiet day,
I can hear her breathing.
For my students who found it too smoky, too chaotic, I’m want to say, life is dirty and chaotic and to engage with it fully, sometimes you get dirty too. I think their complaint about “smoky” is more about the smell of trava, with which they were obviously uncomfortable, and yet at the same time too repressed and hypocritical to mention.
I find it interesting in that zajimovy way that the most sheltered—student A and student B—seemed to be actually the most open, except for, of course, student Y, who was a delight with that sunny personality and willingness to find beauty, pleasure and charm in everything.
All and all, the Prague summer program was an unqualified success:
I look forward to doing many, many more.
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