Everywhere is somewhere
Yesterday, before coverage of President Biden’s inauguration began, I was on a Zoom call with several friends to discuss one of Gainesville’s oldest neighborhoods. One friend, with long ties to this neighborhood, shared some stories from her childhood. She reminisced about the woman who babysat her, and other neighborhood children, while their parents worked. She described an enormous live oak tree, where she and others had played as children. She mentioned her church, located nearby. She described her mother’s walk home from work in the kitchen of a segregated restaurant near the university, alone, at night, after an eight-hour shift, a walk that would have taken nearly an hour. She described the role of Mr. Perryman, who bought and relocated a World War II military building to serve as a movie theater for “colored” people, who could not attend “whites only” theaters in Gainesville—a building neighbors have given new life as The Cotton Club, an African American museum and cultural center.
I was struck by the power of her place-based memories of this sweet neighborhood. Reflecting back on her stories, her deep attachment to this place makes sense. My friend is in her eighties, and both she and her mother grew up in this neighborhood. She has more than a century of memories invested in this place. For me, her loving and rich descriptions opened a window to an entire world, set in a place I had driven and biked through many times, but had never really seen. During that brief call, my world enlarged.
I left the call to watch the Biden-Harris inauguration festivities, with my “pod” and much of the country. We saw the official swearing in, and variations of the traditions that have occurred during all the inaugurations of my lifetime. But we also, all, had the opportunity to participate in a necessary alternative to inaugural balls, in the form of a televised concert, broadcast live from around the country. Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard in Nashville, reflecting on the aftermath of the Christmas morning bombing. John Legend at the Lincoln Memorial. Demi Lovato in Los Angeles, along with nurses and friends from across the nation, including the Bidens dancing in front of their TV, in real time, from the Oval Office. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkRLaS9P8r8&t=70s
Later, I discovered a wonderful video produced by the Biden Inaugural Committee, “Dance Across America,” set to the “Dancing in the streets” by the Mamas and Papas. It, too, was filmed across the country. The dancers were talented, the choreography and editing really tight, and the diversity—by age, ethnicity, locale—was awe-inspiring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb2dpHTQW3Q
Covid has brought great tragedy to our country and the world, but bright spots have emerged. Yesterday morning’s Zoom call allowed a group of friends to sandwich a cross-community meeting into an otherwise full, and really important, day. Many aspects of the Biden Inauguration--collecting talent, wisdom, and good wishes from all parts of our country, and re-presenting them to all parts of our country--regardless of geography, political connections, or financial constraints, created a sense of community and purpose that would not have happened before Covid demanded that we re-envision our world.
Both my morning Zoom call, and my experience of the inauguration, from a small town, in a state far from Washington DC, reminded me that for most people, everywhere is somewhere, and somewhere important. Every place contains lifetimes of memories, aspirations, sorrows, and dreams. They are set within, forming and formed by, an extraordinary kaleidoscope of architecture, cities, landscapes. The dancer I most admire, Merce Cunningham, said “wherever you are is the center, as well as where everybody else is….that seemed to me quite marvelous, and enlarging.”
Merce was right. Yesterday I experienced a world acknowledging that wherever you are is the center, as well as where everybody else is. Everywhere is somewhere. Seen this way, the world enlarges before our eyes. I look forward to a future in which we act accordingly.