As you feed us more insights about the grand experiment being conducted in that western down under, it becomes ever more apparent that, as Judy mentions below, we no longer have the cultural awareness to reconstitute anything like it here in the U.S.. To even try to imagine a collective awareness of the importance of our children, to the extent that a nameless faceless crowd would instinctively do the right thing and then simply go about their day, seems utterly astonishing to these jaded eyes.
And yet, the speed at which the economic metamorphosis has occurred in your world shows that if people are feeling "secure in their personal effects" it could happen anywhere...no matter how hopeless it looked to Mr. Miller in the 40's.
Maybe it isn't over yet. With Mr. Kennedy being given air now, and serious attention given to our children concerning dangers very few of us knew anything about until literally Friday last, perhaps a new kind of energy will grip parents who were, up to this very moment, feeling hopeless about theirs and their children's futures.
Hemingway had Italy; Lake Maggiore is superlatively beautiful. He had Paris, Spain, Africa, Key West, Cuba and was a traveler.
I always looked for a quiet place; I liked Latin America since my time in Peace Corps, Honduras. The David Galland accounts of Cafayate were intriguing.
I am ensconced in Venice, Fl … Satisfied. Calm in my house; comfortable in my chair, surrounded by a semblance of nature.
It is a very good place for my grandson who goes to Venice High. We have Friday Night Lights big time. It was quite satisfying sitting in the stands thinking that a Time Machine sent me back to 1960. It was a joyful moment.
Time squelches the travel bug, that and the realization “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Meandered as young one from Old Blighty when I was less than 12 shipped to Jamaica from England.
The 1950’s was a playground of people, places, food and happy times. A 4 year stint being shipped to multicultural Singapore, midway 50’s was an experience of people, places, food and happy times. Old Blighty boarding school in early 60’s to achieve underwhelming O levels but a change of different people, places, food and happy times.
For 10 quid, we hightailed in mid 60’s to lodge on the western edge of once Terra Nullis Australis. What an experience! Different people, places, food and happy times.
Yes exploring places DNA has been a joy and now in my offspring’s too, seeking out ALWAYS the same fundamentals of P, P, F & HT’s.
Simple, and it’s been a blessed 76 years of no real regrets, finding my respective, small corners to hang out in and live amongst the soil and folks of each local !👍
Buenos Aires sounds wonderful. I love the idea that a child could be held up on anyone's shoulder safely to find parents! That is something quite foreign to us in the US. I'm an elementary school teacher and we have to spend counseling sessions on identifying their "safe" adults and about uncomfortable "touching". Just sick really. After all your travels, which places are your favorites to possible "live"? Or is Buenos Aires it?
Yes, yes, yes. I was born in England and travelled all over for work or out of pure curiosity. Chance brought me to Buenos Aires, and I have finally found my home. Greetings from Retiro! (Ahhh... Lo de Jesús!)
They exude the adventuresome character possessed by genuine pioneers; the intrepid who wondered what lay beyond the distant mountain or endless sea; the acutely curious who had to explore.
Most of us have those traits — our species are born wanderers — but few are able to actualize them.
Jobs, community ties, family obligations, health restraints, limited resources frustrate all but the intrepid and the desperate fleeing oppressive societies for freedom and opportunity.
Joel, Your "notes" today was wonderful. You bring joy to my life with your philosophy and insights. Your ability to write and communicate is superb even though I have to look a word or two now and then. Keep up your good work!
Joel, thank you for introducing me to the concept of "the song still in them".
It is an idea to which I have long held fast. One that also appears as anathema to corporate life. After a particularly brutal sacking following rapid progress up the greasy pole in the eighties my former PA wrote to later to say "stay just the way you are, don't let this crush your spirit". I think "the song still in them is a marvelous phrase to describe the spirit that still burns.
Recently, in London, I had the good fortune to start being treated by a Shiatsu Massage Practitioner. The lady in question was a survivor of a marriage at 18 forced by convention to a man she had never met. She was then taken to India and endured 25 years of virtual slavery. Once her children had reached the age of majority she fled the marriage into a life of exclusion from her previous social status and poverty as she was unable to obtain a divorce or settlement.
Despite this "the song is still in her". She somehow channeled all the joy and freedom of a life that she had been denied into learning the philosophy and practical skills of Shiatsu. She now uses Shiatsu to pass her song onto those fortunate enough to be treated by her.
If you are keen to keep the song in you, my experience is that Shiatsu leaves one walking on air.
Thank you Joel, for brightening up my days, and giving hope to my dreams of a better world! I enjoy dreaming through your experiences and sharing them with others who wonder about a life outside of America. Such a shame what has happened to this once beautiful nation, but such hope that the dream could be realized elsewhere. Keep up your excellent work and wishing you and yours the very best 🙏
Reading your description of life in Buenos Aires, I now understand why you currently hang your hat there. I think the culture has a lot to do with it. Vibrant,humane spontaneous and connected.
The US has lost it. It has become a most unhealthy society. We are very low on the happiness
I love your humor and your articles give me hope. I decided to try and help you tip over the top, as you said. So I posted a brief blurb about your newsletter with the link to sign up on all three of my X accounts.
If you draw a line along the great-circle route from Buenos Aires to San Antonio, Texas and then go halfway along that line, you would be within a day's brisk walk or a relatively cheap taxi ride from my home. (Google Earth makes this a fairly easy exercise.) I will leave the name of the city as an exercise for the student, but we love it here.
There’s no place like home and sometimes you can understand more about your home turf when removed from it. Looking forward to the next instalment of the Argentine enlightenment!
As you feed us more insights about the grand experiment being conducted in that western down under, it becomes ever more apparent that, as Judy mentions below, we no longer have the cultural awareness to reconstitute anything like it here in the U.S.. To even try to imagine a collective awareness of the importance of our children, to the extent that a nameless faceless crowd would instinctively do the right thing and then simply go about their day, seems utterly astonishing to these jaded eyes.
And yet, the speed at which the economic metamorphosis has occurred in your world shows that if people are feeling "secure in their personal effects" it could happen anywhere...no matter how hopeless it looked to Mr. Miller in the 40's.
Maybe it isn't over yet. With Mr. Kennedy being given air now, and serious attention given to our children concerning dangers very few of us knew anything about until literally Friday last, perhaps a new kind of energy will grip parents who were, up to this very moment, feeling hopeless about theirs and their children's futures.
Is the universe throwing us a bone?
Hemingway had Italy; Lake Maggiore is superlatively beautiful. He had Paris, Spain, Africa, Key West, Cuba and was a traveler.
I always looked for a quiet place; I liked Latin America since my time in Peace Corps, Honduras. The David Galland accounts of Cafayate were intriguing.
I am ensconced in Venice, Fl … Satisfied. Calm in my house; comfortable in my chair, surrounded by a semblance of nature.
It is a very good place for my grandson who goes to Venice High. We have Friday Night Lights big time. It was quite satisfying sitting in the stands thinking that a Time Machine sent me back to 1960. It was a joyful moment.
Time squelches the travel bug, that and the realization “There is nothing new under the sun.”
And, we can travel the easy way, through you.
Meandered as young one from Old Blighty when I was less than 12 shipped to Jamaica from England.
The 1950’s was a playground of people, places, food and happy times. A 4 year stint being shipped to multicultural Singapore, midway 50’s was an experience of people, places, food and happy times. Old Blighty boarding school in early 60’s to achieve underwhelming O levels but a change of different people, places, food and happy times.
For 10 quid, we hightailed in mid 60’s to lodge on the western edge of once Terra Nullis Australis. What an experience! Different people, places, food and happy times.
Yes exploring places DNA has been a joy and now in my offspring’s too, seeking out ALWAYS the same fundamentals of P, P, F & HT’s.
Simple, and it’s been a blessed 76 years of no real regrets, finding my respective, small corners to hang out in and live amongst the soil and folks of each local !👍
Buenos Aires sounds wonderful. I love the idea that a child could be held up on anyone's shoulder safely to find parents! That is something quite foreign to us in the US. I'm an elementary school teacher and we have to spend counseling sessions on identifying their "safe" adults and about uncomfortable "touching". Just sick really. After all your travels, which places are your favorites to possible "live"? Or is Buenos Aires it?
Yes, yes, yes. I was born in England and travelled all over for work or out of pure curiosity. Chance brought me to Buenos Aires, and I have finally found my home. Greetings from Retiro! (Ahhh... Lo de Jesús!)
I love your travel tales
They exude the adventuresome character possessed by genuine pioneers; the intrepid who wondered what lay beyond the distant mountain or endless sea; the acutely curious who had to explore.
Most of us have those traits — our species are born wanderers — but few are able to actualize them.
Jobs, community ties, family obligations, health restraints, limited resources frustrate all but the intrepid and the desperate fleeing oppressive societies for freedom and opportunity.
An enjoyable read, Joel. I have spent very little time in BA, but enjoyed it very much -- especially the beef.
Joel, Your "notes" today was wonderful. You bring joy to my life with your philosophy and insights. Your ability to write and communicate is superb even though I have to look a word or two now and then. Keep up your good work!
Joel, thank you for introducing me to the concept of "the song still in them".
It is an idea to which I have long held fast. One that also appears as anathema to corporate life. After a particularly brutal sacking following rapid progress up the greasy pole in the eighties my former PA wrote to later to say "stay just the way you are, don't let this crush your spirit". I think "the song still in them is a marvelous phrase to describe the spirit that still burns.
Recently, in London, I had the good fortune to start being treated by a Shiatsu Massage Practitioner. The lady in question was a survivor of a marriage at 18 forced by convention to a man she had never met. She was then taken to India and endured 25 years of virtual slavery. Once her children had reached the age of majority she fled the marriage into a life of exclusion from her previous social status and poverty as she was unable to obtain a divorce or settlement.
Despite this "the song is still in her". She somehow channeled all the joy and freedom of a life that she had been denied into learning the philosophy and practical skills of Shiatsu. She now uses Shiatsu to pass her song onto those fortunate enough to be treated by her.
If you are keen to keep the song in you, my experience is that Shiatsu leaves one walking on air.
Thank you Joel, for brightening up my days, and giving hope to my dreams of a better world! I enjoy dreaming through your experiences and sharing them with others who wonder about a life outside of America. Such a shame what has happened to this once beautiful nation, but such hope that the dream could be realized elsewhere. Keep up your excellent work and wishing you and yours the very best 🙏
Heaven, of course. It's heaven. Particularly love the "how to find a lost kid" business. Dos it really work that way?
Pretty amazing
https://www.reddit.com/r/HumansBeingBros/comments/x7o1tg/the_essence_of_streets_as_public_space_a_young/
Reading your description of life in Buenos Aires, I now understand why you currently hang your hat there. I think the culture has a lot to do with it. Vibrant,humane spontaneous and connected.
The US has lost it. It has become a most unhealthy society. We are very low on the happiness
scale.
I love your humor and your articles give me hope. I decided to try and help you tip over the top, as you said. So I posted a brief blurb about your newsletter with the link to sign up on all three of my X accounts.
Wonderful reading about life in Buenos Aires and the Culture there.
If you draw a line along the great-circle route from Buenos Aires to San Antonio, Texas and then go halfway along that line, you would be within a day's brisk walk or a relatively cheap taxi ride from my home. (Google Earth makes this a fairly easy exercise.) I will leave the name of the city as an exercise for the student, but we love it here.
There’s no place like home and sometimes you can understand more about your home turf when removed from it. Looking forward to the next instalment of the Argentine enlightenment!