Big ol' messy world

You know the opening scene in Blue Velvet where you see the beautiful idyllic scene of the "typical" middle class family in front of their house with the beautiful yard and then the man watering the grass has a heart attack and dies and the camera follows the arc of the water from the hose down to the grass and then into the grass and underneath the grass and you start to see all the stuff that's going on beneath the surface?

Some of you were wondering how long it'd be until I used that analogy to talk about DC!

I know it's kind of a cliche but I have two observations: one, today it dawned on me that it's not just a cliche, it's really true --I saw it! and two, it's a little more complicated than that.

Everyone knows the complicated messy underbelly of the city is there but I think people pretty much fall into one of the following two camps: those who think you should pretend it's not and those who are okay with it.  They're even (like me), more than okay with it, they relish it.  They like the complicatedness.  They like messiness.  That's the humanity of it.  Blurry lines may lead to much uncertainty and vulnerability but that's a delicious part of being human and it would be with much resistance that I get dragged over to the other side where I can neatly compartmentalize my life and pretend --and forget I'm pretending-- that it's all just an illusion.

Comments

[tiny ...]

Good metaphor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM975_Ld9S0&feature=related

[Ortho]

I love the Blue Velvet setup to this post! Your blog rocks!
I came here from Stuff White People Do.