Part of living abroad for years and years is to not think about the past too much. Of course you have your good memories, but in general I think the focus is on today and tomorrow, because if you think too much about yesterday you start thinking of people and places from the past.. which slows you down.. messes with your head.
Naturally there are pictures and stories that can send you into a time warp. I’ve got lots of them, for example: if you mention the city of Newark, New Jersey.
As soon as you mention it my mind starts to wander. I go back in time, to the city of my birth. The city my family immigrated to, and the city that provided the backdrop for huge chunks of my childhood. The city where still today, much of my family can still be found working, day in and day out.
When I saw the village voice’s close-up series did one on Newark recently, I had another one of those moments. Renaissance they say. Renaissance for who, I ask? Rents that go for 1000 dollars a month and higher? Sweep out the poor and working class people who don’t spend big bucks at your luxery arena or performing arts center? I know i talk excessively about gentrification and the ever-increasing gap between rich and poor, but the more I hear these terms the more I have to denounce them.
The ironbound, the Portuguese neighborhood I grew up around, never needed fancy chain stores, expensive sports venues, or wealthy refugee’s from Manhattan to make it a unique and loved place. All it needed was caring people who arrived from all over the world to carve out their corner, no matter how small. Hell they even managed despite one of the most corrupt city governments in the world! Renaissance? Save that crap for the guys who yell huuzzah wielding bows and arrows, who come around once a year.
And if you can get your hands on it, here’s an excellent documentary on Newark’s Corruption which I saw in Amsterdam recently.
AudioCommunique #98(mp3)
Skipping past all the boring details… there I am, along with one or two of my male travel companions, with a towel wrapped around my waste, having just done the intial rinse shower. We walk into the special sauna area, and one of the female travel companions greets us as we walk in, I hear her voice, but I’m distracted by the fact that naked women and men are walking past me and taking showers. I could almost feel her half laughing at me, as I looked over and noticed I was the only one with a towel still on. So I got with the program and got rid of the towel. Wanting not to seem like I didn’t know what to do, I asked where one should start while randomly putting myself under the VERY cold shower. She gestured towards the pine door, where others of my naked bretheren were ocassionally walking in and out. I followed their lead and found myself standing at the door facing all these other people in deep thought and sweat… perhaps inappropriately, I greeted the room with a “hello….. this is my first sauna.” The only laughter came from two friends who were already seated sweating it out. I took my place next to what I think may have been a beautiful and curvatious blonde; I don’t actually know if she was cause I didn’t have the nerve to look. 
1. There is no war on terrorism. Call it what it is, another farce like the cold war where people are manipulated by fear and believe that they will be destroyed, and then send troops to various countries to kill other people and in the process also get killed, or otherwise torture and be subject to mental anguish that will plague society for generations.