London 2011
12/08/2011 or 08/12/2011….what ever floats your boat…..
I arrive in London on Tuesday at 6.05 am their time…my body telling me it was clearly earlier…to be precise…five hours earlier…
After a 7 hour flight, full with the in-flight dining services and my trusty tube map of London, I ventured off into the chaos that awaited me…. well the chaos assumed by the news of the night before…from the US broadcasts…the aftermath of the riots and looting that began on Saturday had yet to reach me….it was not until I landed on the tube and grabbed the metro newspaper when I realized the neighborhood in which I was to live for the my month stay in London was directly situated near the neighborhood allegedly responsible for the ignition of the riots, looting and thievery that rampaged the streets of London the previous evening.
I rode in silence…. shit…I did not know anyone on the damn train anyway…. but the silence was of a different sort…a silence that speaks volumes when you are scared…a silence that penetrates the deaf and allow dogs to hear…. a silence that only you can describe…and only describe to yourself…
After much needed rest from jet lag…the trek from Heathrow airport via the tube and bus ride…I woke with a weary feeling…. what the hell was I doing here…. I ask myself that question often when I travel to unchartered lands…but this was different…I had been here before…. not in another life as you may assume…but literally have been here…celebrating my friendship with Conrad…(more on him later), making new friends while celebrating the Notting Hill Carnival and most of all learning about myself…realizing that I make a difference…. not just to those I teach but to those I encounter along the way…not to say that I am the official negro from America…not even to say that I am a designer of theatre working in the industry as a guest artist……or to say that I know anything of worth that would interest the regular person on the street…..I make a difference to me…..I am learning about me, my abilities to survive and explore….my need to search for interesting ideas, thought provoking nuances and the random silliness that prevails in all societies…….I am growing into the man that my family and kindred spirits have nurtured…..I am becoming me……just that simple……
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