I attended the services for my older sister last week and during the course of that I saw and interacted with generations of the clan from children to teenage to millennial to geezers and all the points in between.<\/p>\n
On the long flight back, I pondered the sharing of perspectives. My nephew, who is fifty but will always be thirteen in my mind, gave a eulogy to my sister, his mother that opened up a view I could grasp but never appreciated. He talked about being raised as the only child of a single mother, struggling with the economics and striving to better their condition. While I knew that, my view of my sister was always from the family we shared growing up, not her struggles as a young mother. I was continents away when that was going on and getting on with my own adulthood.<\/p>\n
It moved me significantly. It expanded my view. It made me realize the complexity of\u00a0 ever knowing someone.<\/p>\n
It made me ponder some and then I watched the WHCD and the rally in PA, along with the AntiFA clowns rioting on MayDay in Portland and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
I believe we are losing any sense of common perspectives as a\u00a0 community. We do not share experiences, we do not even watch the same TV shows. In the fifties, even communists and capitalist could discuss I Love Lucy and the Honeymooners.<\/p>\n
My nephew sent a link for the video below a while back. I watched it and theorized that seeing this would be a touchstone for how American’s perspectives are split. I am fond of it for many reasons, it evokes an America I want to believe is still there, but mostly because I used to play trumpet and when both arms worked to spec, could play this one as a kid. My older brother was better, he had a tone that I could never achieve.<\/p>\n
I expect you would get a very mixed reaction these days to this video. I would hope that a little more than half would smile and feel a faint stirring, a feeling of belonging, but that may be optimistic.<\/p>\n
It comes down to perspective.<\/p>\n
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