by Rita
An excerpt from an article in the New York Times:
"In the presidential campaign, the Obamas had a “no new friends” rule, surrounding themselves with a coterie of familiar faces. Even if the Obamas lift that rule in Washington, newcomers are unlikely to replicate the intensity of this group’s ties, formed over more than a decade by births and deaths, Scrabble games, barbecues and vacations, but also by shared beliefs about race, success and responsibility." (NYT, 12/14/08)
Full link here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/us/politics/14friends.html
I wrote in a previous post that a village can get you elected president. And it seems there might be times when it is necessary to be very intentional about protecting the village membership list.
Your thoughts?
hope, imagination, and action
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6 comments:
Rita,
I have not read the article but I think we limit our circle of friends naturally. Call it country club or whatever, we tend to hang with or run with a limited circle of friends. I think the key words in the last sentence are "hang with" which implies a relationship the goes beneath the surface. What would be interesting if someone did a study to investigate this phenomenon.
Luke
Well. I guess there are some similarities between the Obama village and the BeatBoRoJo village, but being a country club seems easier to justify for them than it does for us. I bet Barack has a bunch of new cuzins all of a sudden. In our case, it's just easier to be a country club. Can you imagine trying to help someone new learn all of the ideosyncrasies of the villagers that we just take for granted?
Some of us witnessed this frustration at a KC Obama rally this summer. There was a long line and in our little pod there were villagers and non-villagers coexisting. One of the villgers was Valerie (better known as "By-the-Book Betty"). One of the non-villagers decided to let a fellow rallyer jump in line. He soon felt the wrath of Betty and realized how silly his actions were (after all there were about 80,000 people in line). I think most villagers know Betty well enough to know that such an action was grounds for decapitation. We wouldn't have made that mistake.
Now I know that's a silly example, but I think it makes the point. Who else would know that Cedric is responsible for all chicken matters, and that you don't mess with Dorri's hair appointment, and that you validate everything Stan says with Pat, and that Tim is just nosey by nature, and that Luke is not in a hurry. He writes like that all the time. Val really likes Streinsand, Ced really like Country and Western, Caleb and Andrew want only meat and cheese on their tacos... etc.
No one else would put up with us.
p.s. maybe we are struggling with a definition of "village." Or perhaps, it is like I wrote before, ours is like a family because as papa stan alludes to: it is in family contexts where we learn to love a person - warts and all.
great article. I like the statement, "...newcomers are unlikely to replicate the intensity of this group's ties, formed over more than a decade..." In our case, our group's ties have been formed over several decades.
as I close this comment, I wonder if generational perspectives within our village are playing out in this discussion?
Papa Stan...why did you have to bring up that line business at the Obama rally! Whew, It gets me crazy just thinking about our people just assuming they can get in line with us cause we have the same color skin. Now really I was not bother by the first group, but remember two more sets of folks got in with us. Omg one group had about six people and no one in any of the groups even knew them? I openly admit that I tend to be "by the book" even more than that I try to treat folks the way I would like to be treated. That was rude to the family behind us. I won't even go to deep into the fact that they were non-club members and I am pretty sure had that situation been reversed it would have been a scene.
Valerie
See what I mean. You gotta watch your step with this group.
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