squirrels, greece, and pirates

What does it mean to call a place home? If you grew up in Michigan (or, apparently, anywhere else in the world), you are highly familiar with squirrels. They were part of the background - something I didn't notice - until I went to college in Ann Arbor and became impressed and terrified of the gargantuan rodents that reside there. I suppose if I needed to survive a 6-month winter and ALSO lived among a city overrun by that unmatched producer of food-related garbage, the college undergraduate, I would get really frickin' big, too.



I learned other cool things from today's NY Times article on squirrels (does no one read the Times anymore? Relatedly, is this part of their ongoing plan to broaden their audience so that when they have to start charging for online news, they will be able to knock on the doors of tent-dwelling hermits obsessed with small tree-climbing mammals and say "please pay us, we know you couldn't stand to live without our erudite articles about your favorite entree"?"). Such as: even though squirrels act crazy sometimes, they are highly adapted to their environments. Much like human beings, but without such drastic and dramatic consequences.



I've gotten a lot of mileage out of the notion that creatures do things because they think it will make them better off. However, nobody said that all creatures have good judgment or access to all the information required to make a decent decision. Further, we are all members of communities that influence us in various ways, both known and unknown. Consequently, collections of members (e.g., families, classrooms, or entire societies) end up with different ideas about what sorts of behaviors seem like good decisions.

I was riding the bus home from a Words of Peace Global event yesterday and had the fortune of starting a conversation with a middle-aged, crunchy/hippie-ish woman with a medium-sized suitcase. I helped her get it on the bus, and she thanked me rather more profusely than was necessary, given the size of the suitcase. It turned out she is Greek, though I didn't learn that fact until the end of our conversation, when I also learned her name is Katherine.

Katherine asked what I was doing in Italy, and when I said "per vacanze" (for vacation) she said that Italy is good for holiday but not for making a living. I said "why?" Then we proceeded to have a disjointed conversation, her in English, me in Italian (because I still thought she was Italian at that point), about the state of the economy in various countries. She said that the middle class was shrinking and "what happened to Greece is going to happen to Italy. Do you know what happened to Greece?" (I'm pretty sheltered and don't read much news, but yes, I know what happened to Greece). I responded that the middle class is also shrinking in the United States (gli Stati Uniti or, yee STAH-tea oo-NEA-tea). Then she said, and I quote, "but you have the Barack Obama." I nodded, yes, we have the Barack Obama but we also have a bunch of corrupt people in power (like bankers), also like Greece, and definitely like Italy.

At times, though, it is awfully difficult to tell who is corrupt and who is just inordinately confused. The various systems of this global economy, as we know from our own banking crisis, have gotten a bit too big for any single mind. What is worse, complicated economic and political decisions have gotten all tangled up in the social and cultural behavioral needs of regular (or sometimes, completely narcisisstic) human beings. It makes sense to me that this combination would result in a big hairy mess. Though everyone feels better if we can blame stuff on one person, like this unfortunate gentleman.



He had the privilege of being right about most things, for most of his life, and then he came down to earth to join the rest of us bumbling stumblers. In what, exactly? Well that is a question for another day, and another blogger. I have no idea, either, but I'm usually brave enough to admit it. (Unless I'm teaching a course and then there is a need to appear informed or at least, able to obtain the answer faster than the undergraduate who asked the question).

Greek Katherine - also an engineering student in Rome - thinks that the United States is a wonderful place where people can make something of their dreams. I agree with her, and I also don't. Scott Nicholson might, but he needs a little time, to find that perfect job, and start living the American Dream. Except: like anything, dreams need to evolve with this messy, hair world. The old dream - of owning the house, having the 2.5 kids and some furry pets - bit a lot of people in the arse. So, let's make a new dream, huh? And let's not, like our friend the squirrel, bury the same dream five times in different parts of the same yard, and dig it up five times as though it will emerge from the ground somehow new.

Let's tip the world entirely over. Like in the Pirates of the Caribbean III when they reach the edge of the world, go upside down, and come out the other side. (Ok, now this is just an excuse to post a picture of Johnny Depp in a pirate costume).