Cody Perkins (top) and Chris Johnson from Country Boys
In addition to the discussion brewing on Gehry and the Atlantic Yards project, I've been obsessed all week with the latest Frontline special, Country Boys. You can watch the entire program from the web site, if you missed it.
There's something I love about this glimpse into the inner life of two boys, Chris and Cody, trying to grow up in Appalachian Kentucky. This gets more personal than I've been on this blog. I'm not sure if it's my own family's rural and humble roots (albeit in another country), or my own struggle to belong when I was growing up here as a new immigrant, or the experience of having to grow up quickly, which is typical of new immigrant children, and which intensified when my sister and I decided to stay in the United States while my parents decided to return to their home country, just as I started high school. I grew up in a privileged community, so watching Chris explain what it was like to pay bills and take care of the house while handling school work was the first time I saw my embarrassment, but in another, and completely different person.
The other thing I pay close attention to when I get a chance to get close to another life is how people live their days - how they get to work or school, what they do in their free time, how they get their groceries, run everyday errands, how they choose to get together and meet other people. I'm sure that what the two boys did was not entirely emblematic of everyone's lifestyle in Eastern Kentucky, but it was fascinating to see how hard it was for them just to see...anyone. And in a rural area where people are few and far between, it seems even more important that people who do live there have places to gather. This is a kind of revelation I experienced when I moved from a generally rural/suburban area to a more metropolitan area for the first time. In the city, through my everyday routine of walking to work, getting coffee and breakfast, getting groceries and schlepping them back to my tiny studio apartment, I realized that I wasn't as lonely as I had been in the suburbs, even though I knew absolutely no one in the city.
I don't think everyone needs to live in urban areas. I just think that we haven't been paying the right kind of attention to suburbs and rural areas, which should also address basic needs and in a socially constructive way. Regardless of environment - urban, suburban, rural - everyone needs to buy groceries, go to work, go to school, run errands, and see people every once in a while -- no matter who we are.
1.15.2006
Country Boys
Posted by Shin-pei at 6:29 PM
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5 comments:
seeing the film, i couldn't help but think that a lot of the weird, fundamentalist religious stuff comes from a sense of alienation and dislocation and in these rural and suburban american places. perhaps the only way to have a sense of community is to get super-involved in a church group.
We were just talking about how churches are the fastest growing type of "public space" in rural areas. It has eclipsed post offices, for example, which used to be a place to see and meet neighbors. And schools, which used to be another good public space have moved out of town centers, far removed from everything. Though there has traditionally been a limited range of social interactions to be had in churches and schools, many are providing community services as well as culture and arts events when there is no service or when school isn't in session. More of them should be doing that.
it's very troubling when, increasingly, the only opportunity americans have to get together and mingle in public is by swearing faith and allegiance to a magical deity who died for their sins. not a good sign for democracy.
Anonymous thought..
I have been reading some of the above notes and i am a little troubled.
First of all the problems in Floyd county,Kentucky are mostly related to economics and not religion.To suggest that a strong religious faith is somehow connected to a lack of ideas or innovation is foolish at best.
I also never noticed anything weird about Codys faith.If anything it was inspiring.
A poor,rural background does not create a so called weird faith.Least we not forget that our President has a strong faith and i wonder who would claim he was from a poor background?
I agree with you - I don't equate strong religios faith with lack of ideas. I was thinking more about the growth of physical churches as community centers. That's what is fascinating to me. Churches remain a place that people can gather, especially in rural areas. I don't think we should harbor fear for churches, especially when they are an asset for people. It would be a similar fear that destroyed public squares and parks in urban areas, a rather narrow and misplaced sentiment.
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