Remembering Mimie on March 29

Maude Salinger had a great idea. March 29th would have been Mimie's 109th birthday.

We're looking for anecdotes/remembrances/or just things you want to say about Mimie.

Send me stuff in email and I will post it, or just comment on this post.

Studying Culture - Part 2

2. Without an identity there is no such thing as a socially situated individual. Societies, identities, and the individuals do not exist independently of one another. Discuss this concept in greater detail. Give examples of how these three are interrelated. If you disagree with the statement, provide considerable arguments to support your claim.

So, the idea of identity assumes that an individual will react to or behave the same way in all circumstances or situations, but humans belie that definition. For example, someone that identifies themselves as a patriot may be against the war and perceived as unpatriotic by the
larger group he is a part of. this does not change his individual identity, but it does call into question his identity in his socially situated identification. Thus, this might constitute a
mediation/conflict between an individual and his identity relationship to society. so, while we can agree that identities are complex and that they do place individuals into groups that share traits, we might disagree that the identification of an individual within a group that shares traits isn't sometimes in conflict and doesn't interrrupt the supposed balance of a shared trait group.

Does this mean that a socially situated individual is identified only by the social group he resides in for the purposes of interrelationship between the concepts of identiy, society and
individuality? What even constitutes a society as it relates to identity and an individual. An
interesting question if you look at a very abnormal individual and a very non-normal society.

I'm thinking of Timothy Treadwell (better known as "Grizzly Man"), who chose his own identity and was his own individual within a society of his own choosing, a group of grizzly bears. I don't think we can argue that Treadwell had an identity or that he was an individual. We might be able to argue that his chosen social situation was so outside the norm that it doesn't enter into this argument, but that might call into question the basic premise of the author's statement or it could support it if you are willing to agree that social groups or societal groups cover a very broad spectrum and that identity and individuality are completely linked in even the most extreme examples of soceties or social groups.(or is it true that while Treadwell 'identified' with the pack of bears, there is no evidence that they accepted him as part of their identity or simply
allowed him to coexist in their environment?)

I do think that there is no such thing as a socially situated individual without an identity. it would be impossible for societies or societal groups to exist without individuals that were willing to be identified with that group in some way. The observation of individuals and relationship of individuals within groups help to define how those groups operate within society as whole, so the interrelationship of all three is what ultimately defines them. However, there is always a give
and take between the individual, the identity of the individual by the group and the individual's own identity, as well as how that identification is perceived in the world at large.

For example, I might perceive myself as an individual as a highly creative, thoughtful, introspective person that has a curiosity about and interest in people and places all over the world and that I am always interested in learning more about both myself and everything in
the world that interests me. My particular societal group, which I might identify with and define as the like-minded group of people with whom I live and work in the Bay Area might see me as this person, but they also see me as politically liberal (which I am, though I don't
always define myself that narrowly), relatively privileged by virtue of being white, living in an upscale area of the country, artistic because of the activities I engage in and someone who shares certain interests with the societal group here in the Bay Area.

However, when I travel, I might only be perceived as an American man, with all the negative
things that represents in the current geopolitical climate and my identity, as perceived by my narrower societal group, as well as my own personal perception of my identity and individuality may not have any bearing on how I am able to relate to other societies.

Other societies thus have placed me into a group by identifying traits that I share with that group - national identity, perceived wealth, white (most people outside the US likely see a white person speaking English and make the assumption that they are American), but while these are certainly traits that do identify me in a very general sense, they might conflict with the way that I act as an individual or the beliefs that I hold both individually and in my own particular societal group.

Studying Culture

Wow - can't believe it's been a week since I posted. It's been crazy.

Spent the weekend going back and forth on email with my daughter, helping her answer some questions for her final in cultural studies, so thought I'd share them and see what others had to say.

1. Is the concept of race becoming more or less important in culture and society? Response is to include examples of identity, politics, economics, and enterprise culture, and the media which could include type,TV, internet, music, etc.

If you look at the importance of race in the context of all the examples posed, then I would have to say that race is indeed becoming more important in culture and society. Taken merely from the viewpoint of how marketing is done in the culture, racial identities are an important and growing trend in demographic representations of markets for all kinds of media (music, literature, internet websites, tv programming) all aimed at niche markets. We see very targeted advertising, web sites, tv shows, musical genres, magazine genres and such all aimed at black, hispanic and other cultural and racial identities. We also see very targeted attempts, even in the world of commerce and economics to create a race-based approach to creating communities of wealth. Robert Johnson, the former head of BET (Black Entertainment Television) is now creating an entity called Urban Trust, which is a banking model aimed at the black community, attempting to concentrate growing black middle class money into black ventures, as well as taking into account a purely race-based view of how loans are given out, taking into account circumstances that may be different than broader white establishments are willing to consider.

Within the realm of politics, we have racially based organizations, even within Congress, like the Black Congressional Caucas, the Hispanic Caucas - and then outside the purely political arena, though attempting to influence it are long time organizations like the NAACP and CORE in the black community and ? in the Hispanic community. We also see both political parties putting more money and resources into trying to either maintain traditional bases within race-based portions of the electorate (the democrats) or attempting to make inroads into these portions of the electorate by reframing economic and cultural questions and questioning whether the current alignments are serving minority (race-based) voters (the republicans).

So, can we look at these trends in light of overall racial identity?

Plato famously divided the soul into three parts: reason, eros (desire) and thymos (the hunger for recognition). It is probably the third part of this equation, or thymotics, as one place to start looking at the question of identity in general and how it affects racial identity, whether that be minority race identity or the majority cultural identity. Recognition is a key human element.

Whether it be success or wealth, it can identify a person and their relationship to the world. We see in many arenas how this can contribute to racial identity, whether it be the trend towards violence in the sports arena, where it is too often perceived as a lack or respect or recognition
that leads to trash talking on the one hand and the identity associated with the merchandising of athletes on the other. This creates some interesting situations where we see semi-illiterate members of one race (white fans) glorifying members of another race (black and latino athletes) by wearing paraphenalia and cheering them on the field of battle while decrying the loss of jobs at home within their own narrowly race-based communities.

Unfortunately, you can also see this in the sub-cultures of gang, street and prison life, where race is everything and the separation of races leads to gang warfare and race-oriented associations like the Aryan Brotherhood, La Familia and other organizations.

This has also played itself out in the recent brouhaha over the purchase of port operations by an Arab owned company from Dubai. While attempting to portray ourselves as a homogenous society, open to all races, the xenophobic tendencies of the political arena called into question our recognition of the Arab race as capable of being responsible enough to work within our culture and society to protect it, thus creating a situation where a society supposedly blind to race (highly questionable) has made one race an example of untrustworthiness for inclusion into our broader society.

Culturally and societally this is playing itself out in many countries, from the racial and religious tensions between Muslims and secular society in France and other European countries to the response to Danish cartoons in the Muslim world, which is portraying Danes (and Europeans) as racist, as well as insulting to their religious beliefs.

It's playing out in Africa with the current situations in Darfur (Sudan) and Chad, where Arabs are supporting genocide on Black Muslim tribes because of the color of their skin, as well as in Zimbabwe where white farmers have been thrown off their land in favor of black farmers in the name of rectfying past colonial inequities.

All of this is to say that race wants to be recognized. The failure of some races to recognize others and to treat them with equal respect and dignity has been going on throughout history and we have not yet reached a place where race is blind or unimportant, despite some trends
generationally where we see increased interracial relationships and much more of a mixing of racial ideas and genres to create a broader context for the discussion of race. These are good and important trends, but they have not subsumed the need for racial recognition within various components of culture and society, whether it be white, black, asian, latin or arabic.

Race can be a positive aspect of cultural, societal and community life, and does seem to be very important within race-based communities. The question is, does this serve society or the broader global culture as well as it could. From all appearances, this seems to raise as many
questions for society as it answers, and we continue to struggle with it culturally all the more as races cross borders and attempt to assimilate themselves into more established (racially
societies, forcing them back into their own race-based communities and cultures when broader society is less than inclusive.

ok - so this is my argument and thinking.

I could probably make arguments for race being less important as well, but it would likely be narrower based on where I live and the culture of the Bay Area. There are a lot of things going on culturally in some areas where things like black music are being co-opted by white society and accepted (eg - the rap group that won the Academy Award for the song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp") and cross-over things in fashion where Snoop-Dog is dressing white teenagers and Tommy Hilfiger is dressing black teenagers. But overall, I think we still have issues with race
and that it tends to have more negative influence on society than positive at this point.

A *REAL* Agenda for Change?

Anyone remember the Contract With America that Gingrich and the Repubs took over Congress with in 1994?

What a colossal failure that cynicism turned out to be. Took only about a decade for the Republican-run Congress to turn its back on the American people and become even more arrogant and driven by the corruption of power and money than what they replaced in the Democrat-run Congress.

Just as a reminder of that nightmare, here's what they proposed - http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html

Now, along comes an article in The Nation by Robert L. Borosage that deconstructs that older contract and poses some ideas for a Democratic version. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/borosage

Some good ideas (and my comments are below), but is this a winning strategy for the Dems? Does anyone think they will have credibility to deliver on this with voters, especially after they've essentially spent the last five years mainly complaining and not offering much in the way of counter solutions that make sense to the Republicans. Is it just me-tooism?

The real question it seems to me is whether we can have an honest debate about the real role and limitations of government and whether what we need and want is competence more than grand visions that die in the stranglehold of partisanship. I actually do think we need some strong vision, but I worry that without some meat to it, that it's not credible, and the current administration and Congress have been so brutally incompetent and inept that the Democratic vision needs to be as much about competence and management of government as it does about grand vision.

One suggestion would be for the Democrats to commit, that if they retake the House and Senate in 2006, they will immediately change their leadership. Pelosi, Durban, Reid, et al, are so mired in the partisan politics of the last 12 years that they simply are not credible anymore. What a coup it would be for them to announce that they will relinquish their leadership posts in the interests of the country and common ground and will open the leadership of both houses to a new vote from both parties on who should lead and set up some criteria for that leadership with regards to working together on the issues of the American people and a grounding in good management skills.

Here's what Borosage has put forth (with my comments in parentheses):

§ Crack Down on Corruption: In contrast to conservative cronyism, shut the revolving door between corporate lobbies and high office. Prohibit legislators, their senior aides and executive branch political appointees from lobbying for two years after leaving office. Require detailed public reporting of all contacts between lobbyists and legislators. Pledge to apply this to all, regardless of party. Take the big money out of politics by pushing for clean elections legislation.

(This seems really obvious and not even bold enough. The Democrats should make a firm commitment to legislation that addresses the worst of the lobbying scandals, makes a promise to funnel money donated to political campaigns to local campaigns only and takes the money out of legislative influence once and for all)

§ Make America Safe: Commit to an independent investigation of the Department of Homeland Security's failures in response to Katrina. Detail action on the urgent needs that this Administration has ignored: Improve port security, bolster first responders and public health capacity, and require adequate defense planning by high-risk chemical plants. End the pork-barrel squandering of security funds.

(And, what is the role of the military and civil defense functions - building bigger and more powerful weaponry, or defending the country? I never see much in the mainstream media questioning the entire structure of the military and the defense budget and where all that money really goes. Not to troops and body armor apparently.)

§ Unleash New Energy for America: In contrast to the Big Oil policies of the Administration that leave us more dependent on foreign supplies, pledge to launch a concerted drive for energy independence like the one called for by the Apollo Alliance. Create new jobs by investing in efficiency and alternative energy sources, helping America capture the growing green industries of the future.

(This one is critical. What's missing is the boldness to step up and call for national sacrifice around this issue, like increased gas taxes and mileage standards, to not only address energy for America, but for the entire planet. We need some kind of multilateral plan, with countries like Russia, China and India to address long-term global energy needs.)

§ Rebuild America First: Rescind Bush's tax cuts for the rich and corporations, which create more jobs in China than here, and use that money to put people to work building the infrastructure vital to a high-wage economy. Start with challenging the Administration's trickle-down plans for the Gulf Coast, which will victimize once more those who suffered the most.

(There is always talk about how we need to retrain the workforce because of outsourcing and globalization. Yes, but if you're over 40 and your job just got outsourced, likely you need another job, not to go back to school. A solid plan for education aimed at the economy and jobs sector that will keep America competitive combined with an infrastructure program would make this even more compelling.)

§ Make Work Pay: In contrast to the Bush economy, in which profits and CEO salaries soar while workers' wages stagnate and jobs grow insecure, put government on the side of workers. Raise the minimum wage. Empower workers to join unions by allowing card-check enrollment. Pay the prevailing wage in government contracts. Stop subsidizing the export of jobs abroad.

(This is all well and good, but only if unions actually bring themselves into the 21st century and lose their outmoded thinking about the relationship between jobs, job security and disincentivizing actual job creation and entrepeunership. Sorry, I'm not a big fan of unions, but I do think we need a better balance of pay in this country.)

§ Make Healthcare Affordable for All: Pledge to fix America's broken healthcare system, with the goal of moving to universal, affordable healthcare by 2015. Start by reversing the Republican sellout to the pharmaceutical industry by empowering Medicare to bargain down costs and by allowing people to purchase drugs from safe outlets abroad.

(Universal, single payer healthcare. It's the only thing that makes sense and it still amazes me that corporate America hasn't lined up behind it as it's likely the only thing that will actually alleviate their pain on healthcare costs and keep them competitive with emerging economies.)

§ Protect Retirement Security: In contrast to Bush's plan to dismantle Social Security, pledge to strengthen it and to require companies to treat the shop floor like the top floor when it comes to pensions and healthcare.

(It works. Give it the resources and commitment it needs for the long term and stop messing with it.)

§ Keep the Promise of Opportunity: Instead of Republican plans to cut eligibility for college grants and to limit loans, offer a contract to American students: If they graduate from high school, they will be able to afford the college or higher technical training they have earned. Pay for this by preserving the tax on the wealthiest multimillion-dollar estates in America.

(And, while we're at it, let's educate and pay teachers what they are actually worth and what they contribute to society, as opposed to overpaid eg-driven entertainers and sports figures.)

§ Refocus on Real Security for America: In contrast with Bush's pledge to stay in Iraq indefinitely, sapping our military and breeding terrorists, put forth a firm timeline for removing the troops from Iraq. Use the money saved to invest in security at home. Lead an aggressive international alliance to track down stateless terrorists, to get loose nukes under control and to fight nuclear proliferation.

(Amen.)

Comment on this post and let's get a dialogue going about how we make effective changes.

updates and such - and a note from Noel

ok, it's been a few days, I know. I think I'm still recovering from a bit of a blowout weekend celebrating my birthday and Karen Zukor's brother Abe's 60th birthday here in SF. Really fun weekend, with two, very rich and fattening dinners, which put a serious crimp in my weight-loss program - but what the hell, you only live once and you have to enjoy what you can, right?

then, I was offline all day yesterday because I had to go to Seattle for the day for work, but was able to sneak in lunch with Gracia before she had to go off to her cultural theory class at school.

Happy to say I got a note from Noel:

"Hello everyone from the Chicago outpost.

Hats off to Paul for getting this started. On the subject of fast-forward growing up, still getting used to the idea that my daughter Calla is about to finish her first year at NYU. Graham's high school just produced a short play of his, an intense little anti-Iraq war number. LeAnne (my wife) is implementing her web-based literacy training program in about a dozen schools in Chicago this spring. If only she had the patent.

High point for me since Abbee's wedding, when I got to see so many of you, and dance with a few of you, was my trip to China in October and November with a group of alumni from U. of Chicago. Amazing place where the ancient past is driving the future. China's full power has yet to be unleashed and the world will change when it is.

Those are the headlines. Backstory is this stage of life steering kids into adulthood, caring for parents with growing needs, searching for gems in days that are too short, meeting-crammed, ending with too many unchecked to-dos and still trying to some right in the world. Staying in touch on this blog is a gem.

Birthdays and anniversaries:

Calla October 3, 1986
Graham March 29, 1989 (yes, Mimie's birthday)
LeAnne September 6, 1954
me December 18 1952
our anniversary August 24, 1985

That's all for now. Hope to see postings from more of you soon."

Ok - more coming soon on all fronts.

They're Growing Up Too Fast

For those of you that have never met them, here are my two fantastically beautiful and wonderful granddaughters - Hailey on the left and Kelsey on the right.

Seems like just yesterday that I was on the floor with them playing and throwing them around and now here they are - teen and pre-teen hip with their own ipod nanos and cell phones (Kelsey anyway).

I love watching them grow up, but does it have to be so fast?

Send pictures everyone and I will post them for everyone in the family to see.

Important Family News

I've just learned that Gregory and Anne and family have migrated from Paris to Seattle in February. They are now much closer to all of us and we hope to see them soon.

Salinger Birthdays and Anniversaries

I'd love to be able to post some more relevant Salinger family information and news on this blog site. I know I've been using it primarily for my own rantings and reflections, so I apologize if I am offending anyone - but I intend to continue that as well.

I've asked my father to help me gather all the data, but I'll get it started here and if anyone is reading and wants to send me information - let's start with birthdays and wedding or significant anniversaries, then I can post them and we can all have some key dates to keep in touch around.

Birthdays:
Paul Salinger - March 11
George Salinger - June 2
Yvonne Salinger - February 3
David Salinger - December 20
Karen Salinger - February 6
Michael Salinger - June 20
Gracia Jarvis (Paul's daughter) - August 29
Kelsey Jarvis (granddaughter) - March 1
Hailey Jarvis (granddaughter) - June 16
Laura Parker (Karen's significant) - February 2
Karen Zukor (Paul's significant) - August 18
Jo Jewell (Dave's wife) - August 8
Olivia Salinger (Dave and Jo's daughter) - October 5
Joanne Salinger (Michael's wife) - January 15
Kevin Salinger (Michael and Joanne's son) - July 4
Katherine Salinger (Michael and Joanne's daughter) - December 8
Stephen Salinger - September 3
Tanya Salinger - February 2
Sasha Salinger - February 7
Gregory Salinger - March 25
Anne Salinger - July 14 (how perfect is that - Bastille Day!)
David Salinger (Gregory and Anne's son) - May 15
Valentine Salinger (also Gregory and Anne's) - February 12
Josh and Justin Salinger - November 16
Herbert Salinger - May 26
Tary Salinger - January 9
Janie Salinger (Tary's wife) - March 15
Erik Salinger (Tary's son) - July 3
Jenn Strunk (Tary and Janie) - September 5
Chris Strunk (Tary and Janie) - April 6
Rudin (Richard) Salinger - January 4
Noel Salinger - December 18
LeAnne Salinger (Noel's wife) - September 6
Calla Salinger (Noel and LeAnne's daughter) - October 3
Graham Salinger (Noel and LeAnne's son) - March 29 (Yes - Mimie's Birthday!)
Ross Salinger - October 14
Marilyn Salinger (Ross's wife) - November 28
Dylan Salinger (Ross and Marilyn's son) - June 17
Miranda Salinger (Ross and Marilyn's daughter) - April 24
Darcy Salinger - August 31
Eduardo (Darcy's husband) - April 15 (May 15 on Dominican birth certificate)
Jose (Darcy and Eduardo's son) - October 5
Paloma (Darcy and Eduardo's daughter) - September 27
Anna Gregg (Salinger) - August 21
William Gregg (Anna's husband) - June 27
Patton Gregg (Anna and Bill's son) - December 27
Maude Salinger - September 20
Mark Chapman (Maude's husband) - February 27
Zachary Salinger Chapman (Maude and Mark's son) - August 29

ANNIVERSARIES:
Stephen and Tanya - May 5
Gregory and Anne - October 7
Karen and Laura - February 20
Dave and Jo - March 18
Tary and Janie - November 5
George and Yvonne - July 23 (1st marriage), June 6 (2nd marriage)
Noel and LeAnne - August 24
Ross and Marilyn - June 10
Darcy and Eduardo - November 7
Anna and Bill - May 30
Maude and Mark - August 23

I need the rest and I need any anniversary information.

I really would like this to be a repository of information and a communication vehicle for family news, stories, information, communications, reflections, etc., so please contribute if you can.

As a reminder, you can comment on any posting by clicking on the comments link at the end of postings, or you can send me emails or word documents and ask me to post them as a post on the main page.

A Conflicted Baseball Fan - From David Salinger

Baseball is a part of my DNA. I’ve been surrounded by the sights and sounds of the game for my entire life. My Dad’s love of the game made it impossible to avoid, and the game itself gradually took me into its magical grip.

I attended my first Giants game at Seals Stadium in 1960 (at least that’s my best guess from my memory) and was thrilled. It was unforgettable and followed by hundreds of other trips to ballgames over the next 45 years. Baseball was much more though than actually going to games. It was listening to the radio into the wee hours on the transistor radio in bed, often falling asleep to the sound of my favorite announcers. Every day first thing in the morning, the Sporting Green would be laid out and the boxscores poured over, as statistics are the musical notes of the game. It was Paul and I playing our favorite game, Strikeout, daily, and actually pretending to be every single player on the team as we batted our way through the lineups.

It’s no different now in terms of the passion. The transistor has been replaced by television and the internet and Seals Stadium is now PacBell, SBC, AT&T or whatever corporate merger of the day demands. But the game itself remains pure.

The conflict is in the ever increasing evidence and certainty that the participants in the game are considerably less pure than the game itself. Yesterday’s news of the forthcoming book outlining extensive steroids use by Barry Bonds was hard to ignore. For the last couple of years, it’s been an ongoing distraction. As a lifelong Giants fan, it has been easy to make excuses and turn a deaf ear to the rumors. Clearly most to the national media dislikes Barry for many good reasons and it’s been pretty easy to discount the stories and simply applaud the latest amazing feat from a really great player.

I like to think that I’m reasonably intelligent and given that, it’s impossible to deny what’s being written. I don’t like it, I don’t like any of the implications. Those implications are many. Did Barry break the home run record using illegal substances? Did he gain an unfair advantage? Did he do it because, “hey, everyone else is, including the pitchers I’m facing”. How have drugs in general affected the game? Is this a much bigger issue than Barry Bonds? How many others did the same thing? Does it really matter? What does baseball do now regarding records and such? Is it all just about money? All compelling questions.

Like I do every Spring, I’m getting excited about the coming season. I love to read the reports from Spring training, speculate on how the team might fare. Wonder if the pitching will be better, if we can beat the Dodgers, if that World Series victory I’ve been waiting for since 1960 will finally happen this year.

On opening day, if Barry Bonds hits a game winning home run, I expect I’ll be out of my seat cheering again, because after all is said and done, for me, it’s really about the love of the game and rooting for the home team. I am in truth, just a fan of Baseball and even though the players that come and go, are doing so with less than stellar credentials, I want nothing more than a simple…..PLAY BALL.

Even The Right Thinks Bush Is Wrong

I love that even conservative commentators are now slamming Bush and his policies.

http://bartlett.blogs.nytimes.com/?hp

Bruce Bartlett, who wrote a book called - "Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy," is now doing op-eds in the NY Times lambasting and calling into question Bush's economic and other policies.

More and more each day I see this kind of questioning, not to mention the questionability of whether Bush can even claim legitimately to be leading in his so-called "war on terror", or "global war on terror", or "the long war", or whatever other 1984ish moniker they've chosen today.

Not paying attention to port security (Dubai Ports World or not), giving nukes to India (Iran, Pakistan and any others aside), a Homeland Security Department that continues to be completely dysfunctional - this doesn't seem like leadership or strength to me. It seems like foolhardiness. Is there an actual plan here, or just more and more fear-mongering to make us all forget that with tax cuts for the wealthy and deficit spending they're selling the country to the highest bidder and American taxpayers and workers be damned?

The big question continues to be whether the Democrats can come up with any kind of forward looking plan and leadership on the issues and actually get enough people elected to make any difference here in the remaining two years of the Bush administration (since it looks like there's no stomach for impeaching the guy who has lied way more than Clinton ever did).

Where's the debate about what functions of government are actually worth investing in and the proper use of taxpayer dollars (hint - it's not earmarks for your favorite pork project)?

The outrage continues. Now we need some ideas.

A "Dodes-Ka-Den" Moment

DODES' KA DEN. A young boy, Rokkuchan, stands in a shop doorway--the windows behind him reflect the passing trolley. He smiles. He goes inside and joins in Buddhist prayers with his mother. Everywhere on the walls are children's paintings of trolleys. His mother seems uncomfortable in his presence, sad. HE leaves the room, and then he pantomimes dressing himself in a uniform and goes outside. He stands in a pit filled with what seems to be garbage and junk.

Outside the little boy, Rokkuchan, pretends to ready his "trolley car," and then he climbs on board. All the sound effects are realistic. He starts out--great point of view shot--he repeats "Dodes' ka Den," as he walks--the sound of the trolley wheels going across the tracks. Kids throw rocks at him as he passes by. They call him the crazy trolley kid. As he moves along a straight path, it is clear from the surroundings that this is a shanty town in the garbage dump. He parks his trolley and the ride is over.

I was in Tokyo this past week for an event and was staying just next to Tokyo Station, the main train station in town. Each day as I walked under the train tracks to the International Forum, where the event was, I heard the sound of the train wheels running over the tracks and all I could think of was this compelling little Kurosawa movie from 1970 and the image of the little boy, dressed as a conductor running down the train tracks repeating over and over, Dodes Ka'Den, Dodes Ka'Den. (It really does sound just like that when you listen to the train going over the tracks).

There is a certain kind of efficiency mixed with isolation, not only in the story, but in the way that Japan appears to me. Even with so many people there is a kind of loneliness, not the loneliness of a foreigner portrayed in "Lost in Translation" (that's there too), but a feeling of being lost that sometimes creeps into the eyes of people I see in the streets, at their jobs, just going about the daily business of being.

There is that cultural stigma of "face" or "shame" that is to be avoided - of creating jobs for people for the sake of making it appear that there is no one left behind. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it creates some odd situations where you might have six young men, all dressed alike, standing behind a table, handing out something, and realize that this could have just as easily been done by one person. It's in those situations, as you sit and watch this for a short time that you start to see the feeling of loneliness that is engendered.

It may be one reason why the Japanese are so good at creating fantasy lives, fantasy games and why media plays such a huge role in the street scenes of Tokyo, with huge video walls and incessant lights flashing. It's a way to escape the drudgery and feel the electrons of the city pulsing.

I love going to Tokyo. It never fails to fascinate me. It also never fails to depress me in some ways - seeing the culture being subsumed by this kind of post-modern world where it is all about bigness and brightness and very little about humanity. At least, that was how I felt this week.

Kelsey Turns 15

My grandaughter, Kelsey Jarvis turned 15 on March 1.

I'm in Japan this week, but was still able to talk to Kelsey and wish her a happy birthday.

Wow, 15!! It seems like not all that long ago that I was 15. Some days I act like I'm 15. And now to have a grandaughter that age. Hard to believe.

More about Japan next time.

From George Salinger:

Can you even begin to imagine how it feels to tell our friends that we have a fifteen year old great granddaughter?  Yesterday, Kelsey, our oldest great
granddaughter turned fifteen.  We spoke with her and it was a wonderful conversation.  In speaking with her Mom, our granddaughter, Gracia she said,
"Nobody believes that I have a fifteen year old daughter."  I told her that
we experience the same sort of thing and that our reply is, "Well, that's
what happens when you get married when you are six."

Seriously, it is such a gift to have lived a life to have great
grandchildren and feel as tough you can relate to them in their
conversations with you.  Gracia was so thrilled with her new arrangement of
being able to go full time to school and is looking forward to graduating in
2007.  We told her that was an event we wouldn't want to miss.  Her studies
in interior design are challenging, but she is getting good grades and
working hard.

We urge any of the Salingers who have not weighed in on Paul's blog to join
in and share whatever they choose to share.  Its always good to hear family
news, but all comments I am sure are welcome.