i played in a riot last night.
you could probably say some negative things about it: destruction and violence are not the most appropriate ways to celebrate. but even though the results may not all have been entirely positive, you can't deny how amazing it is to be surrounded by that much happy.
thousands of people swarmed the streets, a sea of people so broad i couldn't see the other side. and i found myself more than once in the middle of it, people, people cheering and screaming and smiling and laughing and drinking and climbing and breaking and burning and loving. and to whatever ends that energy goes, it is fantastic, phantasmal, and i love every minute of it. (until it starts getting scary and the police on their horses push kids into walls and the embers from the bonfire are burning my clothes and the man who thinks i'm a dude who just tried some shit with his girlfriend grabs me by the collar and i'm convinced he's going to punch me in the face so i kick him as hard as i can and run, as much as one can run when one has a friend in either hand and a sea of people so dense and viscous the fluid friction is almost too great to overcome. but even those moments i love, because this is humanity--these are people--my people--and they are Real and Living and Alive.)
(i could rant about police behavior and whether the methods they choose to address this kind of celebration are appropriate, but i don't feel like it right now.)
No comments:
Post a Comment