If You Want it to Be

On Saturday I saturated myself in the intellectual offerings of the city. After spending the mourning preparing and sending off my recommendation forms for grad school applications, I visited the touring World Press Photo exhibit. The pictures were emotionally impacting to say the least—extended, painful documentation of Katrina, the earthquake in Kashmir, tsunami aftermath, African genocide, Lord, it was enough catharsis to last me a lifetime. If you just look at what’s wrong in this world…that’s where the John Hartford philosophy comes in. Yeah, life is extremely complicated. But it’s also really simple. Sometimes you need to channel yourself in different ways.

As I am writing a novel based on photos and rolls of film, I was interested in how and when documentation occurs. This is what I think is so interesting about photogs—they are putting their lives on the lines to be conduits of information. Can you imagine a photography exhibit all about photographers, cameras, flash meters, etc.? Now that would be bizarre.

To complete my double-dip into Prague’s cultural parlor, my roommate Tom and I went to the Prague Symphony’s live score to Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights.” I had never seen a full-length Chaplin movie, and I must say it was an amazing experience. The boxing scene is reason alone to see “City Lights,” and the ending was truly, truly beautiful.

Perhaps this dichotomy exists in all nooks of this world, proving the Hartford dichotomy, but is made all the more poignant in Prague—Friday night my school had an open bar for all the teachers, starting at five; on Saturday I soaked up all my mind could take. Both are there for us all the time, the bottle of booze or the book. And what’s the solution? What? I think I have it—put your hands together! Allllllllllllright.