Joan Juliet Buck, former editor of French Vogue, is now writing a column for House & Garden (not online, alas) on "the Slow Life" now that she's moved to Santa Fe. The article reads like one of those "living more simply" stories, how she got bored with her Manolos and traded them in for hiking boots, discovered the thrill of mountain climbing, etc. More fodder for disenchanted yuppies, annoying but believable. Until the end:
"It's been a month now that the Atalaya has been forbidden to us. The hiking boots are almost clean....Today we were getting a little bored here in the slow lane, so we went to dinner at El Nido in Tesuque at 6:30. We still wanted some excitement as we drove back into town. I remembered that a new Albertson's was opening at the de Vargas Mall. The parking lot was almost full. A banner over the door said 'Grand Opening.' We stepped eagerly toward it. We were trying to crash the opening of a supermarket. "
It's touching, in a way, when someone is so out of touch with the way most Americans live that they think it is a novelty. Driving to the suburbs? Visiting the mall? Crashing the supermarket opening? An Albertson's, for pete's sake?
And you wonder why the kids dream of moving to New York, or Paris, or anywhere?
And as they head out of town, away from their simplifying elders, they are all breathing one prayer: "Please, please, don't let me turn into that."
If a man can live without the polis, he is either a god or an animal--Aristotle
You might cast your eye on your own sardonic tone. Give her a break. Doesn't it equally speak of the lack of a enlivened Cultural horizon in the polises--Cities where fullfillment should take place that she left...the very places you suggest the young from the suburbs to flee to? coming from such a wasteland of Abertson openings what will they have to offer that this woman didn't and ultimately found stale--mixing no doubt from your bio of her with the up and commers and the literate so ultimately what is to be found there.
Truly, she was just finding out the need to connect (niether god nor beast) is fullfilling and a requirement in any form of society. One extreme, the outdoor life or the poor void of today's cities cultural scene with it's values of the Bougoise and materilism as the other both fail to meet Aristotle's requeirement to be involved in the Polis after tending to the Family Estate prudently. Give her time and let her develop herself from these relizations of the need for both into a better citizen and contribute more for it.
who will turn them into NOT THAT BUT THE ELDERS? THE ONES WHO LEARN AND TEACH THE YOUNG. YOUR HOPE IS MISPLACED IN THOSE DRIVEN RECKLESSLY AWAY AND AT THE SAME TIME TOGETHER INTO THE ALREADY PRESENT NIHILISM THE MUSIC OF THIS GENERATION MOANS TO EACH OTHER.
Posted by: Toby Helm on March 31, 2004 09:59 AM