Orlando

I moved here years ago and as a tourist who became a resident, I have a pretty common vantagepoint from which to vew The City Beautiful.  It seems like everyone here is from somewhere else.  But of course, there is a dichotomy that separates those of us who haven't been here that long and thos old-timers who remember pre-Disney days.

Disney is the dividing point in our local history.



The excitement of Disney World coming to Florida is one of the first things I remember outside of my family. As my brain fills with information from living life, and dong what we do, I look back and try to remember things pre-kindergarten.  Leaving the home and heading off to Pixie Private School, I made my first forays  out of the nest.  I remember many things about our home, but they don't have markers with them.  I have no idea when it was that I climbed up on my Father's lap and he decided I was too old for that.  Was that before kindergarten?  I don't know when my cousin woke up terrified in the middle of the night during a sleepover and couldn't find her bearings for a few minutes.  Was that after kindergarten?

But there are certain markers that connect my memories to the outside world, and the anticipation of Disney World opening is one.

I remember being told as a class that it was 1972 and Nixon was president.

I remember waking up from dream promptings to watch Saturday cartoons and the day we were jumping in the car and heading off to Disney World for the first time.  Those connections to the outside world were so strong for me that they invaded my sleep and I would tell myself to wake up and get on with the day because they weren't just ordinary days and it was time to get moving.


After Orlando has made the news a few days in the row, I search for connections.  We have two gun activities right after one another, and now we have a Disney tragedy too.  So what are the connections there?

YouTube provides many answers that are all interesting.  But I know that just because I can connect them, it doesn't mean the events are connected.  It's fascinating.  And it's one big jumble of confused words.  It's a Babel.  There are guns used all the time.  And some make the news.  Some of those are picked up and spread more than others.  They're telling us what they want us to know.  And there are a few reasons why the outside media wants us to know certain things.

I'm listening to people combine their thoughts about each topic and miss the facts and coalesce their feelings around ideas that they already believe.  They're pointing out the connections between guns and groups or guns and individuals.  They already think something and they're hanging bits and pieces of facts upon that framework.  I suppose there are times when people switch frameworks but for the most part the paradigm is already there and lo and behold, we find the facts that support our position.

Yesterday I'm teaching a physics simulator to kids and I mention that they can test a hyposthesis here without a mess.  We can do many things in a simulator instantly and without cost, since it is a computer program, and that could free us up to make many hypotheses and test them quickly, as opposed to building a laboratory or a factory, etc.  But what do we want to do?  We want to play with the bright colors and create designs that have no value other than artistic play- which is a great thing- and create games.

In a game, we accept the way the rules are, if we want to play.  Or, if we don't accept the rules, we move on to another game.  But where does the pleasure come from?  It's learning about the environment.  If we're learning, we're happy.  If we're finding that world incomprehensible, it loses its lustre and we move on to a more comprehensible world.

So it helps some people to think that shootings of people in Florida are connected.  And it rings true for some people that all death here is part of a larger conspiracy.  Watching YouTube videos about celebrity, I wonder if there are any deaths of celebrities that no one interprets as symbolic.  After all, the mortality rate of celebrities is pretty close to that of all of us.  It's hovering very nearly at one hundred percent and I don't think there are many signs that it is going to change any time soon.

What I hear about in Orlando, without watching television, is probably a small portion of the things they're telling us.  There are the Invictus Games with their slogan of "I AM" and the involvement of some big time players but only two were greatly advertised.  And then there was the death of Jan Crouch which was really a big ending of a big big enterprise, or at least a great transition for an important organization.  And then there are the two shootings that are deemed more worthy of coverage than all the other shootings that happen around the world, and then there is the alligator.  Boy he was discovered in a very propitious spot.  He wasn't in the very heart of the Kingdom, but it was a significant place- maybe some other major organ.  And then Disney opens their biggest park.

Back to normal, are we?

When we heard about Obama coming to Orlando, I only discuseed it with three people.  And two of them were like me- extremely nervous.  I suppose we've been conditioned to see the patterns and to make our own.  I don't remember Dallas, but I do remember mis-interpreting the times.  I didn't think an Obama would be elected unless it was spelled O'Bama.  I also thought the man would be in danger.  And I suppose every politician is.  The politician in Britain was killed- yesterday?  Was that yesterday?  The details fade but the pattern into which I place the selected facts hangsthere strongly.  It made me nervous that the Vice came with him.  After all, if Biden is actually really Trump as well, then who is going to deflect us from having no choice but to elect her if they are taken out?

I thought the Veep and the POTUS were kept apart most of the time.  But where have I heard that?

O Orlando, what a great word.  The Italian and the orange connections, the Dixie invaded theme, the tourism before Disney and after.. you're an interesting iidea.  And I suppose that's where I live; in an idea- which is different than the actual place.

THe more you get to know a place the more normal and weirder it becomes.