Finding a Way

All blogs are self-indulgent. Apologies: this is a beyond self-indulgence, totally non-CS, non-whatever.

I celebrated the end of the week by subwaying down to Brighton Beach on friday for a Russian evening where I watched Tsygane (one of the many Russian gypsy, folk groups operating in NY) at the National club. I was distracted thinking about the gypsies and and other marginalized groups.

I am sure many of us can recall the quote "Life will find a way"; I tend to think in shorter time scales of generations, lifetimes of people: "People will find a way." Societies have pushed various ethnic/racial/social/sexual groups into corners, encased their stereotypes into "jokes", pushed them aside, or prosecuted them using some pseudologic or the other (that still persists) ; these groups have found themselves taking to the stage, performing, distorting themselves sometimes grotesquely, and ultimately they coexist with their prosecutors in this cloak of "entertainment".

Gypsies left India in the 11th century, gathered together the food, music, and the languages of Middle East, Europe and Northern Africa during their epic migration over the past 900 years and wear it like the patchwork of colors and sequins on their clothes; they are yet to find an unpromised land or time, or a debate that resolves, or a society that will pass the test.