Life in an Oklahoma Nutshell

Four hours ago, we got internet.
Four weeks ago, we were making the fifteen hour drive to Oklahoma.
Four months ago, we weren't sure where we'd be living.
Four years ago, we were staying up late and making out.

And here we are. Life moves fast.

List of Lessons Learned From a Month on the Road

-You can never pack too many pairs of underwear.
-Contradancing is like anything else; practice makes perfect.
-Drinking and eating out will make you gain weight. Just accept it.
-There's nothing more wonderful than visiting old friends and making the same old jokes.
-Gas is way cheaper than a plane ticket.
-95% of my and Bryan's friends were/are improvisers.
-Toilet paper can be rolled over or under.
-Make no leg of a road trip longer than five hours, and you'll be happy.
-You can never have too many mix cds.
-Eat the food that a region is known for; it doesn't get better than that.
-Plan to get very little sleep. Late night conversations/debates/jokes/dancing are the
gluesticks of friendship.
-Don't say goodbye. Say see you later. And mean it.

After having spent more than a month on the road, I can say both that I'm glad it is over and that I wish I was still visiting friends. It was the best summer I've ever had, and I would highly, highly, highly recommend you take the time to map out your own road trip to see your friends. They probably miss you, and I bet you'll have an amazing trip.

For the Love of Books and Reading

Everything today in which people are interested, the radio, the movies - all of these - should, if properly used, stimulate the use of books. For instance, if there is a remarkably good movie, like The Life of Pasteur, it seems to me that it should be used by people in our rural schools and rural libraries to create an interest in the life of Pasteur, the things that Pasteur did, the people around him, and all the discoveries that have come from that time on. I am sure that if we put our minds on it, there are a great many ways in which we can use the things which are coming constantly into the lives of people throughout the country to stimulate an interest in the oldest and most interesting recreation there is.

But you do have to learn to love books, you do have to learn how to read them, you do have to learn that a book is a companion...that we can have a good many people reading the same books and coming together for discussion. [Reading the same books can] stimulate intellectual thought.

...I feel that the care of libraries and the use of books, and the knowledge of books, is a tremendously vital thing, and that we who deal with books and who love books have a great opportunity to bring about something in this country which is more vital here than anywhere else...It will take on our part imagination and patience and constant interest in awkaening interest in other people. But, if we do, I think we shall find that our love of books will bring us a constantly widening audience and constantly more interesting contacts in whatever part of the country we may go.

Eleanor Roosevelt, 1936

Words from a 1995 Speech by Erica Jong

As I work to find the right speech for our Living Museum Day, I'm reading several passionate speeches about liberty and suffrage. This excerpt from an address by Erica Jong to the ACLU Biennial Conference in New York City struck me.

Interesting enough, calls for censorship always increase when the population is extremely diverse and different standards prevail. This is almost a given: When you have an elitist or traditional society in which everybody agrees about who gets access to stuff, you don't have calls for censorship...

And basically censorship, once it gets on the books, is always used in a way, to politically harass the dissenter. The reason I remain a First Amendment fundamentalist, is because I understand as a feminist, as a Jew, as a woman who has been battered for expressing herself freely in all her books, I understand the First Amendment protects the minority, protects the dissenter, protects the woman, protects the witch.

Basically, I understand that unless you have a government of laws, rather than a government of people, you can protect dissent. And I understand, as a woman who probably would have been burned in the marketplace for witchcraft only about 200 years ago, that I need the First Amendment more than anybody does. And that even if I am repelled by child pornography or Bob Guccione's productions, that I have to protect those things, because essentially it's in my self-interest to do so.

Oooooooooooooklahoma

We made it. We're home in Oklahoma. Finally.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

During our Magical Movery Tour of the East Coast, we visited almost every friend we have. We visited Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Carrboro, Greenville, Easley, Charleston, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Gainesville, Clemson, Indiana and Kentucky.

Along that trip, we asked our friends to give us advice for Oklahoma. Here it is.

Advice from Friends from Bryan and Alyssa on Vimeo.