The Dave Chapelle quasi-performance from Portland last week is a great example of how people fail to appreciate the effect they have on others. My grandfather lived 80 years before he discovered other people cared about him, that they even liked him. And that was with 20 years of politics behind him, too!
Peace Corps volunteers go up and down with this. The sense of isolation that lasts for more than a year, or sometimes the entire two years. At least it's easier in the Internet age, but last year I sometimes only got on 2 days a month access. And that doesn't mean I didnt' try more often than that, riding on a dumptruck platform for 2 hours to get to Tarabuco and see if they have working internet that day.
They say you're never as famous as when you're in Peace Corps. And I believe it. I suppose that isolation alongside (or caused by?) the fame is the take-away lesson from Michael Jackson's press coverage of his death this month. And that you need to
I like to think of the people I know, in a horizontal fashion. What I mean by that is not what you might think. Instead, it's thinking something along these lines: If you go enough in one direction, you'll find the person you're looking for. You hear about things like the war in the Congo, in Darfur. Peace Corps volunteers in Morocco already. Friends in adjacent states. Girlfriends in Italy. It's easy to think of them without trying to imagine their world, as it is right now. In other words, it's easy to turn off your hearing after a few dozen yards around you, and that's the world you inhabit. But all of that stuff is happening concurrently. To me, it is comforting (sometimes shocking and depressing) to think in those terms instead of looking at other people as bit characters in the play of your life, drifting in and out, and otherwise vanishing from existence.
Would I like it if a person fails to acknowledge my existence every time I move away from earshot? Out of sight, out of mind? It's nice to see something like this video, where Dave seems really shocked that ten times as many people came as he believed would show up, with no advance notice at all. The article below, from the HuffPost, mentioned how it was through text messages that everyone spontaneously showed up once the others realized that Chapelle would be there. And, when I was in New York with Demetrius and Wilson, isn't that exactly what happened? Sitting with Will when he got that text message from Dee, and then twenty minutes later we were buying tickets to a comedy club where Dave performed for 6-7 hours nonstop?
Dave Chappelle at Pioneer Square
AP: PORTLAND, Ore. — Thousands of people who learned through text message, Twitter and word-of-mouth that comedian Dave Chappelle would hold a free show filled a downtown Portland square late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Chappelle arrived at about 1 a.m. to a surge of camera phone-wielding fans. There was only problem – a small amplifier left the comic inaudible to most.
It's not clear why Chappelle was in Portland, and what led him to Pioneer Courthouse Square.
"I'm not here for money," he told the crowd.
Chappelle is best known for his sketch-comedy program that ran on Comedy Central. In May 2005, he walked away from a $50 million deal to continue the popular show.
Most people went to the square at the last minute, after receiving a text or other communication. Chappelle, who had no security or entourage, said he expected 200 people to gather – not the thousands that stood shoulder-to-shoulder.
Chappelle at one point announced that someone was going to retrieve a better sound system, and would return in 20 minutes. When the man came back, spectators fed power cords to the edges of the square to plug them in. But apparently there was no power.
Though the show fizzled, the mood remained festive and there were no arrests. Chappelle left the square shortly after 2 a.m.
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