Europe, In Reflection

I've been home for a week now, sorry for not posting, I've been real busy getting back into the swing of things but before I go out for the day I just wanted to make a quick post about my social independent study I've been doing!

In all my tavels from the UK and Australia and now some of Europe, I can't help but feel that we, as Americans, certainly need a lot of help when it comes to social living.

It was so nice in Germany. Like in Munchen for example...in the square where the market is, they have these long benches sitting there. You get your beer (Mmmm German beer!) and sit down at a bench right next to strangers on either side of you and just start gabbing away.

What do we do here? The complete opposite. We have our little invisible space around us and do our best not to let people in. When we go to the movies we make sure we leave atleast one seat open between us and the person next to you. We are constantly on our cell phones so we don't have to talk or interact with strangers. Hell, I remember one of the first things we are taught when we are young is "Don't talk to strangers." Why the hell not? My life has been so much more interesting since I've started talking with strangers!!!

And the old people....They live! Old people in their seventies are riding bikes at night time. Those that have canes are walking too. Some even had two canes. Double barrel cane-age and they are still out walking. And smoking. Smoking and walking with 2 canes!!! They manage just fine!

Old people in America? What do they do? Get a handicap card for their car just because they are old. They drive to their pharmacy to get their pills (because we all need pills...every television commercial tells us so. Feeling depressed? Take a pill. Can't get it up? Take a pill. Feeling depressed because you can't get it up? Take another pill!) and then go home and wait to die.

We are raised to believe that we are such a free country and that we are ahead of the times. (Laughable since our dck of a president wants to add bigotry into the constitution to ban same sex marriage).

I remember this one resturant in Prague, where they had something in Czech written on the wall. The words were written around a drawing of a naked woman with the "O" being her vagina. Such a silly sign but I thought "Wow, that could never happen back home". Some American idiot would sue the restaurant and shut them down claiming it tramatized their kid.

Yet its perfectly okay to sit down and they watch all this violent programming on tv with their children. So fucked up. If I had a kid, I'd much rather have him/her see a naked body on television that someone getting their head blown up and murder after murder.

So they are my two cents on how our society basically sucks. :) Please comment and lets all start a conversation on it.

An the trip note, it was fabulous. You all read the posts I made when I was there. Great time but ya know, I came back realizing that I love L.A. Yeah, it's a good life...