Something to do with Ithaca, NY
Last weekend, Tessa and I drove down to upstate New York to go and see our friend K, who has recently started a PhD program at Cornell University. The three of us don't live in the same city anymore so spending time together really brought back memories of our not-so-distant undergraduate life where we would go on inter-provincial road trips pretty regularly. If you are a person who also spends a lot of time driving, you will know that the single most important impact on your sanity is the quality of your travel partner.
Of course, Tessa belongs to the highest tier of quality level. I particularly enjoy that we can talk about things ranging from her ongoing list of creative projects, to the decay of the capitalist internet, to the Wicked movieâs weepy press tour. It should be known though that the most important quality, above all others, in a travel partner is the ability to sit in silence and think in a parallel space without feeling any need to fill that void. Itâs important to do a lot of thinking in a vehicle. The highways in North America can be empty and in the winter, everything is a shade of white or gray. When the visual landscape isnât inherently interesting, you must turn inward for stimulation. Driving to Ithaca all in all was quite painless, minus a small snow squall with low visibility and of course, an international border.
I often get new people in my life (people who have yet to get to know me) who ask me why I care about American politics as a Canadian. Other than the fact that I'm just a giant nerd, there's more reasons than that too. Upstate New York doesnât look very different from where I grew up - no different at all, actually. If I didnât have to speak to a border services agent there would be no visual indication of having driven into another country. America is palpable to me, to ignore its politics would be like trying to ignore the bottom half of my body.
There is something emotional about my reasoning that goes beyond the geographic similarities. At my core I am truly endeared to America and its inhabitants. The promise of contentment, the sheer blind optimism of the people who live there. Convenience. Bucâees and Trader Joes. The very Canadian ideal of a brotherhood, my country and theirs, two "shining pillars" (lol) of Western democracy spread out across an impossibly large landscape. The idea is beautiful and hopelessly romantic until you realize it is completely one-sided and borderline parasocial, founded on Canadaâs importation of American media and the bygone years of respectable diplomatic relationships. Any of my illusions that remained about our countries' connection were quickly destroyed upon arrival to Ithaca, where I found myself in conversation with Ivy League graduates now pursuing Ivy League PhDs.
If Americaâs brightest donât know anything about Canada, then forget brotherhood, it seems more like Canada is Americaâs aging, yet still struggling old dog. They wonât hurt us, but theyâre certainly unsure what to do with us. I thank those students last weekend for reminding me of the realities of our countryâs shared relationship. I donât think theyâll ever see this, but at the very least I hope that if theyâre ever at a trivia night, they will be able to correctly answer that the capital of Canada is Ottawa, because of our conversation that weekend.
So thereâs Americans in America. If thereâs anything Iâve learned about this behemoth of a country itâs that every region believes itself to be radically different. God forbid you compare a New England college town to rural West Virginia or to Montana or to San Antonio. So perhaps I owe it to Ithaca to tell you a bit about what it means to be in Ithaca. If youâve never been - Ithaca is located at a junction between many falls, lakes and gorges. Our friend K was quick to point out the local tourism slogan âITHACA IS GORGESâ, emblazoned on many pieces of merchandise at every store across town. Certainly one of the better tourism slogans (miles ahead of Barrie, Ontario, so bad Iâll remember forever, simply âWELL PLAYEDâ). The natural beauty of this place is its greatest feature. The water is calming to look at. There are literally babbling brooks. Nature is convenient here - a luxury for so many places in the world, but here it almost gets old after a while. The built up town is also quite pleasant and despite it being a gray winter weekend with no sun, it was not overly depressing. The university is absolutely the heart of the town, which immediately prompts one to ask the existential question- âwould any of us be here if not for Cornellâ?
For me, obviously the answer is No. But for everyone else here? What does it do to a town where so much of it is tied to an institution? On one hand, you get progressive values. Young people and knowledge sharing and creation, idealism. On the other, a reminder that all your lifeâs research needs to be based on what your donors want to fund. A transient population. Few who believe in the town as a âforeverâ home. In all though, we encountered only very kind people. It was a place to converse and to be surrounded by young people studying their little hearts out.
I love a college town. Theyâre all a little bit strange. This one is particularly great because a dear friend of mine lives there. So if you ever find yourself in Ithaca, I would recommend it. If someone you love is there, theyâll be alright.
K showed us a wonderful time and thus I have many good highlights to mention. The (closed) Dairy Bar (fake cow statues are always great), the Odyssey Bookstore (we made so many Odysseus and Ithaca jokes in the car so we had to go), the Moosewood restaurant (truly beautiful), Leftist coffee (really) at Gimme Coffee, and a Krampus party filled with large horns and leather harnesses where they gave me a bar stamp that still hasnât come off my hand as I write this. Wegmanâs grocery store with the model trains. Most importantly, all those good Cornellians. Itâs not every day you find yourself eating homemade tacos on a couch with 20 people and then getting kicked out of a bar within about a 90 minute time span. Ithaca, I will see you again.
Special thanks to K, Tessa, Dad (for loaning me a vehicle), American Border Man (unnamed, for not giving me a hard time when I dropped my passport out my window), Kâs awesome roommates for tolerating us, whoever cleaned up the house (we woke up in the morning and it was spotless. who WERE you?), Kâs friendsâ friendsâ friendsâ, the uber eats guy.
It's night time here. I hope it's nice wherever you might be. Feel free to hit the arrow looking thing if you liked this post :)
love and hugs, sam
fyi: trying to kill my perfectionist tendencies by writing things without really proofreading... sometimes it's just about writing something and posting it instead of re-reading it 100 times and never putting it out!! more unedited writing coming soon...