Mad about Madison
For the past couple of weeks, I've been holed up in the Badger sett known as Madison, WI.
Of course, I haven't seen — nor felt — the famous winter, but this seems to me a perfectly wonderful little city.
I get stopped on the street when I'm wearing an "Impeach" or "Draft Gore" t-shirt (both by way of the Tennessee Guerilla Women store) by smart, friendly progressives who strike up stimulating conversation.
In my south-of-Boston stomping grounds, congenial though they are in most respects, I don't always feel that welcome as an out-in-the-open progressive heathen.
Yes, there is the People's Republic of Cambridge and the organic food festival that is Brookline, and yes we have gay marriage and Democrat-packed state and federal congressional contingents, but I don't get the overall sense of a progressive paradise that I get here.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is headquartered here, for crissakes.
There are old-school lefties who start sentences with phrases like "the first time I got tear-gassed," and yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing a cup o' Joe with a young skeptic named Chris Hallquist, proprietor of The Uncredible Hallq blog.
His Humanist's Manifesto beautifully sums up why atheism is quite arguably the perspective that most appreciates the beauty, wonder, and complexity of life.
The circumstances that bring me here involve a relative who's getting care at University of Wisconsin Hospital. The charms of the city carry over big-time into this amazing institution. As with progressive politics, Boston's not exactly a slouch for things medical, but this place blows me away with a culture of care like I've never seen before. Patients and their families are in no way looked upon as a burden or an afterthought. Maybe that shouldn't be extraordinary, but it is.
The comfort-seeking capitalists at Money magazine have taken notice of the glow around this little spot, naming neighboring Middletown the #1 best place to live in America.
Should the vicissitudes of the beautiful, wonderful, complex thing we call "life" take you to this lovely little isthmus, be sure to thank Darwin above. Especially if it's in the summer.
But don't cry for me, Madison, as I return home to good ol' Milton, MA (a very respectable #7 on the list), where my life can return to sanity.
Of course, I haven't seen — nor felt — the famous winter, but this seems to me a perfectly wonderful little city.
I get stopped on the street when I'm wearing an "Impeach" or "Draft Gore" t-shirt (both by way of the Tennessee Guerilla Women store) by smart, friendly progressives who strike up stimulating conversation.
In my south-of-Boston stomping grounds, congenial though they are in most respects, I don't always feel that welcome as an out-in-the-open progressive heathen.
Yes, there is the People's Republic of Cambridge and the organic food festival that is Brookline, and yes we have gay marriage and Democrat-packed state and federal congressional contingents, but I don't get the overall sense of a progressive paradise that I get here.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is headquartered here, for crissakes.
There are old-school lefties who start sentences with phrases like "the first time I got tear-gassed," and yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing a cup o' Joe with a young skeptic named Chris Hallquist, proprietor of The Uncredible Hallq blog.
His Humanist's Manifesto beautifully sums up why atheism is quite arguably the perspective that most appreciates the beauty, wonder, and complexity of life.
The circumstances that bring me here involve a relative who's getting care at University of Wisconsin Hospital. The charms of the city carry over big-time into this amazing institution. As with progressive politics, Boston's not exactly a slouch for things medical, but this place blows me away with a culture of care like I've never seen before. Patients and their families are in no way looked upon as a burden or an afterthought. Maybe that shouldn't be extraordinary, but it is.
The comfort-seeking capitalists at Money magazine have taken notice of the glow around this little spot, naming neighboring Middletown the #1 best place to live in America.
Should the vicissitudes of the beautiful, wonderful, complex thing we call "life" take you to this lovely little isthmus, be sure to thank Darwin above. Especially if it's in the summer.
But don't cry for me, Madison, as I return home to good ol' Milton, MA (a very respectable #7 on the list), where my life can return to sanity.
Labels: atheism, Madison, Massachusetts, Milton, off-topic
posted by Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy at 4:38 PM
3 Comments:
I lived in Madison for more than 20 years. If you think it's a shining spot in the US (and I do), you should leave the country. I'm in love with Sydney.
All it will take for me to leave the country is if one of these "Bush's Third Term" guys gets elected.
Actually, I do hope to make it to Australia under happier circumstances one day.
Believe me, if I went to Madison, I'd think I'd left the country. Forgive my blue state envy, but . . .
It makes me happy to know that TGW t-shirts have traveled to more liberal, or friendly, country. Now all I need is an invasion of blue staters to shake things up down here.
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