Harvard Square – Marilyn R. Gardner

My Colorful Neighborhood

Published on March 19, 2013March 16, 2013 by Marilyn5 Comments

This post was first published in February of 2011 – it’s one of my favorites, if only because it gives the reader a colorful picture of where we live!

***********************

“It’s a 8 am and I’m a kind of drunk and I want you!” were the words sung to me at Central Square, Cambridge. The truth is – It was 7:30, he was drunk, and he didn’t want me!

But it brought laughter to my heart and I realize how much I love my colorful neighborhood.

While Harvard Square is full of intellectuals of all ages, brain cells abounding with funky stores,coffee shops, and Out of Town News – Central Square is hardcore life. It is dirtier and grittier with a cross-section of people that defies any stereotype. Recent and older immigrants speaking everything from Amharic and Arabic to Portuguese and Punjabi; every age from infants in strollers to the elderly heading to a community center or the library around the corner; and the sassiest and saltiest homeless people you will ever meet, all converge in Central Square.

If you don’t give money, the homeless population have no problem escorting you to the nearest ATM or looking you up and down with derision and the comment “That’s ok! What goes around comes around!” and you are left feeling cursed.

Maybe the reason I feel so at home in this neighborhood, as opposed to Harvard Square with its sophisticated milieu, or Kendall Square filled with Geeky MIT students and biotech engineers, is that I feel like I am a cross-section of worlds and people. The suburbs stifled me as I felt the need to fit in with beautiful homes and more beautiful people, never quite measuring up to what I perceived as the unspoken expectation.

My past of both Pakistan and Egypt didn’t seem important in the suburbs, but in Central Square it feels like my background belongs. Central Square welcomes me with its imperfection and honesty. There is the ability to feel fully alive and authentic, even as I am serenaded by intoxication at 7:30 am.

With burnt orange, brick-red, electric lime, and hot magenta all mixed together in one place, Central square is like a box of crayons that are primary colors – no pastel pinks, light blues, or pale yellows in sight.

Like Colors in a Crayon Box [Communicating Across Boundaries]
Harvard Square Evacuated Because Of Manhole Fire (boston.cbslocal.com)

Soup & Scripture; Politics & Burgers

Published on June 28, 2011 by Marilyn2 Comments

Angola, Indiana

June 24th, 2011

Road Trip

What’s a road trip unless you can stop off the beaten path, bypassing Subway, Burger King, and Sbarro’s Pizza, opting for more unique choices?

It was in Angola, Indiana – home of Trine University where we found our unique spot. Angola is a town I had never heard of until we drove off the highway looking for a place to eat. We drove to the center of town and found an eatery called Sutton’s Deli with an address on the Public Square. As we walked in we realized that Dorothy was not in Kansas anymore, or rather, we were not in Cambridge.

The sign as we entered read: Soups – Cream of Potato; Scripture of the Day: John 1:41

We were in the Midwest, in a small town where cream of potato soup was served with scripture and friendliness. It was a reminder to me of how vastly different the United States is from east to west, north to south, and state to state.

In Cambridge there is no Sutton’s Deli. We have Harvard Square’s famous Bartley’s Burgers where you can get burgers dressed as your political favorite. There’s “THE HILLARY CLINTON(think you hate your boss?) burger with grilled mushrooms, sour cream and french fries”. Further up the menu it’s “THE MITT ROMNEY (2012 or bust) with swiss cheese, grilled onions, & onion rings”. Are you a Democrat? You can eat “Now it’s your fault with swiss cheese, grilled sauerkraut, russian dressing, & french fries” Or have a love for the late Ted Kennedy? His burger is “a plump, liberal amount of burger w/ cheddar cheese, grilled mushrooms & french fries”. All of these range in price from $10.15 to the more expensive Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton at $11.60.

In Angola we were served tasty and simple deli sandwiches, Reubens and roast beef, with their delicious soup of the day. The price tag was as delightful and manageable as the sandwiches at $5.15 for a sandwich and the atmosphere easygoing and friendly. Despite spilling water all over the floor, which at Bartley’s would have been met with a curse and a scowl, we were treated to home-town goodness served with kindness.

I’m not comparing as much as I am contrasting. Both have their place in this country that we call the United States. Both are part of a larger place and bigger picture.

If the Unites States were Europe, Indiana and Massachusetts would be two separate countries with their distinct political process and ideology. Because they are located in the U.S, they have to compromise, each giving up a bit of what they want in order to live cohesively.

Unfortunately living cohesively is rarely done with kindness or respect during this period of history. Instead each thinks the other is far better and expresses this with the arrogance of true ethnocentrism. Gay pride weekend in Chicago claimed on t-shirts that anyone who disagreed was a “hater”. When did disagreement become hate? I disagree with my husband and kids often, but love them more than life itself. The message on the t-shirts was just one of many examples of our seeming inability to respect people despite disagreement and differing opinions. On the opposite side is the Westboro Baptist Church group proclaiming a message void of human dignity as they travel the country, damning those who disagree.

But back to the food part. It was a great reminder to me of the value and enjoyment of going off the beaten path to find and enjoy something different. The philosopher Tzvetan Todorov wisely states “Our first spontaneous reaction with regard to a stranger is to regard him as inferior, because he is different from us”. While that may be a spontaneous first step, it’s the child that willingly remains in that first step. The adult moves on to the second and third steps, learning and growing in the process. Would that the Cambridges and Angolas of the world could meet and move past difference to successful dialogue. Sometimes that happens and when it does you get a completely different burger. I would call it the Smart Centrist burger (dare to respectfully dialogue and admit you’re not always right?) served with your choice of fries or coleslaw.

My Colorful Neighborhood

Published on February 17, 2011March 16, 2013 by Marilyn5 Comments

“It’s 8:30 am and I’m a kind of drunk and I want you!” were the words sung to me at Central Square, Cambridge. The truth is – It was 7:30, he was drunk, and he didn’t want me! But it brought laughter to my heart and I realize how much I love my colorful neighborhood.

Maybe the reason I feel so at home in this neighborhood as opposed to Harvard Square with its sophisticated milieu and Kendall Square filled with Geeky MIT students and biotech engineers is that I feel like I am a cross-section of worlds and people. The suburbs stifled me as I felt the need to fit in with beautiful homes and more beautiful people, never quite measuring up to what I perceived as the unspoken expectation. My past of both Pakistan and Egypt didn’t seem important in the suburbs, but in Central Square it feels like my background belongs. Central Square welcomes me with its imperfection and honesty. There is the ability to feel fully alive and authentic, even as I am serenaded by intoxication at 7:30 am.

From Protests to Lattes

Published on January 30, 2011May 4, 2012 by Marilyn14 Comments

Egypt Demonstration – Harvard Square 1.29.11

Maybe the mark of an American protest is that the protester in a moment can go from chanting pithy and informative slogans to the local coffee shop for a latte of their choice, be it caramel or hazelnut. Therein is the gift we have in our freedom. We are steps removed from wherever the trouble is and so even though we may care deeply about a situation, we easily go back to our normal lives without having to face real danger or show true courage.

The protest that my husband and I took part in yesterday at Harvard Square, while deeply desiring to support Egyptians, cannot compare to the amazing spirit shown in the Egyptian people and what they have endured to have a voice in the future of Egypt. Armed with banners and a couple of megaphones about 200 of us marched from Harvard Square through to Central Square. The march went on to Faneuil Hall but at Central we left, not for a latte, but for a shawarma at a tiny local spot called Falafel Palace. The shawerma was delicious and we were in high spirits, having been with others who cared about the country and forced themselves away from Al Jazeera’s live stream to gather, but both of us realized we really don’t know what it’s like to not be able to voice what we think, when we think it, and where we want to express it.

It is sometimes tiresome to hear talk of how lucky we are to have freedom,hearing the largely clichéd phrase “freedom is not free”. But the reality is that participating in a peaceful assembly and openly voicing my views with no fear whatsoever (other than mispronouncing something in Arabic) is something I take for granted, and I think most of those surrounding me are the same. When it sinks in that my protest ends with a latte or shawerma, not stinging eyes from tear gas, soaked clothes from water cannons, and a blood filled eye from a baton then I don’t really care if I sound tiresome. I still think it’s worth publicly documenting that freedom is indeed a not to be taken for granted gift.