So I'm waiting for the Metromover in downtown Miami, on my way to the cover run of "Anna Karenina," which went very, very well. I'm sitting on the bench, reading the book I just cracked open: "Nero" by Edward Champlin. I'm hoping it will give me some insight into these characters I'll be staging in New York in the fall.
Next to me are two little girls - maybe 13 or 14 years old. African-American, dressed in hand-me-downs, shoveling in fries and milkshakes from McDonalds and shouting relatively unintelligable slang back and forth to each other. They were stereotypes sitting next to me, and I hate to say that but I glanced at them once and then hardly paid them any mind, engrossed in my book. I guess indicative of our polarized world.
About two minutes into my time at the stop, one of the girls tugged on my shirt. I turned towards her little pigtailed face, not sure what the issue was and she asked me, "Hey, what's your book about?"
I told her it was about Nero Caesar, the last Caesar and a Roman Emporer who was crazy and burned down his city before committing suicide. "A terrible, unhappy man from a couple of thousand years ago."
The other girl's eyes lit up. "That's what I said!" she yelled, smacking her friend. "We're studying Rome in school and I remembered his name!" She was so excited and both girls started peppering me with questions about Nero and his family. "Did he really kill his family? Why did he burn down Rome? Why did the Romans let him get away with all that? He killed his wife too? That man was CRAZY!"
And so I had a great little conversation about Nero and Rome and how society lets such awful people come to power. They got on their train as it pulled up and I wanted to continue the conversation. "Bye," they waved, wiping french fry grease on their stained stretch pants and shuffling along in their flip-flops.
Inspiration and spark comes from the most unlikely places.
I had hope for the future of our society for the first time in a while sitting at a train station in downtown Miami. Who would've thought?
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3 comments:
What a charming story! I make my living working with young African- Hispanic- and Asian-Americans and I have found that many stereotypes I might have brought into my job are vanishing as I work with these children.
Charming, indeed! What a lovely experience.
What a great story. At the same time, it made me, with umpteen years of 'higher' education feel like an idiot because I know nothing about Nero, Rome, etc.
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