The benefit concert for hurricane Sandy victims featuring the “great old” rock stars moves everyone. It takes place simultaneously with a series of concerts these same “legends” are giving all over America. Which legends? The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, etc.
The Rolling Stones tour especially is sold out. Their star shines as bright as ever – although they are in their 70s. Their tour is called “50 and counting”. People go mad. With nostalgia. The generation that made them what they are brings its children and grandchildren to the concerts.
The journalists also go mad – with the success of the stars. They keep asking them during interviews: “For how long?” The band doesn’t answer. “It must be your last tour, right?” the journalists keep asking, trying with bloodcurdling hunger to elicit an answer from the Rolling Stones.
They keep provoking Keith Richards by saying that he is still able to go on tour because he leads a cleaner life now. “Maybe. I don’t know. Although it’s only been two years since I cut the sh*t” he answers disarmingly, “but not for the sake of a clean bill of health or longevity. I’m just tired of addictions. I’m tired of the wild way of life. I realized I’ve done everything. I’ve gone to extremes. When you’ve done everything and still remain alive, what else is there in order to lead an interesting life? Change. For me it meant quitting everything. The only thing I’ve never done before!”
“No, I’m not nostalgic and I don’t like to think about our success. I’m tired of people talking to me with nostalgia and asking me for how long. Give me a break! I’m just waiting patiently till the end of the tour in order to get back to Europe, relax and start taking one day at a time. Without a schedule. With the freedom that marked my entire life.”
Freedom, however, is a thing that can only be achieved with great difficulty here too. The obstacles are not institutional and political like in Europe, but reside mainly in private and social life. Freedom is a transient invisible often imperceptible aura surrounding only living legends like Mick Jagger. When encountered in less vaunted individuals it is met with great skepticism and wariness.
You learn here that “reality is what it is.” I know it only too well: the acknowledgement of reality is always the first step towards facing it. But it seems to me that there are a number of things here that are considered "divine law" – they are never questioned and they can never change, theoretically speaking. Very theoretically. Until… they change. Every man or woman has uttered Heraclitus’ quote at some point in their lives: change is the only constant in life. Change that often comes predictably for everyone else but always unpredictably for the people it concerns.
In this country that has been motivated by change since its birth, change change has always been faced with fear and aversion. In any case, the country just erases the idea from its mind and keeps going as always…
There are always people – regardless of place and time – who can see the storm coming. Jon Stewart, the famous political satirist, keeps mentioning that the debt is a problem that needs to be solved before it explodes with dire consequences. Even the carefully bland enough to command universal approval, David Letterman, rings the alarm from time to time.
The other day he made fun of Apple’s sudden announcement (trying to appease the markets following the plunge of its stock?) that, starting from next year, some of its products, especially the Mac line of computers, will be manufactured in America. “Great!” he exclaimed, “Apple’s next television commercial exclusively on our show.” then showing a video of a young man pressing a key on his "made in America" computer which immediately explodes! We all laugh… and move on. And life goes on as usual. That’s what we used to do in Greece until we couldn’t do it any longer. Reality in Greece became what it became. And the country has been struggling to stay alive for the last three years.
Newscasters tell us the sky tonight will be spectacular – a meteor shower from Gemini will be visible without a telescope all over the city. However, you don’t care to strive to look for it. The sky here is full of more impressive meteor showers, manmade, thousands of stars and lights every night: the incredible success stories of millions, and the unrequited dreams of billions who were drawn to this shining star of a city during the centuries. Some of the mortal dreams live on, in this city sky, enduring through time. Some others shine brightly and are then lost like shooting stars, dead light years ago even as we witness their last spark.
And of course tv commercials never stop. There are always new ones depending on the time of the year and the forthcoming holiday – there is always a holiday around the corner. “Freedom is in the air; it can be yours; grab it” one ad urges viewers.
“In a world full of ‘musts’ and conventions, is there any other way? The way of freedom?”. Yes, answers the female star, leaving a hall full of famous and not so famous people.
Is there really another way? The way of freedom? I don’t know. It is a personal challenge that each of us should face as long as we really want to. However, the longing and yearning for the road that we have walked only in our forbidden dreams is always there, acceptable by the “system” and available to all – as long as you have 100 dollars to buy its elusive promise conveniently contained in a bottle of perfume or a pair of panties from Macy’s.
