Some friends of mine, Michael and Lisa, just participated in a Boston-New
York bike ride, to benefit AIDS research, along with a couple of thousand
other riders. Lisa told me that eventually the riders created a kind of
"lingo" that began to tie them to one another as they, for example, came
upon tricky turns and yelled out a brief message to warn, or congratulate,
others.
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Host's Note: I watch the mass ride swing around the Boston Common, bouyed
by a big crowd, bagpipes, and lots of enthusiasm. An inspiring sight.
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Needless to say, the experience was exhilarating; but I was struck -- and
so were my friends -- by the communally-created language that continued to
push them forward. (The weather during the last of the three days was
hellish; they needed all the push they could get...)
I'm probably making this sound fancier than it was. Or maybe not. But (at
the risk of beating a tired, if not a dead, horse), I began to think about
the specific language that is used to create stories that are in turn
embellishing that language and thereby creating more stories. Stories,
indeed, about the past are one thing; stories __in process__ are another.
Cheers. Ron
-- Ron Mallis ron2785@eworld.com