4 ms·

Funny, we had a discussion on Slack at work where numerous folks hadn’t ever seen the Milky Way yesterday. I think many on the east coast haven’t, especially in

Funny, we had a discussion on Slack at work where numerous folks hadn’t ever seen the Milky Way yesterday. I think many on the east coast haven’t, especially in NYC, and it’s rather sad.

wgerard 9y ago
> it’s rather sad. Why? The antipathy city dwellers feel for "flyover country" is silly, but the reverse is pretty silly too. I might think it's strange that some people have never gone hiking or camping, but they think it's just as strange that I had never seen a symphony performance until recently. People just lead different lives, I dunno that one's more sad than the other.
- jsjohnst 9y ago
  > Why? You don’t think it’s sad that people don’t travel more than an hour from a major city and experience the world around them? > People just lead different lives, I dunno that one's more sad than the other. I don’t think one needs to be more sad than the other. If people had experiences outside their narrow sliver of their daily lives they might be more tolerant of others who live different lives.
  - wgerard 9y ago
    > You don’t think it’s sad that people don’t travel more than an hour from a major city and experience the world around them? Not to be too much of an armchair psychologist, but I think that says more about you than it does about them. Again, there are people who think it's sad that I've never been to a professional ballet performance. Or that I've never gone wheelin. Or that I have yet to go to the statue of liberty. Should we all drop everything we're doing to satisfy someone else's idea of a measured life? > If people had experiences outside their narrow sliver of their daily lives they might be more tolerant of others who live different lives. You can have an incredible wealth of experiences without traveling very far. Especially in a major city. A visit to Lincoln Center is very different from a visit to Flushing, and both are very different from a visit to Staten Island.
salgernon 9y ago
I grew up about an hour north of NYC and fondly remember the Milky Way - our subdivision didn’t have streetlights. I can’t see it now from my house in the Santa Cruz mountains (15 miles from Silicon Valley) but the night sky is far more brilliant than just over the hill.

Funny, we had a discussion on Slack at work where numerous folks hadn’t ever seen the Milky Way yesterday. I think many on the east coast haven’t, especially in NYC, and it’s rather sad.

wgerard 9y ago

> it’s rather sad. Why? The antipathy city dwellers feel for "flyover country" is silly, but the reverse is pretty silly too. I might think it's strange that some people have never gone hiking or camping, but they think it's just as strange that I had never seen a symphony performance until recently. People just lead different lives, I dunno that one's more sad than the other.

jsjohnst 9y ago
> Why? You don’t think it’s sad that people don’t travel more than an hour from a major city and experience the world around them? > People just lead different lives, I dunno that one's more sad than the other. I don’t think one needs to be more sad than the other. If people had experiences outside their narrow sliver of their daily lives they might be more tolerant of others who live different lives.
- wgerard 9y ago
  > You don’t think it’s sad that people don’t travel more than an hour from a major city and experience the world around them? Not to be too much of an armchair psychologist, but I think that says more about you than it does about them. Again, there are people who think it's sad that I've never been to a professional ballet performance. Or that I've never gone wheelin. Or that I have yet to go to the statue of liberty. Should we all drop everything we're doing to satisfy someone else's idea of a measured life? > If people had experiences outside their narrow sliver of their daily lives they might be more tolerant of others who live different lives. You can have an incredible wealth of experiences without traveling very far. Especially in a major city. A visit to Lincoln Center is very different from a visit to Flushing, and both are very different from a visit to Staten Island.

salgernon 9y ago

I grew up about an hour north of NYC and fondly remember the Milky Way - our subdivision didn’t have streetlights. I can’t see it now from my house in the Santa Cruz mountains (15 miles from Silicon Valley) but the night sky is far more brilliant than just over the hill.