Yesterday I finally got over to Cambridge and saw J and H and their new small R (who has one of the most lovely smiles ever to pass across the face of a baby). Anyone who has ever been interested in Behavioural Modification should study babies. They are beautifully set up to modify their parents' behaviour: make loud, distressing noises when things arn't going well, and employ smile factor 9 whenever they get it right.
Cambridge is very pretty. About even-ish with 50 thousand small English towns - but on a much, much bigger scale - which I consider to be a significant achievement. The colleges are almost scary in their imposing big, old, expensive building-ness. There is a definite impression of wealth and privilege - even young men in school ties. Punting on the river looks like pure indulgence, though I was impressed by how much it resembled a stream.
The weird thing was how the overall focus and obvious productive intent of most of the population pretty much justified the expense. I got the sense of it being almost a garden of excellence, a special place where everything was constantly attempting to be the best it could be. Though I felt that that image matched traditional asian approaches better than the hustle of post-enlightenment europe.
It was so nice to see lots of young people with things to do and stuff to consider. Ipswich tends to have young parents who don't seem to have any horizons at all. The funny thing about England seems to be if you don't like where you are, and you don't like London you have run out of options. Maybe that is true in most smaller towns, but it seems a dreadful waste.
Posted by carla at September 27, 2004 11:21 PM