the other day i saw a procession of small children walking holding a rope. this is a thing in new york. all of them were wearing matching vests, their teachers were blasting the frozen soundtrack through a portable speaker, corralling and coaxing them forward.
they were walking so slowly and honestly looking kind of somber and the juxtaposition of that with the disney pop music really sent me.
i learned about the concept of collective effervescence this week from this podcast. and i have to tell you that that was it. on the show Dacher Keltner—who has studied awe with people all over the world—says of the concept:
And it brings us a lot of sense of unity and a sense of awe. And if you really push it in the right context, bliss. [laughs] And a sense of like, “Wow, look at what I’m part of. You know, I’m part of this human — this collective.” What a striking tendency we have.
And I, as I started to dig into this concept, I love Søren Kierkegaard’s quote. You know, this grouchy philosopher writing about dread. He’d go out and walk, and he would say: it puts me into contact with the significance of insignificant things.
the tiny people, the tiny moments. the processions we get to witness and participate in. synchronized anything.
“I am affirmed and “divined”—made porous, open, awake, glistening”1
feeling this together at once. feeling that current, infused. not knowing where they’re going but it’s a parade. see you there.
Wayne Koestenbaum on p. 31 of Performing Disidentifications by José Muñoz ↩