On Vernal Emergence in the 21st Century

On Vernal Emergence in the 21st Century
by Athanasius Omnipopuli
[I’m a human being, that’s my role, and as such I take strides to observe the comings and goings of these strange and bizarre creature whose desperate self-contained dramas are positively dripping from every glance, wafting from the street-facing porches, and sweltering out of the pubs and public places. Stages all, these urban environs.]


As yearly social spectacle in the Northwestern hemisphere go, few periods capture the transcendental essence of humanity quite as a succinctly as the early stages of Spring in populated temperate climates. There is seemingly no end to the demographic dataset that is the warming social landscape.
The dramatis personae drifting about the street, uninhibited by concerns for clothing or shelter, span the continuum of humanity; the poor, the rich, the well and maladapted. As always there are those who would seek to gain monetarily from the stirring of spirits. The cap-in-hands, the street performers, and my personal favorite the street salesman hawking wares porch to porch and hand to hand, everywhere there are people trying to make a quick buck.
Taking a step back however it’s difficult to judge these financially motivated opportunists too negatively. After all, everyone seeks to gain from the weather’s warm turn. The game of fortifying glances becomes ever more robust as the temperature rises, as if the airy medium between occuli has reduced its barometric pressure enough to increase the force and impact of eye-contact to an all-together satisfying degree. The laughs come more easily and a certain dismissive attitude toward labor-in-general mounts. Each and every human seeks profit from this atmosphere.
The most motivated and ambitious individuals of either sex take up the center stage. With studied technique the modern dandy quaffs his pitch and prepares for a cultural campaign. They sell themselves free to every man, woman and child who looks their way, rooking peers with a few well constructed words, the silent signals of camaraderie or the offer of a beverage midst to the swelling heat. Each move calculated by his subconscious to best shore his kingdom of mutually sycophantic warm-weather “friends”. Like the Norse gift-giving lords of old each takes stock and action to guard against the dangers, not only of the world, but of the human mind; loneliness, boredom, stagnation and madness. The game starts anew every spring, when each individual builds their reserves of amity to whatever heights they can safely manage.
There are pitfalls in each of these arenas; the fiscal and the interpersonal. Merchants of every type seek profit. As creed of our country, this axiom is attested in every corner of our culture. The results of the economic form of greed are particularly well known to those following the fortunes at current of lenders and borrowers, mortgagers and mortgagees. But how follows the affairs of the socially greedy, the over-friendly grasshoppers of spring? Is there an inevitable recoil to the overextension of one’s hand of friendship?
In the immediacy, the answer seems to be no. At worst, the spring socialite faces an over-full schedule of sociable maintenance and the eventual realization of the specific merits of each (rather than the amalgam) of the relationships, generally leading to a healthier understanding of the world as it is effected and affected by those who share it. For the most part this weather-warmed, intensified interaction is good for all involved, leading to both healthier friendships and better attuned social barometers.
There is a caveat however, seen most potently at the extremity of this course of action. Those whose extension of self toward the good graces of others leads to the compromise of self in the pursuit of greater cultural influence find themselves in the treacherous realm of politics. Well short of the offices of government, there is a realm of activity by which local social circles can be manipulated and orchestrated by the cunning and the willing toward their own ends. Inevitably these compromised efforts tend toward negative result.
In no space is democracy more crucial and viciously guarded than the cultural. Those who interpret their hub status as a mandate to power find quickly that no clean profit comes to the social tyrant. The king of the sandbox always ends up with sand in his shorts.
The human in Spring is a magnificent creature, prone to eccentric but intricate graces. Indulgence is rewarded, synthetic effort is often thwarted and the general trends of active exchange and potent communion win out over self-interest and cold-hearted foolishness. No individual can charm-over the thronging masses, even the masses of their own constituent, the wave is ride-able but not steer-able.