Bandwagon #4

On the art that we love and how they matter.

The year is 2015 and I am seated on the couch in my parents’ sitting room. I am 20 and ecstatic to be writing my final year project - this work that I am certain will contribute to my highlights as a professional in the international development sector. My thighs are hot from the laptop I have placed on them for approximately 3 hours and I am getting tired of writing about migration and the laws pertaining to it. I decide that a break is needed and watching a new series would be perfect. As I go to Google, I think of downloading a comedy. Probably one I haven’t already watched and is good enough to give me a break from what my research tells me about the horrors the internally displaced face during times of conflict. In the search bar, I type in ‘Greatest comedy shows of the 21st Century’ or something along those lines. I scroll down, looking at the titles and images, Google provides as the answer to my bold audacious question. I see Parks and Rec in a corner of the screen. I recognize Amy Poehler from Baby Mama and the synopsis suggests to me that it wouldn’t be a bad choice. I begin to download the first season as I go to the kitchen to get something to chew as I watch it. This is a fairly routine process for me, anytime I decide to download or watch a new show. The thing is, this spectacled young adult, certain of how her professional and adult life would go, has no idea that this illegal download is different from every other one in the past and that her life is about to be changed.

Parks and Rec is about the department of Parks and Recreation in Pawnee, Indiana. It follows the public servants in the department through the typical government structure issues; red-tapism, poor service delivery, undue processes etc. As you watch each episode, each character is so familiar that you are forced to believe that maybe the government officials in your own country are not so terrible as these annoyances are not peculiar to them. All the characters but one, the deputy director of the department, Leslie Knope make you think that way. Leslie is the desired government worker. She’s punctual to meetings, cares about the people in the community, takes her job very seriously. All these stem from her love for her town and parks. She is an interesting character and one can’t help but be endeared to and fascinated by this woman who seems to see things in rainbows and sparkles.

All works of art evoke emotions at different levels. This is why when most people discuss their favorite books or movies or songs, there is an odd excitement that exhibits itself with body movement or at least, a glisten in their eyes. It is a beautiful thing that we being flawed beings, are able to create perfect works of art and then be affected by what we have created. But it isn’t just the love that causes us to react this way. There is a deeper sense of appreciation, a bond of sorts that is formed not just because of how magnificent the entire body of the work is, but also its individual parts. The scenes, the characters, the dialogue, the plot, the lyrics. Yet, one does not simply cling to a work of art for its sheer brilliance. There is a recognition that happens. We see ourselves in these works and immediately form a bond with it. In a world where one can feel incredibly alone and unseen, this kind of recognition with a created being is something that once felt, cannot be neglected. That is why we continue to go back to enjoy the works. Eager to feel, be seen, be understood, yet again. Even apart from the recognition of one’s current and acknowledged state of being, is the recognition of the proposed. Those ideals that we are yet to be aware of our support of. The work in this case, moves through our senses, causing us to open our minds (and eventually, hearts), stretching it so that it is able to contain this new sense that we now recognize as us. In my case, it was both. In Leslie, I saw the person I was and the person I wanted to be. I saw the areas I was lacking in, I saw the areas I was excelling at. All of these, I saw wrapped in this fictional character that walked and talked on my laptop screen.

Leslie’s entire life was devoted to service. Service to her local government and to her people, her friends, her community. She had big dreams of becoming a president one day. She had the right role models, dressed the part, spoke about her life as that person already. She was an ambitious, confident and intelligent woman who knew who she was and what she wanted. It wasn’t the kind of ambition that stepped on toes but the kind that served diligently and lovingly in favour of the greater good. She was hardworking, persistent, organised and always willing and ready to do what needed to be done. She was exactly who the 2015 me saw herself as becoming and being. Working in places she had read of in her textbooks. Contributing immensely to society and making the world a better place.

That version of myself believed that I would be in those places 2 years from when I watched the first episode. Instead, I learnt that dreams sometimes did not come true or they sometimes did, by taking different paths that I did not curate in my vision board. It was while life showed me these things, that Leslie did teach her a few as well. That despite the many red-tapes in attaining one’s hopes, grit, confidence and good community are essential for one’s journey. And so while 2015 me laughed at the funny scenes in the show, the older me through the years saw that Leslie was not just for the laughs but was warming her way into my heart, teaching me lessons that I needed to learn.

The year is now 2022 and I have arrived home from work for an international development agency. I am hungry and tired, eager to finally close my eyes for the day. I pull out my hard drive and plug into my laptop, navigating my cursor to the folder named ‘Parks and Rec’. I settle down in bed, reach for my meat pie as I lay in under my blanket. I am not where I want to be yet, I am working hard and making strides, not all huge, but all worthy. In this episode, Leslie is hosting a town hall meeting for a proposed new park and I smile, knowing fully well how the episode will end.