Promenade

photo by mblonsky 0521

One of the things that the eminent philosophical polymath, Bertrand Russell, is known for is the so-called “Barber’s Paradox.”  Russell ask us to imagine a town in which there is a barber who shaves all and only those men who do not shave themselves.  But who shaves the barber?  The poor man can neither shave himself nor go to himself to be shaven, thus the paradox, which—as I understand it—is meant to illustrate how there can be no set of all sets, or, more broadly, that the system of explanation—language, for instance—can never fully explain itself.

Ultimately, the paradox reveals the way in which the world is necessarily greater than our ability to describe it, a point which also applies to this year’s .83 Prom Ride, an event so filled with eventfulness that words, (and for that matter, pictures), utterly fail to capture the heartwarming delightfulness that characterized it from start to finish and everywhere in-between.

The outfits alone were worth the price of admission and my own gym teacher/chaperone drag gave rise to another sort of puzzle that might have intrigued Lord Russell: who chaperones the chaperones?  (Unsurprisingly, no candidates for that position emerged.)

An evening counts as a roaring success when you get to swim in two different lakes, and added to that were at least three separate dance venues, including two which were under the stars.  Prom committee chair, LizLemon, organized it all with utmost aplomb and in flouncy polka dots!

It is a truism of adulthood that eventually, you arrive at a point in life where you can choose your own family.  It doesn’t have to be the one you grew up with; you’re free instead to surround yourself with people who love you for who you are, whether related by blood or not.

The same goes for high school proms; my own, forty years ago, was entirely forgettable; last night’s, by choice, I'll never manage to forget.