Earth Fair, where we can feel the pulse of our nation!

For the last 8 years at least, with exception, I have been manning a Veterans For Peace booth at Earth Fair. Earth Fair beings together 50,000 or more San Diego folk to enjoy the conglomeration of earth friendly technology, religion, special foods, and politics all in one place with people eager to discuss their efforts with anyone that will listen.

 One year there was a group that corralled your aura with their hands and bodies. No matter what the seemingly different ideas, Earth Fair is the place where one can engage with others without fear, and for people like me expand my universe with things that I hadn’t contemplated before.  Always a most exhilarating event by any standards.

 After a few years I became aware of the changes that were going on in the clothing and animation of the crowd. I know that it’s hard to get an accurate measure of such things, and my scientific training warns me to beware, but I can say after so many years, that just by observing the crowd at Earth Fair, one can feel and see the mood of America.

 It’s not a secret that when times are good, the skirts get shorter and people enjoy themselves more.  When people have money they purchase more expensive clothes, and generally that means less fabric and more color.  At Earth Fair, one can observe the clothing that the crowd wears, the number of people with smiles, and how animated the people are.  To me this combination of factors, is a good measure of how Americans see our future.

 The feel of the nation will play itself out this November with the election of our President.  If the people are distressed, the clothing is mundane, the smiles are fleeting and the crowd is sluggish.  This is my observation, and I back it up with the contrast of the gray cold formality of years before Obama was elected, and the flamboyant above the knee fast moving crowd after.  To me the people were dragged down before, and felt uplifted after Bush left office.

This year I tried to be objective in my observations at Earth Fair 2012, and I also enlisted the opinions of everyone pictured here.  This is my call on the mood of our nation!

The nation is split between believing that we have no tomorrow and those that are hopelessly positive, but the crowd was stepping out to a more positive future.  The skirts were somewhat shorter and the colors worn more bright.  The smiles of the crowd were more spontaneous and when looked at people were quick with a smile.  All this gives me hope. Yes our future is bright. I am upbeat after a day at Earth Fair, smiling back at myself in the mirror.  After all, when does a smile not change one’s outlook?