The Magic of Edinburgh

Eleven months of the year, we live in one place, on one street, in one town, in one country.  We belong to one nationality, one culture and have but one way of thinking.  Then it is August and we leave our comfort zones to attend the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival.  Instantly, we become citizens of the whole world.  In one day, we can see Hamlet in French (Venue 124, 3:10 pm) talk music with a Swedish rock band,  hear an Italian man try to become Italian (C venue 348; 5:35 pm) and listen to the story of a brave, innovative and loveable man who came to terms with Parkinson’s Disease. (venue 53; 3:05 pm).

If you are a performer, you will present your shows to people from Poland, Russia, France, Jamaica, the United States and Australia and discover that wherever you live, whatever your nationality, all humanity shares the same longings.  We all need; we all love; we all hurt.  Everyone feels bruised by the tragedy of modern life and we all laugh at its idiosyncracies.

Would that our governments would stop emphasizing our differences and remind us of how much we share.  …or how little we want to hate.  Thomas Paine said, “My country is the world; my religion humanity”  In Edinburgh every August, that is just how it is