Ode To The State Of Rhode Island And Providence Plantations

Rhode Island. The smallest United State. One thousand five hundred square miles (five hundred of which are water). It was initially colonized in 1636 by Roger Williams, a clergyman from Massachusetts who was really unhappy about the all the repression at the hands of the Puritans. Real religious freedom prevailed in Rhode Island's early years, making it a haven for religious dissenters.

The "Ocean State" is known for its ports and ship-building as well as other random industries like jewelry, vegetables, metal products, eggs, electrical equipment, and tourism.

Its generous contribution to world cuisine includes gaggers and soggies, quahogs and stuffies, clam cakes, johnnycakes, frozen lemonade, coffee milk, Awful Awfuls, and clear chowder.

It has produced such noteworthy celebrities as Spalding Gray, the Farrelly Brothers, Harry Anderson, H.P. Lovecraft, Mr. Potato Head, and the Italian Mafia.

I was born in Rhode Island in April of 1981.

My first home was in Warwick. Then it was onto East Greenwich. Then Cranston. Then Providence. Then Foster. Then Providence again. Then Providence again. Then Johnston. Then Cranston again. Then Lincoln. Then Lincoln again. Then East Providence. Then Providence again. Then Providence again. Then East Providence again. Then Providence again. And then, in August of 2002, I went to college in Ohio.

When you move when you're little, every new town can feel like it's states away, even in such a small state. And when you move a lot, and are always thinking about the prospect of moving again soon, you never really develop a home base, a single street or neighborhood or piece of furniture or town or city. We did have the same toaster oven. What I had at worst was a state- at best a metropolitan area.

Providence. The capital of Rhode Island as well as its largest city. It's in the northeast part of the state where the river that met the bay that met the ocean meets the land. It boasts an extraordinary population of 160,000, an area of fifty square kilometers (five of which are water), one Ivy League college, and two independent cinemas.

In 1998 I left school and began working in downtown Providence, a 20-minute bus ride from my residence-at-the-time, Lincoln apartment number two. During the next four years I found a home in Providence that I never had before. Those years found me in four apartments- three in Providence and one right next to it- and eight jobs- six in Providence.

Providence is where I have lived, loved, worked, hated, laughed, cried, ate, drank, smoked, did drugs, rode on a million buses, drove aggressively, rear-ended someone, inspired, was inspired, frustrated, was frustrated, stolen milk crates, climbed trees, written poetry, read graffiti, taken pictures, taken video, taken friends, taken lovers, met lovers, played stickball, manned a tall ship, looked out onto the river, slept in a park, evaded evildoers, made up stories about evildoers, flirted with bartenders, pretended to play the fiddle, climbed railings, sat on rooftops, admired the lighted city by night, stayed up till 4 a.m. just to sit in the stillness…

There is no other place where I have done all of these things, and there probably never will be again.

november 2003

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