Madonna -- the small picture

Right now, at this moment, I am listening to Madonna, live. She has a sweet voice. The crowds downstairs have been waiting in the cold for hours, and maybe have got to glimpse her. Up here on the 8th floor, with my window open (it's not unbearaby cold), I can hear her clearly, every word. A block away, as I walked to and from the liquor store on Broadway and back, past the NYU kids and the clothing shops, it was all normal bustle and slacking -- the Madonna hysteria has been a very narrowly localized phenomenon, in this block of 4th St. between Lafayette & Broadway. What does it mean? I don't mean for her. I mean for us, Americans, that a few hundred people who look to be old enough to have jobs will stand out in the cold for hours, in some cases for a couple of days (the earliest ones got wrist bands to actually get in and see her perform in Tower Records)? I guess it means several contradictory things, some of them maybe even good -- because the message of her lyrics is basically pro-tolerance.