blessing

the chinese supermarket here attracts a diverse foreign born group.

the east asian cashier chatters to her colleague in an unrecognizable dialect as her latina customer swipes her card to pay. i see the cashier's brittle blasé expression alter and she looks her customer in the eye for the first time. money not enough, she says quietly gently and with a thick accent. it is a pocket of compassion that acknowledges our common humanity.

importunity

J2 has a birthmark on her leg in full public view.

at the mall parking lot, a stranger accosts us and says, i'm a doctor. if you want to fix that mark, i can do it. his card says, aphrodite advance [sic] esthetic [sic] & skin care clinic.

this deeply offends me. where i come from, a professional person does not solicit. and a salesman, i'm thinking, should hesitate to peddle his wares without an invitation. in some circles we call this spam.

deepwater horizon 2

on april 20, 2010 the macondo well explodes, killing eleven.

5.2 million barrels one CEO one senior government official much finger pointing and many dire predictions later, we get this. essentially, the 1.2 million barrels we successfully siphon skim or burn are in the landfills or in the air. 4 million barrels are missing, hopefully due to gulf microbe action.

two glaring conclusions:

1. we know infinitely less about stuff than we imagine.

2. we must stop managing disasters by rhetoric and drama.

the girls' guide to chick lit 2

i like:
jane austen
helen fielding
imogen parker
adele parks
jane green

the girls' guide to chick lit

genre fiction / women / issues / humor

here's what i look for:
1. hardcover if possible
2. "b" format paperback
3. funky matte cover
4. brit before american
5. heroine in her thirties or forties

these are deal breakers:
1. vulgarity
2. adultery
3. weak writing

rite of parentage

these days J1 drives himself around some.

the pro:
i no longer play chauffeur at unearthly hours.

the con:
my nerves are shot to bits.

mental pain

it is easier to say "my tooth is aching" than to say "my heart is broken".  r havard, m.d. (the problem of pain, 1962)

feeding one generation a steady diet of tabloids oprah and therapy means that these days we know of more publicly shattered psyches than overtly carious teeth.

the problem of pain - c s lewis (1962)

this is the most elegant response i know to the question, why does an all loving all powerful God allow pain? and quite unlike the trend of modern writers the exposition is lucid and fresh to the last chapter.

writers like lewis affirm that faith entails a hope in wonderful things unseen, and not in snake oil.

life lesson

being fresh from our visit to singapore, where grouchy complaints rule the day, and freshly from the american pharmacy today, i make one observation:

indifferent service is a cross cultural prerogative.

hey, i want to say, it's okay if you don't smile. but please look at me!

hoppin' mad 2

whaddaya know?

our record setting heat wave breaks into a golden blue summer's day with a drowsy breeze blowing through it. it is the sort of day that makes it into poems.

unfortunately it is not the sort of day that will dry our poor rug.