Watching Children Play

There are few things in life more revealing than quietly watching a young child play with dolls or pets.  

The praise or criticism, nurturing warmth or coldness they share with the small things over whom they have control is such a lucid mirror revealing what we have taught them – beautiful, poignant, reinforcing; sometimes heartbreaking; always instructive.

Righteous Indignation and Anger

When looking for new friends, seek out those with whom you share positive interests – things you love; be it sports, hiking, photography, opera, whatever.  Over time, you are likely to find other things you love.  These may be woven into the fabric of the friendship, or not, but the foundation will still be the shared interest in the positive – and you will think positively when you think of each other.  

If you instead find friends with whom your shared interest is something you hate, or that makes you angry, you will learn to hate and be angry together.  You’ll meet and spend time with other people who are angry; and that will become your social norm. You’ll associate one another with anger, and will certainly one day will find yourself in the cross-hairs of the other's anger. 

This is not to say that one should never discuss social justice, unmet needs, or things which make us angry.  There is much injustice in the world – much to be angry about. But we need to take care that we not become consumed by righteous indignation, anger, or—further along the slippery slope—hatred.  Once these become a habit, they become an end in themselves, and will not be dislodged by the positive - even if the underlying cause of the anger is resolved.  

Nietzsche had a great take on this:

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Concert - The Neighbourhood, December 1, 2013

The Neighbourhood Concert last night was quite an adventure. 

While the kids got the full mosh-pit experience, I went up to the so-called grown-up (alcohol served) area in the balcony, and sat next to a very affectionate, very demonstrative drunk couple.

She was denied service at the bar before the concert even started, but he was an attentive and accommodating lover, making sure her glass was never empty. She was less careful in that regard, spilling twice without appearing to notice.

Her appreciation for his regular replenishments, and their mutual affection was beyond that which could be expressed with each of them remaining in their own seats. To make sure that spilt beer didn't upset their little love-fest, she held her beer—in a rather carefree manner—over me, as she climbed over the arm of her chair on the other side, in an attempt to maximize body contact with her guy.

For all the love they showered on one another, each time he left to get another beer, she redirected her attention to me. Though flattered, I didn't return the attention – being reminded of junior high health classes, and of the prodigious leaping abilities of some of the tiny denizens of the human epidermis. Each time I declined to return her advances, her ardor for her lover only increased upon his return. They say ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, and without the temporary distraction I might have provided, the urgency of her need for her true love must have been nearly unbearable.

Despite my delight in this, when a seat opened up in the next row above us, I relocated – just in time as it turns out.  About the time I was comfortable in my new seat, she slopped most of her beer onto my now unoccupied seat.

She did provide a finale. When the concert ended, she and her guy disconnected, got up, and—being in the front row— treated the entire balcony to a view of the ‘whale tail’ top part of her thong underwear, as she readjusted herself to prepare for the, presumably, less intimate settings available in the outside world.

I don’t know why I don’t go to more concerts.

Like a Moth

I was drawn to her like a moth to a front-porch light bulb on a warm summer evening—not one of those coldly efficient compact fluorescent lights, or an even more efficient dimmable LED light, that is super bright, but emits no heat—an old-fashioned, searing 100 watt bulbous incandescent, that draws you into increasingly tight spirals, then quick-fries you at the first touch of the sizzling orb; my ardor only intensified by the knowledge that this type of light bulb would soon be outlawed.   

Karma

He knew his karma account was overdrawn, with no source of replenishment any time soon ... but 'a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do', he thought as he fell from the roof of the orphanage he was burglarizing, and noticed that his fall would be broken by a police car – that just happened to be there on an unrelated courtesy call.   

Forgiveness and Remembrance

Des clés du bonheur

Pardonne tout - immédiatement.
Ne jamais oublier les actes de bonté.

Terrible

Terrible
A horse at night,
Standing hitched alone
on the still street;
And whinnying …
as if some sad nude astride him
had gripped hot legs on him,
and sung
a sweet high hungry
single syllable

- Lawrence Ferlinghetti 

Je n’oublie rien