GRIZZLY PEAR
The boy discovered a new helmet.
There’s a laundry basket on his head.
He spins it round and round.
A little man encompassed in a translucent white blur.
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Did you know that a group of pandas is called an embarrassment?
from the girl’s research paper on pandas.
People are trying to change that because it is embarrassing to the panda.
Most of the time they are solitary animals though.
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bl-uh-d or-an-j!
The thought grosses out my daughter.
So the boy repeats it with zest.
Not nice!
And we warn her about imbuing sounds with power.
How about the oranges?
meh.
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At times [the twilight cloud] will overspread the whole west as a sheet of brilliant magenta, but more frequently it blares with scarlet, carmine, crimson, flushing up and then fading out, shifting from one color to another; and finally dying out in a beautiful ashes of roses.
“Desert Sky and Clouds”, The Desert, John C. Van Dyke, 1901
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While folding laundry, he found his new boxer-briefs.
He was skeptical (they were one size larger than his current collection of underwear).
He ran downstairs to verify.
妈妈你有买短裤给我吗?
Mommy did you buy the underwear for me?
是的。“Yes.“
So he asked again.
and again. and
again. and
again
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Until she snapped and disavowwed doing any such thing.
He sauntered back upstairs.
I asked him to double check.
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That first cry opens the earth door.
“Memory Sack” by Joy Harjo, from American Life in Poetry #886
We join the ancestor road.
With our pack of memories
Slung slack on our backs
We venture into the circle
Of destruction,
Which is the circle
Of creation
And make more-
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I wrote this last year, but like many posts, it sat in the hopper for a while. At this point my daughter has gotten her second shot and we’re just waiting for the under -5 vax to come out for our boy. Unlike other posts, I’m editing this very lightly.
I’ve been lucky.
I won the birthplace lottery and everything has played out pretty smoothly from there. As a government worker, I was slated for an early tier relative to other healthy adults. While standing in line for my second shot, I listened to the Michael Osterholm COVID-19 podcast update for the week.
The problem in America is not supply, it’s demand. That’s why so many states are opening up vaccines for all adults. The people who need it most have had plenty of opportunities to get it.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world, especially the less developed nations, haven’t even started their vaccination programs. Dr. Osterholm framed the issue as both a humanitarian and strategic problem. If we don’t get the rest of the world vaccinated, we’re gonna keep getting new variants that keep working their way back to the States.
There are a plenty of internal and external issues with the American Hegemony. It is not all roses to be a citizen of this singular superpower (I’m certain an ancient Roman could relate).
Maybe “too much” is one of our problems.
That’s an awfully nice problem to have.
While we strive to form a more perfect union, we ought to occasionally pause and be grateful for the easily overlooked perks of being American.
The boy drew a large oval with eyes, nostrils, and a smile.
He proudly presented this egg to mom.
We asked him to sign the drawing.
To help, I wrote his name in big letters, all uppercase as an architect would.
My daughter stepped in and taught him proper capitalization.
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Whence things have their origin,
The sole surviving fragment from the philosophy of Anaximander.
Thence also their destruction happens,
As is the order of things;
For they execute the sentence upon one another
– The condemnation for the crime –
In conformity with the ordinance of Time.
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The smell of baking bread is the height of luxury domesticity.
But the past five years have turned it a warning of the looming exam.
Will it rise?
Will be pretty?
Is this loaf a “failure”?
The bread lines of war put me to shame.
This aroma should only be a source of joy.
Beware of the hedonic treadmill.
Let us accept our nourishment with constant gratitude.
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A big, red bug bit Gus.
Last night, the boy read a simple sentence from a Phonics Pathways, 9th ed.
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The girl took her GATE test.
She did very well. And got carsick on the way home.
Life balances itself out.
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While she was out, I read the boy a story. He pointed to a fence and said “这是姐姐的 (this is older sister’s) gate test”.
I laughed.
He beamed.
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Art does not lie down on the bed that is made for it; it runs away as soon as one says its name; it loves to be incognito. Its best moments are when it forgets what it is called.
Jean Dubuffet via Seth Godin
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Yesterday morning, I spent half an hour serching for a good divider on these posts. It needed to be noticable but subtle, for the blog and the newsletter email.
It was an inefficient use of time for a utterly trivial matter.
I’ll blame the my inner architect.
This was the least worst option I could find.
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Growing up in a Christian home, I didn’t learn about Chinese religions. The one thing I remember is my mom telling me that the Taoists are really crazy.
When I started dabbling in Eastern philosophy a few years ago, I thought she was talking about the slippery mysticism of the Dao De Jing and the Zhuangzi.
My mom was a history major so I wouldn’t be surprised if she was forced to painfully slog through a philosophy class in college. But I also suspect she saw many religious ceremonies growing up in Taiwan.
The philosophy might be mindblowing, but wait till you check out its practices. This book described a series of practices that run between wild and completely bonkers.
Admittedly, a Bible story (take something as basic as Christmas) is totally ridiculous for someone who was not raised in the hegemony of Christian myth. So to be fair, all religions are pretty far out.
But we entered the modern age to get beyond everyone’s superstition. I’m not sold on the intricate cosmology of Christianity, and there’s no reason to adopt the talismans and esoteric exercises on Taoism.
This book did its job. It gave me enough of an overview to realize that I don’t need to investigate this religion further. Admittedly Taoists are a heterodox bunch so I’m certain there is a more sedate sect that might suit my preferences.
But time is limited, so I’ll just sample the philosophy, proverbs, and wisdom in all these traditions, and leave the religion to their participants, just as I let my parents worship in peace.
TLDR: Here is a quick overview of Taoism on youtube…while you’re at it, he also put together a great takedown of Hollywood depictions of Asian “honor”.
The kids used our air mattress pump to inflate twelve balloons.
We threw them at each other over the half wall between our living and playrooms.
It was an evening of pastel latex globes straining to float over to the other side.
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Strong doesn’t mean weak. Strong is brave and ready to fight for the life of his citizens and citizens of the world. For human rights, for freedom, for the right to live decently, and to die when your time comes.
Volodymyr Zelensky, 16 March 2022
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