Because they can…..

“Frances, you’re my best pal, right?”

“Yep Winslow.  My very best friend.”

“France…. does it matter to you that you’re a dog, and I am a cat?”

“Not a bit Win.  Not a bit.”……………

………………  Purrrrr …………   …………………..

“Frances?”  …………. …. “Yes, Win?”

“I love you Frances.  Will you tell me again about the night your puppies were born?  It is my favorite bedtime story.”

Frances told Winnie the story of the night those puppies were born.  And then they fell softly asleep together….  dreaming quietly of salmon steaks, and fire hydrants.   Best Friends.  No boundaries.  No limits.

Because they can.

And that’s what its all about…..

It reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit today, here in my little corner of the world.  My kind of weather!  Warm-ish.  As I was walking uptown at high noon, I started noticing little tiny oases, scattered about here and there.

It always amazes me to see these little green acres that manage to sprout up wherever they are able.  This one situated in the craggiest of places, yet it manages to grow, and thrive.  Well, maybe not thrive, but certainly to take root, and burgeon.

I’ve seen this phenomena so many times in my life.  It reminds me of when I was a kid, and my Mom let me save money to buy Sea Monkeys.  They were advertised in the back of some magazine I had gotten my hands on.  Sea Monkeys. Magical, wonderful, glorious little primates of the ocean.  My imagination swirled.  All I had to do was add water.  I was in.

I could barely contain myself when they arrived in the mail.  I did a happy dance, right there on the front porch of our home on Bruce Avenue.  The neighbors watched.  (See… it started WAY back then.)

My Sea Monkeys grew out of nothing.  Powder.  Dust…  and all I did was add that prescribed water.  Viola’!  Magnificent Sea  Monkeys, swimming about happily in that glass pitcher.  Again, I did a happy dance.

As it turns out….they didn’t live very long…. but I named a bunch of them.  I called one Lester.   I remember him.  He looked a lot like all the other Sea Monkeys.  But I knew the difference.  He lived the very longest.

So, what really brought all of this to mind?  Today is a bit of an Oasis Day in history.  On this day, in 1862… slavery was banned in all U.S Territories.  About 100 years later, on this same date, The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.  Amid all the heat, the rocks & hard places… the cragginess of it all…. things were taking root and growing.  Good things.   Just like Lester, I hope they live a long, long time.

Speaking of Kings…. and we were.

Last night I belly-laughed, again, at the scene from the movie “Stranger Than Fiction” …. where Dustin Hoffman asks Will Ferrell if he is King of Something.  “Are you King of the Lanes?”  “The King of the Lanes???”  “Yes. Or….Are you King of the Trolls?”  “The King of the Trolls???”  Wonderful scene.

But of course, it got me thinking. (Danger, danger young Will.  She’s thinking.)

If you could be King of Something, what would you be King of?  I’ve been milling this one over for the better part of the day.  And you know, I am not sure.  But this much I will tell you:  I would have TONS of Minions.  But they would be just like friends…. really.

Heck, I might even be King of the Minions.  But I would be a kind and gentle King of the Minions. We’d go to museums and take our dogs for long walks.  I’d invite them to feasts…the kind with huge turkey legs….. and take them for rides in my carriage…. the one with the six white horses.  I’d give them trinkets, and bobbles, and remember their birthdays.   I would know my minions by name.  “Well hello Bob.  Gerald.  Floyd.  Hey ya’ John, how goes it?”  And who knows, I may even Knight a few.  Minion Knights of the Long, Rectangle, Table.  Yes just like friends…. since I only have one or two of those….

As King, I’d also like to be able to leap tall buildings.  Currently, I need a device like the one pictured to get up and over them.  But as ruler, I would merely leap.

And, of course, as mentioned in countless Super Hero entries prior this one… NO CAPES.  Capes make me look long-bodied.  So no capes.  Now the crown is a different story entirely….

This is the King of Queen Street.  I call him Ray.  I don’t know his real name, and as of yet, he won’t tell me.

He mostly hangs out somewhere along Meeting Street, in front of the Mill’s House, or Joseph’s Restaurant.  Most other places have run him off.  I don’t know if he is homeless or what his story is.  He dresses fairly well and in mostly clean clothes.  He shuffles when he walks.  Like Tim Conway’s character, Mr. Tudball.  Old Rickety Ray.

Ray asks EVERYONE if he can ask them a question.  Well Ray….you already have…… but that’s beside the point.  If he gets you to stop, he hits you for money.  Five bucks is his denomination of choice.   People who have lived downtown a long time tell me he uses it for liquor.  He smokes all the time too…

For a while, I just smiled at him when I’d pass, and ignore his inquiry.  Then I started to tell Ray he, in fact, may NOT ask me a question.  After about 5 or 6 times, he quit trying to stop me.  His daily disposition toward me since that time has been nothing more than a distant scowl.   A month or two has passed…….   The other afternoon,  I smiled at him and said hello.  He growled in his gravelly voice… “I don’t know you.”

This morning, I dropped by a Cafe’ and purchased a bagel, a muffin, and a cup of coffee.  I approached Ray and told him I bought him some breakfast.  He wanted to know what it was.  “A bagel with some cream cheese.  A blueberry muffin,  and a cup of coffee.” I said.  He told me he didn’t like that, and wouldn’t eat it.  But he would gladly take five bucks instead.

He’s persistent, to say the very least.   But he didn’t get five dollars from me today.

What’s the point of all of this?  I’m not sure, really.  I just wanted to share this experience with you.    Maybe I learned that I was trying to assert my will in this situation, and just because I thought I had a way to help him, I in fact, did not.

Ray didn’t want the kind of help I was offering.  He wanted five bucks to buy some smokes and a drink.  The things that Ray likes.   But I am unable to help him purchase those things.  Most likely, not ever.  And that is how that went.  So goes the world sometimes….

If veggies were gladiators… who would win in the respective matchups?  Welcome to the VWF…. The Vegetable Wrestling Federation.

It is a lot to consider really…  Let’s start with a difficult battle.  Perhaps we should examine…. let’s say….

The Carrot vs. The Pea – This would most likely be one heck of a match-up, but ultimately, I think The Pea would win.  In terms of Classical Literature, that little pea caused quite a difficulty for the Princess with the gazillion mattresses.  Carrot. Zilch.

And… The Beet vs. The Potato.  Both root vegetables.  You’d think this would be a tight competition, but not even close.  The ol’ couch potato didn’t get its name from being a go-getter.    And think about the name of of the beet itself, for crying out loud.  That’s what it does. Beet.  The fact that it is blood red is also an intimidating factor for any opponent.

The Orange vs. The Apple…. hmmm…. sorry I brought this one up. Fruits… not Veggies….. AND…..  Everyone knows you can’t compare apples and oranges.

Celery vs. Onion.  Winner:  The Tear-Jerking Onion.  Much more robust… and of course, can make even the greatest warrior be reduced to tears.

Iceberg Lettuce vs. Anything   – “IL” The Super Hero and Main Attraction of the Night.  It always wins no matter what.  If the iceberg could bring down the Titanic… well……. what the heck could a Brussel Sprout do?  Lettuce Prey.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.”

-Elle Wiesel

“Never fear the shadows.  They simply mean there is a light shining somewhere nearby.”
-Irish Proverb

But what if we do fear the shadows… and such.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by  T.S. Eliot, is one of my all time favorite poems.

It presents a stream of consciousness concerning some of the hard parts of life, like weariness, regret, and the awareness of our mortality.

It has become one of the most “recognized voices in modern literature”1

I hadn’t thought about this piece in quite some time.  But something about the photograph I shot today, reminded me directly of it.  Perhaps it was the long shadows, cast by such small and insignificant objects.  And in moments they will change and take on new form.  But, for a very brief period, they look like this.  And then, they are gone.

So many great passages in this one work… by Mr. Elliot.  Thanks to J. Alfred.

“For I have known them all already, known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;”

…….

“Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?…”
…….

“I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.”

======================

1. (Cambridge History of American Literature, 2003).

Today, I had to call an “unnamed” company in hopes of getting an issue resolved.  After a prolonged and arduous journey through the Automated Phone System, I was told that I could Press 4, at any time, to speak to a Customer Service Representative.

Ahhhhh. Finally.  A human.  At  ANY time!!!  All I had to do was Press Four!!!  Who knew?

*Beep*  I hit the “4” running…. as fast as I could.

At which point,  I was greeted by another friendly Automated Voice, which informed me that the “Expected Wait Time” was 37 minutes.  The old EWT as I like to call it.  Thirty-Seven little minutes…. (But what happened to speaking to my Customer Service Representative AT ANY TIME???????)

There is the ageless proverb that goes… “Good things come to those who wait.”  All right.  I’ll bite. …. so I began the wait.  At minute 5.8 I began to get antsy.  It minute 7.4, I was downright edgy.

I started to think of other advice I’d heard:  Napoleon Hill, the great author, once said, “Don’t wait.  The time will never be just right.”  And President Abraham Lincoln wisely  noted “Things may come to those who wait… but only the things left by those who hustle.”

At minute 12.8 I hung up the phone, dug out my Saturday Night Fever Album, and did the hustle.  “Do-do-do-dodo-do-do-do do….Do-do-do-dodo-do-do-do do…. Do the Hustle.”

I never did get the problem resolved, but WOW, did it ever feel good to be in that white polyester suit, pointing up to the sky, down across my body to the hip, up to the sky, down across my body to the hip.

And it reminded me what Alice Walker wrote, “Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you.  Any happiness you get you’ve got to make for yourself.”

Do the Hustle….

I have written three different installments this evening….

From ‘Deviled Eggs” to “Talent  Shows ” to “Burning Bushes”.

Nothing seems to be sounding right as I write.

Nothing.

I guess there’s just nothing to write home about .
It can’t be that there is nothing new under the sun…. there is ALWAYS something new under the sun.  However, it is dark out.  Maybe that’s it.

It seems that tonight, I am good for nothing.

Instead, I will write about this photograph that I took today.  I like it.  It is a wheel on a threaded thing.  When you turn it, something happens somewhere.  Apparently, it has to be chained down, so that it cannot be turned.

If a person were to turn it, something would happen somewhere.  So for right now, someone has rigged it so that nothing will happen.

Nothing. Seems to be in the air tonight.  You can almost see it……

We’ve know him by a lot of names over the years…..

“Desertus operatus idioticus”
“Nemesis ridiculii”
“Overconfidentii vulgaris”
“Carnivorous slobbius”

….yes…. Wile E. Coyote.

As a kid, I loved “The Coyote”  I always wanted him to win.  I was forever hopeful that he would catch that dang Road Runner.

I thought Wile E. was about as cool as they came.
Carnivore.
Lots of Cool Gadgets
…and always, a day late and a dollar short.

Seems I grew up to be a lot like that ol’ coyote.

But I will tell you this much….  he had it going on… inventive, tenacious, athletic…  AND…. he shopped everything “ACME”  …..Loyal Customer.

I liked that scraggy character.

In fact, if I had a high speed internet company, I would name it Wired E. Coyote.  Or Internetus Operandii…..   Beep Beep.

(Note:  My brother knows ACME Spring well.  It is in Dayton, Ohio.  He snapped this image on a Smart Phone.  I processed it in PhotoshopCS5.)