tiaras and gum

At a kiosk in the airport, along with the things you usually see in airport kiosks, there was a tiara. Ah, Mexico.

When I opened my packet of gum, sand spilled out. Ah, Mexico.

wrapping up

The end of a remarkable year. A year of change.

To have met people who attest to the genius of Arrested Development, people who do not ask me to repeat when I say I am from Palestine, people who can talk about books for as long and as passionately - a sign of good things to come.

Friendships that had just taken flight, in mid-air we went our separate ways.

color

Day 1, pre-sun, a Mexican guy said to me - I like your color - and pointed to the skin on his arm.

And here I've been, non-stop, taking in their skin color. The browns and whites, the red undertones of the indigenous Americans. Sunset-ish.

Where are you from? Acknowledging that my skin color doesn't fit the place and that he noticed.

There's honesty in the simplicity of his statement. Why stifle that with race-censored PC-ness? In the US people would be embarrassed to bring up your skin color even in a compliment. How silly.

obama unplugged

I hadn't seen this when I wrote the previous obama blog, but there's more here. Sincerity undoubted. 

pretty sure

Mother: Do you need to go to the potty?
4 year old: No.
Mother: Are you sure?
4 year old: Pretty sure.

Potty control: so-so. Subtleties of language: 100%.

obama

He wiped the corner of his eye at the memorial service for the CT children. I've never believed a politician more. Is it possible he's the exception??

He knows the only thing that matters in this moment is to join them in their vulnerability. An amazing speech. I've never been so moved. I'm riveted.

You can watch it here.

rated R

Elmo and Mrs. Santa putting their clothes on (after?).

Cover your children's eyes. And in the subway no less.

untitled

In a previous life, I was a mermaid.

UN (again)

It seems appropriate to pick up where we left off - the UN vote to "upgrade" from entity (one step above ether) to non-member, non-voting, non-everything state. And with that little bit we are prouder.

Thank you, Mr Blogger, for finding yourself an app. You, too, can toast to your new status.

palestine

The world's support - it's an admission of the injustices, a public viewing of the wounds. It's heartbreakingly intimate - the world witnessing you (an entire people) in your most vulnerable state and holding you up.

From BBC: the link.

angles

From every angle, every view, it's love. You can never see it all - it's in a different dress each night.

hoboken post-irene

She blew us off!! (Yes, intended!)

hoboken pre-irene

backpack

Don't pretend you don't know who this is:

My niece MADE these goody bags for her little 3 year old sister's birthday!!

corner dry cleaner

I really just liked this phrasing. It made me want to be a better person.

good graffiti

I'm in a cafe with pro-Palestinian graffiti on the bathroom wall. Can anyone identify the place??

(Yes, I do believe it's the only one in the city - I'd be happy to know I'm wrong.)

new york moment(s)

Meatpacking District. Historic moment (slight delay in posting).

Olifants

Elephants. There's no living thing as majestic. I could swear I hear them - not see them out in the physical world.

They captured an elephant out in South Africa in Kruger and transported him to Mozambique to help the population that was recovering after the civil war. When they released him, he must have been so lost - terrain unknown. During the wild fires he left the park - no fences around like Kruger.

They tried to bring the elephant back. They drugged him, but he didn't make it. He died on the truck.

Forty years old.

When they buried him with a gun salute, I lost it. A burial fit for a king. An honorable death.

only in hoboken

it all just came together...

steve earle

I cradled it, I tenderly took it home, I expectantly eyed it on my bedside table for weeks, I opened it, I anticipated beautiful words spilling out of the hard covers...

but I found a story, a story with magical realism (if I've said it once I've said a thousand times - nobody should even try it - no one - after Garcia Marquez and Allende), with the following sole passage that, in all reality, only half-begged for a rereading:

Naturally it was her grandfather who had first recognized that spirits of all kinds were drawn to Graciela like moths to a flame and that she possessed the rare ability to see and hear them all. That same internal beacon attracted human attention as well, and her grandfather had told her that if she was to have any peace in this world, she had to learn how not to be noticed when she didn't wish to be. It was simply a matter, he said, of damping down that inner light.

From I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive by Steve Earle