i usually ignore woodrow. it just cracks me up since your'e so much NOT like that (oops, i've outed you!)
yes, do come up. still, i wouldn't mind hitting portland again. i want to see the x, i'd like to go back to the red and black. and soon it will be time for a small trip, to do the drive again, to listen to a Neal Stephenson novel on the way down and back up. i just need to feel a bit more rested first.
Zoo wrote:You get the fourth copy (My three kids get dibs on the first three... I get to keep the leftovers)
i'm truly honored. the other day i was cleaning (an endless task since i'm never home and when i am i'm doing better things) and discovered where i had squirreled your poems from my last visit. it was such a fabulous surprise. funny, though, because one refers to a time in 19*5, but was written in 1999. when i had first read it i somehow missed the date you wrote it, thinking that the 19*5 was the year of authorship. i was sitting here thinking 'damn, this guy was writing early!!'
i have a lot of stuff i don't put on this forum because people don't need to be bombarded with my processing of violence and loss. but there's some that might be worth sharing, at least with you. you know what i'm talking about. of course, every time i try to find the literary tomes thread to post i lost it altogether... maybe you can post some poetry and revive it? i may just join in.
it's funny how many beautiful little experiences i keep running into.
a bunch of Pal Solidarity types were at Virginia Inn a few weeks ago. This man came up and asked for a light, which was given to him. Very casually, he comments on our 'scarfs' - the kuffiyehs many were wearing. I explained that most of the group was Pal rights supporters. This of course began a long conversations with one of the most beautiful, peaceful souls I've been able to meet. It turns out that i met his business partner at greeter gate at BRC, too. I've gone by his shops to see him a few times lately, and always leave feeling rather moved and grateful. There are few people who have that level of peace and love... so i'm looking forward to spending more time with him. Which, in typical Arab world fashion, is easily attainable just by dropping by.
I'm hip!! Waleed has a big bottle of water on his desk right now. I told him he was going to have to knock that shit off... he laughed and said "Yeah". I want to see how he handles this for the next forty days. Should be interesting.
I'm forgoing the food today in preparation for *maybe* fasting. But you'd better believe i had a biiiig gulp of water just now! I don't have much trouble on a health level with missing some food - it doesn't matter much - but going without water always seems like such a stupid idea. but then, there are many in Gaza who have no water now anyway. it's good to remember the many around the world who don't have the most basic and necessary of resources. and then there's the water privatization issue... grrr....
did i ever tell you about what was one of my top 10 meals ever??
i was coming up from bailing out a buddy, returning north. we went through the checkpoint (the only time, i believe, i got through without having to risk my neck through the mountains) and found, as usual, a bunch of men who were detained there, not allowed to return home after work and school. so we stayed, to advocate when we would, if they wanted, to reduce the likelihood of violence, and in the end just to be there, with them, because sometimes that's the only thing - and the most powerful things - you can do. as night fell, we were still stuck. since it was ramadan they hadn't eaten all day. the two of us foreigners hadn't eaten for most of it since we had been in public. when the sun sank below the mountains, we opened up our meager offerings and shared them all around. then some Palestinians came up with food that they'd brought, i believe, just to feed whoever was stuck. it was cold as hell, no one was dressed warmly enough to ward off the mountains' chill. so eventually one man, a schoolteacher with a huge smile and an incredible amount of patience, lights a grass fire. the soldiers noticed and got pretty pissed. they yelled at us a few times before we actually stamped it out. but as soon as they was turned their backs again, he lit another one. we were all laughing, enjoying our short lived heat and warming our hands with a circle of friends, strangers. the soldiers returned, angry, and the teacher argued with them. he wouldn't back down, but certainly wasn't an ass or even disagreeable about it. so they made him sit alone for a while. as the night crept on we stood around singing stupid songs (they wanted us to imitate Michael Jackson and such - it was hilarious). They'd sing for us, we'd sing for them. And evenutally, after a few hours, we left that place, where strangers had shared a Ramadan meal on the roadside and laughter triumphed despite the cold, the separation from family, and the exhaustion. i don't remember what it was we ate. but it doesn't really matter. few meals can top it.....
