My thoughts are with the victims of the recent attacks in London. Some lives were lost and others broken.
Phillip is about to go to Iraq, where he will see terrible things. Alison is fast learning how hard it is to manage on one's own. Aubrey is just at the edge of seeing the darkness people are capable of and Orion lives at the center of a sunlit, toy-filled world where everyone loves each other.
I try to keep focused on the work. On good days, it helps put things into perspective. On really good days, it helps others put things into perspective too.
Aubrey and I went to Starbucks for iced coffee. (yes, baaaaaaah, I know) Seven-fifty for two coffees. More than we spent on books we 'rescued' from the thrift store.
Aubrey stirred her frappacino, "So, my fat cells will never go away."
"Yeah, but they can get smaller."
"But, they will always be there. Just sitting there....waiting for a cookie."
Speaking of coffee. It's high time for some. And to go make art. Because, really right now I don't know what else I can do.
3 comments:
I realize this wasn't the point of your post but it amazes me how much Starbucks, the cafe at Barnes and Noble, etc. are becoming the 'in' thing for teenagers. Maybe its been that way for awhile but my 13 year old daughter and her friends are just crazy about them. Tori prefers exotic hot chocolate flavors and smoothies to iced coffee but she is always wanting to go to one of these. Her and her friends are overjoyed that a Starbucks is about to take over the spot currently occupied by a no-name coffee shop. The reality is that they could probably get the same stuff there now that they will when Starbucks takes over but it seems to be the prestige thing of going to a "Starbucks". I was happy as a kid to just get an ice cold pop out of the machine and am thankful that I have yet to develop a craving for expensive coffee...I love the smell but just haven't found anything I like the taste of.
Lisa - I knew you would understand what we're feeling here. And you do.
Britain is small enough that we've all been affected in some way - if only by worrying about the people we know in London (and everybody knows someone in London). My friends and family are all safe, thank goodness.
There've been anarchists demonstrating against the G8 in Edinburgh this week. Large parts of the city centre were off limits. People were injured, windows were smashed and paving stones torn up and thrown at police, and obviously a lot of people have been annoyed by the way that the peaceful protests that were planned have been hijacked... But nobody actually died.
Another way in which perspective re-enters.
Keep making art. We need you (and others like you) to do that.
If you stopped, that would be one way in which the darkness would have won.
Oh, and I wish I could tell Aubrey not to worry about her fat cells. I bet she doesn't need to. Unfortunately I think it's part of being a teenager.
If I had spent less time at her age agonizing over how horrible I looked, and more time running about enjoying my perfectly normal body, I wouldn't be having to re-learn how to run ten years later.
But I'm beginning to enjoy it - and I'd never have thought that was possible.
I did my first 5-kilometre race on Sunday. Three thousand women enjoying the sunshine and raising money for Cancer Research. That was something. You have to remember people are capable of good as well as evil - like the Make Poverty History march we had on Saturday: over 200,000 people, only one arrest. And it looks as though it may have made some difference.
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