If Nothing Else
Monday. An uneven night's sleep. Disturbing dreams maybe, half awakened thoughts of bad guys climbing the scaffolding in the rainstorm outside my apartment (dreamtime logic operates under interesting rules) so I slept in two hours later than usual, got dressed, went to breakfast, read the papers as the sun poked through the clouds, home now with the sun nowhere to been seen and the rains, my buckos, the rains coming in off the ocean like winter come to settle old scores.
So. Now that the weather will be keeping me ever more inside the apartment, I've been thinking of things I can do here to make myself more comfortable. Not something men usually think about from all the anecdotal evidence, but why don't I have a proper lamp beside the chair I use to watch television so I can read in the evenings? I have two glass side tables I like littered with votive candles (which I often light in the evenings), which adds comfort and atmosphere, but the addition of a lamp and maybe a table couldn't hurt, might give impetus to start one of these projects I'm forever talking about.
Sounds like just another way to spend money without having to get out of your chair.
Maybe, but when's the last time I've thought about making my surroundings more comfortable? Since San Francisco? With very few exceptions I could throw every stick of furniture I own out on the street, not because it's old and I'm tired of looking at it, but because it's old and broken. One aspect of thinking I'd like to move into a new place (with a larger living room or work space) is to junk the furniture (with the exception of the bed) and replace it! All of it! (The exclamation points are a hint of the energy I've invested in this.)
On a lighter or heavier note, as you will, I was thinking about the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush yesterday, wondering if I had even a tenth of the courage that act must have required. Think about it. Any overt action, anything that might look hostile done by an American, let alone an Iraqi, to the President, in the presence of the President: you'd have to expect you'd get yourself killed. My guess is it will survive as an iconic moment signaling not everyone in Iraq, not everyone in the world applauds our little military effort. Now, would life have been any better for us or the Iraqis if we'd left Hussein in place? Not a question you can answer, life has a habit of throwing you curves, but yesterday, a guy with bowling size balls, put his life on the line to make his statement. Hats off to an Iraqi journalist for chutzpah, if nothing else.
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