shymala

"Do you know what happened to me today?" This from a slight, well-put-together woman I smiled at during a walk. She said, "My job is so stressful, I just walked from..." 3+ miles, and she was in work clothes & shoes. She had meant it as a casual, would you believe, how funny, comment. But then she broke down. Not for long, she pulled herself together pretty quickly -- 5 mins of letting it out, tops. But what are we doing to people, in this country? Millions and millions on the edge of endurance. I was home sick on Sunday, and read myself the service out of an antique prayer book. There are verses from the Bible read during services. The surprising thing was that this very old version of the prayer book had about 3x as many verses about the responsibility of the wealthy to give, share, sustain, as the contemporary prayerbook. God, despite the evil that is coming out of the far-right, is not a fiscal conservative. We are, in fact, our brothers (or sisters) keepe

We had a storm this morning, early, not a monsoon but in that general direction: lighting, thunder, wind, rain. And now it's past and the sounds are shifting down from that wildness. The hush surprises my ear. There's one remark from an arguing seagull. Other sounds slowly begin to make themselves heard. It's like the pause between movements in a symphony. Now the songbirds are tuning up. The slow movement is starting. There's a shushing sound, car going by on wet road. It's going to be an urban pastorale. Hah! And now a crow! And here is the wonder of it, to me: this entire landscape of sound could be happening in Port Klang, Malaysia. If I close my eyes I can see the domes of mosques, a restaurant overlooking fishing boats and serving chili crabs... I never expected this in Brooklyn. The world is vast and almost unbridgeable, sometimes, and then there are moments when the far is achingly near. Good morning, friends.

four hours after the quake. Still awake for some reason. My spouse just moved the thesaurus and the German tapes (heavy, because German) to lower shelves. wondering: what does one do after an earthquake? Is there an etiquette?

hi folks. Just writing this down so I remember myself. Thought I'd pass it on. about 5 mins past 8 this evening, first sensation was a rumbling noise. At first I actually thought it was the kid upstairs, who does produce a sound like thunder, and a little shaking in the in-between floor (California construction, don't ask). And then it got louder, so I thought, real thunder, as it is about the time of year that N. Cal monsoon-ish rainy season (cold monsoon rain, *very* weird to somebody from my original part of the world, but that's another story). Right after that 'thunder' thought came the realization 'but the house is shaking' (much more than even the kid upstairs could do) and then the slowly dawning idea that this was an earthquake actually strong enough to feel. After that, several seconds to think, what is it we're supposed to be doing now and a fascinated staring at pictures on the wall, to see what they would do. And then deciding we should loca

Now that the Republicans control House, Senate, White House and Supreme Court, their agenda is going to play out. Anything that happens in the next four years can be laid at their door. It's an appalling thought that we need to rise above. We 'liberals' are supposed to be 'soft' and we will be expected to roll over and play dead or hang our heads in shame or something, and hide our politics. If we don't do that, but instead use every opportunity to hold up a mirror to this government, and make sure that the people who voted as they did out of a concern about American family values is forced to see that the conservative agenda doesn't value American families, there may be some hope for the future, and in particularly we will be able to face ourselves. It's also important to continue to reach outside the circle of talking to ourselves: every time a mother holds a bake sale because her son or daughter in Iraq needs body armor the government isn't