For all of you who doubt that rat snakes will get up into the trees on the side of the creek, let me reassure you that they indeed will. They’re harmless. But snakes are exactly like Aslan. You can’t be 100% sure. They are beautiful in their own way.
I took this picture at 5:59, when the sun officially rose. I’d already taken a long walk in the dark earlier in the morning.
“What is up the hill in those trees?” I drove by and had the undeniable urge to go find out. I also found at least a dozen spider webs, each of them criss-crossing my intended path. There were at least a thousand birds up there, including a boisterous crow who wanted to know who I thought I was to invade his territory.
I didn’t want to come down.
But you know how it is.
Time doesn’t just march; it kicks.
I took my cat Güino outside on the landing this morning to listen to the orchestra of birds. When I turned back toward the door, I realized he was shadow boxing with the glint created by my glasses.
I like this picture because he looks real in the shadows created by the cascading light.
Knowing that the Amazon driver was going to walk up my steps, I waited. My neighbor sat on one of the two chairs on the outcropping of the landing outside of her apartment.
“Be careful,” I told the Amazon driver as he started up the stairs. “She definitely bites. She’s mean. That’s actually my girlfriend. She won’t even let me sit over there or stand near her.”
The Amazon driver quickly looked up to the top of the stairs to see my neighbor sitting in the chair facing the stairs. Between you and I, the fact that she was motionless and not reacting made her seem a little menacing.
My neighbor couldn’t decide whether to grin or to be horrified.
“Seriously be careful! She’s almost rabid!”
The driver made the turn at the top of the stairs so fast I thought he might jump over the rail to get out of there.
When I laughed, he grinned. As he made his way back toward my neighbor, I hollered. “Can I come back over there now, please?”
The driver shook his head confusedly as he went back down the stairs.
“Now that driver is going to go back and tell his coworkers that he met a woman so mean she makes her boyfriend stand at the other end of the landing when they’re outside.”
As he got into his van, he looked up at me and smiled. I waved and then circled my right index finger around my ear and then pointed at my neighbor who was still sitting in her chair.
“There goes your reputation,” I said.
A woman knelt on the sidewalk near the corner. She was talking to her small son while her slightly older daughter stood nearby. Their bikes were next to them. The mom pointed at the flashing ambulance as it turned into the hospital drive.
She explained to him what an ambulance is in the simplest words possible.
“Someone is sick,” the daughter said, jumping into the explanation.
“Someone is driving the sick person?” The young boy looked at his sister.
Mom stepped in before the daughter said something clever. “Yes. And there are people riding in the back helping the sick person until they get to the hospital.”
(I was waiting for the little girl to say something precocious, such as, “No, he gets a discount if he does the driving.)
The boy repeated the word “ambulance,” but it came out sounding only slightly recognizable.
I stood a few feet away, waiting to cross. The mom smiled at me. “I like to explain things to them. You never know what sticks.”
I smiled. “Do you know why old ambulances used to be long and odd-shaped?”
“No, I don’t,” the mom said.
“Because the first ambulances were driven by funeral homes. Up to 50% of them.”
I wish you could have seen the mom’s eyes widen. “Really? Is that true?”
“Yes, it is. That’s wild, isn’t it?”
“Now I’m going to have to go home and look all this up. How did I not know that?”
“Because of Bridgerton.” (A popular TV show popped into my head, so of course, I said it.)
“On Netflix? I love that show!”
She didn’t get the implication of my comment. I laughed and said, “See y’all later,” to them all.
Given the way she took the time to explain things to her kids, I’m convinced that she did look it up when she went home. What’s certain is that both kids will grow up to be ridiculously smart.
One of those thought experiments that fascinates me is the movie one. IF your life were a movie being watched by an audience, what would they be screaming at you?
Chances are, for most of you, something immediately came to mind. And whatever that is? That should be your focus of change.
The lights were gorgeous this morning.
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PS…
I could hear shouts as I cut through the pylons that blocked the side street that once connected traffic coming off of Leverett.
As I approached, I could see two people standing on their tiny outcropping balcony in the dark.
The young guy was angry and said some things that shouldn’t be said. He stormed back inside and shut the door to the balcony.
As I passed, the young woman looked down and saw me. “I’m sorry about that,” she said.
“It’s been a rough night?” It popped out of my mouth before I thought about it. It’s a common predicament for me.
“Yes.”
“It’s obvious I’m old. If you don’t want to be standing on this balcony again in a year, you’re going to have to leave him.”
“I know.”
“I hope you get some sleep and have a better Saturday.”
When I reached Garland, I turned to see that she had gone back inside.
The problem isn’t “not knowing.” It’s the preference toward certainty over discovery.
Curiosity demands humility. Reality is always greater than our understanding.
Do we put in more work to preserve our filters and biases, defending them, or do we recognize our lack of understanding?
Creativity demands alternative explanations for everything, even what “everyone knows.” Intellectual stagnation is a complete failure of imagination, starting with the idea that what we know is incomplete. Or likely wrong.
Ignorance is not about what someone knows. It’s how they respond to not knowing.
Ignorance only survives because we seek certainty, comfort, and identity.
We’re having performance reviews at work. I can’t decide between baton twirling or interpretive dance.
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“Y’allternative” is one of those awesome words like hick-hop because it conveys exactly what you expect.
“Tie-Boned” is a word I came up with to replace “T-boned.” Instead of an accident, it’s a calamity caused by someone wearing a tie and concealing a hidden agenda. A person with dirty hands and ripped work pants can mess you up once. Someone with a tie can rig the entire system with a smile on their face.
I had a beautiful walk this morning in the stillness of the dark. Sounds carried strangely. It was easy to follow the barrel owl as it moved from block to block. I don’t know if it witnessed the strange flyover around 3:45 a.m.
The moon and the colors were beautiful this morning. Instead of trying for the perfect picture with this little rectangle of magic, I opted for the lowest resolution and the result is damn near a painting.
If fit the mood as I stood outside, temporarily away from duty and obligation.
I couldn’t help but wonder about all the people who will wake up this morning to a new reality, trying to find faces that will become familiar in time.
Pareidolia is a fancy word to describe seeing faces or patterns in everyday objects. It’s one of those words no one uses.
This morning, the air was still. Sound carried forever as I walked through secret swatches of darkness. I love knowing all the dark spots where I can see the sky or watch the bats hunt for insects. Where I come through a canopy and a hidden owl shrieks its surprise as I pass under. Sometimes I’m the one surprising the police as they park away from desolate streets or against the dark trees and foliage. I think most of them are accustomed to seeing me now.
I wouldn’t want to describe myself as necessarily normal, but it delights me that I’m the only one out at 2 a.m who’s already slept and taking advantage of the deserted world of the early morning. Everyone else is an outlier and still burning on fumes from the previous day.
The picture is an example of pareidolia. It looks like a face. That picture took 30 seconds of exposure in almost total darkness. I stood and watched the bats flit across the backdrop as I waited for the camera to reveal what was hidden.
There have been times when I dreaded seeing what might be behind the darkness. When the hair on the back of my neck stands up, or I’m certain I’m being watched. At times, adrenaline hits my system. But I stand there regardless. The biggest danger to me is pepperoni.
P.S. Parenthetically Speaking 