Blog

  • What Did You Say?

    On Sunday, late afternoon, I was out walking my dog. Normal Sunday in the City, it was a little warm so I was in shorts, and I had on my Tottenham Hotspur t-shirt that my wife and kid got me for Father’s Day last year.

    As I got to the corner to cross the street, a guy was coming across towards me. He stuck out a finger, pointing directly at me, which made me think, “Oh god, here comes a crazy person.” Then he yelled at me;

    “C’mon You Spurs!”

    He smiled at me, and just kept walking.

    It took me a second to realize that he wasn’t crazy. He was a Spurs fan, calling out to another Spurs fan.

    But you see, as I already told you, I had thought in my mind that this dude was crazy, so my brain didn’t register exactly what he was saying to me. It was like I heard just a jumble of sounds that I was trying to ignore. And then it hit me, “That guy didn’t say something crazy!” But I wasn’t sure what he said, so I had to play it back over in my mind – “C’mon You Spurs!” That’s when my head kicked into gear and was like, “He’s a Tottenham fan! He’s Saying that because of your shirt, you big dummy!” And what I said back to the guy was:

    “Hey! Yeah! That’s right!” Sometimes I amaze myself at my ability to express myself so clearly and concisely.

  • ODDS and ENDS: I Want to Go to the Gym, The Greatest Upset in Cricket World Cup History, and Mowing the Lawn

    (If there is a remedy, I will run from it)

    Today, honestly, was the first day in my life wherein when I woke up, and I had a desire to go to the gym. Not sure what is happening to me. I hate going to the gym, or at least I did. Yet, running on the treadmill for 30 minutes sounds enjoyable. Crap! I think I might be changing for the better.

    Did you know that the Men’s Cricket World Cup is underway? Did you know that the US is the host country? did you know that the USA has a team? Would you believe that the USA is not ranked very high in the world, and is not considered a serious competitive team? Would you believe that low ranked Team USA beat the 6th ranked powerhouse team from Pakistan yesterday? Yeah, neither did I! This is actually a very big deal in the Cricketing world, and I feel that out of National Pride we should be celebrating this! As such, here is your 2024 USA Men’s National Cricket Team:

    I never really minded the chore of mowing the yard. My Dad would make me do it, and I think at first it was like a punishment. But I had a walkman and lots of tapes, so it became a time for me to zone out and fall into my music. If I remember correctly, I could mow the front and back yard in thirty minutes, but it was Texas, so in the summer I either had to mow in the morning, or at the very edge of dusk. I don’t know if I will ever own a house, but if I do, I am looking forward to taking care of a yard.

  • Short Story Review: “Beyond Imagining” by Lore Segal

    (The short story “Beyond Imagining” by Lore Segal appeared in the June 10th, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.)

    Illustration by Bénédicte Muller

    A few years before my mother passed away, we got into a conversation about getting older. She was around 70 years old at this time, and happily enjoying her life in retirement, as well as being the matriarch of our family, but she especially enjoyed being a grandmother. “Is it all what you hoped it would be?” I asked her, to which she responded, “When I got married (at 19) I never thought I would live past forty. This is all new to me.” My mother could be dry, but at the time, I wasn’t sure what to make of her answer. Since her passing, and my own aging, I have come to understand that you can’t get excited for something you aren’t able to imagine.

    Lore Segal’s “Beyond Imagining” posed this thought early in the first section, when the character Bridget, speaking about death states, “I think that the reason I think I won’t mind being dead is that I can’t imagine it, and I don’t think we know how to believe what we aren’t able to imagine.” This idea, this through line, plays role in the four sections of this story, which follow a circle of elderly women friends in New York, as they handle, deal, and accept their current lives.

    I know that the above description is, maybe, an unfair simplification of this piece. The story exudes a wonderful melancholy as it lets us experience the world of these women. But it also has a very delicate touch, showing the importance and power of their friendships, how these relationships at this point in their lives sustains them, and gives them strength to deal with issues and discoveries they did not anticipate. Though this piece is not very long, the characters intertwin in each other’s sections, and I found this structure added a depth of authenticity to the friendships.

    When I finished reading this story, I wanted to hug these ladies. I wanted to hold their hand, like a doting son would, and listen to them talk. But the emotional power of this story is that these are the conversations these friends have when it is only them around. These aren’t salacious or confessionary conversations, but conversations friends have when the sharing of experience is the intimacy. It’s the conversation between friends that can make what one can’t imagine, into something that can be believed.

  • Don’t Read Too Much Into This

    I’m having a good day, I just want to listen to Portishead is all…

  • Today’s Sketchbook Drawing

    A sketch of the local park. Crayons, pencil, markers on paper.