random consolation

Even careening down thistle hill, there are thoughts that bring comfort.

(which is only fair, since it was them doing the tormenting)

Consoling to think that I require much more forgiveness than is required of me.

To realize that I am neither as good looking nor talented as I think I am.

To reflect on how failing to live up to lofty principles kills you slowly enough to allow for redemption.

And smile at the absolute assurance that life is sweet, (as evidenced in fruit and clear water), ordered for good (in that Nature seeks balance), full of more good people than bad (as seen in your own friends), and finally that death and the constant possibility of death make the whole experience more beautiful.

Roland Orzabal sang: "you think what makes it easier."

Maybe I am. Though I never thought of myself as one interested in ease.

But if I can think a thought that makes a nectarine an electric joy machine, why not?

everything is fine

I was at the Market, purchasing sandwhiches for the Algonquin Round Table.

The cashier (a pretty girl, I suppose, if one cared to notice) looked me over and said:

"You're the well dressed one."

I don't want to know why, but it made everything alright for a moment. She could have guessed Selfish, Hypocritical, Spiritually Lazy. She might even have detected Haggard, Lascivious, and Passive-Agressive. Certainly she couldn't have missed Short and, most obvious of all, Pretentious, and Philandering. But she didn't mention these things. The identity she chose to identify had to do with clothing. And as it had no undercurrent of Dandy, or Hopeless Slave to Fashion, I felt rewarded.

How shallow do you have to be that the lable "Well Dressed" fills you? First with a childish sense of accomplishment; second with a brief (really almost instantly thwarted) thrill of sexual possibility; finally with a feeling of gratitude that we live in a world where people who don't know each other resort either to kindness or breezy indifference to grease the gears of social interaction.

So there I am. The well dressed one. For some of You (path crossers of various degrees) that's all there is, and I'm fine with that.