Out and Up

 

A few blocks south of where I live, there’s a Vietnamese commercial community: nail salons, beauty supplies, several restaurants, and a specialty grocery that attracts lines of cars every weekend.  It all looks very interesting and prosperous.  The local Chamber of Commerce features this as a prime attraction.

As I drove by yesterday, I wondered if — maybe — in several years there may be an Afghan community somewhere in Chicago.  Exotic, vibrant, and featured by the locals as an interesting addition.

Let's Hide?

 

My favorite physicist, Michio Kaku, thinks we should immediately stop sending any signals of our existence out into the universe.  The broadcast of his opinion comes as the government finally acknowledges that there have been sightings of UFOs.

Kaku asks why any advanced entity would want to visit us.  He says there can only be one reason:  to conquer and extract whatever is valuable.  And, Kaku is sticking to that harsh assessment.

I’m going to remain a romantic on the subject.  We are doing enough conquering and extracting right here without any outside assistance.  If there’s an entity out there advanced enough to reach us, I hope they would bring another perspective.  And some help. We could sure use it.

My Olympic Moment

 

As I was walking in the park yesterday I came upon two women athletes who were performing the shot put.  I recognized it from watching the Olympics.  They were twirling just like on TV and landing the ball among a series of cones placed on the grass to measure the distance.

I asked if I could hold the metal ball.  It was really heavy!  I could never imaging throwing it.  And if I dropped it on my foot?  

When I got home I looked up the weight:  8 lb for women, 16 lb for men.  I wonder if that will stay the same now that transgender athletes are allowed to play.

Then and Now

 

Bill — living in New York — warned me.  But it wasn’t enough to keep me from turning on my TV every morning to watch Cuomo tell us how he was fighting the virus and encouraging us to be strong just like the brave New Yorkers, and like him.

It was when I was wiping down everything I bought from the store.  When the shelves for toilet paper were empty and even kleenex was hard to find.  When Trudy was sewing masks and gave me one which became my favorite. When visiting with a friend on a park bench was the highlight of the long week.

So I’m not going to beat myself up for those mornings with Cuomo.  I’m going to let him stay in that moment for what he did then.  And now, if he’s another bad guy who made sure he secured the maximum profit from his time on top, let him suffer in this moment too.