bitter scroll, cabinet of natural curiosities
In chilly, still bright foilage on November 21, 2009 at 12:15 am
Last night I dreamt about a sort-of cabinet of natural curiosities. I was working in a store that had this large wooden case with lots of tiny drawers and shelves, and inside each one was something different. Snail shells, dollar store junk, bitter scrolls that taste like honey. Then I woke up and imagined a grand life’s work of building a cabinet like an ark around your whole living room and filling each drawer with something small and loving.
Bush, Indiana, Muncie Star Press
In chilly, showers on November 19, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I found this letter to the editor about five years ago in the Muncie, Indiana Star Press. Now I never liked Bush at all, but this guy? He takes the cake.
Please, please read the last paragraph. I can’t believe it actually made it into print.
pet snuggie, Snuggie for dogs
In chilly, dark by five on November 18, 2009 at 9:28 pm
They comfort you all year long. Comfort them this holiday season.
Folded, MoMA, Paper: Pressed, Slashed, Stained
In chilly, still bright foilage on November 14, 2009 at 12:57 am
I love this MoMA interactive site from their exhibition Paper: Pressed, Stained, Slashed, Folded. So simple it’s genius. Check it out here.
Cabbage Patch Kid, dad, H1N1, swine flu
In showers, windy on November 6, 2009 at 5:43 am
“Getting a swine flu shot,” dad says, “is turning out to be harder than getting you a Cabbage Patch Kid for Christmas in the 80s.”
bread, communion, transubstantiation, wine
In chilly, still bright foilage on November 5, 2009 at 12:29 am
Some Christians say that Christ mysteriously hovers around the bread and wine (if you’re not, say, Catholic or Lutheran or Episcopal or Eastern Orthodox) but doesn’t embody it. But if you are Catholic or the like, you probably believe that Christ actually hops into each loaf and bottle after being blessed, literally embodying the elements.
I went to a Lutheran high school and got in a fight with Mr. LeBow, my history teacher, in the middle of class one day about this. Why shouldn’t any true believer be allowed to take communion with any church body? That confused me to pieces. It’s because, according to Mr. LeBow, if I did I might be damning myself as an unconfirmed member of his church that believes Christ isn’t a symbol in the wine and bread, but the actual bloody wine and fleshy bread. When he said that my cheeks turned red hot. I was an outsider right then, at that school, when the whole reason I took Jesus in my heart is because I believe he wants everyone in his.
And I still believe that if Jesus is real, of course he can swoop over thousands of stale loaves, millions of tiny pale biscuits each Sunday and make them body. And even though I’m sure he prefers turning wine into blood he can do it to tiny plastic grape juice cups, too. It’s like every Sunday a million miles of his veins and skin covers the whole planet, turning us into something else entirely cooler and more hopeful than we realize.
Halloween, Oregon, Portland
In chilly, cloudy on November 2, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Drove through all kinds of weather to get to Portland Saturday. Once we arrived it was tame and gentle outside, quite right for hot chocolate, then even warm Halloween night.
