Stay aware of the cultural trance without fleeing from the world.

I am ready to flee.

offers myriad opportunities to watch the cultural trance in action. It’s easy to turn away in disgust, but that the world needs awareness, and I should not take mine and hide it away.

So we had a TV-free day today. I kept the girls home from school, due to car problems. And it was a wonderful day, guess it wasn’t a complete retreat since I have been on the computer and the phone a bit…still.

We danced salsa; doodled; then they spontaneously created “study posters” for their room, vocabulary and spelling, alphabet practice for the little one, some words. They did each other’s hair, and mine. They made their own snack. Spontaneously made instruments out of their plastic easter eggs: putting rice in them and duct tape around. Played music. Now they’re in their room playing some imaginative game regarding teddy bears and “a restaurant.”

It’s quietly raining outside, and we haven’t been outside all day. And that’s o.k. Maybe I’ll take them with me to walk the dog before it gets too dark.

I’ve had enough.

Today I’d just as soon flee from the world.

it is harder to do this
than others.

Historical Quote of the Day (AP)

“A moment I’ve been dreading. George (Bush Sr.) brought his
ne’re-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I’ll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they’ll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.”

—Ronald Reagan in his recently published diaries, written May 17,
1986.

Many mornings when we walk, Sadie and I go past a boxy old Nissan with a sticker on its bumper that reads A Marine and his Tank. . . it’s a beautiful thing.

I need to stop myself from trying the count the number of scarinesses in that image. My heart aches for humanity in all its overwhelming blindness.

I’m doing better at this. . . for now. For now, I can even feel some compassion. No doubt this will change. This is a hard goal. It takes continual attention.

“In France, the government is afraid of the people. In America, the people are afraid of the government.”

paraphrased from Sicko