Saturday, May 16, 2009

farewell and thank you


jimmywrites had its 100th consecutive day of posts yesterday. That milestone was an informal goal I had set for myself, and I am now beginning an indefinitely timed sabbatical from the blog format. I am going to work on some longer form essays and cannot find the time to do that and keep up the blog. I want to thank everyone who has been reading this. A consistent group of readers developed over the short life of jimmy (and squirrel) writes, and I just wanted to let you know what a pleasure it has been for me to write these, especially knowing someone was enjoying them (hopefully you were enjoying them). I think this format is wonderful for photos and short essays, but just not the best way to display longer essays/short stories. So, farewell for now.
Thank you.

BTW - don't worry about squirrel, he'll be fine...with the right medication.
Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 15, 2009

be flat

it is my understanding that residual radiation from the most recent universal separation incident (big bang) exists in a frequency nearly equivalent to a b-flat, and that the deepest "note" ever detected is a b-flat emanating from a supermassive black hole (57 octaves below a middle C). And so, as I listen (and who wouldn't)...closely, intently...and it is faint, almost imperceptable, but I think I hear it...wait, listen....there it is...the universe humming, humming a "b flat," hummmmm. shhhh........no, no, wait, goddamn it, i am pretty sure that is the hum from my idiot neighbor's generator. i wish it were easier. i think.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

i am afraid that i do not understand this

when i was growing up i knew an adult who thought feet were hideous, really nasty, not meant to ever be seen without covering - ugly, grotesque. That bothered me and still bothers me, because not only did i never understand the aversion, although i have seen my share of gnarly peds - but, you know, there is something special about my feet and especially my toes. Special as in, remarkably beautiful, not special as in, freaky or disfigured. Yep, my toes are pretty spectacular. Nice shape, perfect width and length, toe to foot proportion, and big toe to little toe arc - marvelous. My nails are manicured, healthy, and clear to white. Although normally hidden by shoes, my feet seem to have a need to be seen naked...well that's true about most of me; however, it is only about those stupendous toes that the following has been said (by me): i thought about naming my toes, but i find in them a beauty that cannot be named.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

tennis


This looks like an advertisement for Wilson tennis balls, but I prefer Penn tennis balls. I was playing tennis with my daughters last night, and I needed a photo for this blog. Tennis reminds me of how I used to play against the back of my parents garage when I was a kid. I can't even image how annoying the sound of me hitting the back of garage with a tennis ball, over and over, must have been to them. They never once said anything negative about it. Never once. I played tennis for years, and they would ask me how it was going, but not a word about the mind-twisting repetition of thumps. It is a standard I can't match. It is a nice photo of a tennis ball, but I played tennis with my daughters. I wonder if, as they get older, they will remember the colors of the tennis court as fondly as I do.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

love, beauty, and perspective

it just doesn't matter how large or beautiful the universe is, when you are sad. sometimes we need love, not perspective.

Monday, May 11, 2009

on a clear day you can see chicago

everyday at work feels like trying to convince my boss that my position is unnecessary, but also that I would like to keep my job. the days are long.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Saturday, May 9, 2009

sometimes i burn sticks in my fire pit, and think about stuff 2


When i get the chance to burn the branches, sticks, and twigs that fall in the yard. I take it. I collect them in my fire pit. On a nice clear nearly windless night, like last night, I burn them. and then i think about the type of stuff you just don't get a chance to think about without an excuse to be quiet. I started the night using my day's experience to refine and bulletproof my nihilism, but the more I looked into the fire, I saw nothing, and rather than puffing up my nihilistic claims, the nothing was not the nothing that is described by the lack of something. but rather the nothing that has no desire to have anything. the beginning and end of all things. the nothing that is everything, and the nihilism that has meaning. i like my fire pit, where else can you clearly see nothing?

Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 8, 2009

a bad day at work

i was transported by the smell of freshly cut wet grass during a gentle rain. I was transported to a natural world where everything is good - good for the senses and the emotions and the memories, all good. and i understand that natural world is no more or less horrific than the unnatural world I just left where they pay me to show up each day and work. but somehow, the gruesome side of nature is easier to accept than being paid to ignore the nature of life.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

u, p, and s

i want to buy a used brown delivery truck and change the meaning of the letters to "Universal Peace Service," and the truck will have to run on bio-diesel, or better yet, it will just float to wherever peace is needed fueled by just good-vibe energy. and i would like to be the driver, or maybe "love pilot" or "grooviness enhancer" would be a better description, and no uniforms - too fascist. It might even be better to fictionalize myself, maybe even into a cartoon - that would make it much easier to "drop-in" wherever peace and love and grooviness was needed and i would like just hand it out freely and let it flow and grow and be beautiful, but I would need TV revenue to support my family, and maybe to make this a TV show I could have an archenemy or nemesis (like a really bitter and angry talking squirrel), but the whole thing would just be a cover for me to spend my real life driving around in a cool panel truck filled with snack food, but delivering peace. I can see it. Peace.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

flowers, sunshine, and a bathroom



when the morning sun rises, it briefly puts light through my bathroom window and onto the inexpensive curtain in the photo above. I never notice that curtain or the machine embroidered flowers on it, unless I happen to use the bathroom during those few minutes on a cloudless morning. The sun moves to the other side of the house, and the light is changed back to ordinary. With the ordinary, it is hard to know if what we choose to notice, and what we choose to ignore, and what we just miss, is important. With the extraordinary, it is even more difficult.

Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

my nose

I was sitting outside in the early evening darkness. I had my head tilted to the side resting in one hand which was supporting my chin. and it was just natural for my little finger to go up my nose. It felt good, so I slipped it into the other nostril. No one knew, but in the distance I could hear the highway hum of a car's tires rolling closer and then farther away, and a woman in a neighbor's house coughed near an open window, and children were still playing outside in this faded day become night, and in spite of my solitude, they are all too close, but as I push my finger around in my nose, they are not going to take my private moment. no matter the cost of dignity or hygiene. I need this sensation and I need this moment, and I need to feel the me only I know. personal dignity just got a little more personal, and a lot less dignified. I may wash my hands, but I am not sorry.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Sunday, May 3, 2009

eye of Cardinal


This is a super-high-tech-science enlargement of Cardinal's eye (original photo inset below). The cardinal has obviously developed a unique ocular structure through millennia of incremental evolutionary adaptations to now sport this perfect cardinal seeing device. Or not. As human technology improves to this point of being able to focus on the building blocks of existence, it is beautiful to be witness to god's master plan as it is revealed to us at our simple level. The elegance of a Cardinal's eye is proof positive that there is a plan, the plan of a God. It brings a tear of joy to my eye, and to Cardinal's eye, it brings, something else, I'm not sure exactly what, but I am sure it is beautiful, and the way god intended, it.


Cardinal says, "Hey. I'm still alive. I think."
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, May 2, 2009

eye ball


There are items all around the house that keep an eye on me. Some are more subtle than others. I appreciate their vigilence. I appreciate their smile and bounce. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but I do sometimes wonder just whose interests they have at heart (if they had a heart). Is there a hidden agenda? Who exactly do you serve, ball? I'm not even sure that's a smile. What do you want from me? Stop looking at me. What if I put you on the internet so you can look at someone else? Will you then allow me an unwatched moment? Maybe? OK then, in the meantime, please stop looking at me...Oh there now, I think eye ball is happy again, he was just lonely. I think he likes you...really likes you.

Posted by Picasa

Friday, May 1, 2009

love song

your soft gentle curves, bring me back, let me go, keep me in
your love, brings me back, lets me go, keeps me in
your thought, brings me back, lets me go, keeps me in

Thursday, April 30, 2009

a crow with a french fry

i made eye contact with a woman in another car. she looked at me for longer than our eye contact, she possessed a deceptively vulnerable smile of soulless desire. she could extract it all, the life, the love, the fantasy, the hope, the sadness and the pain, and both of us would be emptier. one of us destroyed. the other still hungry. she flipped her turn signal to the opposite direction, and went the other way. i would have resisted her. i have avoided her. but i know you are there, and i know what you want. there are no strangers.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

analogy in the sand


it is as if life's treasure is buried under one of the two X-marks-the-spot locations. one destination seems more obvious, is clearer, more direct and secure, while the other is a little harder to get to, and seems more desirable with greater potential payback...but, you only have the time and resources to dig under one of the X's. Also, this choice looms as the most important one you will make in your life; however, it is all nonsense. Because life is not a journey, you are not living on a path, you don't stop and smell any roses, you didn't find an extra set of footprints in the sand, you don't need to check your map, directions, hair in the mirror, field of crops, plant a seed - nothing. you are here to do the best you can with what you have, without blame - or not. most people chose the - or not, and suffer accordingly. okay, i have an expressed, and unnaturally high level of, disdain for analogy - especially when administered under the guise of helpful advise. analogy is, more accurately, simple-minded generic solutions for complex and personal issues. at best, analogy delays the suffering, which usually does not end well. if i have offended you, it is probably because, like analogy, i mean well, but i am often wrong, sorry, please forgive, i had a bad day...i mean really, who doesn't like a clever analogy? only a nescient, who needs to check his bearings...that's who. chop wood, carry water...and look for buried treasure.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

money

money has been on my mind lately, and i don't like it. i don't like money and i don't like to think about it. it bores me with its necessity. i am jealous of its power. it frustrates me with inappropriate emotions. it is food for the hungry and sugar for the ego. if we have the luxury of having it, it becomes what we fear when what we fear is what we don't face about ourselves. with or without it, i'm afraid.

Monday, April 27, 2009

vein

i suffer in beauty, not in pain, from a hideous varicose vein on my left leg. it looks like a blue knotted rope, or if you are poetically inclined, like a big blue fist defiantly raised in opposition to the tyranny of capitalism...on my calf. i've had it since i was a pre-teen. i accept it as a constant reminder that i am only perfect to my mother and obviously repulsive deformities are in her definition of perfection. she's really something. i've got to get her that lighthouse.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

flower photographs


In general, it is hard to take a bad photograph of a flower (this is Vinca Minor); however, it is easy to take a forgettable or mundane photograph of a flower. It is raining today, i took this photo 2 or 3 days ago. i went outside this morning and this flower is gone. I realize that for anyone who takes the time to look at this photo and read these words - this is not a particularly unique flower, or a particularly unique photograph of a flower. But it is gone now and it is raining now and i'm glad i saw it. Sometimes, it is not the photograph that photography gives to me.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 25, 2009

dandelions -


my neighbor tries to kill them every year, and every year he tries to convince me of their nastiness, and every year i say, "hey, i think they're pretty." my neighbor and i don't agree on much, in fact, the only thing i am sure we agree on is that i am way better looking than him, and truthfully, he has never come right out and admitted that i'm better looking, but it is really obvious, so i assume we agree.
Posted by Picasa

Friday, April 24, 2009

squirrel rebuttal


Squirrel posted the following on his blog http://www.squirrelwrites.blogspot.com/ : "(edit) Why are the only two choices, moron or thrill seeker? How about this choice: mildly disabled hard working citizen who needed to get home to his family on the other side of the street while attempting to avoid car-driving idiots who spend time trying to write their lame blogs rather than paying attention to the road. jimmy is a self-absorbed pox on the community, (edit)...By the way, is anyone interested in a good price on a signed Marc Chagall lithograph? I'm thinking of replacing it with an original. (edit)"
Posted by Picasa

Thursday, April 23, 2009

squirrel physics

a short-tailed squirrel (that's not a breed, it is an observed state of relative size) ran out in front of my car. i'm pretty sure i know, from his stunt, how his tail got shortened. thrill seeker or moron? i hope that doesn't come off as too harsh or lacking in respect of squirrel culture, but, let's cut through the lies; the basis of any culture is communication, and i've seen squirrels trying to communicate. their discourse is mostly unpleasant and usually ends in fighting, and not really any sort of very dignified fighting. i'm leaning toward "moron," but i find myself wanting to believe it was "thrill seeker." of course, it is possible he was just born with a short tail.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

feather


near the base of many feathers are soft "afterfeathers." whenever i find a feather, i carefully lift it from the ground and hope to touch their softness and need to know i have the sensitivity to feel their gentleness. it is a magnificent gift.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

are you sure you know where we're going?

this morning, there is no wind blowing to lift the flag off the flagpole. tree branches are still. it is raining and the only discernible wind comes from the movement of my car into the still air. i think i might actually be in control: self-determination should be my right to expect. how can this be another's universe? it is my universe. lacking any additional evidence of command; i do have the argument of perspective - from where i sit, it looks like my universe, even when the wind blows. heck, why not? that's the motto, in my universe.

Monday, April 20, 2009

the grimmer reaper

i've got to be honest, not because I think honesty is right, or better, but simply because i want you to believe what i am about to write. honestly, i've had a brush with death. death is a spectre, and i've seen him. but it turns out he has no interest in you unless you fear him...which i am assuming will come naturally, when the time arrives. so anyway, welcome monday. it would be nice to awaken from a good night's sleep to the freshness of a brand new day, but some days, like today, feel more like being startled awake from a nap to the same open-eyed nightmare that is always patiently waiting for me. always there, always accommodating. I guess that is why death can't have my fear, i'm an employee.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

driveway leaf


Every moment of being a human, contains the seeds for every emotion. Some moments become an overwhelming mixture of hope, fear, elation, depression, everything in between, and some come through as one simple pleasure. In every moment is a choice and a decision, a small blueprint for the complete project.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 18, 2009

soap


This is a photo of a bar section of soap - yes this is soap, and yes this was what I am trying to fill the emptiness in my life with. It turns out, it's beautiful, it smells great, and it makes my shower time far more enjoyable...that's not too bad for a bar of soap. I'm going to take a shower, put on my moccasins, go outside, and pretend the rest of world understands just how wonderful that is. For some reason, i think that might help, all of us.
Posted by Picasa

Friday, April 17, 2009

logic

i was thinking about shapes today and i've come to realize, i prefer the good one. the circle. all the other shapes are crap.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

moccasins

I think the triumphant return of business-casual moccasins is overdue and ready to restyle what is accepted as haute-couture fashion in the boardrooms of the world's business centers. If you are "today" enough to join the movement, the fashionable statement moccasins will be making to your co-workers , for you, is: "here i am, cool and hip. I might be on vacation, I might be here to work, who knows? you certainly never will understand me, you mid-level loser, unless you get some moccasins. So, get yourself some moccasins, or get out - and get some moccasins, either way, you are just wasting time until you slip on the moc's. If it wasn't for the sprinkler system installed in this office, i would build a campfire on this conference table - that's how i powwow. Hey, anybody got some peyote?" Obviously your moc's are doing a lot of talking, and I think that's okay, because your moccasins will be the hero this fashion and truth famished world needs. Moccasins. An answer you can believe in, and wear.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

painting


i suppose it is possible to see heaven in everything, but it seems easier to see it in something beautiful. that must mean something.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

discipline, that's what you will learn here

i don't like to re-tie my shoelaces each time i put on my shoes. I like to be able to just slip them on and off, preferably without even bending over. I once had an instructor who witnessed my shoe putting-on routine and he was sure this lack of shoe tying desire was evidence of a weak mind and spirit. He seemed compelled to express his disdain. I spent some time amazed by the inappropriate level of repulsion he demonstrated, and although I might have entertained the notion that his assessment could have been right; i did not (and still do not) possess the character trait necessary to change my slovenly habit. The reason the story does not end there, is that I have found out, now a few years later, it was actually the instructor who was lacking in a lot more than spirit. He didn't have to go to prison, but he should have. What most likely concerned him, was far more entangled and personal than my laziness. I give a lot of credit to people who try to truly and honestly give respect to their fellow humans; that effort is not accomplished without enduring a great deal of stupidity, unpleasantness, and sometimes, depravity.

Monday, April 13, 2009

baby birds

i hear the birds chirping this morning, busily gathering twigs and string and stuff to build their nests; nests to gently house their soon-to-be-laid eggs. The female will then lay her eggs, and settle in the nest to warm the fragile shells that protect her potential offspring. Shortly after the eggs are laid and she settles in - as sure as i am sitting here, listening to chirps and typing on my computer - there is certain to be a violent spring storm that will blow down trees, branches, and egg-filled bird nests. Every year it happens, and i've seen it too many times to reach any other conclusion - God hates baby birds.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter


Happy Easter! Or if you do not believe in Easter: Happy Benevolent Rabbit who delivers Colorful Eggs Day! Or if you do not believe in benevolent rabbits, or if you feel benevolent rabbits are a tool of the greeting card/plush toy/candy marketing industrial complex: try to just have a happy day, or not. And if you get a chance to eat a colored egg, i hope you enjoy it, because i can't imagine any other reason to color an egg.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 11, 2009

hickory


This is a section of shagbark hickory tree. Squirrels live in this tree. I see them leaving and arriving. I wonder what it is like to live inside a tree. I like to imagine it nicer than i am sure it actually is. I imagine an original painting hanging in their living room, but actually it is probably just a signed lithograph.
Posted by Picasa

Friday, April 10, 2009

impermanence

i was going to walk around and document injustices today, when I became distracted by my own impermanence. i did not work through it. injustices will have to remain undocumented, for now.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

is this thing on?

recently, an everyday type of conversation i was having with some long-time friends was recorded. I was aware of the recording, but didn't pay much attention to it, as the purpose was to test the recorder. I should explain that i didn't pay that much attention to it, that is, until the recording was played back. I am going to interrupt my story with a little background information: i have always considered myself a nice guy, painfully so, nice to a fault. Anyway, back to the story: when i listened to my social interaction with friends, i heard how i must sound to others - and i was abrupt, arrogant, and dismissive. hearing myself like that was very eye-opening. I've had few days to reflect on the experience and really must take time to thank God that i was made aware of my behavior now, and not when i was younger, because at my age, it is really pointless to change. whew.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

file under "clouds"


I take a lot of cloud photos, but sometimes the mechanism of a photograph - creating a lasting record by isolating a specific moment within a defined frame from a single perspective - doesn't seem big enough or evanescent enough for the grand, ephemeral, and ethereal nature of clouds. Still, I can't stop trying, because, mostly i guess, clouds are pretty and i have a camera.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

paper airplanes

i think of my life as a paper airplane that was folded before i was born...
it sounds pretty good, like a workable analogy, but what value does the analogy have? It could simply be an aid to understanding; but, unfortunately, like most analogy it brings only a superficial level of understanding that collapses under scrutiny or use, leaving me even less secure in any usable knowledge than before i started to think about it. Undaunted, I am going to keep trying...
i think of my life as a paper airplane that i fold, and launch, and improve with redesign at the beginning of each new day...
i think of my life as a paper airplane that is mine to fold with the choices i make in my life to prepare for a glorious afterlife of flight with my God...
i think about how useless all this thinking is...and then,
i think about the time my dad showed me how to make a paper airplane, a good one, i remember it, the folds, the time he spent, i remember the day, it was beautiful, and will always remain...
i think of my life as an opportunity to make a paper airplane for someone else...

Monday, April 6, 2009

drama and matters of perspective

I am not the first person to be consumed in a personal drama; finding myself in an intermission, alone and outside, standing under an unusually bright moon. And in that moment, under that moon, briefly grasping the enormity of the stage and the insignificance of the players in relation. And in that, i take comfort. Only to realize, in seemingly no time at all, as the lights flash, the crowd settles, the curtain rises once again and the drama continues; understanding the insignificance of our size does nothing to lessen the pain. And in that, i take comfort.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

truck!


This is a photo exploration of the shapes, textures, colors and intersections that make up the front corner of my truck. It is also the last thing the deer saw.
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 4, 2009

good morning universe


This is a device, or object (depending on your belief), that channels or focuses energy, or not (depending on your belief). I don't have an energy meter to check it with, so it might be working and it might not. Hard to tell from this angle, but i think it's on.


Posted by Picasa

Friday, April 3, 2009

here kitty kitty

I befriended a neighborhood cat. I don't know if he has a name, he just comes around. I call him "Mr. Whiskers." I don't feed Mr. Whiskers, i think he comes around because i don't chase him away, and my dog doesn't live here, and maybe i attract trouble, and maybe Mr. Whiskers is trouble, or maybe he can just smell it. Mr. Whiskers knows something about me no one else does. so i try not to rile him, but at the same time, i don't want him to know he is the only one who knows, so i play it pretty cool, as cool as a man with a secret can. but i wouldn't be completely honest if i didn't mention that Mr. Whiskers has started looking around the place like he might be expecting a little bit more from our relationship than a friendly hello. and naturally i have begun to wonder if his happenstance appearance that fateful evening was so happenstance after all. I have begun to believe that Mr. Whiskers is quite possibly an unsavory fellow, who may not lead the most savory of lives, and i've begun to wonder if Mr. Whiskers could just disappear and why would that be so strange? It is a dangerous game you play, Mr. Whiskers.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

it's not prell

a quick story. A married guy goes to the store, falls in love with a bottle of shampoo. it is a love he cannot discuss nor complete. he knows the love is one-sided and he knows if he brings the bottle home, his wife will recognize the sensual shape as not just an attempt at cleaner more lustrous hair, but as a successful play for his heart. Although he never brings the bottle home, his wife recognizes the vacant presence of his desires. it is a shape she can never be. they both hide his shame and share their loss.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

basket


This is a photo, taken at night, of a flashlight in the bottom of a basket which is mounted on the front handlebars of a bicycle. A bicycle basket is, for me, another magical component of a fortunate childhood. A basket on a bicycle gives us a world to create, to isolate, carry, protect, and to cherish. It allows us the clarity of purpose to accomplish things we will attempt to do again later in life on a much larger scale. As we grow and mature into adulthood, the world we are now creating is achieved with less purity, less certainty, generally less success, and a lot less magic. But, if we are lucky, we might just get a glimpse of that magic, it's still in the basket, i saw it.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

diary uh

the most painfully, excruciatingly boring type of blog, to me, is a personal diary, and as fascinating as jimmy may be...his diary is no exception; however, today I give you an entry, maybe to prove my point, maybe to illicit some sympathy, maybe because it is true..."dear jimmy's diary, as much as i want to write in my blog, three days on the toilet has taken its toll, my butt hurts, my stomach is cramped, my normally high-octane zest for life, is for shit, literally, and see that was way too easy, i can't write, i can only poop, and even that isn't coming out right...i pray to a god whom i hope has more important concerns than the consistency of my stool, and yet i ask for relief, Dear God (capital G...see, i mean it oh Lord), anyway...Dear God, your ignoring me probably goes back to the "devil chip" blog, or "for Mom", or the "Grandpa" entry, or maybe the "wheelies for Jesus" thing, come on it was a joke..oh god...i'm screwed, i may as well have my address changed to this toilet seat."

Monday, March 30, 2009

the perfect life

a perfect day
should be today
clouds and sun
may affect what i do
but neither what i am
nor what i will be
this will be my only opportunity to make today perfect
until tomorrow
when it starts all over again
the nightmarish reality
of trying to live up to motivational cliches

Sunday, March 29, 2009

jacket


I like this photo of someone wearing a heart print jacket in the sunshine. It is possible that a jacket can mean more when you know who is in it. If you want to see this photo the way i do, please imagine someone you care for and love in this jacket.

Posted by Picasa

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Friday, March 27, 2009

double-jointed

i know a guy who is "double-jointed" - he demonstrates his ability to bend his arms at odd angles for everybody, it is creepy. if i were double-jointed, i would keep it a secret. no one would ever know it unless you and i were trapped in a cage or straight-jackets being lowered into a vat of acid and the only way out was for me to bend my arms "funny" to reach and disable the locking mechanism thereby enabling us to escape from our perilous situation, and even then, i'm not sure i would do it. and that should be all you need to know about me.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

waddle

I was by a pond watching a duck walking toward me and i realized that the word "waddle" is kind of a visual onomatopoeia for how a duck walks. I enjoyed watching the duck "waddle" and was envious of how ducks have a word that so accurately describes their movement, and humans do not. If there were to be as visually descriptive a word for human "walking" it would have to somehow visually mean "look at this thing transporting its horridness from one location to another."

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

traffic


This is a fairly mundane photo from my car window on the drive into work this morning. Most of the traffic is heading East toward Chicago for the morning rush. It is amazing to me that so many people have something to do for someone else (or else I assume we would stay home or drive when it is less crowded). I also wonder if these people could possibly think this is where they want to be, it is all so depressing if they are like me. I don't know which would make me happier: if i knew my fellow commuters were aware enough to be miserable, or if I am happier believing many of them find comfort, security, fulfillment and possibly even happiness in a "job." I am sure only that it feels very unnatural to me, this creation of ours.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

me and jimmy, jimmy and me, jimmy and i

when i close one eye, it feels good. when i close both eyes, it feels better. i may just be tired, but closing both eyes cradles me with love. i'm closing my eyes now.

Monday, March 23, 2009

why conflict is human, unavoidable, and usually doesn't end until somebody gets hurt

"bay gull" or "bag ul"? which way do you pronounce the chewy bready breakfast roll spelled b-a-g-e-l? Do you say it like a clean white bird soaring above a hidden bay on a tropical beach, or like a dirty, tattered paper sack full of "uls"? Here is the test. If you are civilized and desire a world filled with grace, you have chosen "bay gull." If you were raised by prairie dogs, you probably say "bag ul." Not that jimmy wants to use this blog as a bully-pulpit, no way, jimmy just observes and reports, kind of like joe mccarthy did. tail-gunner jimmy. did i mention how much i love mrs. jimmy? because i do. really. a lot. but really, bag ul?

Sunday, March 22, 2009

driveway worm


Driveway Worm, you died alone.
Driveway Worm, you look like an "R."
Driveway Worm, looks like you skipped dinner.
Driveway Worm, you are so dead, you don't even stink.
Driveway Worm, what were you thinking, where were you going?
So senseless. It seems.
Why, Driveway Worm, why?

Driveway Worm.
Beautiful Driveway Worm.


Posted by Picasa