Laughter

The road to hell is paved with jokes.
Think twice before you laugh.
To laugh is to give your approval.
Laugh sparingly.
Similarly treat language.
Language creeps into layers between layers.
Into thought and belief which every use compounds.

Election Result

My fellow women, as the 2016 election results become basically clear, I have to confess that I feel angry at all men everywhere right now. Not at any individual man who is as good as can be, but at the general maleness that pervades our daily lives and our very existence, and pervades so deeply that it is like original sin. If you are male, you are born guilty. I know this is irrational but this is my confession as the die is cast. 

Falling in Love with Rumba

Following an evening of classes in Afro-Caribbean dance forms, I find myself increasingly intrigued by the forms of movement that emerge from combining the earthly, undulating, percussive nature of African dance with Caribbean joyfulness and pelvis-centric sensuality. The inherent joyfulness of rumba is weighted with sadness because more emphatically than any other dance I have experienced, this one is used as a means of forgetting. On the other hand, its music contains age-old stories, so the dance that expresses it is also a means of remembering. It is a dance that liberates the body in its entirety and puts the mind in a happy trance. The steps are weighted but not harsh or aggressive; rather the foot plays with the ground, massaging it and making it pliable, the rigid earth. The earth receives and sends back this plied energy which ripples through the torso and out the arms- suave, always suave.

Reclaiming the Day

This evening around 5:30pm, I was deep in the trenches at work, with a million tasks to follow up on for multiple cafe openings. And then I got a call from my aunt in Korea. By the time I got off the phone, I realized I really only had one task to complete, and that was to leave work and enjoy the rest of the day. So I did. After completing a couple extra tasks. How we leave this life is not our choice to make, whether quick or prolonged, peaceful or painful. The most we can do is reclaim the day.

Efficiency

Modern life in the developed world renders my survival instinct lazy and out of practice, so that it is at risk of being shocked when things do not happen with maximum efficiency. In times like these I remind myself that efficiency in daily life is an artificial construct. Rather, I should expect the hunt and chase, and marvel when the game walks right into my hands.

On this beautiful summer's night, I walked the South Street Bridge home, turning into the Schuylkill riverwalk. My mind and body were still resonating with the rumba and Afro-Cuban folkloric beats. I saw my shadow cast onto the boardwalk and made it dance with me. We quite literally danced our way home. I felt close to the stars.

An Ode to Current Affairs

Fuck free speech, and yes to chemical castration. Cut out his tongue and cut off his balls. Tie them up naked on either side of a pole stuck into an ant hill. Justice is a snap. What's the big deal? 49 people dead. The one constant in our lives it seems has been mass shootings and bombings. Terrorism begins from home turf. Let us look inward before we look outward. Idiot with bad hair given a megaphone. How does he still have friends? The rich will serve the rich. The ignoramus will worship the brash and hollow rhetoric.