jellobrain's blog

I went down to the city of New Orleans about a month ago in a quest to continue to explore how what I do for a living can make a difference for the world.

Don't worry, it wasn't all so serious.

When I was organizing for the first United States Social Forum, I sent an email out in a somewhat public forum that was very hurtful to someone who I now count as a dear dear friend and confidant.  

I have consumed 2 plastic water bottles this morning and it's not even 10. I say this with some degree of frustration. American's consume 60 million bottles of water a day, and so I am counting myself lucky. I am living the American Dream - I have the privilege to be wasteful.

WAS being the operative word, because here we are. Welcome.

I don't usually read the paper, but sometimes do glance at headlines - especially when I'm not at home. You can get a lot about a place through the cadence and structure of a hometown newspaper headline. In this case, I am in New Orleans, the paper is the Times Picayune, and some of the headlines juxtapose one another perfectly. Above the fold on the front page:

The desert is the kind of environment that requires an adaptive strategy.

People and plants are at the mercy of the elements here, and have to endure times of feast and times of famine - both of which can be fatal. And just like in those elementary school movies featuring lizards with strange plumes coming from their heads, and snakes shedding their skins, and birds hiding inside a spiny cactus, desert dwellers, particularly those of us who were not born here, can be a motley and tragically beautiful bunch.

i haven't been myself gracefully,
not for a while.
and in another joke dream
last night, i was buried underground.
i felt my mother's pain in my body

illuminated like a pocket compass in my hand,
and used it to triangulate my way back
through the cracks i slipped through once.
when i woke up i knew that it was the truth,
i have my mothers hands.

i'm saying this because i want to to feel you lying next to me.