Yesterday's post in memory of Octavio Paz—
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… the free-standing, two-sided “Life-Death Figure,” |
An earlier post yesterday, Fashion Notes, linked to a Sting video—
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From "Loo Ree," by Zenna Henderson "It's so hard to explain–" "Oh, foof!" I cried defiantly, taking off my glasses and, smearing the tears across both lenses with a tattered Kleenex. "So I'm a dope, a moron! If I can explain protective coloration to my six-year-olds and the interdependence of man and animals, you can tell me something of what the score is!" I scrubbed the back of my hand across my blurry eyes. "If you have to, start out 'Once upon a time."' I sat down– hard. Loo Ree smiled and sat down, too. "Don't cry, teacher. Teachers aren't supposed to have tears." "I know it," I sniffed. "A little less than human-that's us." "A little more than human, sometimes." Loo Ree corrected gently. "Well then, you must understand that I'll have to simplify. You will have to dress the bare bones of the explanation according to your capabilities. "Once upon a time there was a classroom. Oh, cosmic in size, but so like yours that you would smile in recognition if you could see it all. And somewhere in the classroom something was wrong. Not the whispering and murmuring– that's usual. Not the pinching and poking and tattling that goes on until you get so you don't even hear it." I nodded. How well I knew. "It wasn't even the sudden blow across the aisle or the unexpected wrestling match in the back of the room. That happens often, too. But something else was wrong. It was an undercurrent, a stealthy, sly sort of thing that has to be caught early or it disrupts the whole classroom and tarnishes the children with a darkness that will never quite rub off. "The teacher could feel it –as all good teachers can– and she spoke to the principal. He, being a good principal, immediately saw the urgency of the matter and also saw that it was beyond him, so he called in an Expert." "You?" I asked, feeling quite bright because I had followed the analogy so far. Loo Ree smiled. "Well, I'm part of the Expert." |
"If you have to, start out 'Once upon a time.'"
Yesterday's Paz post was at 6:48 PM EDT.
For the autistic, here is some related mathematics.
Yesterday's Fashion Notes post was at 1:06 PM EDT.
A related chronological note from Rolling Stone yesterday—
"Levon Helm, singer and drummer for the Band,
died on April 19th in New York of throat cancer.
He was 71.
"He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon…."
Helm and The Band performing "The Weight"—
"I pulled into Nazareth, I was a-feelin' 'bout half past dead…"