Of Felines and Shorelines

People are always talking about lost things. Lost time, lost socks, lost chances. It seems like if we don't stop every now and then to take stock of the things we've lost, we'd have to add our own minds to the list. But cats don't have this problem. Cats lustily chase, catch, and lose a thousand things a minute, and race right on to the next one with undiminished gusto, ready to t…

Strange, Not Stranger

Contoh gambar. There’s value in oddity. Don’t let anyone tell you there isn’t. If you could see the portion of your daily life spent on autopilot, measure the number of things you see without seeing and touch without being touched by, you might not cheer so loudly for the victory of normal over bizarre. I welcome oddity into my life like a distant relative, an ember from the same fire of my soul,…

A Day in the Life

I asked him if he liked noisettes, the roasted hazelnuts sold by vendors on nearly every street corner. I had some in my bag, and if he liked them, I would go buy him his own bag. He sat, feet dangling childlike over the edge of the lagoon, watching the waves coming in and out, crescendoing and fading, over and over. “Bien sûr, tout le monde en mange,” he confided in the surf. Of course, everybod…

Shaping Up

Down with the same old shapes! Down with rectangles, circles, and squares! Down with triangles, convenient though they may be in certain poking and slicing applications. Down with octagons, the nay-sayers of the road. Be gone with pentagons, hexagons,and nonagons! Your abundant vertices and your myriad facets won’t save you now. I’m advocating for the overthrow of all standardized shapes. Where a…

Boxed In

We’ve all got boxes in our lives. How many do you have? I’ve got one for my professional life, and one for my passions. I’ve got boxes of different sizes: big ones for hockey, little ones for housekeeping. I have boxes for music and for foods and for fears and for hopes. We all divide our lives into many boxes, to be opened or closed as we see fit. Some people have boxes for death, divorce, and d…