Pressure Points

I’m under the mindset that there are good days and bad days and that most of the time, people get to choose.

The dawning of my bad day was more like late afternoon. Well, it hasn’t really been a bad day, no one’s died except a bird and it could’ve died yesterday, or judging by the smell, the day before….Anyway, it’s been more of a string of frustrating events.

First, when I get home from work, my dog drags in a dead bird and settles in the living room to chew on it like a bone. I tell him to take it outside and he does, a pungent smell wafting after him as he goes. Next, I get stood up in a book study, (which can I almost say I almost expected it?). I actually read and contemplated the material too! Totally prepared for good discussion.

Then, I had graciously volunteered to make dinner because my cooking skills are getting rusty and I want a break from all the meat my mom cooks and I don’t eat (I guess being vegetarian has it’s ups and downs. The downs usually come when food and carnivorous company collide).  I decided on French onion soup and roast beef sandwiches, to satisfy the need for meat that the male species has. I end up adding too much sugar to the soup and burn black the bread for the sandwiches. (damn broiler.)

Now I’m starting to get sick of this sad tale, but I’m almost done.

In a fit of productivity brought on by frustration, I tend my myriad of houseplants, which I have dutifully been neglecting for the past few weeks. When I go to water them, their dry dry soil rejects my peace offering and pees it all over the floor, and in one instance, my collection of journals from the past ten years of my life. I mop it up and then go out to sacrifice a plant I’ve decided I don’t like and the moon’s not even up to watch me throw it on the compost pile. Sheesh.

The only conclusion I can reach is that pessimism breeds comedic moments, but then again, maybe that’s a choice.

I’m currently reading Thomas Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded. In a chapter called “205 Easy Ways to Save the Earth,” he argues against the mentality prevalent in America today that we are chest deep in a green revolution. Calling the situation more of a “green party,” he says in America, right now, “it’s all about looking green.” Instead, we need a whole new system pioneered by innovation and backed by greater efforts than recycling yesterday’s newpaper and buying “green” clothes.  We’re not having a green revolution, he writes, “because we are offering ourselves and our kids a green vision without resources.”

I find it ironic that America is the so-called leader of innovation, yet we are the top of the world when it comes to consuming in excess and we can’t seem to satiate our appetite for oil. Quite frankly, it all makes me very cynical as to the direction my generation and the upcoming one is taking. I have the honor of working with a bunch of middle-class, suburban white kids who, for the most part, are a pleasant group. Their biggest flaw happens to be nothing more than an addiction to video games and a desire to coast through life. Nothing more…right? The trouble is not that they’ve been handed life on a silver platter, the trouble is, is that they expect it.

At the middle school where I work, we offer kids 25 minutes in the morning to get homework help and to make up assignments that they missed. Unfortunately, the majority of students who come in, have assignments that they didn’t do. This past Friday, 95 7^th and 8^th graders (38% of the student population) were supposed to come in. Maybe half did. A lot of these students had multiple assignments to turn in just because they don’t want to do homework at home. If they don’t get it done at school, then they don’t do it until they are forced to. The sad thing is, some of these students have tests to finish and it takes them three or four days to do it because they don’t study.

In addition, as a TA for Intro to Cultural Anthropology, the professor of the course would comment that he had to make his tests easier every year because more and more students were failing. When I’d go to teach my recitation, the students didn’t care about discussing things, even topics such as evolution and racism, even though these are considered “hot topics.” Instead, they wanted me to tell them what would be on the test so they wouldn’t have to read the textbook or do a lot of studying.

I find this aura of laziness and apathy to be downright frightening. It’s as if our comfortable, convenient lifestyle is coming back to bit us in the butt. After all, it’s a well-known fact that tension and struggle breeds action and change. Even looking into my own life, I can see so many times I could have done better but didn’t because I wasn’t motivated or I didn’t know better. It’s no wonder we go for the easy fixes and balk when things get hard. As to the green revolution, Friedman writes, “Have you ever seen a revolution where no one got hurt? That’s the green revolution we’re having, everyone’s a winner, nobody has to give up anything, and the adjective that most often modifies “green revolution” is ‘easy.’” It’s almost no wonder we’re not getting anywhere.

A week ago I was unemployed and watching the pennies dwindle in my bank like slowly sifting sand in an hourglass. What’s worse, I found myself laying on the floor of the room of my childhood home, the same room that has been mine for the past 19, and lamenting the same sad lei motif that I don’t know who I am or what I think I’m trying to do with my life.

So I started to write. Intentionally. A lot. I rediscovered my love of fiction, re-learned to see words as pearls; beautiful, mysterious, and raw. I re-entered the world of stories that swirl around our lives like many colored collages, evidence that the sum of its parts are greater than the whole.  I’ve always known I wanted to be a writer, from the first Halloween stories I penned as a 3^rd grader, but it always seemed to be more of an excuse for the fact that I didn’t know what I wanted to be. After all,  I stumbled by accident upon the major of Anthropology and two years later, onto the major of English, both of which I graduated with, and both of which I’m learning occupy a fickle in-between place in the “real world” of success.

But there I was broke, jobless, and living at home. I decided to try free-lance writing. Craigslist became the object of my obsession as I repeatedly looked for writing jobs in the entire state of Kansas. I sent out countless emails of interest, garnering nothing back. I did manage to snag a place with Examiner to be a blogger on budget fashion. It pays pennies, but I am happy to get paid to write about something I love (bring on the thrifting!) and learn in the process. (Blogging, it turns out, has a whole circuit board underneath that I had no idea about.)

Then I ambled across a free-lancer bid website, where writers can bid for jobs. Not really knowing what I was doing or how to write for the internet, I placed a test bid on a project of 24 articles that paid $30. That’s $1.25 per article.  (What the hell was I thinking!). The person said they would not accept any bid higher, so I joined the website and bid, never dreaming I would actually get hired.

But I got hired.

Thus far, I’ve written 5 articles on things from Prada wallets to poor credit car loans. Knowing nothing about such things, each article has required time-consuming research, which made me realize my output exceeds the input my bank account will receive, but it has kept me on my toes and challenged my ability to add just enough BS to season a well written article, full of relevant information. I write 1-3 articles a day.

Oh, and by the way, I’m employed now.

On Tuesday, I unexpectedly got 2 jobs; one as a para with 7^th graders again, and one as a server in a classy restaurant.

Needless to say, I am now cursing my decision to take on a project that’s time consuming and pays nothing. But it reminds me why I am a writer. Writing is like playing with crystal wind chimes and watching the light shine through them to dance in rainbows on the wall. The rainbows may be insubstantial, but they’re beautiful and they’re free.

I drink coffee in the morning, the afternoon, and the evening, though I usually avoid it in the afternoon because it takes a grinder to my intestines like they’re peppercorns. I drink it at Radina’s, at home, and in my car with a dollar cup of cappuccino mixed with some “real” coffee. Gas station coffee to me is like the environmentalists that can’t resist the convenience of throw away diapers. I’m pretty sure the only rush I get from gas station coffee is a sugar one, since there’s probably not enough caffeine to kick start a chicken. I drink it as I’m driving; early morning road sunrise gotta get to work. By eight. It’s exactly 1 hour and 57 minutes from Manhattan to my house if I drive 70.

I drink my coffee black for breakfast, with a splash of soymilk to turn it from bitter dark brown to a sweeter mocha color. No sugar please. There’s plenty of sugar in my Honey Nut Cheerios. I drank it strong and saturated with grounds like Turkish coffee in Africa. The French press pushing up a thick creamy layer of foam, slightly tanned. Better than buying a cup to find that it’s only instant with a lot of hot milk to cover its lack of taste. Sugar anyone? They love their sugar in Africa. Raw, brown, white.

At my parents’ house, I drink their Folgers fast, the bitter thick taste stomping on my taste buds like a group of amateur cloggers. I’d rather go to a ballet, thanks, but the cloggers are the only act showing. Take it or leave it. I guess I’ll take it. I chug it down with my cereal while I read the paper, distracted so I won’t dwell on the taste. One cup. My parents leave me one cup in the pot. It hardly seems worth the beating my tongue goes through, but I drink it anyway. And I’ll drink it tomorrow.

White legs turning to feet in whiter strappy sandals ending in opaque toenails. These feet are walking, crossing the dark burnt red tile that stripes the coffeehouse floor. Red, brown, red, brown, black. These feet cross the rough black mat that lines the entrance like the red carpet, following another set of feet out the door. There are smudges in the tile like paint strokes adding depth and character to a painting. Scratches mar the shine. I could stare at the floor for hours, reading the scratches like a palm, reading the story of those feet that walk its surface.

Others sit, lining the wall. A man walks by me, turning his body sideways to pass. I see blue jeans, brown belt, and pock-marked green knit. Empty chairs remind me of indecision and black tables of unknown future.

Did you know there’s three n’s in “unknown?”

Why is unknown black? Why can’t it be a color wheel, vibrant with possibilities that scan the entire color spectrum? I’m not even on the color wheel, I’m stuck in neutral, choosing my options from bowns, greys, and whites.

Everyone is wearing blue. Navy blue plaid, bright blue t-shirt, color of sun on ocean, faded blue of hot summer sky. Only one stands out. The bright red of the flesh of a strawberry. His warm hue an affront to the ocean that swirls around him. He’s a clownfish, I think, mocking the cool waters, shouting, “look at me!” I look. How can I not? The eye is drawn to what stands out like a moth to a flame, rarely noticing subtleties unless intentionally noted.

Sadness come,

come to me

I want to hold you, to comfort you

like no one every has and swaddle you

tight, against the lightening strike of heartache.

Injustice come,

come to me

I want to give you voice

to remove the silence, like chains, that Lies

has entangled around you throat.

Anger come,

come to me

envelope me in your white hot fury

cast your fire upon my shores

to burn away to still waters.

Oh my soul, come,

come to me

though you’ve wandered far and lost

through dark paths of indecision and despair.

Come home to me,

for I am already in you, as you are in me

and Love is ever abiding.

The first thing I did when I got back from Africa was clean (well, first I made two feather pillows and they’re glorious). There’s nothing like living in two pairs of pants and a few shirts for 10 weeks to really make you question your possessions.

Granted, 85% of my closet are things I’ve boughten from thrift stores for an average of $1 a piece and another 10% are things I’ve had since high school. I’ve already cleaned out a good portion of it to sell to various places, which ironically, I’ll probably make most of my money back on them.

It’s bittersweet to say that I’m over my polyester craze. I almost cringe to think of some of the things I used to wear, but eclectic fashion’s not bad fashion…right? I also had ambitions of fitting all my clothes into my rather small suitcase, but I made it to my jeans and I realized I would have to get rid of half the clothes I still own. All well, one can hope.

Aagh. I do this in hopes that I’ll be inspired to make my own clothes or tailor the ones I do own and because I hate having stuff.

Stuff.

It’s like the word “interesting” which you say when there’s nothing better to say but you need to say something. I could swear that after being gone for 10 weeks I’ve come back to find that my things have bred in my closet like dust bunnies. Hmm…

On a positive note, as I write this, I’m celebrating on the inside the fact that I don’t have to turn off the internet to post it. Small victories, small victories.

I’ve been in the strange habit recently, of having random songs run through my head when I think about or hear things. Strangely enough, they’re usually from the 80s punk era, which isn’t exactly my favorite. For instance, “You give love a bad name,” comes to mind when we’re talking about certain aspects of human love. Anyway, this morning, I was walking down to the beach, because when you live half a mile from the beach, walking down to it is the thing to do. I was walking and wishing I had a pen and paper in my pocket instead of two tubes of chapstick. I was also taking a dip in the sea of self-pity, lamenting all the ways this summer could have been better. And what do you know, Regina Spektor’s “Better” came into my head.

It’s sad, really, how easily we let the negative overshadow the positive. I could wish that we had spent more time in Masi, or that I had tried harder to learn the language, or this, that, and the other, but the truth is, we have done so much. We started a t-shirt printing business in two months, for cryin’ out loud! We have 6 awesome people from the townships who love what they do and are so creative. We have built countless friendships and learned a whole lot about a whole lot. I think there’s much to be learned, though, in the dissonance between what we expect and what actually happens. Only God knows exactly the extent of what we’ve done this summer and how it was supposed to go. If spiritual/personal growth could be measured with a yardstick, I’d definitely be a few inches taller and that’s worth more than a bucket full of “could haves” any day.

The beach is very beautiful in the morning and the surf sounds like the soft whoosh-whoosh of a highway, only without the occasional “beep, beeeeep” and squealing tires. The tide was really low this morning and the surfers were out. I have a healthy fear of sharks and so never really had the desire to learn to surf, especially coupled with wet-suit temp water. On my way back to the house, I took a dirt path that wound it’s way through a marshy area with lots of tall grasses. Every time I heard a rustle I would think of baboons, on account of our Friday encounter with them. I also have a healthy fear of baboons, especially since they have burly, man arms and fangs, plus opposable thumbs. I got a little scared until I remembered the two tubes of chapstick in my pocket and the diversionary possibility of said chapstick. But alas, I made it home without meeting a baboon, so I didn’t actually get to try out my new theory of baboon diversion. All well.

I  run. Cool  air bathes the skin of my arms and hands in ice water while the rest of my body bakes beneath my clothes. The sun has not yet risen abovve the peaks that stand like a horseshoe and the ocean, that impasse, lying quiet in the north. The streets I run down towards the ocean are lined by colorful plaster houses, whose giant windows face north, to the ocean. Up ahead, I see a young man dressed in a gray stripped polo, white ballcap on his head. He stoops to dig through  the  trash the garbage man has yet to claim and I get a whiff of the sickly sweet fragrance of weed as I pass him.

Soon I come to a grassy pathway that leads to the ocean. On my right, tall amber grasses grow in the little stream that finds outlet in the ocean. On my left, yellow-flowered shrubs cover sand dunes. The smell of kelp hits me even before I see the first waves. I turn onto the beach and the moon assails me to the  west. It hangs heavy with sleep. it’s full face huge in my sight and veiled with thin gray clouds. It sinks even as I run towards it, disappearing beneath the horizon to shine in the night that has fall in another hemisphere. Running down the beach, I dance among yesterday’s decomposing kelp and the gift of last night’s tide, washed up on shore. Slipping on the sand, I return to my grassy path and run back towards Mountain Street, the resting place of our yellow brick house, first sprinting up the hill that runs by the monastery, that sits across the street from us. It’s a beautiful morning, birthing in another beautiful day.

Sheesh. Just when I’m secretly lamenting the lack of things that we are managing to accomplish, a lot of prayer goes out and we reap a ridiculous amount of blessings. A car and ripstick crash later, there a few injuries and a lost tooth that is now back in thanks to milk and a 24 hour dentist.

In addition, our vinyl cutter starts working last Wednesday, which means we can finally start to produce shirts and pay our employees who have been so faithful to stick around getting paid nothing for 3 weeks. Plus, we have recieved more money than we thought we would get, just in time too, because we’ve had to pay out some unexpected expensis from our emergency fund.

It’s amazing how easy it is to get stuck in a rut and forget to look for God moving throughout the fabric of our lives, but He’s there and with everything going on, we are so lucky to be where we’re at, health-wise as well as mission wise. Africa is still beautiful, despite the winter chill that has set in, but you get used to sleeping in 55 degrees. We can also get a gianormous bunch of firewood for 50R = $6. something. Yay for sleeping bags and layers!

Whew, one can barely take it all in before it’s gone again, but there it is, in a nutshell, a very small nutshell…maybe an acorn?