Supreme Ruler

Drop of the kids at school.  There’s no coffee at home and this is something that needs to be addressed, right away.  I swing by Starbucks and had them grindup a bag of espresso ground, toss back a double shot.  Driving home I glanced up at a storefront I should seen a countless times.  It was modestly named “Supreme Ruler.”  I laughed out loud and continued to drive.

Having just had an exchange with a friend, who is effectively an ethnomusicologist for Jamaica, I figured I needed a photo of that sign.  Parking in front of the establishment I considered this august advertisement and doubled back.  Supreme Ruler is one real estate shops.  I couldn’t tell you why they chose such a definitive name.  I snapped a few sun-drenched shots and continued on my way. 

Fifteen years ago, I welcomed my first daughter into the world.  I can still remember that bright, San Francisco morning, when we held her and considered this beautiful child.  More than any other time I can recall, the world really did stand still that morning.  There was nothing else to do but wonder, learn, love.

Evening time and we took the birthday girl and her two friends out to dinner.  The restaurant, which may have secured its English from the same agency that delivered “Supreme Ruler” was a high end vegetarian place, I’d been to before, known as “King’s Joy.”   Most of the dishes were of the mock-Chinese style menu that came out of the Mahayana Buddhist kitchens, and the presentation was lovely.   The food is splendid and the setting is yet again more refined. 

A one point I had to take a call.  Walking away from the harp and cello players I noticed a painting, which I am almost certain is a reproduction of a work that hangs in the Taiwan Palace Museum.  I will have to look it up, but I seem to recall that the painting of the two birds on a reed as the work of the last Northern Song Dynasty, who lost the traditional Yellow River core of the Song empire, ending one dynastic epic (Northern Song) and starting another (Southern Song). 

Back at our seat the harp player started playing happy birthday.  We signaled to the waitress to cut it.   Her friends were still in the bathroom.  She wound down and took a bio break.  I told my little one I’d head to the bathroom with her, as she went to try to find them.  I wanted to show her the calligraphy of the former Supreme Ruler.   (at least I think it's his)