How They Ruled Most

 

The little one and I have a good morning routine.  At least it is for now.  Music sharing routines are already well-established.  These days we discuss her favorite Manga series “Attack on Titan” for the first segment of the ride.  Her tunes are on the set.  And I try to ask reasonably informed and genuine inquiries about what it was I read in the last episode and why it is people behave the way they do, and why is it some titans are different from others. 

 

There’s a light on 299 where New Paltz Road veers off to the right.  Once we make that turn, I pull out “Korean History in Maps.”  Normally she will swat me away if I ask her to consider a book in the car.  “Don’t you remember?  I get car sick.”  But this is a large, eight-and-a-half-by-eleven size book which, as the title suggests is largely pictorial.  Today we learn about the mighty Guguryeo and how they ruled most of what is now China’s Dongbei and North Korea, before the Liao and the Jin, long before the Manchurians.  And when China was broken apart they flourished until attacks from the Sui and then later the Tang buffeted them.  Neither were successful in toppling them, until as always happens with Three Kingdoms to worry about, the the other Kingdom, in this case Silla, joins with your enemy and you’ve a war on two fronts. 

 

The unwritten law is that I’m to wrap it all up by the time we merge back on to 9W.  I’d never taken this New Paltz Road before.  I’ve never been known to drive through the hamlet of Highland before this routine either.  Now, for the rest of my years it will always evoke medieval Korea to me and perhaps to her, as well.  Once we’re on the approach to the bridge, it’s my turn and I ask her to play “Victoria” from the “Arthur” album by the Kinks.  And I dutifully avoid turning it into another lesson. And just ask her about what classes she has today for school.

Shared a nice coffee with my mom and my stepdad.  We sat around the table a bit more cautious than usual.  The cases seem to be rising across the country as the temperature falls.  On the way home I call one pal and then another.   This second gent is also back in the States for the first time in decades, re-acclimating.  And we talk about work and the election and of a friend I’d like to connect him with.  Neither of us can easily view a map, but we reckon we’ll pick a place between he and me and drive to meet there one day.  One day soon.

Thursday, 10/15/20