To Challenge This Idea

 

I let myself write today.   I have enough work for three men.  But I was behind on my writing, and I just sat and caught up on all the old entries that were growing stale with the passing of the days. It is now properly June first.  I’m writing the entry for June first.  I needn’t rack my brain to remember what I actually was doing on the first of June. 

 

I was having an odd dream.  Oxymoron I suppose; what dream isn’t odd?  I’d been stirring around at 3:00AM.  I knew I needed to be up at 3:50AM and I’d set an alarm for that on my android phone.  Everything’s a bit off kilter with the loss of my iPhone biking on the trail last Friday.  Well, I was at some event, going from one ball room into another, somewhere back in China.  I wasn’t supposed to be there and now, suddenly I needed to exit and when I woke with a start and checked my phone I was, of course four minutes late for the call I’d prepared to rise for.  The clock at been set to 4:50 PM. 

I got on five minutes late.  Just within the bounds of acceptable lateness, I reckoned.  The person told me he could hear me, but he couldn’t see me.  “Oh dear.”  I worked my frizzy grey hair back into a tie and brought on the other computer which introduced a momentary echo.  I noticed him wince.  I had to type to my partner who was joining as well.  “I presume you slept through?”  “No.  We’re on.” I typed.    Yes.  I’m in New York I confessed, allowing him to calculate what that meant in time zones.  A compromised start but a good finish in the end. 

Two more calls.  They all went well enough and soon I could see my little one behind me ready for her ride across the Hudson.  I flashed her two fingers, suggesting the number of minutes I’d need.   Fortunately, this was a call I could end well enough and leave with enough time to pour some coffee and still be on time. 

 

In the car we discussed her project to do a mural, concerning resistance to anti-Asian violence.  My daughter had chosen to depict products that Americans were familiar with that came from Asia.  Kung-fu, K-Pop, Bubble Tea.  The message was that these were all things that Americans enjoyed from Asia, so be respectful and acknowledge these contributions.  I felt the urge to challenge this idea.  How are you going to represent product contributions from markets like Afghanistan or Myanmar that don’t have commercial industrial output?  Ahh, but I could see that she was stressed enough about it as it was and left it at: “Let me know how I can help.”  When it was my turn, I decided we’d throw on “Never Mind the Bollocks”.  Recent rides and regular readers know where The Jam and the Clash, after all.  I did what I could to convey the freshness of the fifty-year old album and what it had meant to me and what it had meant to England.  Somewhere in the middle of “Pretty Vacant” we arrived at school. 

Tuesday 6/01/21