GRIZZLY PEAR
I came downstairs to a party.
Yesterday’s tower had reassembled into a sea of tables.
The storage bin lids are tabletops on toilet roll legs.
Dora the Dalmation eats straw with Unicorn.
Bear-Bear shares a Rubik’s cube with Violet, an elephant.
George, Adventure, Tiny, Hello Kitty, and Blades chat around their own table.
“Happy Earth Day!”
I add the globe from her desk.
䷼䷓
A crane calling in the shade.
Its young answer it.
He fears two things.
Mother banishing his toys to the garage.
Not so worried to put them away properly,
Just enough to extract an pledge that she won’t clean up after bedtime.
Father coming downstairs to the pantry.
䷋䷥
What if it should fail? What if it should fail?
Seven floors of stuffed animals are sandwiched between slabs of plastic container lids held up by toilet paper roll columns.
More rolls top the penthouse for an outsized gable.
This pagoda is flanked by a pavilion of paper towel tubes topped with a pink throw pillow.
There’s a party on this puffy roof deck.
䷷䷳
Success through smallness
This evening, my wife cut his hair.
A bit longer on top, shorter on the sides.
A crew cut emerged from the mop.
He aged three months in twenty minutes.
䷭䷛
Thus the superior man of devoted character
Heaps up small things
in order to achieve something high and great.
“爸爸后院没有 toilet 我站起来做 peepee”
“Daddy, there’s no toilet in the backyard, I’m going to stand and pee”.
His pants dropped to the ankles, the hip pushed forward and let it fly.
Because we never go out, I worried about his lack of practice in standing urniation.
As with most parenting concerns, it’s a non-issue.
The boy should be less bombastic, but he’s figured out the routine.
They always do.
䷀䷍
Flying dragon in the heavens. It furthers one to see the great man.
Stumble across a Pelikan in a box of old papers.
(bought the fountain pen after finishing college.)
Give it a rinse and reload.
(the ink is also two decades old.)
Writes smooth, better than I remembered.
(not the wisest use of $300, but a nice gift from my past self.)
Wonder what he’d think if we crossed paths.
(I’m exactly twice his age.)
䷟䷧
It Profits To be Steadfast.
A Destination Profits.
Cataclysm!
A few days ago (we surmise), the boy spilled water onto the nightstand and the books below.
By now, several books have dried together.
The old Hagar the Horrible pocket paperback was destroyed. Black mold.
The enormity strikes the boy when he sees the warped covers of his favorite book.
Chicka chicka … BOOM! BOOM!
䷫䷠
There is a fish in the tank. No blame.
I spent the day tweaking retirement projections.
The spreadsheet continuously implied new ways to spreadsheet.
Embodied numbers demanded exponential reanalysis.
You are the unit of measurement.
䷣䷲
Shock comes — oh, oh!
Laughing words — ha, ha!
<crunch>
My wife asked, “Did you steal the hexagon crackers?”
<crunch>
“No…Maybe…Yes?”
<crunch, crunch>
The boy sauntered into the kitchen.
I’d already cleaned the table.
䷆䷓
There is game in the field. It furthers one to catch it.
The tablet rang on the on a stool beside his table.
The boy paused the playdough to answer.
“姐姐和妈妈一起读中文”
Sister is studying Chinese with mom.
Grandma asked him to tell the girl call back.
“好”
OK
He hung up.
..
..
You’re never there to give a speech. You’re there to communicate with your audience.
from “One or a Thousand” in How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds – or Less, by Milo O. Frank
..
䷈䷸
Return to the way, How could there be blame in this?