Toys in the Attic

Happy Valentine's Day. Well I hope you all had a lovely week and weekend and that you weren't accidentally shot in the face by the Vice President of the United States. Wow! Perhaps he thought he saw Bin-Laden crouching behind some quail? [my pal Melly found this wonderful commencement speech given my Baz Luhrman and I've stolen the idea because all writers steal ideas, we just call them 'homages'...anyway I tip my had to Melly and Baz in this fake commencement speech] The things I know... Today I impart to you all the things I know in the hopes that one of two of the things I know might be things you don't know, or you knew once but forgot. The first thing I know is that I don't really know very much. Because I've spent a third of my life sleeping...though that percentage goes down if you don't count my 12th grade Math Analysis class which I spent not so much analyzing math as I did analyzing the top of my desk with my forehead- to be fair I slept on top of the math analysis textbook so if I didn't learn anything through osmosis, I at the very least had an imprint of a math equation from the front of the book on my face- and somehow that counts The second thing I know is that I didn't snore when I was 17...otherwise I'd have never actually made it through Math Analysis class alive. I also know stuff that doesn't have to do with sleeping...but for the moment I'm on that stream so I'll stick with it if you don't mind. Some people will tell you you'll sleep enough when you're dead...but how do THEY know...they are presumably alive themselves unless you're communicating with the dead in which case you have bigger problems than lack of sleep. Some people say that dreams are the window to your real desires...but I'm fairly certain I never desired to be chased by monsters who eat intestines while singing the music of The Bay City Rollers...that's one night I shouldn't have drank an entire bottle of vodka and had a cheeseburger before I passed out. That brings me to something else I know about...passing out drunk...which is sort of like sleep but with more vomiting and bathroom floors. I know a LOT about that. For instance I know that it's much better to fall asleep on a linoleum floor rather than a tile floor because tile tends to get cold after a few hours and will leave marks on your face...kind of like math books. I also know that you should leave the light on AND if possible the fan when you fall asleep in the bathroom after passing out. The light prevents you from waking up and thinking the bottle of vodka rendered you blind, while the fan has the dual function of creating soothing white noise that leaves you with the feeling that you actually passed out near the ocean after making love to a jasmine scented, German girl who is your roommate's girlfriend's exchange student pal...it also can ease the puke stench. Some functions are better than others I grant you. As a side note I also know a little something about German girls but that's a story for another day. Where was I? Oh yes the things I know. I know that it takes 40 minutes to drive from San Francisco's Bernal Heights to Daly City to get a grumpy girlfriend Krispy Kreme donuts at 1am. I also know that I'm going to get hit for that. Speaking of quixotic food adventures, I know that I should never be with my friend Dave when he craves Malomars, or at the very least I shouldn't have the keys to my car. In the same vein, I know not to trust that my friend Susan knows where a 24 hour grocery store is in Denver...because she doesn't. I also know that when finally finding a 24 hour grocery store open in Denver they look really odd at you when you walk in with several people dressed to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But these things probably don't help any of you out very much...unless you're an alcoholic Rocky Horror fan who's got a blind date with a German girl that is. So I should probably tell you some things I know that are actually helpful...but I'm not sure in the end that I really know anything helpful...you know? This weekend I finished my paper on Martin Luther. Here's a brief excerpt: The power of Luther's message and his political and administrative savvy are therefore key components of the ultimate success of “Lutheranism”. But what about Wittenberg was so special as to create such a productive atmosphere? While Rublack again reinforces the specific social skills of Luther to achieve tight control in Wittenberg, she only mildly emphasizes the special nature of Wittenberg that helps explain Luther’s success. Wittenberg in the early 1500s had far fewer institutions of the Church within its confines compared to other towns. A small Franciscan monastery was joined by “a short list of religious buildings: the castle chapel, the town church, the Augustinian monastery, a small chapel of the order of St Anthony…and the All Saints Foundation”. With a relatively small amount of Church institutions there was not the type of reach the Church bureaucracy would have in other towns with a larger number of institutions. Furthermore the population of Wittenberg was mainly artisans who served the community itself and owed thus owed its financial success to other citizens of Wittenberg and the local nobility rather than the Church and its hierarchy. Wittenberg, then, was a prime location for a message of departure from the Church orthodoxy. Its population was not in the grip of Church institutional largesse to which it would fear for its livelihood. Also with the apparent acquiescence of the secular authority, Frederick the Wise to whom they were more financially tied, the population of Wittenberg was in effect temporally released from blind subservience to the Church- though they might still fear for their corporeal existence. Yeah I don't understand what I wrote either...anyhoo... Tomorrow Gracie turns 5 months old. We experimented this week with some rice cereal since she's really made herself quiet interested in our food (which all the books say is the sign). She took to it well but we decided to hold off giving her any more until she hits 6 months because she hasn't really fallen into a nighttime soldid sleep pattern and the cereal did not help matters. We did get some cute pictures though (some of which you'll see below). Well I finally got to see the Corretta Scott King funeral the other night. I have to say I kind of admired President Bush for sitting through the steady stream of negativity implicit and explicit directed toward him...while he's sitting right there behind everybody speaking. Even if you vehemently disagree with the Bush Administration, or the President himself. one should have some class a) at a funeral and b) while the President is in the room. It's just a matter of common respect and politeness which is sadly all too absent in the world these days. Even if you don't respect the man (which on many issues I don't) you have to respect the office. And yes the GOP is just as bad at this and if someone had gotten up at a funeral in front of President Clinton and started attacking him I'd be saying the same thing (especially because I like him and am a Democrat- which I seem to have to keep reminding people of). Bush's speech was very good and Clinton's was even better, and watching these two one similarity is extremely clear (and I think points to their ability to gather support in middle America)- they are both very comfortable discussing faith and seem at ease invoking the Almighty in a personal way that is sincere at least to me seems so. The other two speeches that I thought were greatly effective were the speech by Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin (a black woman)- clearly the very fact that she is the mayor in Atlanta pays homage to the power of the Dr. and Mrs. King's struggle- and the speech by Georgia Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue who spoke movingly of Mrs. King lying in State at the Capitol rotunda which again is a monument to the advancement of the civil rights movement. Of course civil rights has miles to go before the fullness of Dr. King's dream can be realized, but the memorial to Mrs. King showed just how far we've come. The outrage in the Muslim world over the cartoons shows us however that in some parts of the world protest means different things to different people. I was pleased to see in the last few days a number of more peaceful protests in the Muslim world and increased (though still too few) calls for calm. As I've said on a number of occasions, the real debate must first be within the Islamic community over whether or not to tacitly endorse Muslim extremism through silence, or to put those who seek violent means to silence dissent on notice that moderate Islam is no longer willing to see the mass of Muslims defiled by such acts. So...anyway... Hey it's picture time: Falling asleep in her high chair...