‘All human life has its seasons, and no one’s personal chaos can be permanent: winter, after all, does not last forever, does it? There is summer, too, and spring, and though sometimes when branches stay dark and the earth cracks with ice, one thinks they will never come, that spring, that summer, but they do, and always.’
Truman Capote
from capote: a biography
by Gerald Clarke

I recently read local writer Milton Murayama’s All I asking for is my body. On the back cover was this quote from a reviewer:

'The irony is that it is fighting, war, and gambling that ultimately free the family and the two boys from the cultural, social, and economic bondage.'

Edward A. Shaw

This quote made me think about war as opportunity for breaking down or escaping entrenched societal structures, in this case, enslaving traditions and labor monopoly.

Finally, in the library, I saw a guy who reminded me of one of the angry, screaming men in the park last night. Unlikely that it was him, but I did a double take. The man in the library was sitting at a table reading a book, Power of Silence by Carlos Castaneda.

War, silence, and waiting around--hmm. That got me thinking. Yoga, psychotherapy, and Shintaido have helped me out of painful, entrenched patterns. (I'm a work in progress!) So have guitar lessons, a shift in what I eat, a first step toward a door, being open to gifts (like an invitation from a friend, or exit ramps to Tangerine Road and Walden Road, or an emailed photo of George Bush in a white lab coat) when they come my way. I guess the point is we don't have to be stuck...