"A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT"
Remember my horrible old coffee pot? The one I dragged around for years and rigged a few times to keep working, even after the situation turned very, very gross for a few days? Well, for my birthday, I got a fancy new coffee maker. Coffee, espresso, cappuccino, the whole nine. Gone are the days of going to the hardware store for something to rig it together with so it'll last just a few more months. I've upgraded. And, it's fabulous. So, a lady is coming from Freecycle this morning to pick up my old coffee pot, bless her heart. Eh, she's getting a free coffee pot and what remains of my corresponding filters. Yet, I feel like I should put a card and a $5 in the filter for her future trouble.
I resolve to try to say "but" less and "yet" instead.
I talked to my grandfather for over an hour yesterday. Usually, I get both grandparents on the phone, or he passes the phone to my grandmother, but my grandmother-- in her later 80s, mind you-- works hard preparing taxes, a career she started only about 35 years ago, was at work, so he and I talked and talked instead. And, to my delight, the conversation turned philosophical quickly, mostly about time and age, and for the first time that I can recall, my grandfather confided a something he sees as a shortcoming-- "I'm going bald-headed, Amy. I really am and I hate it." He almost whispered it, like it was a secret, though, it's far from--- I don't ever recall him having a full head of hair. I've never heard him say he hates anything. Nor have I ever heard him say anything he didn't like about himself. Yet, he didn't say it out of despair or negativity, he just said it, for what it is, and then paused and laughed about getting a pompadour toupee.
Last night, I went to the City Verse event held by the Chicago Poetry Center hosted by Cassie Sparkman. And, it was really cool. My new friends Larry O. Dean and Laura Van Prooyen both read beautifully, as did the other two poets--Parry Rigney and Joris Soeding. I'm sort of a latecomer to poetry, and I'll admit it was rather wasted on me for a number of years, but I'm coming around and enjoying a new thing to explore.
5 comments:
UPDATE: Oh, shock of the century, my Freecycler flaked out. Think she read this post? Har.
She did?! I think it was menschy of you to give it away.
What a lovely conversation you had with your grandfather.
Mazel Tov on the new fly coffee maker, it sounds like a work of fine squeezed-bean-art.
Have you read Adrienne Rich's poetry? Check out "The Dream of a Common Language". I think you'll love it.
Your grandpa sounds like such a sweetheart! I can totally picture mine saying something like that.
I have put my old kitchen appliances (usually $9.99 or $19.99 from a drug store)in a plastic sack and hung on the dumpster. Sometimes with a nice little "this works" post-it note.
You can try that method.
Happy birthday again and again and again!
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