A full moon over water. Another sleep with sea breeze blowing in, the waves
lulling with their sounds. Woke to a sunrise full of color. These were the
elements of our last night and morning on Kauai. Also Saturday Night Live
beginning at 7:30 pm because of the time difference with New York. I watched
to see if anyone had thought of the same small joke I did when I read that
Nancy Pelosi had invited the President to submit his State of the Union speech
in writing. My thought was, why didn't she suggest he tweet it?
It was the first time I've seen SNL probably this century. Before the end of
the show I went to tweak paintings. One of the pleasures of a vacation is to
bring water colors, a couple of brushes, pad of paper. I sit places, look. I
don't have the skill to record accurately so I translate as a language beginner
with a limited vocabulary does; I say what I can. On Saturday we were
concerned that a small chick came running up to us looking hungry and
bedraggled. No sign of the mother, who we'd seen only days before. Every time
we tried to feed him or her sparrows or full grown chickens proved faster.
Eventually the most magnificent rooster on the beach showed up. He chased the
others away, sat down six feet from me and stared. The mother hen showed up
and the chick ran under her wing.
"Go on then," said the Henry the Magnificent, "paint us."
"I'll give it a go," I said, but I'm not good."
"You fed the baby. You deserve a reward."
And there they sat until I was done. Whales leapt in the background. I doubt
Henry summoned them, but he was lord of all he surveyed, said so from time to
time, and with chickens you never know.
The guy at the market, with the hippy ceramic mugs. I suppose it took all he
had within to learn how to throw and glaze and now...who wants what he makes?
He doesn't see that such pottery is like the Etruscans, consigned to the basket
of history? Second thought: is anything else actually in that basket...us for
example? Third thought: why does anyone keep anything in a basket
nowadays?Snakes maybe. Defanged like false facts.
I read that some small colleges in America are doing away with the history
major. Much safer to emphasize making useful things. Like ceramic mugs.
Time to go get on a plane. May all of you in your advanced time zones have a
good day. I'll be catching you up.
David Ritchie
Heading east
Sent from my
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