011720c

I heard an amusing story today. An RN told me that when she was a kid, she loved to pet cows (she grew up on a farm). She would go out in the cow pasture and lie down on her back, keeping very still. Cows, being curious creatures, would come stand around her and bend their heads down to see why she was there and what she was doing. She would very quickly stroke one of them on the nose, and they would all run away. Now she wonders why her mother let her do things like that! And why she never got kicked in the head. Thank God for the permissiveness of the old days! (Although she is the same age as my oldest daughter, and we never let her wander around by herself. I always went with her.)

052617d

Even this tiny snail's perfect fossil shell

Who put these reefs

shouldering out from road-side cliffs

dripping with corals

not seen alive for 300 million years

put them there to fool us

trick us into thinking

the world is an old old place?

The very same person

who built the whole shebang

from nothing, nothing at all

and loves us dearly

though, never speaking to us

or showing his face

is a funny way to show it

050414 sanction-based diplomacy and the balance of power

D2 reminded me of an awful trick we played on her when she was small. I haven't thought of it for years. She'd get angry because we wouldn't let her do something or other, and she'd impose sanctions. She'd withhold hugs. She was probably 2 or 3 years old.

"Can I have a hug?" Spouse or I would ask.

A shout ("No!"), A glare, & a cold shoulder would be the response.

"Well, I'm going to taaaake one...."

"No, no, auuuuuuuugh!"

"I'm sorry, I'll give it back."

"OK. I'm keeping it! You can't have another one."

"Can I have a hug?"

And the vicious cycle would begin anew.

The next level of sanctions: kisses.