juxtaposition

well, thanks you two. yesterday afternoon pushing maya home from the cold wet park i met two canvassers who were very passioinate and got me thinking about how business as usual isn't working too well around these here parts. so, i do like hillary, but i'm going to go with barack.

miles wants to build stuff lately. not legos, not a cardboard model, but the real thing. he was excited about building a home for a homeless person out of some cardboard and driftwood sticks he found on the the back deck in a rare moment of sun. and he had some cool plans to build houses on top of our house, as well as a tree taller than our house on top of our house.

living in the suburbs i guess he would be protected from the grim realities of homelessness and housing crunches and lack of enough trees. but living here he doesn't seem depressed. he seems full of ideas and solutions. i guess i need to be more like my boy and not dwell in the fact that almost all of the community i felt so close to less than a decade ago has drifted or purposefully travelled away from me.

these rainy days put me to bed early and make more time for dreams filled with faces from the past, many of whom i long for.

i also stumbled upon a cool article about my neighborhood on the spur website.
i will try the link, i haven't been so successful lately.

last, a beautiful sunny afternoon in the cortland street park. a sturdy smiling boy jumped into my arms and i knew he had autism. very cute and friendly and miles' size. his dad was a just a bit crazy but cool and friendly ex-rocker. maya and miles and this little guy walked the stone circle around the sand, taking turns jumping on me and knocking me down. aren't i a good mom? this guy and family had fled the city about 5 years ago but had returned and were happy in bernal. maya climbs so fast to the top of the structure now, and bounces wildly on the bridge. miles looks out for her safety. as we pass the library, we hear music. it is an accordion lady, a young beautiful (russian?) one playing moody accordion music on the stone steps. our new little friend goes up and presses some buttons. miles slides down the smooth wide marble flanking the steps and of course his little sister tries too.

it is juxtaposition, of almost everything, that keeps it interesting in our lives. as maya says of the musician "look mommy look, the sound, listen"