A new favorite

This is happening on Earth...not Neptune.

Let's all find the little boy in us...

"He had a filthy towel tied under his jaw as if he suffered from toothache and even by their new world standards he smelled terrible. He had no shoes at all and his feet were wrapped in rags and cardboard tied with green twine and any number of layers of vile clothing showed through the tears and holes in it. Of a sudden he seemed to wilt even further. He leaned on his cane and lowered himself into the road where he sat among the ashes with one hand over his head. He looked like a pile of rags fallen off a cart. They came forward and stood looking down at him.

The boy squatted and put a hand on his shoulder. He's scared Papa. The man is scared.

I don't think you should touch him.

Maybe we could give him something to eat.

The boy took the tin and handed it to the old man. Take it, he whispered. Here.

The old man raised his eyes and looked at the boy. The boy gestured at him with the tin. He looked like someone trying to feed a vulture broken in the road. It's okay, he said.

You should thank the boy you know, the man said. I wouldn't have given you anything.

Maybe I should and maybe I shouldn't.

Why wouldn't you?

I wouldn't have given him mine.

You don't care if it hurts his feelings?

Will it hurt his feelings?

No. That's not why he did it.

Why did he do it?

He looked over at the boy and he looked at the old man. You wouldn't understand, he said. I'm not sure I do.

Maybe he believes in God.

I'm not sure what he believes in.

When he looked back the old old man had set out with his cane, tapping his way, dwindling slowly on the road behind them like some storybook peddler from an antique time, dark and bent and spider thin and soon to vanish forever. The boy never looked back at all."

-The Road

You must NEVER sit in THAT seat on the bus!

"I have a tendency to see the best in people." 

As we took the #62 bus up Dearborn I was informed by my roommate that there is a seat on the bus that women should never sit in. If you are a frequent bus passenger you will know what seat I am talking about. It's the bench seat that faces the front closest to the back door. Women should not sit in this seat because men can grab something from their purse and run out of the bus, steal their necklace, or something else of value. So for our protection it is better to stand rather than to sit in that seat. 

When did the world become so untrustworthy? I am a very trusting person and I always chose to see the best in people but it is getting increasingly harder. I get really upset when I think of all the precautions that women have to take just to get home safely. I find it especially discouraging when I get a phone call from my brother (someone who has always been more of a friend than an older brother) telling me that he is sending me the top quality mace that's out there. I keep my phone and keys in my pocket with my purse zipped up tight just in case I have to whack someone in the face with it when I walk home at night. 

Women get checked out, whistled at, and hit on everyday and it's anything but flattering. We shouldn't walk home alone, or go running at night. We shouldn't set our drinks down, or get too drunk because of what other people might do. We can't trust taxi drivers or even cops for that matter. The list goes on and on with simple precautions that have become such a routine...we don't even notice that we do them anymore. The more I  think of all these safety measures the more frustrated and disappointed I get with the world.

It just doesn't seem fair that we have to try to be this safe every time we walk out our door.  

Miracles fall from the sky

A gift to those he left behind. 2 months 37 miles. 

My Bucket List

I finished watching the movie The Bucket List about 25 min ago...I'm still crying. I've decided to begin a list of my own. 

1. Change someone's life 

2. Start my own non-profit organization

3. Live in Italy

4. Join the Peace Corps

5. Go on a road trip by myself

6. To be in complete silence.."a little pocket of silence-a silence so rare that I didn't want to exhale, for fear of scaring it off."

7. live in a tree

8. Have my family together for Christmas...or any holiday for that matter

9.To live a simple life

10. To help women who don't have a voice in their country and can't get help for themselves

11. create positive social change

12. to continue and carry out my list

.....to be continued

Page 8

Wake up. Stretch. Go to the bathroom. Open blinds. Chop fruit. Pour cereal. Sit down. Read newspaper. Page 8. "His home, His son, His hope--all lost." Cry. Cry. Cry. Cry some more. They fled home. Have no money. No where to go. His son kidnapped. Brutally murdered. No where to go. No hope. Not fair. It's not fair. NOT FAIR!