Dangermond.org

The signer is back in City Park putting wooden signs by the dog shit that owners leave behind. For Thanksgiving the message was, “Have a Crappy Thankgsiving!” and for Christmas we have, “Merry White Trash Christmas!” – sometimes the signs are dark like the one that said, “Your Owner is a Loser” or “Thanks For Leaving Your Shit” but mostly they are quite humorous and seasonal in their message.

What is the thing about people who don’t pick up their dog shit? It’s sort of a mystery.

The other day my neighbor’s dog was going to the bathroom on another neighbor’s front lawn and she said, “Thanks for fertilizing my lawn.” Only she meant it. She wasn’t being sarcastic at all. And the neighbor with the dog had her tool to scoop up the pile so it wasn’t like that was in question. But dog shit does not act as a fertilizer I’m afraid to say. So what that whole exchange was really about isn’t clear – was she trying to say, “Hey, I’m okay with your dog shitting on my grass.” Really?

When I was walking through the park this morning on this chilly December morning bearing some resemblance to winter, I thought to myself, maybe I keep losing all these things because I’m being tested about my nonattachment endorsements. I lost all my favorite clothes and vintage Wonder Woman shirts in Croatia because…, I lost all my 8900 Ipod songs (recovered most now) because…, I lost all the pottery I bought at Pepperwood Pottery after years of collecting on my birthday because…, my computer crashed with all my documents because…, my cellphone corrupted with all my contacts because…,

I was thinking about this as I walked on the railroad track through City Park (avoiding the bookend of dogs) and found a hat that some little boy had dropped off the train while riding through the Celebration of Lights and thought, hmm, they’re going to be wondering where that hat is. Or the one pink kid-size Ugg I saw lying by the playground looking as if it had fallen out of the car when the kids were being rushed into the car to leave.

All these things that go missing or get lost or break.

My consideration about working towards nonattachment is not to detach from material things, but rather to remain unattached to outcome of events. I spend a lot of time worrying about outcomes and no matter what, they come anyway. I worried my mother would be sick, I worried that she would die, I worried that I would quarrel my sister during this time, I worried that the funeral would be stressful because of my family, I worried that the memorial I planned for my mother would be thwarted by same – all those things came to pass. But there it is. And here I am.

So it’s this brand of nonattachment that I will be aiming for, I still don’t like the fact that someone in the UK is wearing my classic Wonder Woman tee shirt, or that my traveling hula hoop is on the hips of someone in Eastern Europe, or that all my gorgeous pottery broke when my life was breaking apart. I don’t like it one bit. I don’t like that my mother is gone, and that she was sick, and that the family scene got ugly and that my memorial for my mom was under threat. I don’t like it one bit.

But from here on out, I want to just say, okay, bring it. Because I think I can handle it.

December 23, 2010

1. Taurus (4/20-5/20)

   Attachments are in the stars at the moment — so who and what are you bonded to? Some new connections (work, community, maybe even romantic) are a distinct possibility now, so keep your eyes (and your heart) open. Meanwhile, the people, places and things you hold dear seem extra-special, and the alliances you’ve forged are not only really helpful but are deepening and broadening. Your loyalty is priceless.

I’m sure that someday children in schools will study the history of the men who made war as you study an absurdity. They’ll be shocked, just as today we’re shocked with cannibalism. -Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1898-1978).

Um excuse me while I divagate but on the subject of gold and China buying it – China has since the beginning of the 2000s started to stock pile gold and to trade with Russia in its yuan – why? – it both sees the devaluing of the US dollar and wants to devalue it – gold has not been a reserve currency since the 1960s when most people who stockpiled gold were considered paranoid, but now gold is coming more and more in fashion in lieu of the US dollar.

Meanwhile when India and China go to war over natural resources, and gold is the global currency, there will be a big sucking wind sound coming from the once great U S of A.

I have many traditions that I honor even though I am more secular Jew than not – I light the menorah every night of Hanukkah, I eat matzo during Passover, I fast for Yom Kippur, and eat honey and apples on Rosh Hashanah.

I have given up needing turkey on Thanksgiving and pretty much the need to cook most of the meal. I just like to gather with loved ones and feast.

For my mother’s birthday, I get all dolled up like my mom and go to dinner.

New Year’s Eve has come to mean home on the bayou – watching my neighbor light fireworks and being close to bed rather than out in the hoopla.

Jazz Fest – every day with the brass pass.

Mardi Gras – Jan 6th first king cake, Krewe de Vieux, Muses, and Fat Tuesday are all a must.

But Christmas is a puzzle – I was thinking we would volunteer but then thought about my attempts in the past to do so on Christmas where volunteers are stumbling over each other. I then wondered why I felt obligated to do something charitable on a holiday that I don’t even believe in. Tonight I was wondering aloud about what tradition to institute because of Tin. And then I thought we’ll just see what sort of tradition occurs organically rather than force one on us. There was something in my childhood that was nice about being out of step with what most other people were doing. Sort of like walking down the street when a Saints game is on in New Orleans and hearing the cheers, and never watching a game. You feel happy it is happening, and content to not participate.

T square is enroute home having jumped through the last hurdle – the flight from Atlanta to New Orleans – and so in a little bit over an hour, they will touch ground. Yippee. Look how much Tin aged while he was gone::::::

So I was telling a friend that 2011 is going to be austerity year for us and she said, wow, us too. Then she sent me this from thebigpicture newsletter – note the second bullet.

• Tuesday Long Reads
• Merriam-Webster’s most searched word in 2010: Austerity
• Inflation stat update
• Kass: Surprises for 2011
• The Dark Side of the Gold Boom – Part II: Toxic Gold in Nigeria
• LEH: Its All Good Now!
• Europe still can’t turn the page
• Two Years After Lehman’s Crash, NYAG Targets Auditor Ernst & Young
• The Muni Herd Redux
• Blame the Accountants — and Deregulation

I went out with friends last night for dinner and the youngest of us was about to turn 50. Our waiter was this sassy, handsome young fey boy who tickled us with his youthful naivete and good humor. We all came home and watched Sordid Lives, yes, one of us had a DVD of it in his truck – go figure. I fell asleep halfway through and had to crawl home, but I do want to watch it again as it is about trailer park mostly gay Southerners, of course.

But we were all thinking of that young boy even after we had dinner, and I admit at first wistfully, and then a little more seriously, as in, wow, youth, gone and hello old age. I came across this article in the Huffington Post and thought it was a nice counterpoint to our evening, our thoughts, and maybe even to Sordid Lives.

Minutes before midnight tonight the sun will have tilted the farthest away from the earth as it is going to get for a year and we will be in midwinter, or the beginning of winter, and for that minute or so of the Winter Solstice we will have the shortest day and the longest night.

However, it is 74 degrees here and about 100 percent humidity so it sure doesn’t feel like Winter. I look at these images of Europe socked under snow, and New York is in the thirties, and it is icy and snowing in Chicago, and here we sit in the Gulf South, smug as bugs. Yep, this is the time of year when you are damn glad that Southern Santa is not only a black man with a tattoo, but also wears a tank top and shorts.

I was reading in the New York Times Magazine about this physicist who believes in parallel universes and it was a very timely read as lately I have been having these weird photo frame occurrences. I’ll be speaking to someone and I blink and then it’s as if the frame / lens has changed to a sharper hue or just a slightly different frame. I have noticed this many times lately and it is slightly disconcerting. I had chalked it up to my ongoing sinus infection that has beleaguered me for weeks now.

But maybe it is that I am seeing this person in a parallel universe simultaneously. Maybe there is a world where the exact same thing is happening but maybe a second later as if we have been DVR’d. Hey, it’s possible.

I had a fitful sleep tracking the itinerary of T square coming home as the flight out of Zagreb delayed, the flight out of Paris delayed. They are still in Paris, yet to board, as the flight is now two hours delayed and Charles de Gaulle is a mess. I have called Delta Airlines about fifty times in the last 24 hours and I have this to say about that – every person I have spoken with has been professional and courteous. And their new messaging is really great.

Now back to worry.