Maybe like lefse - stark, flat and seemingly calling for additions like butter and jelly or cinnamon and sugar to bring on a better semblance
of something sweat?
Or maybe mashed upon a desert pizza - landscaped with doe on the
bottom, than a lair of finely mashed potatoes and something else like apricot spred to top it of and make it a certified desert.
Of course their is always sweat potatoe pye - richly created with a delectable
gram cracker krust, then filled with sweat potatoe complete with hints of spys and cream on top thrown
in for good measure.
Mmm Mmm, cold whether always brings on that feeling for home
cookin’.
Do potatoes grow in the desert – spread amongst the grams of
sand, which have fused together with top crust due to the lack of sweet sweet rain
from dry weather (like how my yard is starting to seem)?
And, I want to thank Dan Quayle for causing me to think
about spelling potato incorrectly every time the word pops in my head.
A shell is a great home. A comforting place to be. Where one can
run around in their tighty whities free from the outside rantings and ravings
and paparazzi. But, sometimes it can be a little too comfy – and we need to
break out, or be forced out (preferably with clothes on).
Our oldest child knows what he likes – and he likes his
shell. His insulated world with day to day sameness and configuration and
common routine. Initially, he doesn’t like to come out of that shell, to step
from familiar to unfamiliar (what is the root of familiar, family? household? something like that).
BUT, when he does come
out and tries something new, it is amazing at how much he likes it and seems
freed from the chains that bind. His horizon opens up, he makes new friends, advances
two steps and then… perhaps hits a small snag and back in his cave he goes,
eating his cheese pizza.
Seems to me this is what causes him to learn in fits and
starts. He picks something up and goes with it, but then when he gets stuck, he
rams his head over and over against the wall, though barely making a dent or a
scratch. Perhaps his pistonlike neurons are firing at different intervals than
the average. But, he knows what he likes - and seems grounded in that knowledge, which his peers seem to respect.
The recent controversy regarding Princess Kate and her risqué
photos comes to mind. Many celebrities say that when you are a celebrity – to whatever
extent, you need to mind every step and every move. Perhaps in your own house
or shell you can bare all, but be mindful of who is looking at any point outside
those walls, beyond the shell, with their greedy long range zooms.
Crabs, snails and turtles carry their shells around with
them – and they have lasted millions of years. The mobile shells, though perhaps a hindrance to some extent, (say 15% of the time), seem to work for them overall (the tortoise did beat the hare).
Sometimes we have to dare. We have to step into the dark,
leaving the comforts of home, leaving the comforts of government, leaving the
familiar - maybe taking that last breath and passing into peace.
Coming out of that shell and making the most of what comes our way.
And it ain’t easy, on your own.
Sometimes you win sometimes you lose.
But that’s what puts hair on your chest.
And experience is what you get when you don’t get what you
want.
(and tonight, the rest of us in this familia, want more than just cheese pizza)
With this date, we can specifically celebrate that this
marriage works.
Marriage is a wondrous thing and I hope all other humans, no
matter which options they were created with, can marry who they love as well.
As well as you still love me, despite my hairy back (which
wasn’t necessarily an option I would have chosen, if given that choice, maybe
there is still a purpose for it… camouflage, warmth - or some unseen advantage to it... it certainly is unseen to me, since it's on my back, and I can't see it, follows me everywhere I go, feel like Wolverine).
Paul Bunyan was a man of legend, a tall dude who had a big impact on Minnesota. His famous exploits still affect us in many ways, I think, right?
We are finishing off the basement in our 1920's era home. The stairs, though solid wood, creak on the way down. The walls, though solid block and mortar are aged but have held their own over the years. The house, and the basement as the foundation, were built with the best lumber and other materials of the day - back in the day when resources were limitless, costs were topless and the future was bright with residential progression in America.
Paul Bunyon was a great man. The legendary tales told regarding him are as tall as he was. An outdoorsman, a lumberjack, a hard worker, a conservationist...? I don't know. For one thing he thrived when parts of this land were still open and boundless and free range; and for another thing his carbon footprint was probably fairly large - an anomaly in a balanced world (and the world has a way of dealing with anomalies and balancing things out {dodo birds, woolly mammoths, polar bears?).
I wonder why my boys don't know of Mr. Bunyan's tales yet? (Though they will after this writeup). Is it because they live in an urban area - where all folks aren't white, where forests aren't seen for miles and miles from their bedroom window, where an endless supply of varying tales is available - straining and sifting so that only the most shiny and pronounced legends stand out?
What are the tall tales of today? Some sort of microchip man, using his minuscule stature to fight the effects of static cling? Maybe a nanobot securing the open source world from the encapsulated effects of patented software... who knows, perhaps your neighborhood has it's own legends that are just starting to creep into the everyday pattern.
Natural resources aren't bottomless. And neither are checkbooks. Sometimes it gets old to balance between this and that. Folks like to work, company's like to make money, Paul liked to cut wood. We want to move forward, to get things done, to create economy. The lakes 10,000 lakes Paul made are great to cool off at, the old growth wood he cut holds my house (and much of Fargo, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Chicago) together and we still use both - though they do have natural limits and we logical people will have to make difficult choices about balance at some point.
Perhaps the answer is infill. What can we use to fill-in the neglected urban gaps? Spaces that might have left a big guy like Paul feeling constrained, uptight and uncomfortable? Maybe further modern and technical answers will assist with these endeavors, or perhaps your neighbor has elbow grease to offer, or your faith will pull through with some great act.
Houses were built differently at the height of Paul Bunyan's era and have been built
differently through the ages. There have been interior and exterior retrofits and brand
new models that become old. Also, houses that were built to breathe and bear
the elements and houses that seal and encapsulate to fight the elements -
efficiently.
For now, we will be paying extra for the man-made foam insulation in our basement - thereby encapsulating it from the seemingly changing natural elements. To seal it up, and create a comfortable living area. The financial cost may not be made up completely through efficiency, but we will live and play and create and hopefully the trade off will be that we use less energy and resources.
And eventually, who knows - perhaps one of our young pups will use the space to write tall tales.
