Three day weekends - love 'em. We bitch about having to goose the caboose to get motivated to go to work after a holiday. Me, included. But, as I yanked back the curtain and got out of the shower this morning, I looked at the towels draped on the bar, the gold bank of theater lights above the six foot counter mirror, the unlit candle in the corner by my electric toothbrush. All pretty much unchanged for the last six years, leading to a mental sense of permanence, familiar things you see but don't see.

My stare took a funny turn as the scene froze into a still photo. It browned around the edges, the mirror cracked, light bulbs blew apart, wall paper tattered. I stood in a room of ruin after a quake, or perhaps following an explosion or maybe it resulted from lengthy loss of employment. Again I am reminded how fragile is this easy life we live daily in most of America, where water runs hot, rooms are cool in summer and electric light floods the corners of our lives. Are we close to having it all fall apart, or is it just me? Either way, I'm glad to be at work on this day after a holiday.

(…written after President's Day, 2004)
nanci@aireborn.com
Nanci Van Schmus Milam


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