reading a book

i’ve got this coffee cup that my aunt and uncle gave me several years ago. it has geese and reeds on it and always makes me think of English hunting deer with hounds. i pour cold wine into it and then i drink the wine.

there is really nothing that i know. sometimes i get really depressed. i get to feeling like walking on sidewalks and sitting in a chair drinking cold wine from a coffee cup. that is as far as i can get along that.

i thought, when i was a kid, that i would be crossing green valleys and distant hills. i heard the calls of birds and somewhere in the distance i could smell the smell of the ocean.

bookshelves

I finished working yesterday at the nursery. And today has been a fantastic day! I got up early and Jen and I had breakfast. It was a beautiful morning and Jen and I hung out and went on a bike ride and looked at places for rent (we are moving out in July).

I also went on a dumpstering expedition on campus. I went with a friend who knows some good places and has a lot of experience doing it. It was so much fun! And we found all kinds of stuff—a bottle of conditioner, a vacuum cleaner, a fancy tote thing, a duffel bag, desk lamps, lots of food (cereal, cup of soups, pb, chips, cucumbers, a Bach cd), lots of clean notebooks, and lots of other stuff. It was seriously a very good time; I learned a lot and had great fun.

Then I headed to a Fuerza Latina press action at the senator’s office. Fuerza Latina is a local group dedicated to immigrant rights. Several folks showed up, some people held signs, and there were even a few cheers (unemployment and inflation are not caused by immigration….that’s bullshit….get off it….the enemy is profit). The ‘bullshit’ was changed to ‘bullcrap’ for the lone video-person from a news station. Then a small group went up to the office while the rest stayed down in the old town square.

From there, I went to the bike co-op and borrowed a bike trailer and headed down to the nursery to pick up three book cases I had built from truck lumber. The semis we unload have a lot of lumber—2x2s, 4x4s, 1x4s—and most of it ends up in the trash. The nursery uses some of it and so do some of the people who work there (one person built a shed out of it, one person uses some of it for heating, another built elevated cold-weather garden boxes, and I’ve built a couple of tables and boxes). It is amazing how much good lumber ends up in the dump. Anyway, there is a community info-shop getting started back up in town. I had dropped off some of this truck lumber there a couple weeks ago and today I took the three book cases over. It was very exciting for me! It sounds silly but the whole process just felt great. When I got there, I found that folks had started building using the lumber; things seemed to be coming together. So, from the idea of an info-shop (a place housing resources like books, videos, etc. that are difficult to find in libraries and that are usually of a political/radical nature), to the salvaged lumber, to several individuals getting together and building the shelves, to using a bike from a co-op to drop off the shelves I made at the nursery—it just all felt great. The idea of just dropping off some bookshelves doesn’t really sound all that exciting but when it is done in a way that embodies all of these wonderful, community aspects it takes on a whole new meaning and becomes something that in itself feels meaningful.

After returning the bike and trailer and picking up my own bike, I stopped by a friend’s place to see her and Jen. They weren’t there yet but I ran into her neighbor and he invited me over for a beer. Now I am home, it’s a beautiful evening, and there are several comics I finally found that I am really excited to read!

The comics are called Mars and were published in the early 80s by an independent publisher called First Comics. So far, they are really cool. I actually read some choose-your-own adventure style books when I was a kid that were illustrated by the same two people who wrote and illustrated Mars. That is actually how I learned of this comic’s existence.

There are a few things I really like about the comic. First, the story and art are really good. And, beyond that, there are no advertisements in the comic (except for a few for other comic books by the same publisher). There is a letters page; this is something that I have always really enjoyed in comic books, ever since I was a kid, but that is often missing from comics on the newsstand today. Also, there is a page with some sort of article in most every issue. So far, the articles have been interesting. One piece was about the importance of continuing storyline comics in the daily strips, how they are dying out and not supported by newspapers, and how they are really a precursor and origin of what we know as comic books today. A couple of the other articles were about independent comics—their history and what was happening currently at the time of the article’s writing.

I’m not sure that all this typing about comics is all that interesting but it is fun to share! Maybe someday someone who wants to talk about comics will stumble across this blog and get a hold of me. And we will talk about comics together!

P.S.

I wrote the above on Wednesday. It is Friday morning now. Yesterday was also a really good day. In the morning Jen and I biked to the garden and planted some onion seeds and watered. I left for more dumpster exploring (granola bars, a still-cold-from-the-fridge fruit smoothie drink, an electric heater, binoculars, trail mix, and more), while Jen stayed down at the garden. After getting kicked out of the last dumpster, we shared the cold drink in the shade of a pine tree.

From there, I went to a meeting about strategies for anti-war stuff. Then I went back to the garden and helped Jen pick some chard, lettuce, and chives for a fresh salad to eat once we got home.

I just realized I have been minutely chronicling my day….that’s kinda strange. I think it is illustrative of my mood, though. I am having a really good time and I want to talk about it, I guess. I think it is silly and I should probably write about things and ideas instead of myself on this blog. I have a journal if I just want to write. But then again, I do like sharing what is making me happy.

no hay ser humano ilegal

i was at an immigration rights rally and march yesterday in denver. it was also international workers day and a day of remembrance for the haymarket martyrs of 1886.

one of the speakers after the march said that police had estimated 8,000 people and another source had estimated 15,000. there were a lot of kids and families and a wide age range in general. and that was good to see. the march did not seem to be the most energetic march, especially considering the large numbers of people. But, all the same, it was an unmistakable expression of the human desire for freedom and a demand for equality and dignity.

some folks in fort collins arranged a free bus that took people to and from the rally in denver. that was really nice. i rode my bike to the meeting place, hopped on the bus, and rode right to the gathering place in denver. and after the rally, it brought us all right back.

i was feeling a bit bummed out off and on at the rally....i'm not really sure why, maybe the lack of energy i felt was there (maybe others had a different experience). sometimes i get in a cycle during which i feel like nothing makes a difference, i don't know what to do, and that capitalism co-opts almost everything. but these are just momentary funks i get in and maybe that had something to do with my feelings at the march. i recognize these feelings as being encouraged by our system, in which to have a meaningful existence is to be a successful capitalist. isolation, uncertainty, and the basic response of 'what are you wasting your time for' that is so often the attitude of mainstream entertainment and even individuals that are sometimes in our lives, all function to produce these feelings.

so, i know that those feelings are there for a reason. i get to feeling isolated and politically, socially alone because that is one of this system's defense mechanisms. and it probably sounds a little silly but during the march and rally two individuals, strangers to me, said thanks for being a part of this. i'm sure they didn't know it, but that really turned me around. it made a huge difference in the way i was feeling. and i am very grateful to them.

in that context, the march was a great success--thousands of people, from many economic classes, genders, ethnicities, and other labels got together and took it to the streets. people really do surmount the obstacle of isolation and the traps of greed and capitalism to get together and create movement that transforms our lives and this world. of course, one march isn't the end but it is one step of many.