ESPRIT!!!!!!

I am in New York, and today I made a joyous discovery - ESPRIT is alive and well
and is once again part of my wardrobe. www.esprit.com

I must be thinking about the WTC also because I'm heading to New York tomorrow - since I am newly single, my mind drifts to various ways in which I meet the next Mr. Dreamboat. Just now, I thought about how it would be nice to sit near one on the airplane - not next to one - I would like to feel free to drool in my sleep or let my gut hang out if I feel the need. Although, maybe it would be a good exercise to just let go and do that in front of someone. First impressions be damned - along with silly games and childish thinking. And dishonesty - that goes down there too. AM I RIGHT? Lemme hear ya!

musings

I am ovewhelmed at the hypocrisy, arrogance and general idiocy demonstrated by our current administration. It is shameful. We do not deserve the prosperity and ideal quality of life that we have. We hog the world's resources and then shit on everyone in return. If we had just taken a moment after 9/11 to reflect on WHY this was happening - why are these people so desperate as to sacrifice their lives and forsake their families to drive planes into the World Trade Center? Could it have POSSIBLY had something to do with us?? No, we say - they're EVIL. They're the ones who are CRAZY. What have we done??

I think about those poor people jumped from the World Trade Center windows to avoid being incinerated alive. Do you think that they were thinking that whoever did this was EVIL? Um...don't think so. At the brink of death, I imagine finally attaining a sense of clarity that comes only from being humbled to the core; being acutely aware of every passing second and how precious it is to have blood flowing through our veins, to have people who love us; and fully aware that we are all CONNECTED.

On that horrible day, I went to church. That's where the above picture is from. I wanted to feel connected, to make sense of it all, and to grieve. What I think was happening for a few precious days afterwards was that America, shocked and grief-stricken, was humbled. Grief and loss washes away all that is irrelevant, petty and false. We are left with what is real and true, and precious. If we had just continued down that path, retaining that humility, realizing that we as a country also have the capacity to do the same great harm as what had been done to us, I think that there would have been some hope for us as a nation. Instead, George Bush, who apparently was never taught how to mourn or to grieve, and for whom humility is probably seen as a weakness, got on the soapbox, rattled his saber, vowing revenge, and turned the nation down the path of a blind Crusade. His word, not mine - well chosen, because the current conflict seems as futile as the original Crusades.

Democrats are even more guilty, let's not forget. They let it all happen. They had a responsibility to speak out against an unjust, totally unredemptive war; against a president who is so clearly and so painfully incompetent. IN-COM-PE-TENT; no one had the guts to stand up and utter a word. Not Kerry. Not Gore. The Democratic leaders abandoned us all, in hopes of saving their own asses. Shame on all of you, and what a horrible mess you've gotten us into.