That is what dinner was: mac and cheese. An end to thinking, It requires no thought to cook, and no thought to eat, and induces a sublime lack of thought.
It was a day with too much information. I have been glued to online earthquake news from Japan, and am still tuning in to Libya, from whom our collective focus has shifted as it did from each revolution in turn. While we look the other way at the terrible quake aftermath, Gaddafi will mop up.
I sit safely in Brooklyn, safe except from corrupt State Senator Carl Kruger, just arrested, who took bribes in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. I read and read and a cloud of deep black depression slowly descends as it can in the wake of too much thought, and the ills of the world combine with the worries in our own personal lives until an internal fire drill must carried out to get all the synapses back in order.
We worry about our dear friend Eric, stuck in Tokyo, and who left Sendai the day before the earthquake and waves struck. His wife Mimi is here expecting a baby any week now, and she waits with little Giao, who asked her today, Why are you sad, Mamma? Three year old Giao is expecting a toy bullet train from Tokyo. He does not know that whole trains have gone missing. He is mad about cats and spelled out Don Estorbo's name last week on a chalk board. Soon he will spell earthquake, too.
An email just in from Eric, who will hopefully be on a flight tomorrow. All is chaos.
Hence the carbohydrates and cheese.
sterkte.
ReplyDeleteNot sure what to say, all is numb. Good that your friend is safe.
ReplyDeletethat's why mac and cheese is called "comfort food", because when the world is in turmoil, we can find a tiny sliver of peace in our kitchens.
ReplyDeleteSometime i can't read another word, but then i do.
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine what it would be like to watch it all on TV. Totally sensory overload.
Glad your friend is safe.
xo Jane
Amid massive chaos and horror, "small" islands of hope..your friend and Gaio's father is safe, probably by just a day. We need to hold onto nuggets such as these, pray if you believe in a deity or send beams, hope, and love if that is your belief. We can only do what we each can.
ReplyDeleteI have to turn away/off from screens periodically, it's too much, as you say. Now I realize why I did such a carb/fat overload yesterday. It didn't help much :-P
The power of mac & cheese is real!
ReplyDeleteThankfully,your friend, Gaio's father, is safe,..... a blogger friend of mine is safe. But so many others, are less fortunate. My thoughts are with all that have been traumatized.
It's been a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteThis guy stalks there too:
http://peteking.house.gov/
Glad Eric is safe.
ReplyDeleteOthers? I wait to hear.
Brother-in-law in Christchurch is safe.
And our torrential rain continues to make a mess.
Money seems so inedequate, but what else can I do? Eat pasta?
Its the six-degrees-of-separation thing really...my first patient on saturday was a teenager of Anglo-japenese heritage whose cousins are in Tokyo and whose paternal grandfather was in Sendai...and who was sitting in out waiting room watching it all play out on Sky News.Sigh.Hope your friend is safe
ReplyDeleteI think it can all be too much to watch on our screens. I briefly read the news and spend much of the day sitting with the natural beauty around me, whether it's our greening hills, the bursting wildflowers, my fluffy chickens, my incredibly funny mini donkeys, or the birds chirping as they build their nests. It helps me to be still and quiet my mind. We live some 50 miles from a nuclear reactor in California and I think....There but for the grace of God or Mother Nature. But still, each day is amazing at this moment. Great news about Gaio's father and all the other lives spared.
ReplyDelete