Stories

I was in Philadelphia yesterday, passed an important part of my childhood, and posted a picture of One of the spots where I was mugged for a bike when I was a kid. If you weren't raised in a place where you were targeted for violence and theft, it might seem unusual for someone to have had been mugged and multiple bikes stolen, among other violent crimes. Actually people ask me what I did to get mugged so many times---often people who would recoil or attack in anger if someone with a different identity were asked what they did to be victimized. Obviously, I didn't choose to victimized, so you'll have to find and ask my assailants why they attacked me. In any case, today…

I've posted about the times I was mugged growing up. I also did a TEDx talk about the sledding hill near where I grew up. I think a lot of people see a white guy talking about growing up by a sledding hill at the end of the block and think, how privileged. For me, the parks and being mugged went together because I was mugged in the park near the sledding hill. Well, a bit of a walk from it, but on a bike path we went to as a family. I was visiting Philadelphia and went by the spot for the first time in a long time. The experience was more emotionally intense than I expected. Here's the spot: I think the wall…

The rule on volunteering with the group I volunteer with is that when you sign up for a shift, you're responsible to clear all the food the place is donating that day. You might recall I pick up overstock food from stores that would otherwise throw it away. We bring it to places that distribute it to hungry and poor people. I used to deliver it to an outdoor community fridge in Chelsea, but you know how people are with free stuff. They argue over it, drop it on the ground and leave it, and otherwise behave in ways that prompt neighbors to complain. After a while, the church hosting the outdoor fridge had to stop hosting it. Still a community of people who used…

Coming home this evening, I noticed a window of the apartment a few floors directly below mine was open, I estimated by 8 to 10 inches. The light was on and someone was home. The temperature outdoors was about 30 F (-1 C). I presume the person wasn't freezing, which meant they probably blasted the heat. (EDIT: I later learned from my doorman that that neighbor smokes and may have opened the window for fresh air from cigarette smoke.) Tomorrow, when it's brighter, I'll take and post pictures of how I tape my windows. All the windows in the building are double pane, but they're old and many have lost the seal around the groove where they slide, so air leaks through. Since I don't…

Last night I dreamed people actually wanted to act, themselves, personally, not just talk. Memories of dreams fade fast, so I don't remember the details, but I remember people asking, "What should I do?" with interest and curiosity instead of, with cynicism and incredulity, "What should I do?", as if there was no answer. I dreamed that people realized they had to change their lives and wanted to. I woke up realizing that most people's talk about sustainability is why they shouldn't change from behavior that they know hurts others without their consent, to excuse not changing, to blame others, to say what others should do, or some combination. I live in a world where people spend their words and activity opposing sustainability---that is, opposing…

I don't usually remember dreams, but I half woke up before the alarm this morning. I was half in the dream and half awake. In the dream I was playing with a dog like in this picture. I've never owned a brown lab, but that's the dog in my dream. I remember being about the size of the dog in the dream and the dog wasn't particularly big, so I must have been small. I was young again, pre-teen. I started petting the dog. The dog liked being petted so rubbed against me. I petted it more. It started rolling on top of me, wanting to be petted and played with. The dog and I rolled around, roughhoused, and had fun. That was the dream.…

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a friend invited himself into a social group of mine. He was a good friend, as were the people in the other group, but at the time I wanted to keep them separate. As it turned out, my initial impulse to keep them separate was baseless. He fit in the group and everyone got along. Except for one thing. At some of the early times he joined the group, I don't know how to put it: I resented what I saw as him intruding. Whereas normally when we hung out, I'd speak openly, we'd joke around, and enjoy each other's company, while out with the other group, I'd communicate less and more perfunctorily. For a while I looked…

The other day I wrote about the Times I Cried. Those times were occasions of loss or sadness. I had also thought of I time I laughed so hard I cried. I went back and forth about including it but decided against it. I could have included it since it fit the category and the contrast might illuminate. I decided against it because I didn't think I could convey the humor. Telling why something is funny is usually a sign it isn't. The recent time I cried from laughing so hard Then a couple days later, for the first time in years, I found myself laughing so hard I cried. The muscles for smiling hurt from being unable to stop smiling while laughing. It happened…