Here are a few tidbits from my life the past week that I find amusing:
I got into the shower still partially asleep, which explains why I didn’t notice the fish on the shower rug until I opened the curtain to step out. Hm. Goldfish snack cracker on the rug in the bathroom. Interesting.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad looks like the Fonz. Oh, totally! Not in a still photo, but animated, when he’s speaking. How can a President in the middle of a country in chaos perpetually look like he’s waiting for you to get the joke so he can laugh with you? If one can ignore his politics and go just by appearance, this man has something boyish about him that is irresistibly endearing. Every time I watch him speaking, he raises his eyebrows, and I’m waiting for him to go, “Aaaayyyyyyyyy….”
My mother is a woman comfortable to remain within her realm. She finds peace in the familiar. She is not an activist, she does not stand on soapboxes, she avoids conflict. She says to me on the phone the other day, “I really want oranges, but I refuse to buy the ones Jerry has at the store. They are from New Zealand. I explained to him, ‘I won’t buy those, they’re from New Zealand.’ It’s too far away. That’s too much traveling. I think of all the expense of sending an orange to north Idaho from New Zealand, and I just can’t buy it.” Huh. I wonder if she’s even aware that she’s participating in activism. That’s pretty cool.
While my daughter was helping me with dinner a few nights ago, she started quoting the Black Knight scene from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. She just kept going. Word for word through the whole scene. I was laughing so hard I was gasping for breath. It was funnier without the images, because I could pay attention to the brilliant comedy in the words themselves. Besides, my daughter is a natural comedian. Black Knight: “I am invincible!” King Arthur: “You’re a looney!”
And hey, in addition to our meaningless form letter, we have now received a phone call from Wells Fargo’s office of the CEO, and also have been contacted by Sen. Jeff Merkely’s (D, OR) office about beginning a congressional inquiry. It can pay to stand up for yourself in America. Not always, and not usually the way you hope for, but if you bark with confidence, someone will eventually toss a bone.
Conscious Engagement 