Illumination

Capturing the world in the blink of an eye. Feeling the wind on the back of your neck. Hearing Steve Perry hit the high note in "Don't Stop Believing", celebrating your mother's 68th birthday, seeing your best friend coming out of the sliding glass doors at the airport, submerged under the bubbles reading a new book, the smell of puppy breath, a snow flake landing on your eye lid, the strain of your arch in your favorite high-heeled shoes, wood popping in the fireplace, the orange that only comes from summer sunsets, the sound of the choir getting to their feet for their last number, the first time you hear, "momma," then everything is clear, and I know that I am alive.

Recession

I'm pretty sure I don't have to wait for another human being to explain to me whether or not I'm experiencing a recession. Fruit and vegetables are as expensive as diamonds since we've decided they are healthy and essential.

My friend fills his tank and it cost him over $75. Middle-aged white men in tailored suits, expensive hair cuts and manicures, continue to enlighten us, continue to assure us that all our answers are in Ross, Disneyland, or Toys R-Us.

These same men sit in front of cameras on Sunday morning, interviewing each other, hoping we continue to shop though they feel obligated to tell us to save a bit of money... if we feel like it, if we already have everything we want. Do you have everything you want? What is missing? Are your kids tall enough? Are your teeth straight enough? Is your boyfriend cute enough? Is your dog smart enough? I've visited this land called enough and it is a grand and wondrous place.

I have enough. I know enough. I love enough.
There are more things to learn, see and become but I choose not to go at the harried pace set by a New York advertising agency. I don't need to analyze the numbers, look at the economic indicators. I see it in the face of young mother's at cash registers, watch friends make phone calls to get extra shifts, listen to customers yell at pharmacists while holding onto small orange bottles full of expensive white pills. We are lucky to live here they say, we are blessed.

The blessed are going through a recession, the blessed need to save.