| | There was no west, there was no east…
As of this
last month, I have been on Xanga for around three years, and been on this
planet for around twenty-nine. On my
birthday, I went to visit my elderly aunt, for whom I go on a weekly shopping expedition.
On her instruction, I went to the store, picked out a card for myself and
returned it to her. She signed it, enclosed
a ten-dollar-bill, and handed it back to me.
I found this exceedingly amusing.
Recently I
had a flashback to my childhood. I
remembered sitting in the antechamber of my granduncle’s office. He was an elderly monsignor who worked in the
chancery of a Catholic diocese, and he had, over the course of a long life,
collected a number of interesting paintings. The one I remember most clearly
was entitled “The Match” and hung on the paneled walls in a large, gilt
frame. I was fascinated by the amazing
detail of the picture, and by the archetypical characters featured in it. It portrayed a game of chess between an
obviously evil man dressed in wicked-looking garments, and a small
beatific-looking child. The evil man
wore the most unnerving grin on his face, and he stared at his opponent with
such intensity that it seemed that at any moment he might leap across the table
and devour the child. The child sat with
a look of extreme sadness, his chin resting on his fist, looking back at his
opponent, sorrowing but apparently without any fear. As a small child, I knew that the wicked man
was winning the game because he had taken most of the child’s pieces off of the
board. Later, when I understood how
chess was played, I could see that not only was the evil man winning, but that
the child was in check. But it was not
until I was an adult and the old man had died that it was pointed out to me
that the only move that would take the child out of check, would put the evil
man into checkmate.
Don’t forget to check out the "Reviews" tab.
I’ve also put a new post on Don’t Forget This Poem.
Quote of the day:
"It is to be regretted that a portion of our community should be practically
in slavery, but to propose to solve the problem by enslaving the entire
community is childish."
~Oscar Wilde on the goal of full
employment
And now, for your moment of zen: 
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