My wife and son left the table.
They went to tend to our new baby-chicks and left my youngest and I sitting behind. My littlest-tyke always eats slowly and I was in no rush to get up from the still steaming cup of Tanzanian coffee before me and her company. I watched her picking at her hash browns. Picking up bits of potato and gleefully popping them into her mouth. In the background Marley
I Beheld a Man
While waiting at a dentist’s office in El Monte my kids and I settled at some chairs and watched the Little Mermaid on the shared TV. They sat mesmerized by Ariel’s misadventures but my eyes were upon someone else.
A man!
He sat so still across the hall and his gaze was fixed upon a point I tried to identify. His skin had a shade of brown which had obviously been well baked under thousands of rays of sun over the years. His whisppy and thinning white hair was well manicured at both his balding head and pristine mustaches.
A simple but elegant cane rested between his legs and on occasion his hands pressed the handle and he assured himself it was still there waiting along side him.
He was thin but not frail. A stoic fixture in the room that commanded my respect without him saying one word. Maybe I saw the future in this gent? Could be I saw the past because he reminded me of my father?
In any case he brought me joy while at the dental office and how many of us can claim that?
Hugo Fun Fact 026
Hugo Fun Fact 026: Though I’m surrounded by them I have never ridden a horse.
Tamale Toil
A kitchen divided against itself cannot stand. Mom was recently informed that we’d like to try a slight change to her time-tested Tamale recipe. The request came from our home’s CEO. I felt the immediate tension as the deliverer of news and a de facto mediator. But as two-score and eight minutes ago the masa and newer/older ingredients have been laid out and tomorrow’s dinner will be rather special
An Immigrant Gives Thanks
When we crossed the border many years ago seeking a new life it wasn’t glamorous and uncertainty was high. Our parents had a dream though and they hoped we’d realize it.
Their hopes were simple.
Contribute positively to the community that may adopt you, act in accordance to a set of commandments and educate yourselves so that you may educate others. My father knew he may not get to today with us but if he had he’d see something I consider special. All his immigrant children now adopted into the community of Citizenship coming together with families to give Thanks.
He isn’t though so I get to share with others the pride he would have certainly felt because I know I do.
Thank you America!
Turkeys
Every year at good ol’ Garfield High School in East Los Angeles one of our teachers told the class that she’d call us all a bunch of turkeys until we’d prove her otherwise.
Come to think of it I don’t know that I ever did.
Men on the Metro
Two men walked onto the Metro and that’s when I entered their story.
They sat across my sleeping boy and I. In their sack the carried Vodka and so were careful when they put it down on the train floor. They argued in hushed tones and one implied feeling sick. I couldn’t help looking at his cracked lips as he said so. He was soon sleep and this left his fellow traveler with red eyes and sporting a clinic’s bracelet to stare about the cabin for a while.
We left each other’s gaze at about Downtown LA and what will become of them I do not know.
A Mighty Query
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under an understanding….And hence the side eye looks my other half and I share as our kids turn ever older.
Should we delineate? We then thus pivot towards an auld lang syne when one subscribed to an elder rotund Elf? I couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t rob him of the fantasy. Or is the time now?
I use coded intricacy in language to mask my query. I trust other parent folk to get my meaning and share their sentiment wisely!
A Pointed Tale
I don’t think anyone is a fan of a super thin, cold and piercing needle coming at your warm vein. It’s always disconcerting the moment the point touches the skin and callously penetrates into the flesh and hungrily seeks out our inner red liquid. At the other end of it a vial receives our essence and in seconded engorges full. It’s an unpleasant scene but I learned a long time ago that I’m the type to not look away.
I face it so it won’t scare me next time. Weird eh?
Guiding Light
After picking up some dry cleaning and making my way to my truck a very tall and quite muscular young black man and a companion walked towards me. He seemed lost in thought and didn’t seem to notice he was in my direct path. As we neared one another he was tugged forcefully by his UCR Blue shirt and in a second snapped by into reality. He apologized to me and with a smile I told him not to mention it. As his much shorter mom and him walked on I overheard her scolding him to pay more attention and he gave out a respectful acknowledgment.
That’s the power of good Moms I suppose