AVERAGE DAY
AVERAGE DAY
Today I took my son to the park.
The park is in Silverlake.
Next to the resovoir.
The resovoir is surrounded by a giant fence.
On top of the fence is barbed wire.
Inside the fence are armed guards, with pick up trucks, and badges.
They protect us from the water.
At the park kids build sandcastles and play tag.
Today someone set up a moonbounce.
It was two stories tall, with a giant slide
And children doing somersaults.
There was a birthday party.
It was sunny and perfect and though we were not invited
My son did not mind.
He took to the moonbounce quickly.
This is something you can do when you have a child,
Show up places and just start doing things, like “hey, I’m with him… the four year old…”
I’ve heard about people on the news that train their kids to steal groceries.
I watched Audio play for a few minutes
Then wandered over to the party.
They had food spread out on folding tables,
With chairs and benches, and cheap party favors.
It was being hosted by a man
who makes Vegetarian desserts out of nuts and grains instead of milk and sugar.
He sells them to local restaurants.
He wears colorful clothes and a knit cap and lots of heavy silver jewelry and is very happy about the Earth
And the sun.
This is what most people who sell vegetarian food look like.
You could punch him in the stomach as hard as you want
And he would not care.
My friends joined us later, and their daughter took advantage of the moon bounce as well.
Kids were inside pummeling each other
As if all laws of nature had been suspended.
We ate hummus and various dishes made from mock animals.
I thought about how my vegetarian restaurant would not serve mock chicken or mock duck
but instead mock dragon, mock unicorn, and mock tyrannosaurus.
I kept this thought to myself.
Then after about an hour,
The man with the vegetarian desserts rounded everyone up into a circle
And made us hold hands as he said a prayer for the Earth, in honor of all of our mothers.
This took a long time, and I got concerned about my hands getting sweaty.
As it turns out the birthday party was not for any one person in particular
But for all of us, including me and Audio and my friends who weren’t even invited.
In his opinion it was good to celebrate all things positive whenever possible.
Then we all sang happy birthday to “everyone.”
And an older white man with cargo shorts played a six foot long
Didgeridoo made out of a cactus.
When things happen, that you hadn’t expected
and you want quite badly to judge those things, and maybe laugh to your friends about them
you should instead write down all the facts in order
and maybe then you will be excited by how things really happened.
And this will make you smile.