God Save the Queen

Just kidding...I'm not vacationing in England. I'm back in the U.S. of A. or Capitalism Central (CC) to spend the summer w/my parents and youngest brother, give Raph a chance to hang w/grandparents (and visa versa) and fly out to San Fran next month to visit middle brother and friends... Wonderful being here despite a bit of hell getting away.

Spent most of pre-flight day in the hospital emergency room being stitched after a bicycle accident. Thank goodness for friends who looked after Raphael and for a wound slightly too shallow to require tendon repair surgery docs originally thought necessary. A tip from E.R. PhD's: If you ride a bike, WEAR A HELMET! (not that that helps if you cut open your ankle, as I did)

Mucho change of scenery this is from Holy Land Central (HLC). As I sit typing, if I shift my gaze to the right and out the floor to ceiling windows, I see the rippling waters of the lake part of ma & pa's lakefront condo, lush green grass, Sycamore saplings and adult geese with goslings in tow. So much serenity and greenery that young Raph asked if Papa Itzik and Safta Ruti live in a forest.

And yet no people are to be seen in the hood aside from the ones getting in and out of cars. My mom says someone was shooting at the geese on the lake last week. She saw a few struggling in the water after hearing the shots. And yet when she reported the incident, condo management had seen or heard not a thing. How can that be?

Shopping abounds as do sanguine, public dispositions. The abundance leaves me with sensory overload and boggles: I'm in one city within one state within a country of many similar cities and states. There is so much of everything. Space, cars, people, houses, restaurants, strip malls. I feel insignificant and overwhelmed.

I find myself contemplating issues such as distribution and consumption of global resources, alternative fuel resources, the future of water sources and the Constitutional right to bear arms.

Not to sound glum. This is wonderful, we're having fun spending time together again and we're privileged.

However, I still choose HLC over CC. Any day.

More to come...