That drawing above has nothing to do with the post, other than it's an apt illustration of the state of my mind, and I'll leave that up to you to interpret as you'd like, dear Reader.
Over the last couple of weeks, we out here on the southern edge of the continent have been hearing about a swarm of earthquakes that hit the weird Salton Sea to our east, and over the last few days, there've been dire predictions that The Big One was going to hit the Los Angeles area very, very, very soon. Like by today. I got a number of notifications of this "fact" from friends and family yesterday, one while I was trying on clothes in a Target dressing room that prompted me to quickly put my own clothes back on, search for Oliver in the gaming section, acquiesce to his request for a box of Fruity Pebbles cereal and make a bee-line out of the place and into my car and out of the underground parking garage with visions of its exposed pipes and Best Buy electronics crashing through and onto the roof of my sexy blue Mazda.
Oy vey.
Here's a text I got from Henry this morning:
On the plus side, I'm so desperate to find a meaning for Sophie's recent decline that I'm thinking the swarm of earthquakes and impending Big One might be the reason for it. This kid's brain is incredibly sensitive, so who knows -- maybe she senses the earth's discomfiture? There's a strange and apt parallel between earthquakes and seizures. Warnings of earthquakes are a bit like medications for seizures -- both giving us the illusion of control. When I'm not lying in bed in the hours before dawn, one part of me going to the dark side, as my dear friend likes to say, I am busy trying to figure things out, go through variables, talk to the wise people I know, meditate and stay calm. I've learned some degree of equanimity over the last twenty years despite the imminent threat of destruction nearly every single day, so I guess I'll keep at it. And while I wish that The Teenager could have at least written how much he loves me for being the best mother on the planet, I'm encouraged by his attitude.
It's gonna be dope.
OMG. This made me cry and then laugh til I cried.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the laugh and for more to chew on. Sending love.
ReplyDeleteIt IS gonna be dope. My LA daughter is visiting the weekend of Halloween so maybe she'll escape the buildings falling on her sexy Honda...
ReplyDeleteI certainly hope the predictions are wrong, so wrong.
I was there for the earthquake of 1971 and I was a nurse's aid in St John's hospital. The patients were freaked. BTW the night before was a lunar eclipse and THAT DAY was the moon walk. You can't tell me there's no coincidence....
Leave it to Henry to lighten things up a bit, huh? Stay safe. All my love.
ReplyDeleteLife in the City of Angels.
ReplyDeleteHenry is dope.
ReplyDeleteThe drawing has no need for interpretation, it is transparent.
Perhaps earthquakes are seizures of planet, and I think Sophie is connected to the discomfiture and rectitude of more things than we imagine.
I do not suffer from seizures but other maladies of the brain and I can see no real links or connections to anything so often to a falling or a rising of spirit and so forth. I agree- there are things which affect us that we cannot know or see. And some of us are affected far more than others.
ReplyDeleteMay there be no earthquake. I don't think it would be that dope.
And your Target has underground parking? Oh my. Of course it does.
Those damn earthquake predictions! We have liters and liters of water. Blankets, tents, flashlights, candles, propane, tarps, matches... a huge list. It doesn't make me feel any less scared. Dope, indeed!
ReplyDeleteI have to update my earthquake kit for the big one should I get to it before falling into the ocean. Can I live with you for awhile?
ReplyDeleteI like Henry's attitude, too! Seems like that's a healthy way to look at things. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting theory -- that Sophie's discomfort might be related to earth tremors or some other geologic symptom of whatever's going on. Who knows? We all sense a lot that we're not even fully aware of, I think.
I am with that hunch that your Sophie has a sense of something going on. But whether it's the shifting earth crusts, who knows.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter lives in another earthquake hot spot (NZ) and has experienced a couple of heavy ones, sheltering under tables and door frames as instructed. She once phoned me while hiding in her office during a 6.5 earthquake and I almost died. I admit to the odd sleepless night since. She is extremely cool about it, at least it's not landmines exploding, she says.