On the face of a dime.

In a hundred words or less, my thoughts on...

Homeless in the city:
I hope they don’t see me smile and think it’s out of pity. I keep my eyes bright and warm and full of love and not shock or sadness at their physical state. I hope they don’t remember me for the times I pass them by, but for the times I dig my last dollar bill out of my wallet and dump the change out of my receipt stuffed change purse. I hope they know that I’ve been close to where they are and I feel nothing by brotherly love and lots and lots of hope for them.

Americans today:
I cried for America on the train today. I shed a tear, hoping my fellow passengers didn’t have the burdens I keep hearing about, reading about, experiencing; hoping my smiles on the street aren’t ignored; hoping my transparent optimism does not come off as ignorance; hoping we all are not in for it. In for it with China. In for it with the world banks. In for it with Japan and India and with god. The gods. All of them. Don’t cry for America, I tell myself. Just say a prayer and do some good.

On race:
I see a man, a woman, a child, an Indian America, a Korean American, a fellow Anglo-Saxon American. I believe I didn’t see these things 20 years ago. When my brain was completely immersed with how people walked and if I could picture them dancing and how I thought they’d look in a hat. I wish I could rewind and capture that sense of the world. Capture, not color blindness, but the unimportance of color and nationality and race and their connotations. I don’t believe I made decisions based upon these factors, but gosh, I wish I could be sure of that.

On art:
There are few things that bring us closer to god than taking a paintbrush to paper. Or a hand to clay. Or a camera to glow sticks at night. Or even a box of chalk to a wall or sidewalk. In a culture so thick with media driven values and sicknesses, can we find peace? Maybe in nature or quietude or architecture. But these are all art. I think I would like to carry music and speakers and paint, and just paint to the music as I went about my day. It might be messy, but I’d feel a bit holier.