A package arrived late one afternoon....

It was postmarked from Japan....
"Hmmm"....
What could she possibly be getting from Japan ?
She hurried upstairs to open it....
As she pried the sealed box open,
an enormous amount of green tissue paper came spilling out....
She waded through what seemed like POUNDS of the green paper...
and on the very bottom of the HUGE box.....
there was a tiny, gift wrapped package...
"Hmmm".....
What could this be ???
She hurried to open the 'gift'....
Inside it was a KEY....
a GOLD KEY....
no note.....
no tag attached to it....
just a key.....
She thought for sure that she had missed the card among all the tissue paper....
So she tore it all apart....
NOTHING......
Weird......very weird....
Something about this strange, dramatic , little delivery made her shiver......
The key had nothing inscribed on it...
No name, serial number, ....nothing....
So....
What was she supposed to do with it ??
I mean, who in Japan would be sending her an anonymous key ?
She placed the package with the key in it on her vanity table....
As she did so, her hand trembled.....
and she rushed out the door to run to the market.....
Shed forgotten to stop there earlier...
As she opened the car door.....
on the drivers seat, sat another package !!!
wrapped in the same green tissue paper.....
But there was a red rose on the seat as well....
a single, daunting , red rose.....
WHAT WAS GOING ON ??
HOW on Earth had someone gotten into her car ?
Should she call the police ?
Was she forgetting some special occasion or holiday ?
Should she open this next package ?
She looked around ....
Maybe whomever had left this was here somewhere......
Her trembling and shivering became profuse..
Sweat trickled down the back of her neck...
She was frightened,,,,,REALLY frightened...
There was a strange noise in the rose bushes behind her......
She turned..........(to be continued)

Is That 'Gold Dust' I See Sparkling on My Face ?

as I look into the mirror this morning ?
Was it there YESTERDAY ?
Or...
Did an angel with Golden Wings sprinkle it over me as I slept ?
Is it 18 karat gold ?
Do you suppose ?
or....
 a mere SYMBOL of hope and light and fortuitous days ahead ?
Shall I gather it in order to HARVEST it?
Does one HARVEST gold ??
Would exfoliation be a mistake ?
And what if I held a TIN CUP just beneath my chin.......
and collected all of the twinkling dust ?
After all....
the tin cup is of no use to me anymore.....
as I no longer can afford to pay for my CRATE just outside of BARNEY's.....
the one which I was perched upon for so long....
So....
What if I were to bring the tin cup filled with "presumed 18 karat gold"
to my local BULLION SHOP ?
to the JEW with the yarmulke ?
(the one who TRADES everything for everything)...
and he were to MELT the golden ice down for me ?
And then....
What if I forged onward to the nearest CHASE BANK ?.....
and cashed in the gold for GREEN ?
Is it GOLD on my face....
or just GLITTER from the little one's art project ?

Salad Choppers and Municipal Courts....

What comes first ?
The HIGHLY EFFICIENT, UBER-FUNCTIONING "food processor ??
or......
The un-ignorable"""ISSUE""" with the MUNICIPAL COURT ?
or.....
The fun and GAINFUL INFOMERCIALS ???
How can we prioritize the efficacy factor embedded herein ?
TELL ME !!!
All you SUPER organized, 'BEYOND THE PALE' Yokels.....(Yonkels!)
 lol
TELL ME !!!
I'm listening......
But alas....
No sound is emanating from you whatsoever....
Only shaking heads and wagging fingers....
Echoing....Echoing.....
"I told ya so"....
"You should've listened"....
Yeah...Yeah.
Too little too late, MI COMPADRES....
The fat lady has been singing for a DECADE !!
So...
Wipe the SMUG right off of those pusses....
You're not really ALL THAT.....

On Afterthoughts....

It is all well and good...
to "be present"....to be "engaged"...
In fact, I'd venture to Say even that its "mandatory"...
Having said that....
I'm wondering whether we actually ALLOW ourselves the LUXURY....
(Well...... the NECESSITY)
of really considering the place in which we currently stand....
In other words....
we have TRUCKLOADS and VOLUMES of "stuff" thrown at us on any given day...
on MOST days really...
And we pretty much "comprehend" the hurling matter as it flies by...
or rather...
we THINK we're comprehending it......
But are we TRULY weighing the pros and cons??
the inevitable CONSEQUENCES of too quickly accepting those
hurling clumps of "matter" as GOSPEL ?
Am I making sense ?
Are you COMPREHENDING what I'm saying ?
SO......
We accept 90% of the things that are told to us as TRUTH....
Trust me on this....We DO...
Because SCEPTICISM.....EMPIRICISM....QUESTIONABILITY....
they are virtually UNACCEPTABLE....
And we get DOOPED, my friends.....BIG TIME......
Yup...we DO......
We get "BAMBOOZLED" into situations and into CONTRACTS even !
which we have NO INTENTION of seeing through to completion !!!
HOW CAN WE ?
We didn't even know we were AGREEING to them in the first place!!!
And so....we are faced , in retrospect....
(in IMMEDIATE retrospect!)
with the UGLY TASK of having to call them back....
of having to face them with our ULTIMATE CONCLUSION to
simply MOVE on....
knowing FULL WELL........
that we appear to be INDECISIVE, HORSES ASSES......
OK ?

She had never aspired to being an actress.....

It was never even part of the conversation...
NEVER.....
She had wanted to paint and draw as a little girl....
to be an ARTIST....
NOT A MOVIE STAR.....
And guess what ?
She had BECOME an artist !!
Yup.....
So....
Why were they trying so hard to FILM her ??
Strange.....Puzzling....
And all that drama bubbling up inside her.....
Would it....Could it..... be of use in INFOMERCIALS ?
What was going on here ?
in her perch just over the Hudson ?
She would really need to sleep on it.....
Perhaps in her dreams....
the answers would reveal themselves....

And the clueless receptionist said....

"Oh, NO !!"
"I couldn't POSSIBLY interrupt him!"
and I said,
"This is a MEDICAL emergency !"
"GET HIM !"
and she said,
"No...I can't bother him.."
"He won't allow me to!"
and I SAID,
"Get on the F**King phone NOW !"
"and GET HIM !"
and she said,
(ya ready ?)....
"well Sheik Abduhl Saudi Blah Blah is on the line with him..."
and I said,
"This is a MEDICAL EMERGENCY !"
"NOT a ""MUSLIM"" EMERGENCY!!"
and Guess What ??!
She got him for me....
yup.......yup.....

Watching all those generations passing through.....

Yesterday I attended a funeral of  my very close friend's father....
And as we stood there, graveside,
 I had occasion to really look at the family...
to NOTICE them....
in a way that one seldom can....
(because all were very still.....unmoving)
I looked at the grandchildren mostly....
And it struck me that these kids,
 whom Id known for several years now...
were no longer kids....
but young adults....
And I began to see, quite literally,
 that "one door opening...one door closing" thing....
And I remembered the verse by Ecclesiastes...
"For everything there is a season..."
There are moments, my friends....
when CLARITY is WHOLLY AVAILABLE....BECKONING even.....
when PERSPECTIVE is standing right in front of you.....
offering itself on a "Shiva Platter".....
when the potential for REFLECTION suddenly becomes the STATUS QUO....
What should we take away from these moments ?
Why is pain and suffering such a non negotiable part of our life ?
Is STOICISM better, somehow, than RAW EMOTION ?
Just thoughts....