#69 - rooftop view
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at the top of the hill sat a smooth cement hotel
it had large looking-glass windows made flush against the concrete and lined with amber wooden beams
the doors were discrete like the faces that entered
at the bottom of the hill were metal roofs held up by mismatched wooden beams and windows that formed between the cracks of concrete blocks
the children hid between the damp laundry on the clothesline
i lived between these two places in a cement casita painted bright yellow that had a metal gate, meditation room and a rooftop that overlooked both sides of the hill and towards a city of nearly a million people
by 7:00pm most days, my senses were sweltered. drained and dehydrated, i carried my body to the rooftop as the sun clocked out and the wind clocked in and we all relieved and relived one another
up there, bikinis and techno beats donkeys being herded, BMWs and roosters cocking the time — filled a single frame an accompanying chord a muddled thought
on wednesday mornings, a truck would ring its bell at dawn to pick up the week's trash
all across the hill we would emerge from our caves calling the day, buenos dias, and catching each other's close and far off gazes while waiting to rid our pile
neighbours by proximity and strangers by proximity, we shared that slope the night sky and the lament of catty dogs at 3 am but stayed inside our cement dens
one day, i ventured to the top of the hill to see if a kingdom lay behind the grey sheen; to see if I could find the door
the air was cleaner up there, distilled and priced, but as hard as the cement and it sent me right back down the slope, shifty and wobbly down to the bottom where the air was thicker but softer against the skin and cement
#ThisWeekinTweets
So, I’ve been trying to decide if I should post or not. I’m from Uvalde, I currently live in Uvalde. I’m a few blocks away from Robb Elementary. I use to pick up my siblings from the school. It’s a poor neighborhood where wild chickens have run of the place. But regardless,
Folks are talking about police a bunch, and that's something I might actually be able to provide context for.
Police are never, and will never be, required to endanger themselves in any way for any reason. This has been litigated thoroughly.
You watched a cop lynch a Black man in broad daylight on camera. Now you’ve seen cops allow the murder of young children while they arrest the parents. You’ve seen enough to become an abolitionist. You’ve seen enough.
recently I read the story of a man who was being super self-deprecating and his rabbi said something like "you are not so grand as to think so low of yourself" and that's really sticking with me
“I started to write in order to breathe and that still happens now.”
-Audre Lorde in an interview with Deborah Wood April 23 1976
The essence of Davos.
They are trying to turn climate change into a personal responsibility issue.
Pull the temperatures down by your bootstraps.
Andrew Lawton @AndrewLawton
You can homeschool your kids, but will you:
Keep your grandparents home from the grocery store?
Keep your parents from church?
Keep your siblings from a concert?
Keep your friends from a garlic festival?
This is the limit of individual action
Worked at a ‘guest is always right’ restaurant - no contradictions allowed. Guy rejects his coffee, “this isnt a macchiato”. Led to 3 servers hiding behind the bar trying to guess what he thinks a macchiato is based only on his looks, like ancient shamans interpreting animal bone
The best thing my autism diagnosis gave me was an explanation. It explained: why I find most social interactions unfulfilling, why I find everyday things tiring, why I don’t enjoy the same things as everyone else, why I see life differently and why people are fascinated by me.
The paradox of managing your ADHD is that you have to accept yourself fully as you are before anything really changes.
Why do people look down on cleaners?
I'm a cleaner, I rarely volunteer that information as I think I'll be looked down on. But it's a job that pays more than minimum wage and allows me to work around the kids so I don't have childcare bills - win win. So why do I feel shame?
My niece asked me to unlock my phone so she could watch cartoon on my phone, I didn’t answer her, next thing she took my phone out of the room and I was looking for her. Just guess where I found this babe? In front of our family portrait, trying to unlock my phone with my picture
