the back burner

wow... we should go on a trip together just to escape the crazies of living with parents. Bostonia is a great word.

We absolutely should. I was enjoying your vacation vicariously via blogs. Not all of it shall die, it shall live on in blog archives...

Bob,
was there ever a time when you were frantic, desperate to find a job? I think this is the last place left in our culture where this survival instinct still cuts in for us.
It certainly doesn't compare with anything in Zuzanna Ginczanka's experience, but the feeling we have when we lose our jobs that the world is somehow set against you, that you have to subtle in fighting back against it--perhaps these things are shared with her.
I'm thinking of this because I was surprised at your surprise when I read this post. And then I remembered that I spent most of January looking for a job--and spend mornings on the bus with many who still don't have one.
I'm delighted, by the way, to rediscover your blog. I should have done this sooner after you showed up in an unnaturally floridian corner of the internet. We should do this more often.

ha! that's ok, rich. i obviously found your blog and then never again remembered to visit it. here's to blog-bumping more often.

and yes, now that you mention it, being desperate for work does carry a certain kind of desperation with it. (in fact, working at a restaurant where the base pay is $2/hr carries a very similar survival feeling.) but i think i was mostly surprised by how gripping these poems were, especially W. Szymborska's. they MADE SENSE and struck immediate chords in me as if they were talking about something basic in the thuman experience. only then was i surprised at my surprise: why is this surprising? of course it's a basic thing.

clear as mud? good. how are the alligators?

Hey Bob,

Speaking of jobs, my receptionist job affords a lot of opportunities to meet people of all varieties. I met a Spanish man one day who was more clueless about how insurance works than I am, and while I was explaining to him what little I had grasped of it at the time, I couldn't help but wonder who it was he reminded me of. And then the light came on in an instant--I was conversing with your Spanish twin. I would love to send you his name and address, but it could put my job at risk.

I hope you'll understand,

Courtney

Watch Schindler's List. That should explain the Polish occupation with a survival that focuses merely on drawing the next breath, let alone being washed, fed, and dry.

Courtney -- keep the job and pay those bills. I certainly understand (although I now have some delicate questions to ask my non-Spaniard parents). :)

And Funke: that movie's been on my to-see list for years! The only thing that has held me back from watching it is the fact that it's on everyone's list. I'm afraid of bandwagons! But I just saw The Terminal and it has given me new hope for watching Spielberg. burg. borg. whatever. (I have been a bit anti-that-director for a few years.)

So. Yes. I'll let you know when it's been watched!

LOVE the Cracker Barrel reference. In the midst of a sentence about anachronisms and in the midst of a blog about European obsession with survival, the mere mention of such an American (Southern-American!) tradition is a good surprise. Keep up the good writing.

Whah THANK you, Krista! Well, ah DO declare, if that isn't the best little ol' compliment ah received all day! :) (What can I say? I love the South. Don't tell J.Krue...)

Southerners love the South. I'm not a Southerner but there are things I love about the South. The foliage and the springtime, for one.

I don't like the emphasis on being polite at the expense of being honest and forthright. Sheesh.

by the waaaaaay, i was totally relishing the southern accent in that last comment and by no means being polite at the expense of honesty or forthrightness. :) just in case!

i really am thankful. compliments from you that deal with writing are ones i can count on.