and then our exile

i've said this before, i'd forgotten how beautiful campus is in summer. erich fromm, among others, writes of "the escape from freedom" - how the absolute individualism of democracies, as communities are subsumed, can become fear of being alone, which makes the space for fascism and the totalitarian state. i'm not quite there, have at times sought the anonymity of the crowd...but this now is no more. it is either "scanning these crowds" or simple fact that too many people know me. the stairs into HUB searching out coffee, and someone smiled "hi". i walked past her before i realized anything'd been said, and had to think hard to remember who it was. later, outside rutherford, someone passing looked at me strangely. it took me hours before i realized who he was: the twin brother of j, mormon from utah who was in my classes in JD. he spent most of his time in class flirting with the swedish girl next to him, but also found time to organize soccer games and preach the mormon path.

recent from avari: "you are a paperclip if you say you are"; polygamy.

cbc interview today. not-too-great - on the phone i was grand, eloquent, grandiloquent, but set in the studio, recording, things changed.

reading the globe and mail yesterday - so much hate. christie blatchf*rd, in particular, but the entire paper - following the arrests in ontario, the media seems to be inflamed, ugly, disinformation, misinformation, absolute ugliness. pure hate - legitimized. more on this later, i mean it.

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there are very few people with whom one can comfortably do costume parties. the salrooqs, blessedly, are of this group. weeks ago they came, we shovelled mushroom compost, braided mayday flowers, and enacted DRAMA. i'll soon put up my favourite pictures from that at the flickr account taqa persuaded me to get months ago, along with the bookcase of which i am so proud. (i showed it to p, himself a cabinetmaker: 'these are the laurels i'm resting on' "don't get too comfortable.")

for now, though, the DRAMA summarized(*)(**).

(*) no, rooq and i don't actually wear earrings.
(**) the books may be blurry, s was laughing as she picturetook. they are: collected works of pablo neruda and the new english bible with the apocrypha.