In the Lap of a Stranger

I was about to post this on my other blog, and then realize, it's Thursday!

This is a secular poem found via today's The Writer's Almanac daily email that is a modern tale of the good Samaritan story- caring for the least of these while the rest of the world passes by in a hurry, not wanting to become 'unclean'. Only the young man stops, risking, as the last line says, being "made late".

In the Lap of a Stranger
by Karen Whalley

A young man is bending
Over an old man
Lying on a street corner
At the busiest intersection
Of the city.
Homeless or drunk, I can't tell which,
But there are hundreds of us passing
And only one man stops,
Cradles that dirty head
Between his knees.

It's the soles of the shoes
Turned up that make me want
To turn away—so small!
The feet pointing like arrows
Straight up and motionless,
And the crosswalk box's little man
Walking in his mechanical way,
As if on a treadmill,
And the man not walking,
Not getting up.

When the light changes,
We all drive through,
Going forward into appointments,
Shopping and errands like a future,
Choosing the crispest head of lettuce
At the grocer's, which will taste
Particularly sharp tonight.
Glad for awhile it wasn't us
Saying our goodbyes
To our one and only life, in public,
In second-hand clothes,
Easing through the ethers
Into the afterlife
From the lap of a stranger
We've probably made late.

Long absence

So, Joanna has been bad and has not posted for many-a-Thursday. Last Thursday I was in no position to post- I was in Georgia for my grandmother's funeral. Last week was hard. This week, I'm catching up and back to a more-normal schedule. Not that there's such thing as a normal Thursday. That's why they're so hard to get the hang of.
Today was the first COS Club meeting of the year, and it went surprisingly well. I made cookies for the meeting, which may or may not have contributed to the success of the meeting.
I feel like things are in disarray in the apartment right now. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I'll have time to clean up. I'm not crazy about 'disarray'.
I would write more, but I've still got homework for school tomorrow.

Oh, and I miss Kristen.

Time to work

Well, I didn't have jury duty and so I showed up early on Tuesday to begin my fall internship. By now, I think I have filled out all the needed paperwork and have learned the basics for what I will be doing. Today, I actually had a simple project to do, which helped me get a better graps on the programming language.

Now that I am at work, it sinks in that I will be doing this for the next 15 weeks, not being at school with my friends. This should be interesting, yet hopefully fun.

"5 am on Tuesday"

"Why am I up so early/Drive out to Santa Ana 'cause I've got jury duty"

No, I don't have to drive all the way to Santa Ana and I don't know if I have to be up at 5am, but I do have jury duty. Well, at least a jury summons. My first one ever and it also happens to be the day I am supposed to start my fall internship: next Tuesday. We'll see how all of this goes. All I want is to not have to report until after I have become an employee; that way I get paid for the time I am gone. This should be interesting, to say the least.
Song lyrics for "Jury Duty" by the Supertones, off the "Loud and Clear" cd.