Mem. Wked. #2

I went up toward Lake Superior to a graduation party. I was happy for the girls who graduated. Got into a one-way screaming match (believe it or not, I wasn't screaming) with an education professor - something about my saying that research shows over & over again, that the kids that come into school with "it" leave school with "it". Boy, that got her mad. & might I say, defensive. We need more Buddhists in education, a lot more. Came home & realized that Mrs. coldH2O's yellow lab (a flunk-out seeing-eye dog) had pissed on this laptop, although not enough to disable it, obviously. Also, I downloaded my first song to my new iPod - Joan Baez's Diamonds & Rust, so I'm even sadder than normal. Then had a Pernod, Herbsaint, & Peychaud bitters cocktail & began thinking about Memorial Day. & thinking about the wars the USA has been involved in during my lifetime. First, Korea & I was way too young to deal with it (MASH, OK?). Then Vietnam & what a disaster. I thought we had finished American adventurism with that debacle, but no, no, then came the Bushies. Gulf 1, then Gulf 2. But back to Vietnam. I had friends in that war. A high school acquaintance - a Loduha, died there. Another, we had to lock into his bedroom at night from the outside, he blew a child's head off (not on purpose, but it did matter to him but not to the crappy government that would not help him after the fact). & there was the college friend who borrowed Human Sexual Response (he wanted to be really sophisticated for his first in-room date - it was the beginning of co-ed dorm visits - a long time ago), he died in country. & there are others - the sons & daughters I work with today - & their fathers who either poison them with lies, or move so far away psychically as to be useless. & there will be more casualties in the future. & I hear Joan Baez sing - & I loved you dearly, but if you're offering me diamonds & rust, I've already paid.