Thu, 19 May 2005

a basketful of little people’s questions
every year around the beginning of spring the local elementary school blows about twelve bucks on helium balloons which the little people (except the disappearing ones, who are in camera-guarded detention) attach by string to outdated card catalogue cards, the blank sides printed with the school’s address and simple instructions for reply: who are you? where did this balloon land? and a blank space where each kid can write in his/her own question. Just before school lets out, they go to the playground and release the whole bunch into the gray skies, staring up until they can’t see them anymore, or until the bell rings. I live about three miles from the school so I wasn’t too suprised to see clumps of balloons float by, but then I saw a bunch with their strings knotted together, stuck in a tree. I went to spring them but a number of the balloons had popped, so I thought about it for a minute and then cut the cards free, headed back to the house and made a list of everyone I knew, or half-knew, who lived in other countries. After I found thirty addresses (I used to be a lot more social, when I was an up-and-coming academic whippersnapper instead of a down-and-out public embarassment) I wrote short letters to each, explaining my plan, including the cards, and headed off to the post office (where I am loved, as mine is the Post Office of Unearthly Delights, but I’ll get into that later). I realize this is cheating, a bit, but who wants a letter from a Jessup farmkid when you can get a letter from a proper Balinese chanteuse?
(12:13.05.19.2005) [/ana] #