hey jud

So I was out flaneuring again today, on a walk precipitated by trying to find a different way home from the garage, after dropping my car off for repairs. My new route took me through an industrial part of Somerville where I saw the Brickbottom Artists Loft Building up close rather than just from the highway, the site of the New England Glass Company which operated from 1818-1888, noted on a plaque outside the big office building now on that spot, and more offices which used to be the Davenport Furniture Company, based on an old sign painted on the side of the brick building. It occurred to me that the company must have been the origin of 'davenport', which was another word for sofa or couch in my childhood. Kind of like saying 'kleenex' for tissue, the ultimate advertisement when the brand name becomes one with the product, though in the case of davenport it doesn't appear to have lasted. My trip back into the past was complete when I looked at bed frames in a furniture store and set the salesmen to laughing by asking about padded frames. They reminded me those were popular back in the 50's when they were called 'Hollywood' beds. I think we still have one of those in my grandmother's house in Orange.

As is obvious, words just aren't forthcoming these days. It's not for want of information, since there's an overabundance of that. And it's not for want of thinking or time for thinking, because no part of the day goes by without reminders of the horror and sadness. Yet I still just can't make sense of it all. I can't reconcile rooting out terrorists in Afghanistan while compounding the already desparate situation for the majority of people living there. I can't reconcile our wealth of information resources to explain Muslim beliefs and detail the geography and history of Afghanistan and Pakistan, while no such educational counterpart exists in those countries. But most of all I can't reconcile the terrorists' willingness to die, even while knowing well what it was like to live in America. How can we root out a terror that we can't explain and don't understand?

Following my earlier local donations, at this point I'm donating to CARE for their programs in Afghanistan, particularly the COPE Educational Project . Here in the homeland, as it's now called, I am supporting the Towers of Light proposal for twin, white beacons of light to be temporarily installed in Lower Manhattan as a memorial to the World Trade Center and the lives lost there.

And all the time I'll still be trying to understand.

Ask and it shall be answered. Just a short time after my post last night, I followed a Metafilter thread to an article in the New York Times that gave me some explanation and lots more to think about. You have to register in order to read the article, but it's free and would be worth reading even if it cost money. If your questions are anything like mine, I urge you to take a look at it.

The Braintree addition is basically complete, with just a few minor things remaining. On a warm and bright day last week, the sun made interesting patterns in the room, which is just waiting now for the decorating choices and the all important, new bed decision to be made. Who else wants to throw in a vote for the Tempur-Pedic mattress?