Shoes again

The second pair of shoes I bought at the flea market were running shoes. Before that, I was wearing my hiking boot heavy walking shoes to go running. In my running shoes I feel so light, three laps is a whole new story. The elimination of a pound or two, and everything is different. Can you think of a context in which you could eliminate a weight (literal or not) for the better?

Shoes and cows

Visited the Saturday flea market and discovered the heaping pile of two dollar shoes. I bought a pair of leather Aerosole sandals, the kind I had in first grade. I thought about their travels, from a design board in America to a factory somewhere in Asia most likely, to someone's feet in Europe or America, to me, an unlikely client in Senegal. Two dollars? They once were the skin on a cow, and have traveled thousands of miles around the world. Two dollars. For these shoes I'd become an economist.

Evening With My Mom

A walk over windy Potrero Hill; purchasing a biography of U.S. Grant and learning that the S. wasn't part of his given name, and rather was given to him as a cadet at West Point; sitting in a parklet and watching the street trees blow; recommending the French onion soup to a dapper couple on an early Valentine's date; a superb burger; a roquefort joke; carrying on in a familiar place.

Report Draft

The conceptual grading plan has been designed to maximize the extent of floodplain planting areas with a shallow depth to groundwater in order to support the establishment of willow and cottonwood riparian forest revegetation areas. Areas where the depth to groundwater is anticipated to be greater will be targeted for revegetation with mixed riparian forest that contains more drought tolerant species such as coast live oak, buckeye, box elder, and elderberry, and the highest elevation portions of the site may be revegetated with coastal scrub and grassland habitat. The braided distributary channels across the floodplain are primarily designed to convey flood flows. These areas, designated as Maintained Flow Conveyance Areas (MFCAs), will be revegetated to grassland habitat and maintained to prevent the establishment of woody vegetation that may impede flood conveyance. The farm field will be cover cropped until agricultural operations begin and is the only portion of the site that will be not be revegetated to native riparian habitat.

'Wallace Stegner wrote forty-seven years ago that “Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed,” and something else will go out of us if the resourcefulness, rootedness, and richness of rural culture disappears.'
- Rebecca Solnit
What rural resourcefulness are you observing in Senegal? She uses rootedness in a positive light, but perhaps that's a rose-colored view on what others would describe as trapped or immoveable?

Yesterday I happened to sit next to two women who impressed me. First, a Senegalese professor of African literature who teaches and writes about women in Senegalese society. She married before she finished high school, and had her first child at 18. Her daughter is now 42, making her 60. She went to France to earn her PhD. Did she go alone, were her children grown? I didn't ask. She was careful and articulate with her words, but there were such incongruous lines of thought, I didn't know where to place her. When she started studying literature, Senegal was freshly independent from the French. There was "no" African literature, so started with French. She told me this as a fact, but didn't express judgement. She said to me: "Women and men in Senegal have equal access to opportunities, these days, there is no problem. It is only that the women have to continue with the housework, so they have less time for research and their own projects. Instead of getting married at 18, they now wait until 23 - 25. You would be shocked at the expectations that Senegalese men have for their girlfriends. But in the case of foreign women, Senegalese men understand that they have their freedoms". I wondered, do Senegalese men really understand the relative freedom of western women? Accepting without thought or consideration and understanding are two very different things. (Especially when there is monetary motivation to accept). If they could understand would they adjust their moral grounding, would they be inspired to change? If women don't have such a loud of a voice in Senegal, how can Senegalese men ever grow to understand? I had been thinking to myself that so much is based in education. Yet this educated professor choreographed a graceful distinctly non contentious dance around an inherently contentious topic, which is the focus of her professional career. Is there an intellectual dishonesty in that? Was it humbleness that prevented her from admitting the challenges she overcame? But by not giving significance to the challenges she faced, was she politely writing off huge and structural problems in Senegal? Or was it me that did not understand, perhaps the logic to her carefully structured strategy, but to what end? Second, another mother, an African American here at the language center with her daughter. They attend the same college in Massachusettes, each earning their BA. Mother in International Studies, daughter in Environmental Science. They found a way to study abroad together.

Garlic is never questionable! Always yes, always yes. Peanuts, we see, have their time and place and are not for cracking fresh orthodontia. Bay leaves and Baileys, both can be brought camping, but not used together. Cracked crab pairs with butter, but crabs make their own. Are spices good for you? I mean beyond adding to life generally? Cinnamon dresses a spicy stir fry so well. Crisp celery adds structure without flavor, but preserves well and improves its neighboring vegetables. Food is way of talking about being alive while talking about something specific.