Secrets revealed, circuit breakers trip, a small encounter

Stayed real busy today. Had to do the bill in Tina's case to get my partner off my ass. And then I closed Tina's file. Hell, how many files have I closed in 30 years? This could be the first one that I put the sticky note on and put in the "out" basket with . . . regret? Sadness? Hope? I'm just not sure.

I had an out-of-town appointment today, and my mom wanted to go along for the ride (and to hit B&N after we were done.) She's still stressed by yesterday, and all that I can do is provide what support I can. Another (genetic) brother is clergy-trained and has been stepping in and providing a LOT of advice and support that I'm not able to effectively bring off (for a number of reasons). But the senior (genetic) brother is just so outrageous that I cannot take him seriously and still be effective in lots of realms. So, them's the circuit breakers what tripped.

While I was at the appointment (which was at a health care facility), I came out to the waiting area where my mom was sitting, and there was a young man, 15 or 16 there. Upon closer inspection, I saw that he was wearing handcuffs and shackles. (Shackles go around the ankles, prevent anything but a slow walk.) The deputy with him was a nice fellow, and didn't object when I struck up a conversation with the kid - nothing elaborate, nothing legal, just that he was obviously having a bad day (and he agreed with that) and that he should hang in there. It is probable that he's in this predicament due some lousy parenting and a don't-give-a-shit materialistic MTV society. Yeah, yeah, I hear people saying that there IS such a thing as a bad kid, but that's just WRONG. Some kids take the wrong path, and some don't need as much stupidity to go that way, but they are CHILDREN. This really pisses me off, we as a society are spending pennies on resources for children because (1) they don't vote and (2) neither do many of their parents. The funding mechanisms of government are for sale, and pretty cheaply at that.

Hmmm - got off the track there.

It's a dark night here, but there are still town lights. Have you experienced true darkness outside? You have to be away from all lights, all towns, and it's either a spooky or a cosmic experience. The moonlight can illuminate lots, but when it is only starlight, it's magical. I had an English prof. in college named Sonnenshein, wonderful fellow. He was strictly a city guy, and once confided to me that one of his greatest fears was being in the woods out of sight of any of the works of Man. Funny, I'm rather fearful of walking down the sidewalk in a huge city. To each their own. Oh, when he retired and moved to San Francisco, Sonny wrote me a note, which was nice, but he accused me of forever scarring Epithelamion for him by reciting it in W.C. Fields' verbal style.

The "secrets," as requested by Sarai:

Mizpah is a Hebrew word literally meaning "watchtower," not to be confused with the Jehovah's Witnesses use of that term. It is used metaphorically as the wish that "God watch over you and me until we meet again."

"Pippa passes" is a lot tougher to explain. Rosary is right, it comes from a poem/play by Robert Browning. The most remembered lines from the poem are "God's in His heaven and All's right with the world!" In this poem, there is a nice and even naive character, Pippa. In the midst of all sorts of situations of chaos and debauchery, Pippa appears very briefly, announced by the sentence "Pippa passes." I use it to mean that in the midst of chaos, we just march on.

Mizpah. Pippa passes.

R