MY INSPIRATION.

WE'RE ALL INVENTORS AND CREATORS

Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; 
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, 
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, 
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. 
Strive to be happy.

GIANT PROTRACTORS.

I wish there were protractors big enough to draw circles around the people we love to protect them from getting hurt. So that if they are about to fall or make a mistake they'll stop at the edge of the circle and know that someone cared about them enough to draw a circle.

FRUITAFFLE.

I want to open a Turkish-style waffle shop in the center of Adam's Morgan in Washington, D.C. next to all the cool places that the boys in tight jeans go and the girls who look free with their gypsy skirts and sandals go and sometimes people who dress really nicely on weekend nights go.


I want to open the waffle shop with my Turkish friend Betty, because she doesn't want to stay in Turkey, because Turkey is sometimes really hard on people economically, and because she wants to make a new life for herself and her family, and also because she is really gifted at all sorts of things like sailing, and math, and saxophone, and meeting strangers, and she could be really good at selling waffles too. 


And people in the U.S. would really love Turkish-style waffles, because there are more than 50 options of the kinds of things to put on top of the waffles. The best part in my opinion is the number of fresh fruits you can put on your waffles. That's why I would call it, "FRUITAFFLE" eventhough I think most people in Turkey appreciate the chocolate and nut spreads more than the fruits.


And after a long night of dancin' on the dance floor, I think it would be much better to eat a Fruitaffle than a jumbo slice pizza, which is usually the choice of most drunk people after a night out, because those things are really oily and usually after eating them people regret their food choice. But no one would ever regret a Fruitaffle.


Fruitaffles would also be delicious for breakfast. and lunch. and dinner.

THIS IS WHAT HEAVEN LOOKS LIKE.

Meridian Hill Park, also known unofficially as Malcolm X Park, is located in theWashington, D.C. neighborhood of Columbia Heights in the United States. On Sunday afternoons during the warm weather months, people gather from 3:00–9:00 p.m. in the upper park to dance, participate in a drum circle, and provide food for the homeless. The activity has been held in the park since the 1950s. FREE LOVING. FREE DANCING.

A UNIVERSE BALANCE.

On Sundays, there is a fresh fruit vegetable bizarre near my apartment and every price there is determined with a metal balance - kilograms on one side, desired item on the other. As a man began to measure my bananas today (I asked for half a kilo), I began imagining a metal balance in my head, where the love and the hate in the universe are put on both sides. 

I thought of all the people in the world who were probably kissing someone good night, or waking up to breakfast with a loved one, or holding someone tightly enough to remind them that they'll never let them go. And, in my head I saw the love side of the balance hanging low... 

And then I thought about violence that exists in the world, and the way people sometimes blindly hate, and also some conflicts that seem unending. I imagined the scale being tipped quickly -- like when you're sitting on the end of a seesaw and there's a really heavy person on the opposite end so you're floating in the air and then they get up and you crash to the ground. That's how quickly the balance can change.

I feel like the world rests on this balance - this ability to either be weighed down by the bad or the good, and I wished when the world tipped to hate the man at the market could add pieces of love to bring it back in the balance just like he added extra bananas for me today when the balance was uneven. 

KILLER LOBSTERS.

I wish my imaginary friends weren't eaten by lobsters when I was 6.