Poem for Saturday

A Suspended Blue Ocean
By Hafiz
Translated By Daniel Ladinsky

The sky
Is a suspended blue ocean.
The stars are the fish
That swim.

The planets are the white whales
I sometimes hitch a ride on,

And the sun and all light
Have forever fused themselves

Into my heart and upon
My skin.

There is only one rule
On this Wild Playground,

For every sign I have ever seen
Reads the same.

They all say,

"Have fun, my dear; my dear, have fun,
In the Beloved's Divine
Game,

O, in the Beloved's
Wonderful Game."

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Rush rush rush to Pennsylvania this morning and back tomorrow evening, so I am way behind on everything as usual again (and we are going out of town for two weeks a week from today so ain't gonna get better before it gets lots worse). Had better remember to post in that Kira is meditating on Bajor and Jack has taken Stephen to some remote bird-covered island and both are unable to receive mail for a few weeks.

Unhappy warped thought for the day: if there was an Alzheimer's patient in the family of every rabid anti-choice activist who might change his or her mind about the importance of stem cell research, the way Nancy Reagan and Kate Mulgrew have, it would be good for both the women of this country and the future of scientific research. Why can't people respect other people's right to make choices that are different than those they might make themselves until they face personal crises, which have a way of making people realize that even their own choices are subject to their fluctuating, evolving morality? Why do women and elderly people have to die before they can see that having a government that limits science in the name of protecting the unborn can be lethal to those already born and living?

Hey, anyone who lives near a Barnes and Noble: they have The World of Jack Aubrey by David Miller for $5.98 on the bargain tables! (The one in Gaithersburg, Maryland, for instance, which has for some reason stuck them in the children's section -- lower left side -- has a stack.) Speaking of which: how many O'Brian books do we think I can reasonably expect to finish during a two-week vacation involving a lot of driving? How many should I bring with me?