Poem for Friday and Lewis Ginter Flowers

Life
By Joe Brainard

        When I stop and think about what it's all about I do come up with some answers, but they don't help very much.

        I think it is safe to say that life is pretty mysterious. And hard.

        Life is short. I know that much. That life is short. And that it's important to keep reminding oneself of it. That life is short. Just because it is. I suspect that each of us is going to wake up some morning to suddenly find ourselves old men (or women) without knowing how we got that way. Wondering where it all went. Regretting all the things we didn't do. So I think that the sooner we realize that life is short the better off we are.

        Now, to get down to the basics. There are 24 hours a day. There is you and there are other people. The idea is to fill these 24 hours as best one can. With love and fun. Or things that are interesting. Or what have you. Other people are most important. Art is rewarding. Books and movies are good fillers, and the most reliable.

        Now you know that life is not so simple as I am making it sound. We are all a bit fucked up, and here lies the problem. To try and get rid of the fucked up parts, so we can just relax and be ourselves. For what time we have left.

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My Thursday involved an unexpected amount of rain, and my Friday will involve even more, because apparently Tropical Storm Andrea decided that since it's June, it's a good time to dump a lot of water on the east coast. We're under a flood watch and it looks like Florida is getting it pretty bad. I stayed pretty close to home since our van was in for service -- finally took Daniel to Bagel City for more bagels, went to Giant since we were completely out of milk, went with Paul to pick up the van.

We watched another couple of Arrested Development episodes (Maeby much funnier than Gob), then the penultimate episode of Spies of Warsaw (still well acted but still feels like it's dragging). The big entertainment news of the day, of course, was the loss of Harvey Korman -- we are overdue for a Blazing Saddles viewing. Otherwise there was stupid gun news, stupid anti-contraceptive news, and a very little bit of D-Day reflection. Here are some photos from Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in April: