A Somewhat Different World

Samoan Ministers claim
climate change in Samoa
is caused by homosexuals.

Well, I have returned from three of the most pleasant days I have had in a long time. I deliberately avoided watching any news whatsoever. I cannot tell you how pleasant it was to be completely free of hate, greed, lying, hypocrisy, infotainment, and just plain stupidity and ignorance, if even for a short time. As I have no idea of what went on in the last three days (although I am certain it was just more of the same) I have nothing to comment. Let me instead tell you about our journey to a different world.

We went to Seattle ostensibly to take in the annual Seattle Library Book sale. For reasons I will not bother to explain we missed the Friday night part where the best books are found. But we did attend on Saturday, when the public is allowed in free, and we did actually still accumulate books for Arabella Books (our online book business). What truly impressed me, however, were the hundreds of people who were there buying books. I assume that people who took the trouble to be there to buy books (many of them with their children in tow) must also be those interested in reading. I have been told that perhaps fewer than 10% of the American population are still serious readers so I was impressed by the turnout and encouraged for the future of reading (at least for another generation).

But books aside, a trip to Seattle, for those of us in the hinterlands, is an experience worth having, if only once or twice a year. It is like being in another world entirely. I lived in Seattle for several years, but that was back in the 1950’s and 60’s, and I assure you it is not the same as it was then. Even though Seattle was a fairly large city in the 1950’s it still had a kind of small town ambience that was quite pleasant. You could still get around easily and it only took a few minutes to be out of the city and in the country. Now, however, with the new freeway system, the large increase in population, the increased traffic, and so on, the ambience has changed dramatically.

Seattle is now crowded, much more than it was. I wanted to take a walk from our hotel to the Pike Place Market, approximately 10 to 12 blocks. It was quite an experience. First, as I looked ahead there were so many people in what appeared to be a crowd I thought there must be some special event going on, a political rally or something like that. But when I reached the spot it was nothing but ordinary pedestrian traffic, hundreds, if not thousands of people, crowded cheek to jowl, ventral to ventral, ventral to dorsal, shoulder to shoulder, back to back, face to face, so tightly crowed together you could barely walk (it was an unusually beautiful sunny day). We walked as a huge wave towards the market, which was so unbelievably crowded you were hard-pressed even to purchase anything (although my wife somehow managed to buy some lovely chanterelle mushrooms, my favorite of the mushroom family). If you wish to visit downtown Seattle these days it is best to go on foot as parking is virtually impossible and, if found at all, so expensive as to be virtually prohibitive.

Also of interest to me, coming from Hicksville, on my walk I passed at least two individuals talking to themselves, or possibly the nearest wall, there were street musicians of various kinds, one playing a set of miniature trap drums, another some strange Asian instrument, still others rapping and playing horns or singing. The Hare Krishnas were there, chanting and playing their little cymbals and beating drums, and beggars just shaking cups asking for change. Particularly depressing, I thought were two or three big, healthy, Black men with shoe-shine kits trying to make a few dollars. I was also astonished to find that English now sounds almost like a foreign language, what with such a huge variety of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thais, as well as Middle Easterners of all kinds, and a large mix of Europeans. I am not at all opposed to immigrants or ethnics but I confess to being surprised by their overwhelming presence.

As the Pike Place Market, now world famous and always crowded, was impossible to enjoy, I waited to go to Uwa Jimaya, a wonderful Asian market not far from Pike Street. I like it even better than Pike Place as it has everything you could possibly imagine in the way of food, and many of things you would never find in Pike Place (and quite likely anywhere else). Like the Pike Place it has all kinds of fresh seafood, and a large assortment of unusual frozen fish not available elsewhere (even Pike Place). It also features, in addition to the usual meats you would find most anywhere, such delicacies as pig’s tails, ears, tongues, snouts, pig and calves’ feet, duck gizzards, goat meat, and even milkfish bellies. I love it. I had my heart set on buying some fresh sea bass, that they often have, but, alas, not this time. You can find fresh red snapper, oysters, clams, octopus, squid, of course salmon, sablefish (aka black cod), and more. I settled for some lovely fresh Puget Sound Mussels that I kept on ice until we returned home, whereupon I cooked them in something I can only describe as “Morialekafa’s Everything but the Kitchen Sink Mussels.” They were delicious. I truly miss the seafood in Seattle and Santa Monica, but I don’t miss the crowds, the noise, the traffic, the hustle and bustle of the city, and the seemingly never ending sirens. Here where we live, if you happen to wake in the night you might hear a romantic freight train whistle way off in the distance, just enough to remind you there is a world out there somewhere.

LKBIQ:

The world is so constructed, that if you wish to enjoy its pleasures, you must also endure its pains. Whether you like it or not, you cannot have one without the other.

Swami Brahnmananda

TILT:

Only one species of dormouse is native to Britain.