i found a good website for all you socially conscious people out there. thepetitionsite.com has petitions for amnesty international, gay rights, environment issues, and a whole bunch of other things. sign some. (the easy way to be an armchair activist?)

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not a whole lot going on...still hanging out at my sister's house, taking care of the Best Baby in the World. we played in the yard today; she learned how clover smells and the way grass tickles her bare feet. i wish i could see the world through her eyes when i'm with her. i can only imagine the wonder that every plant and tree and breeze holds for her.

i wish we could all recapture that sense of wonder in all things. could remember that the smallest grass blade is as much a miracle as a redwood tree, and a stream is as beautiful in its own way as niagara falls.

i went on a road trip to niagara falls during college...the drive was an adventure and the whole experience was a blast, but somehow the falls themselves disappointed me. the commercial detritus built up around them; the railings and the walks and the souvenier shops. the crowds of people all milling around and talking. it all just seemed cheap to me. like an amusement park designed to give you the feel of being in awe of nature's majesty. cheap and tacky and sad.

it seems like there are so few real things in this culture...

"and i am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and i am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and i am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and i am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and i am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder."
-lawrence ferlenghetti

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