earthmann

Paper Mache
It's not just for fourth grade art projects and Mardi Gras floats.
(anymore)

Today, I went to the craft store and picked up a lot of tissue and wire and plaster. I am making life-size paper mache effegies of all the happy people I met this week.
I am going to set you around my dining room table and serve you Peppermint tea and yummy cake. It is going to be real nice. I will never drink alone again.
So far, I have made a Bala (the denim shirt was not so easy),
an Andreas (I had to seperate he and Bala, because I could not sleep over their constant chatter).
I made a Patrick and and an Anamiek and three fluffy kitties, who strangely enough keep shedding their tissues (i swear to god, every sweater and pillow is covered with the stuff). I made a Noor (it is indeed a great place to live: tonight we will be serving a cilantro-topped salmon on a bed of mango and microgreens), I even made a Gerrie and gave her special wings to facilitate her intercontinental travel (i have not seen her since Sunday).
That is all I have done so far. Well, that is not true exactly. I had made a Sep as well, but I left him on the porch over night, and the Mexican neighbor kids pummeled him with a stick thinking him to be a candy-filled pinata. Sorry Sep. I put you back together, but something just wasn't the same. You were still smiling, but it just wasn't convincing. I used your legs to make Bala a pair of wings (he was jealous, of Gerrie: "The queen always has wings; it's my ant colony", and so on and on.)
Anyway, Black-eyed Carl, map-totting Katie, free spirit Linda, and all the rest will soon populate my table.
So, if you want to find yourself, please come visit.
"They will be beside themselves."
Andreas, you are funny. Do you want some more cake?

Can I be serious for a moment?
"Not that I have seen."
Bala, please go smoke that outside. I am trying to think here. Leave the cookies. Now, there is something very important that I am trying to say. Or rather, something important I want to say, but not going to try. But it has to do with smoke and mirrors and air and love and world and magic and a small mouse and a mighty elephant. It has to do with moving a great stone from here to there. It has to do with dreaming and acting. It has to do with the blessing of being surrounded by people and spaces that inspire, old wood to a young fire. But I am not going to say these things. I would not know where to begin, and certainly not where to end. It is a beautiful sunny day, and I have a lot work to do.
Thank you all. Love.
"Has he been drinking again?"
I heard that.