Tom's Hat

Blogs have a way of building themselves; sometimes they workout at the gym and get fit; other times they become musclebound and inflexible, or in the case of this one, they just sit there on their mat listening to their ipod, checking their fb, not doing anything. 

Why has it been so hard to get started again? 

Anyway here's a post I meant to do last week, a little out of date, a little inflexible— as I've tried to change it but it insists! At least its off the mat, lifting weights. (OK, you don't have to point out they're only 3 pounders... working on that. 5 then 8!)

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In last Sunday's LA Times, a headline below the fold in the California section read, "England returns 7 Native American skulls to California," to which Tom responded, "Only seven?"

Tom has a droll sense of humor when it comes to things native. In the case of stealing Indian bones and moving them elsewhere—to be studied or put on display—the most infamous account was in 1918, when the boys of Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale, dug up Geronimo's grave in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and took the remains back to Connecticut. Geronimo's descendents sued Skull and Bones in 2009, but lost their suit a year later; still, the fight for repatriation—"the return to tribes of indigenous bones and artifacts"—goes on.

On the same day Indian skulls were in the news, the solar eclipse appeared above the western skies, at 6:38 pm, for about an hour. I'd read in the same Sunday paper that Navajo custom called for praying, fasting and staying indoors, but Tom was skeptical—historically, he wanted to know, "how would they have known when one was approaching?" For his part, he wasn't praying. In the afternoon, he set up a mirror on a grip stand to reflect the sun, and then went down below to plant sunflower seeds. 

Meanwhile, I drove down the hill to an opening of a new bookstore on York. The intensity of the sun was hard to bear. My clothes felt uncomfortable, my skin too tight. Trying to avoid looking at the sun, I kept looking at it. Maybe it was this feeling of unease that contributed, but the bookstore opening was a bit of a letdown. I bought a used E.L. Doctorow for 3 bucks and drove home.

When I arrived, images of the eclipse were everywhere. 

Eclipse on wall, with Tom's Hat

On the side of the canyon

(reflection off mirror)

 

3 crescent moons reflected through Tom's Hat

After the moon had passed, I noticed a bluejay chasing a mockingbird through the trees, making a racket. What a relief to hear birds singing again! I took a walk around the hill and felt the day's intensity fading away. The lights over Highland park rose up, shimmering, as I descended into the cool night air.  

 Tom's hat