I read The New York Times today.

I read Susan Sontag's article called The Photographs Are US.
Then I glanced at the article about Michael Moore's Best Film Award for Fahrenheit 9/11 at Cannes.

I just returned from 2 hours of swimming so my eyes are dry and there's water in my ears. There is supposed to be a thunderstorm warning tonight so the barbecue is cancelled. So now I get to write to Joe in St. Vincent. He sent me pictures of the children he's been teaching computers for the Peace Corps. They struck me as so innocent looking and a remarkable contrast to the deluge of slick advertising that I am bombarded with everyday on the internet and tv. Joe said it's disconcerting how many children in St. Vincent are fatherless. He has been like a surrogate father to them.

Last night I listened to Bryan Ferry's latest album. I saw him on David Letterman last week, so I appreciated the song about already being dead. My friend Eric really emulated Brian Ferry. He is in San Diego now.

My housemates are watching a spy movie with Russian characters and I'm drinking cherry coke. My room needs to be cleaned for inspection tomorrow and I need to do some recycling but... This morning I cogitated on philosophy for about 2 hours.

Here are some names I came up with:
C.L.R James
John Rawls (Justice as Fairness)
Simone de Beauvoir (Hard Times, The Second Sex, The Mandarins) Socrates, Aristotle, Thucydides
Muriel Rukeyser ("Look at your own body/ you are the city, the ghetto/ you are the garden")
Rita Dove (On the Bus with Rosa Parks--"how she sat there/her sensible coat")
Buddha (gesture of Abhayamudra--fear not)
Orwell (1984)
Madeline L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time, A Circle of Quiet--the Greek term ousia: the essence of a being)
Michael Ondaatje ("We are full on anarchy. We take off our clothes because we should not take off our clothes"--Anil's Ghost)
Georgia O'Keeffe (who bought her ranch in Abiquiu for $10 from the Catholic Church)
Thich Nhat Han (Peace is Every Step, Zen Keys)
Michel Foucault ("Dies ist kein Pfeife"--linguistic philosophy, words as metaphor, and how the world wants to be named in order to perpetuate itself)
Anne Carson ("the fact of the matter for humans is imperfection"--Men In the Off Hours)
Derrick May (Innovator)
the I Ching
Jane Roberts
Grace Lee Boggs ("Be the change you would like to see in society")
J.F.K ("Ask not what your country can do for you, but
what you can do for your country").

*****

While my fellow generation x-ers were getting smashed tonight, I was reading Simone de Beauvoir. She was in Venice, drinking Grappa and admiring Tintorettos, having interesting, stimulating conversation about literature and art, eating well and feeling relaxed. Why wasn't I doing something a bit more entertaining? One might wonder. Too grouchy to entertain. Sorry Charlies.