Trees, Ownership, and Weather (Almost sounds like it's about the environment. Nope.)

Pines

Their branches form a spiral
staircase for sappy youths
who clamber up to see the tops of townhouses
(and he who climbs highest
sees the most shingles) before
settling stickily back to earth
sometimes swinging down from the limbs
a gymnast's dismount
but not bothering to stick the landing
as they run off to snacks and seesaws.

Poem:
I remember climbing pine trees at camp and I don't think I ever once came down without sap all over me. And it was a competition to see who could climb the highest, and since I was afraid of heights even then (though certainly not so much as I am now), I don't think I ever won. But pine trees are the easiest to climb, with their branches extending almost perpendicular to the trunk. It was a simple matter to make your way as high as you wanted, until the branches grew flimsy, that is. And I felt like writing a poem about it, obviously. That's about all there is to it.

Observation:
It was brought to my attention recently that our right to life can be used to derive our right to ownership. I guess I always thought owning things was more of a privilege than a right. Like, yeah, you can have things, but only until someone who is bigger and stronger (or richer) wants them. But if you believe in the basic human right to life, then it follows that there is a connected right to not have your things taken away from you. The argument goes something like this:
1. We have a right to life.
2. Our lives are made up of time
3. How we spend our time is, for the most part, up to us.
4. So if we spend time working on something, that time is a part of our life.
5. That time translates into wealth (monetary or material).
6. So if something is stolen or broken, it is as if that person took or made worthless the part of our life that we spent acquiring it.

I'm not sure how persuasive I find this argument. It seems that time is a bit of an elusive thing to try and pin down by means of "ownership." I guess I'm not sure that a person "owns" the time they are alive. But if we believe in our right to spend that time alive, I guess it makes some sense that we also have the right to spend it acting in a manner of our choosing.

Exercise:
Today's exercise is to write a brief sketch-- perhaps the beginning of a longer story-- that is delicious and luxurious. Begin with the word "Even" and include: an orange; a hungry baboon; a piano; an elderly man in a perfectly crisp suit.

Even the hungry baboon stopped. It had been peeling the orange recently acquired from a tourist, but the respect Lorenzo commanded upon entering the courtyard brought everything to stillness. His suit was perfectly crisp, and his shoes echoed on the cobblestones as he strode to the black towncar already running in anticipation of his departure. He made his way with purpose to the car's door, and the only sign of his advancing age came when he eased himself down and into the rear seat, folding his body gingerly, and lifting his legs carefully in after. The slam of a door, and the car was gone. The baboon focused once more on the orange at hand, and somewhere inside, piano music began. It started off as a low clatter, missed notes as frequent as melody, but after a few measures, the rhythm returned to the old woman's hands, and the new strings resounded into a veritable symphony.

Me:
As much as I like being "that guy," it turns out my feet need some time to adjust to wearing sandals again. My toes had the beginnings of blisters on them after just a few jaunts to class. I fondly recall the days I'd basically live in those things. Sure, I'd kick them off to throw a frisbee around for a while, but other than that, it was all fine. Today my aching toes are a cruel reminder of how long the weather has been forbidding sandals from my feet. Don't get me wrong; I loved the weather these past few days. In fact, a surprising number of people were willing to credit me with the nice weather. I was told on multiple occasions that my shorts finally brought good weather. It's nice to be noticed. But it's also nice to not be the only one in shorts, as was the case today. I'm fairly certain it was a severe case of optimism, but there were numerous people wearing fewer clothes today. Some of them didn't even look like they were shivering.