Pandora's Other Box

Caught your attention with the above title…? Well… I'm sorry to tell your overworked mind that this has nothing to do with the image that may be occupying your imagination by now!!  In fact, it really has nothing to do with much of anything that is overtaxing my own mind and imagination right now. There is really little to add to what has not been said yet… Yesterday morning my appointment book showed a date with my urology MD, residing in Salisbury , NC , some 60 miles away from here. The reason being that my treatment will be continued by the VA doctor instead of the outside MD who had been seeing me. Cut cutting  measures, I assume. I had some misgivings, since the original MD had truly earned my trust, beside actually taking the measures which, most likely, saved my life. But… “Donde manda Capitán… no manda soldado”… an old Spanish saying that says: “When the Captain speaks, the soldier keeps quiet” or, something to that effect.  And so, I boarded my car and...

This has been an iffy week in which to write. The time seems to evaporate right before my eyes and then, tiredness sets in… The days go by and the moments in which the time is available to sit and write, other priorities come up and the computer slips away from my sight, with the promise made, looking over my shoulder as I walk away that… “Tomorrow I’ll get to you… for sure!” But, tomorrow comes and it becomes another yesterday, full of little holes and little chunks of time which are taken up by the daily chores and problems; then, there are those problems which come from nowhere and go… nowhere!  They just stay and lay siege to the mind and body.  On the other hand, these create time for reflection and for making some internal, visceral decisions as to time, place and space… Why?  When?  Where?... How? Questions that come and go, filling in the quiet moments with a virtual cacophony which, if allowed, will bury all that surrounds in silence. An ol...

Every year we hear how well we are doing as a nation, except none of us day to day  hard working folk ( well... those who do have jobs ) seem to realize it… Last night, as we do every year about this time, the President of these United States came on the tube and proceeded to tell us all about the perceived ( by him and his supporters ) good this administration had been able to achieve in the 3 years of stewardship they have accrued. Of course, the purpose of this is to begin the long trek which awaits all involved in this upcoming election process ( voters included ). Whenever my tired ears listen to this type of speech, the brain begins a number of gyrations, trying desperately to make some street, day-to-paying bills day sense out what is being heard and that which is being lived by those whom I know at the trench level. It seems that the different wars are over except for Afghanistan and, who knows, maybe Iran and/or whatever nation needs to survive a shelling ...

This piece was sometime in coming; the sinking feeling that overwhelms a person when confronted with the reality of this unwanted visitor, is really unfathomable. Why write about this now? Not really sure; perhaps because there are some dear friends who are now battling this illness and, no matter how “minor” ( if any cancer could ever be called so ) it may be, the potentially lethal attacker must be taken very seriously… According to the several conversations held with my medical advisors since the fateful discovery, my understanding is that cancer apparently feeds on, amongst other things, the states of the mind and body of the victim. The more pressure and stress the person is under on a regular basis, the more battered the defense mechanism becomes. The more battered this vital function of the body becomes, the easier it is to contract a number of diseases one of which being, apparently, cancer. This is not the only reason; in fact, our science guys still have no real han...

Comments about yesterday’s note as well as some questions about what has been written. Thank you, once again, not only for reading the blog but for also taking the time to react to it. Your comments, especially when you tell me about some similar experiences or when you have a question, are truly well received. This blog as you know by now, I’m sure, started as a way to put some memories together; memories which were a bit of a collective dust room, a sample of what many who were then children, like myself, lived through in leaving behind a lifetime and family, and coming –sometimes albeit reluctantly- to face a new life, a new world and a very uncertain future. When you ask me whether the people and experiences I write about are real, the answer is a resounding… Yes! From Rosie, my befriended young lady friend from a very different world than the one from which I came, to el Tío Eusebio, my grandparents... friends from the neighborhood, to the ladies from yesterday’s piece… ...

Irma and Maria… The Booby Twins… No, it wasn’t a “typo”… these were their call to fame. As mentioned elsewhere, and more than once, my grandfather’s home –where I was raised- was in the older part of town; it was close to Parque Martí which was, in our town, the equivalent of Central Park . A bit smaller than the one in New York … by about 75%.  Well, this was a non-capital city in the Third World , right?... OK, OK… a two square block space, nicely built up with trees, benches, walks, statues and all that stuff… But definitely older than the other one. A partial view of the Park Our home, a byproduct of the early 1920’s, maybe even from earlier times, was one of those older, long homes; the kind that filled block after block of the older section of the inner cities of the then time and place. If you can visualize it, there is ( yes, it is still there; a little down on its luck, but still useful as a home to, I think, two other families ) a short entry way, about 18 fe...

How often do we hear this little gem!!! How indicative of a total lack of subject(s) about which to talk when this (and others like this little accepted “truism”) is put on the table as the topic of continued conversation… as it were. This morning my mind was wandering –nothing new there- about all the years that have come and gone since the time my sister and I left our little (well, not so little…) island country. The reason for the creeping thought? As my Facebook opened up, the first notation in it was the pre-advise, I guess this is what it was, about the fact that the 50 th High School class reunion is coming up in two short years. OMG!!! I can’t believe it is almost 50 years since that day, back in the mists of time, when the green bound diploma found its way into my hands… To grumble and complain are very common and easy things to do. To realize that in living 50 years plus those it took to get to the point of receiving the diploma, we have indeed achieved something re...

Today the memory of a man who gave up his life for his ideals is commemorated.    All of us who were alive at the time of the “Freedom Marches” remember this man… Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was bigger than his time and bigger than the life which held him to an earthly role. Following the lead of M. Gandhi, a man Dr. King often cited; he chose the path of reconciliation and peaceful confrontation, in times when campus uprisings and take overs were becoming common, and terms like “Black Panthers” and “Burn Baby, Burn” were part of daily life. We, as a nation, were slowly beginning what would be a long road to emotional recovery ( some folk say that perhaps it has not been fully attained yet ), trying to understand the wounds self inflicted during the Viet Nam “incident”; a non-declared war which a congress that was too afraid to act, allowed to go on under very restrictive conditions for our guys. These conditions, like fighting with one arm tied behind your back, I ...

Usually the saying goes “crumbles” but, sometimes… I am not really sure where this old saying began, or to whom we owe the everlasting comment but, in the time it has come to be with us, we have taken it to refer to that moment in life when something negative happens that is not in our control or in our plans… as if to say...that’s the way it goes… Or so it has come to be accepted in the general and constant mentions this old standard gets. For most people, daily living is a continuum of repeated events: sleep, awake, wash, dress, work, go home, eat, watch TV or read or, if lucky, converse and then sleep again… to be repeated tomorrow, in case you missed something important today. Of course, we have the weekends along the way, during which the most likely alteration to the routine is not to work and perhaps add an outside dinner or a couple of drinks and, if a practitioner of any given faith, a Sunday (or Saturday afternoon) get together with the other members of a congregati...

Used to be that when two people met, it was a personal thing…   Now, with all the social networks around and a “data base” growing soon into the billions, the concept of the personal contact is going the same route as that of being able to buy milk in a bottle. Some people gloat about the amount of “friends” they have on Facebook. Often, they number into the hundreds, or even thousands. But, if they were to really let you know how many of these are physically known, the list would most likely shrink by a resounding 90-98%. Some years ago, in order to call someone a “friend” there was supposed to be actual contact and some sort of mutual consent and knowledge about the other person and a direct exchange once in a while. Today… well, I guess this is why we call them “virtual” friends. [ Hi… lol… ++lmao…cn u cm hr 2 mt me? ] No, this is not some sort of codex encoding wrung out of a spy by way of unimaginable torture; this is actually what a text (txt) message from a ...