The Burrow

The Courtyard by Marriott just off the airport here in Detroit is a delightful spot to wait for my adventure to begin.  Everyone is friendly, my breakfast was included in the (very good) price for the room, and I got to sit in a little alcove, all by myself, watching my own little television. I never watch tv during breakfast.  I read Dear Abby and the comics and I watch the hot air balloons out my window.  I don't want someone else to set my agenda.  That will happen soon enough, as the day progresses.  In the morning, first thing, I am my own person.  I'm not grumpy, I'm in charge. But here, on a business trip the details of which will be shared as soon as they are un-embargoed, with my fellow travelers hunched over laptops and smartphones or sharing sales reports at the surrounding tables, my little slice of heaven includes a tv set tuned to CNN's morning report.  The sound is turned down, but there are so many words on the screen the voices are...

I had another post for today. You will see it tomorrow.  I wrote it, I sat with TBG to watch the NBC Nightly News, and I started to shake. I'm quaking from the very inside of myself.  There's nothing I can think of to make it stop.  I'm deep breathing and I'm lowering my shoulders and I'm concentrating on the natural beauty surrounding me and I can't get the image of that lovely 14 year out of my head. Watch this clip from Brian Williams's broadcast tonight ... even if you only fast forward to about 1:30 to hear her talk about getting her education no matter what the obstacles might be, no matter what the Taliban might say. Watch her walk out of a gate on her way to school... an act which galvanized her classmates but infuriated the misogynists hiding behind the veil of religion who are running and ruining her country.  They shot her.  An armed man walked into her classroom and shot her. Read this article from The Guardian.   There is no reasoning...