I read so I can live more than one life in more than one place.
Anne Tyler
"Contrast," she said, "is what art's all about."
I stopped and ruminated on her leafy words.
Sometimes my mind's a giraffe,
and her idea was elevated enough.
Contrast sensitivity was thought to be fixed,
and that it would only worsen with age.
While as I age and experience more,
the more contrasts are my focus.
So I turned to stare again at my love's face,
her dark hair against her white skin.
Her dark moods against her smile,
my love for her against all others.
"Contrast," I said, "is what love's all about."
I stopped and ruminated on my starry words.
Sometimes my mind's a space shuttle,
and my idea was burnt by the sun.
My eyes melted under such luminance;
no contrast, no trace; all flamboyance.
Emma wishes to buy a new sexy pair of pants that costs 80 € and six new books that equally cost 80 € in total. She counts all her money and finds out that she’s 81,27 € rich. How can Emma fulfil her wishes? Choose only one of the following options:
a) Emma buys a new sexy pair of pants and increases her chances of getting laid.
b) Emma opts for buying the books, reads them and increases the chances of being loved.
c) Emma browses through an expensive clothing store and steals a pair of pants, then goes to the bookshop and buys those six books, reads them, puts the pants on, and increases the chances of being loved and getting laid.
d) Emma equates the morals of option c) and comes to the conclusion that stealing from a clothing store linked to the slave-like exploitation of Latin American workers is unlikely to perturb her views on global social issues as much as stealing from a bookshop would, and thus proceeds and executes option c).
e) Emma is ecstatic at how much lower clothes prices are since the economy went global and thinks that books can always be read for free in a library where she went twice in her lifetime to try and seduce George but he was never there, and so she embraces option a).
f) Emma is the ideal catholic, buys a sandwich for 3,50 € and gives the rest to charity, in the total of, err, well, 81,27 minus 3,50.
g) Emma uses her credit card to buy the items she wishes for but cannot afford.
i) Emma cannot make her mind up and sits on a park bench lost in thought.
j) Emma, sitting on a park bench, wonders if this listing of options will ever end.
