Wednesday, 1st o April 1998
Howdy from atop an old military fort in Barcelona
Hey it's been a while. Now that we're back from vacation, and Tom Chen's visit has ended, I have a bit of time to put together my thoughts and get it all down here for you to enjoy. First, I left you hanging with my thoughts on sloths. Eh? Yeah, that's what I said, "sloths," the sweetest creatures living. There it was climbing the branches, very slowly, very carefully. It seemed not to want to molest the branches not even one bit. It was moving with such care, not what we're taught in the popular culture, that sloths are just lazy. We even have a name for lazy people, "slothful." But for me, there couldn't be a description more beautiful in my book, more reverent, more respectful than to say someone is like a sloth.
So there's this sloth, climbing the branches with such deliberation, and care. She reached out to pass from one tree to another, gingerly edging her way, using her weight to bend to the next tree. Little by little, she was able to grasp one of the shoots from the adjacent tree. She slid quietly further up and out, edging, easing, ever so gingerly. Our sloth grasped the ajoining branch better as she moved her weight to it. Once she had made her way to the new branch, she continued up maintaining her grasp on the one that she had passed from, up and up and up she went until she could release it with the least amount of spring. When she finally let go, it swayed back into place as if brushed by a gentle breeze.
And the sloth winked and smiled, her face shining with sweetness and peace while above the monkeys screeched and leapt from tree to tree, howling and rending leaves and branches.
How funny to think that we are descended from those noisy irreverent little creatures.