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Let's linger in S.E. Asia a bit longer. Photo was taken in late March, but how should we read it? There is enough here to say that it is in the U.S., and in one of the warmer states, but what's up with all those guardian lions? The Asiatic lion is nearly extinct, with just over 400 animals left, all in India. There are none in Cambodia. Refugees come to the heart of the empire for many reasons. It is safe here, and you can eat. In spite of the siege mentality endlessly promoted by the American ruling class, the US is the country least likely to be molested from the outside, period. It is being imploded from the inside, terrorized from the inside. In short, the US is not the besieged, but the harasser and attacker of too many countries to list. In fact, it would be much easier to attempt to come up with countries that are free of American molestation. Go ahead, give it a try, and take as much time as you want.

Though it is reasonable to assume that the owners of this San Jose home are Cambodian, there is also the Chinese detail on the security bar over the front window. It's the character for longevity, and among the five Chinese happinesses, wealth, health, longevity, love and virtue, it is the most valued. So merely to survive, in short, is considered the greatest happiness, for without it, nothing else is possible.

Many don't agree, for each second, countless people choose an immediate death over a life no longer worth living, and many among us who grit our teeth, grunt and continue to slog forward live in such a way as to make an early death inevitable. These lives are drawn out suicides. For those who agree, however, I quote the incomparable Cesar Vallejo, as translated by Clayton Eshleman:

I would like to live always, even flat on my belly,
because, as I was saying and I say it again,
so much life and never! And so many years,
and always, much always, always, always!

Vallejo died at 46.

Ah, so much idle musing over this house, which may have been foreclosed a while ago, and whose current owners may turn out to be black, white or Mexican. Maybe inside is a 99-year-old Polish lady with an unquenchable fetish for all things Cambodian.



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