Thursday, March 30, 2006

"if like a crab you could go backward."

kai was my friend, too. we ate breakfast nearly every morning for a year or two. the group grew and shrunk, but kai was always there, bowtie carefully tied and twisted under his chin, a wooly sweater tied around his neck like a ralph lauren advertisement.

noel and i used to study in the same section of the library so that we could walk by and drop notes on his textbooks. he was too much to resist, accent and all, his ferocity about studying, his confusion as to whether we were serious or not.



today, when i read this admonition from joy regarding taking care to speak (or type) carefully, to consider your audience and the possibility that your words will not be taken as you intended them to be taken, i thought of two things: kai and the way that he always walked too fast, looking at the sidewalk, thinking in hebrew, relishing the next few hours in the library; and the power of words, their ability to tattoo themselves to the most tender skin of our memories (right on the ribcage, under the arm).

thank you, joy, for the gentle reminder to take care with what we say (and, perhaps, to stop skimming!).

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