November 11, 1958

The decline of the market,

as well as my lifespan

has had me in periodic bouts of anxiety recently...

Then Michael & Jack climbed into my bed early last Tuesday morning and with a "SURPRISE," greeted me with balloons -

2 foil-shelled reminders of my forced entry.

M & J experience this as a bonding event - we all have annual BIG days on a numbers theme - not realizing that it also marks a flipside; the promise of our eventual separation.

We went to a seafood restaurant for an early dinner with Elle, Jeff, & Alex - Pepperdine students we befriended last year - returning home for a beautiful cake topped with strawberries, blueberries, & quite the pyrotechnic display.
The Kwongs joined us for cake & presents - handmade cards, three potted plants - olive, bugenvilla, jasmine - and a Motawi tile with a FL Wright motif hand-delivered from Illinois (thank-you, Kwongs!) and...

M & J's school and Tiger Scout pictures

"Happy Birthday, Your Majesty"
"You Float My Boat"

revealing a castle

and a boat

Carolyn had arranged a surprise hot-air balloon ride in the Temecula Valley, an emerging vineyard region near San Diego.
But the fierce Santa Ana winds postponed my foray into risky behavior - while fanning several serious brushfires - so we went on to the Orange Empire Railway Museum to see our blue friend,

A creation of a British minister wanting to instill moral teaching - staying on the right track - Thomas the Tank Engine is really a delightful story that also seems to inspire greed, as youngsters clamor for more track, trains, and merchandising.

This is our second Thomas outing at otherwise defunct railroad graveyards (note theme) - a Thomas engine pulls 4 cars of kids forward at 5-10 mph, then reverses -all for about 20 minutes. Dull stuff, really. The incessant picture-taking, official certificate for the ride, and the nonstop warnings to not stand-up just did me in - mostly catering to LA families who've never been on a real train, I guess. It was very cool to see some old trains that used to crisscross LA, before the automobile industry closed it down.

It was a kick to see these retired conductors become kids, again.

***

Back to bubbles. 17th-19th century, pre-American Japan self-described itself as the "floating world" (ukiyo) - a kind of frothy, topsy-turvy, limbo where traditional values became commodified and, as a result, unstable, open to market swings (the modern civil war of 1868 that ushered in modernity followed). On that theme...

Water (Chinatown)

Oil (There Will Be Blood)Real estate (yet to be filmed?)

***

Some recent, favorite quotes:

"The cloying appeal of sitting with strangers in a space modeled after the living room set from Friends, sipping coffee you can make yourself for a quarter of the price and drink in the quiet and comfort of your own living room, was lost around the time real disposable incomes started to plummet Q4 2007."
Eric Janzen

"The only way to make money in a casino is to own one."
Steve Wynn, founder of Bellagio, the Mirage

“The flow of the river is ceaseless and its water is never the same.
The bubbles that float in the pools, now vanishing, now forming,
are not of long duration:
so in the world are man and his dwelling."
Kamo Chomei, 1212

***

Verdict?

It's only money.
(seemed timely to cash my mom's "brick" of 10,000 yen bills I found in her house; saving two bills for Michael & Jack)

***

Wrap-up?

Fires. balloons, assets in smoke

This Advent, I renew my appreciation for calls for hope, comfort, & the laying up of treasures where moth and rust cannot corrupt (Matthew 6:19). Contrary to typical exegesis - eg NAY to material things and AYE to the spiritual - I believe this is an exhortation to act in such a way so that your returns don't degrade; the spiritual meanings are symptoms of a better condition, a permanent life. The problem is corruption; not materiality.

Silver lining? Sadness is "proof" of better things to come.

It's already November 17th, but I stand corrected. I believe the big 50 is also a "promise" of reunion.

Michael & Jack are right.