When my son was 5 months old, we unboxed a walker that someone had gifted us. We’d put his little legs through the holes in the walker and then he could stand up right. At the level of his hands were a whole bunch of wheels and knobs that made interesting noises when he twisted and pressed and pulled. We’d put him in this walker soon after he woke up each day.

To break an old habit, I started replacing “what do you do for a living?” with “what are you excited about?” People are surprised when I ask this. It turns out that there are a few people that are quite excited about their job, and there are many that find their jobs very dull, and their hobbies are really far more interesting. They’ll get eventually get to telling you about them, but I like using the excitement trigger as a way of launching into a conversation with someone new.

Occasionally, an item that was placed on a very high shelf falls without warning. Nothing seemed to cause the fall. There was no gnome hiding behind the object, no gust of wind, and no invisible hands. This type of thing was once known as a poltergeist: an unexplained occurrence that people would attribute to a supernatural being or a ghost. In reality, what happened was tiny little trembles in the earth that are undetectable to humans made the item on the shelf move forward, micrometers at a time, until it finally got pushed too far over the edge, and it fell.

+++ title = “09” date = 2019 +++ It’s a bit like poetry. In a poem, the words are laid out in front of us, and it’s up to us to give them meaning. Sure, the poet may have had their own intentions, but any artist worth their salt knows that their intention is basically a form of trivia and audience interpretation is everything. And that’s the tarot too. It’s not the intention of some divine entity to tell us our future, or give us advice.

I have airplane anxiety. I’ve written about it before. I’ve described the different techniques I’ve used to try and get over it. Though my phobia seems to be getting better, I still get uncomfortable when the plane begins to jostle around in the air. The interesting thing is that the ride is even bumpier on the ground before takeoff. And when I’m on the Amtrak, sometimes it’s so bumpy that I get violently thrown against the window next to my seat.