The Scene in Front of Me

I'm watching Buddha. He's sitting, smiling at me, appearing to be completely content and amused with his situation. He's holding a bag, draped over his left shoulder; it appears to be full, but I don't know what's in it. He isn't talking. He's just smiling. As for me, I'm sitting, but I'm not smiling. Well I wasn't. Now I am. It occurs to me how strange it is to write this. I'm writing about what I am doing...sitting at my desk, looking at the Buddha, typing words onto a computer screen, and drinking coffee. I was wondering what I would write about...I had no idea when I sat down here to write. Now I know. I'll describe the scene in front of me.

I'm looking down at a notebook computer, a rather sleek looking black machine with silver highlights. Behind the computer screen is a desktop picture frame that appears to be made of tall rectangles of red and orange and green leaded glass; in fact, it is plastic. Inside the frame is a photo of my wife, taken in a photo booth at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. The photo looks like a movie poster styled after a Queen of Hearts, with my wife's smiling face in the middle of it. At the top of the photo: the words Looks that kill. Beauty so powerful and dangerous! At the bottom of the photo: Cowgirl Pictures Presents Beauty with a Bullet in TexaColor.

To the left of the computer is a magazine, Living the Country Life, with a photo of a lush garden, the center of which is marked with a rustic-looking stone path. Words printed on the cover give clues to what is inside: "Artful Gardens;" "The hottest flowers for 2006;" "Buyers Guides: Pickup trucks, Cool country tools;" "Woodlot tips;" "Secure your acreage." Farther left is a videocassette, contents unknown, sitting atop a short stack of papers and Consumer Reports. Behind that stack, toward the back of the desk, is a 3-hole punch and a black & silver audio speaker. Just to the right of the punch is a stack of papers beneath two books: The Darwin Awards, the cover of which has a white and red background and pictures of 'evolving man,' and Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juárez: 1893-1923, whose cover is of an old black & white photo of Mexicans holding rifles aimed at the camera. Behind the books is an empty tape dispenser, sitting next to a a full container of Mont Blanc ink. I never use the ink; I bought it for a pen I received as a parting gift from a job I had years ago...a job I left because my employment contract was not renewed.

Immediately behind the computer are a computer power supply and a USB hub, along with wires connecting the power source, speakers, computer, mouse, and microphone.

To the right of the 'leaded glass' picture frame is another audio speaker and to the right of that is a desk lamp in a clean, Scandinavian style; all black, with weights and counterweights to control the height and direction of the neck of the halogen lamp. Buddha sits in front of the speaker. Toward the front of the right side of the desk is an assortment of odds and ends: a set of headphones from an American Airlines flight; a Charles Schwab trade confirmation envelope; a pewter-look pencil box (filled with a colorful mix of highlighters, pens, pencils, etc.) with a relief of a unicorn on the front; a clear plastic frame which was intended to have a "we accept Visa and MasterCard" sticker affixed to it but which, instead, has a twenty-year-old photo of my wife affixed to it. Other odds & ends include a large red mouse pad, a black & silver mouse, a black-colored power drill gauge, an IKEA catalog, a cell phone, a thick, well-worn brown leather wallet, and a tall white coffee cup (recently refilled with dark, French roast coffee) imprinted with a sketch of the Gordon House, which is located on the grounds of the Oregon Garden.

Scattered among the books and papers and photos and knick-nacks on the desk are post-it notes scribbled with stock symbols and passwords and reminders to take shirts to the laundry and buy a gallon can of pickled jalapeños.

Earlier, the computer screen showed the website of KOBTV Channel 4 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which offered news of a sheriff deputy's murder by a person believed to be a paroled inmate and which explained that Republicans were using the situation to criticize the Democratic Governor of the State.

Before that, the screen showed an information-poor website of a public television station in Gary, Indiana, WYIN-TV Channel 56.

There were many news source websites before that. But, there wasn't much news...at least not much news that was really relevant. Mostly, the news sources struggled to present anything relevant...and from my point of view, most of them failed. There are days like that.

My wife is at the office again on this Saturday morning, working to try to catch up on the increasing financial management workload that comes with large client meetings. I should be there to help, but she would rather have help from the woman who helps her regularly, and so she does. There are probably two or three others up at the office today...I may be one of them, but not now, not yet. I need my Saturday mornings to decompress.