Po jakiemu - po chińsku?

The Polish princess is a little tired this morning, having spent the night on the podwoga by the ognisko listening to one fantastic piosenka after another na KZE. (All night long, baby - whooo!) But before that she passed the time perusing her rozmaite writings saved to Słowo. She likes this one, but isn't kompletnie pewna she wrote it. So if years later she's accused of lifting text wholesale from others - well, she's fessing up i przeprasza right now. After yesterday's debacle involving drinking glass of woda left on hood of auto that shattered (oh f***) into kawałeczki when she picked up speed on 25B, go ahead - call the memoir A Million Little Pieces.

On the other hand, może napisała. In which case, never mind.

Całuję Cię mocno, darling. You must tell me the Russian for floor sometime.

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Good Advice

To be quite frank and not only that but possibly boring and repetitive as well, the way you get through the year is you do it one day at a time. One day at a time you get up in the morning and one day at a time you go to bed at night. If you are a person of faith you call on that faith every day. Every day, if there's a prayer that you know, you say it. If your doctor says you're depressed, every day you take your medicine. Every day, if there's a posture that you assume, you assume it. Every day you write the book. Every day you notice the minute shifting of light as the earth quietly surrounds the sun. Every day you take note of the precise quality of the miracle of life. Every day you write down your check numbers. Every day you count your change before leaving the counter. Every day you press the button for your floor.

And never do you let the coming year rise up like a monstrous wave and crush you with unimaginable tedium. Never do you let the dread sink in until you feel cold and dead inside; if you find yourself staring into the abyss you switch seats and think of ice cream.

Aside from that, the interesting thing to me is that you are willing to admit that you have no commanding passion -- you don't dream of being on Broadway or becoming president of a cosmetics company; you're not outraged about global warming or the state of coastal wetlands. Not that that's so unusual -- on the contrary, I just think you're refreshingly honest. It's so nice to meet someone who isn't faking it. What a crushing burden it is to be required to have a calling. I mean it's nice to think that there is a plan for each of us and each of us matters and each of us is unique, which is what we're told, but what's wrong with living a simple, dignified life, doing what we do, one day at a time, appreciating the good things and accepting the bad? Isn't that enough? Moreover, isn't it your choice alone whether it's enough or not? Why does it even have to be enough?

You're fine. You're refreshingly honest. I salute you. Enough with the dreams already. We're already suffocating in everyone else's destiny. We're up to here in other people's dreams. I say more power to you. Take it one day at a time. Pay attention to the small things. The time will pass more quickly than you know.

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[Editor's note: Indeed I did not write the wonderful quoted piece above, as I have since verified with a little digging... link to the source is here.]