1. I finished Part II of Is a River Alive? and throughout this chapter on industrial impacts upon rivers in Chennai, Tami Nadu, India I thought again and again about the Coeur d'Alene River running through Kellogg and about the harsh impact upon waterways in Appalachia of Mountaintop Removal Mining.
Even more, I kept thinking about Harriet Potter, a sweet street dog whom Debbie's friend Hannah adopted when she lived in India. Hannah needed help with the process of transporting Harriet Potter from India to Portland, OR, and, without getting into the details of it all, I'll just say that Harriet Potter lived with us in Greenbelt, MD for a few days before I took her to Dulles where she flew off to Portland to reunite with Hannah and her other animals.
Why Harriet Potter? When I read, in Part II, Yuvan Aves' description of detritivores, those creatures like millipedes and dung beetles, who transform, in Yuvan Aves' words, "the shit of life into something valuable", and when I read how these creatures became a metaphor for Yuvan Aves for those who transform suffering and adversity into something positive, I couldn't stop thinking of Harriet Potter.
You see, Harriet Potter had a long scar down the surface of her spine, a scar from where someone poured hot oil on Harriet Porter. It's a burn scar.
For me, Harriet Potter came to embody the detritivore ethic. She turned that hot oil cruelty into sweetness, making her irresistible for Hannah to take her in after Harriet Potter gave birth to a litter of puppies in the hallway outside Hannah's apartment door. Harriet Potter wouldn't let Hannah turn her back into the street. She kept returning to Hannah and I'm going to say that Harriet Potter knew that Hannah was the right person for her and the sort of person who would find a home for each of Harriet Potter's new born puppies -- which Hannah did.
As I read Part II of Is a River Alive?, I realized that I didn't know the name of the city Hannah lived in, the place where Harriet Potter once roamed the streets.
I texted Debbie.
Holy Toldeo!
Hannah and Harriet Potter lived in Chennai.
So does Yuvan Aves. It is in Chennai where Yuvan Aves landed, having escaped as a teenager from the cruelty of the beatings and other forms of torture he suffered at the behest of the fists and weaponized objects of his stepfather.
Somehow Yuvan Aves turned cruelty into sweetness, as did Harriet Potter.
It feels mystical to me that I had such strong feelings about Harriet Potter as I read this chapter, only to learn just before finishing it that I was reading about the city of her birth, of her torture, and her rescue.
I was reading about one and remembering another resurrection: Yuvan Aves' and Harriet Potter's.
In Chennai.
2. I made a simple salad: rotini, a variety of vegetables, and pinto beans. In my bowl, I topped this salad with Trader Joe's Toasted Sesame Salad Dressing.
It's weird.
I got tired of lettuce salads and started experimenting with grains, beans, pasta, and who knows what else before news began to spread about the outbreak of cyclosporiasis.
Go figure.
3. Before I go to sleep at night, I read several pages of Josh Brolin's memoir. It's entitled From Under the Truck and if Josh Brolin wanted to show his readers that he has lived a rough and tumble life, he's succeeding!
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