Asakiyume mita

many Tims
The other day I saw the two neighbor girls onto the bus as both parents had to leave the house very early. I went over at 7:15, and they were still in their bedroom playing an imaginary game together. They are nine and eleven years old (or maybe eight and eleven; not sure), and it was the most charming thing to hear them talking and dramatizing together so happily.

"There's many Tims; what do you expect?!" --that was the one line I wrote down from their game.

And they were so good about getting themselves organized and out the door on time. Their parents should be proud.

favorite word
The ninja girl tells me that one thing her students in Japan like to ask her is what her favorite Japanese word is. By this they don't actually mean just any old random-ass word; they're really meaning more like favorite concept, but they ask in terms of favorite word. She said she usually turns the question back to them and asks them what their favorites are, and it's interesting to hear what they say: they are concepts that are very approved of, admired, promoted, etc., like 一所懸命 (isshokenmei: all one's might/effort) or 思いやり (omoiyari: considerateness, attentiveness, thoughtfulness). You couldn't ask the question "what's your favorite word?" in English to get answers like this; you'd have to make it "What's your favorite virtue?" or something.

Tower of Babel
And that got me thinking how we can understand the story of the tower of Babel as a blessing that God gave people rather than a punishment. When everyone was working together on the tower of Babel--and incidentally, all speaking the same language--they were single minded. One language, one idea. But when the tower was broken and they all found themselves speaking different languages, suddenly they were multi-minded. Many languages, many ideas. Many ways of expressing how it is to be human. And, when we learn each other's languages in a world of many languages, we're expending effort to understand each other--not just "see through another's eyes" but "borrow another's tongue." If we all spoke the same language, we'd lack that diversity and that opportunity to make an effort to understand one another.

One of my little neighbors drew these amazing characters.



Don't they look like they should have a TV show? That they should be out solving mysteries or outwitting villains or recovering stolen treasure or exploring the cosmos?

I love the attention to individual detail. The pink one's hair has two shades of pink, and she has a unicorn horn:



The red one has a ladybug vibe--tiny and wise and helpful:



The purple one has pink AND purple hair and an asymmetrical pattern on her dress



And I feel like the rainbow one might be the leader? She has the longest hair, and as we all know, that correlates to leadership capability ;-)



I wonder if my neighbor tells stories about them.

Last week, both with my high school tutees and with my students at the jail, I asked them to pick one of four pictures from Humans of New York to write about. The assignment was to tell me about the person in the photo, then to ask that person some questions, and then, in that person's voice, to answer the questions.



I got two deeply contrasting stories about this man from my students at the jail. One saw him as an "intelligent graduate, following his big New York dream ... which is to play in the Apollo" to become a musician--but with a safety job as a lawyer. The other--an older woman, who's been homeless herself--saw him as homeless. The questions she wanted to ask him were very practical: would you like a home-cooked meal; would you like a hot shower and a place to sleep; can I give you ten dollars "for something positive not negative."

Her answers almost undid me. She imagined him saying [paraphrasing], yes, I would love a home-cooked meal, as long as you let me do the dishes; yes I would love a hot shower, but only if you let me clean up after myself; a place to sleep on a couch or the floor would be great, and any amount of money would be appreciated. She finished with "I just wanted to thank you for being kind and offering all that to me."

It IS ANCILLARY JUSTICE FAN TEA, YO.





I am drinking the Justice Blend. I don't have gloves on, though. If only it were a humid, sweaty day, I could pretend I was on Shis'urna, but in fact it's a cool and delightful day. Who am I?

When you played games set in story worlds, did you mainly pretend to be a character from the story, or did you create an OC and interact with the characters? I think I mainly did the latter, but sometimes the former.

THOSE OF YOU WHO'VE READ ANCILLARY JUSTICE, if you were to play an imaginary game set in the world of Ancillary Justice--not write a fanfic, mind, but play a game--which character would you be, or would you be an OC?

And a question for you, ann_leckie, if you happen by: which of your characters enjoys Justice blend the most, do you think?