19 January 06
A Swearing-In
I went because I hadn’t been before. I went because she didn’t have anyone going with her. I went because I was curious. I went because of my ambivalence about my own American citizenship. I went to stand in line and stand in line again and watch Bureaucracy in Action.
What I saw was this: generations. I saw the generations of people, alive and present and dead and gone, who waited for this moment. My forebears (well, some of them). Numenius’ forebears. Generations from around the globe. Diversity is what makes us be our very best, said the judge swearing everyone in. It’s what Dr. King taught us.
The oath they swore is one I wouldn’t take: but my privilege is having been born here. So I needn’t worry about oaths. It was something, seeing 400 people suddenly becoming American, laboring through the difficult consonants. It was something, this evidence always around me, suddenly concentrated, of how this is a culture of immigrants.
We had lunch, I the English/American designer and she the Russian soil scientist, at an Afghan restaurant, representing a culture none of the three of ours has ever managed to subdue. It seemed like an appropriate thing to do.
Today, as I went to lunch at the Iranian restaurant just up the street, I saw the man we had been standing behind in line. He became a citizen yesterday also. I crossed the street to shake his hand, congratulate him. He looked like a French lefty from the 80s, which probably makes him a Bulgarian economist from the 00s. His name, he said, was David. He was very touched I had bothered…
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Hey, I have my priorities. And I can order a beer in Farsi, one of my several useless skills.
Along those lines: There’s a question rising on the native-plants listserv about whether there’s a “good bookstore” in Davis, that defined as one that’s likely to have several of the natives-hort books under discussion there. Old and new, including the yummy new one from Cachuma Press.
I like Bogey’s, always find something there, but what else ya got?
Jean: thanks.
Masha: congratulations, again. What a fun day.
Ron: the UCD bookstore is the only one in town likely to have this, though I don’t know about the Cachuma Press book… they have a large selection of botany and horticulture. Closed Sundays, don’t open till noon on Saturdays, schedule changes outside the Quarter.
Yes they make fesenjoon at Ali Baba but only on Fridays. And yes it’s chicken, which is how I ate it in Iran back in the 70s. My fave is a variant of gormeh sabzi which contains chicken. That’s the special on Thursdays.
It’s a hole in the wall, close to campus. The Afghan restaurant down the way, Kabul, is a better “restaurant.” I like them both but for different reasons!
So when are you coming up for the mountain plovers? Saw the ovenbird yesterday at lunch, now THAT is a cooperative bird…
After the Ham Event we’ll know more about the mountain plovers. Scheduling them, I mean. We’re not eating ham stuffed with mountain plovers. At least no one’s told me we are. Not a Tuesday, and decent weather, check. I’ll email when… Hey, maybe even this week?
BTW, I’m still all envious of the IBWoodpecker guy.