Here comes my Polish thing again...

Today is a day of note in Poland. On June 1st, the country celebrates children. Oh, they say it's become too commercialized. I don't even know what that means, given that kids in general like to celebrate with things, prefereably acquired, preferably by them, preferably in huge amounts.

I understand that indulging greed is not the way to go to raise happy healthy people and I know it has not always been all about bribing a kid to be good by offering up a storm of gifts on this one June day. When I was a kid, I thought that all those ice cream cones freely handed out to kids on June first had more to do with a Lenin mentality (we learned young): you know, him saying "give me one generation of youth and I will transform the entire world" or words to that effect. I thought by dousing us with sugared treats, the country was saying -- hey, we want YOU to return the favor one day. [I wasn't really as cynical as that sounds. I just believed that Lenin was everywhere, much like some people believe that a divine spirit is everywhere.]

I'm straying here. I actually just want to say "happy children's day" and to throw out a few photos of Polish children, taken quickly, randomly as I jumped and skipped from one place to another in the last several weeks.

wanting to get to his juice, in Lazienki Park, Warsaw 

before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Warsaw; "fix your hair for the photo!" the teacher shouted -- and they listened. 

secrets 

in a mountain village, near Zakopane 

summer reading

I am well aware of the fact that Ocean has once again crossed over into light and airy land. Consider this: I was in Paris on the day of the French EU Constitution vote. I could have staked out polling places, interviewed people on the street, written a brief summary of why the left and the right fought hard to say Non! to the hefty tome that showed up in everyone’s mailbox just before the vote.

I did not of that. I wrote about parts of lobster swimming in some undefined yet lovely sauce.

Similarly, today, as I sat for hours at the dentist’s and listened to his analysis of the revelation made by Deep Throat (there is something quaint about your dentist talking about deep throat while poking inside your mouth), I thought – why didn’t I take on this interesting piece of political gossip on the blog? Why, instead, do I want to let the world know that my dentist eats cheerios for breakfast and cannot resist two cookies after every dinner?

It’s when my days become more serious that the blog becomes less so. And these days are all about serious. I predict a summer of light Ocean reading. For more serious blogs, check out just about any on the sidebar. They’ll deliver, even as I ponder about what would happen if I actually stopped reading the newspaper entirely and based my entire worldview on what the dentist tells me during my occasional visits to his office. He voted for Kerry, after all. I could do worse.