Look

"Tolerate the spasmodic, the obscure, the fragmentary, the failure."

-Virginia Woolf

It is difficult. Someone told me that "look" was a weak word. I said, You look because you are looking. You are not staring. You are not searching. But looking. That is what you are doing so that is what I am going to say because it is the most truthful of words for your action. This someone had nothing to say. This someone was at the grocery store. This someone said that maybe I should "talk" to someone. This someone said "talk" like it was a strong word, like it really meant something more than "talking."

This is what happened. Exactly.

Yesterday, I purchased an accordion. Today, I took pictures of the accordion. The accordion on my bed. The accordion on the living room floor. The accordion with the dogs. The accordion at the kitchen table, with it's gleaming keys and closed bellows. The accordion in the hallway. The accordion in the bathroom. And I took this film and I got it developed in one hour.

That one hour was the longest hour of my life outside of prison! By far! I ate french fries with shaking hands. I drank sweet tea that was much sweeter than it needed to be, imho.

When I got the pictures back, I went home and looked at them. I spread them out on the counter. I chose the very best one. The one of the accordion in an olive green armchair (came with the apartment). I cut this picture so that it fit into my wallet.

Afterwards, I went to the grocery store to buy heavy whipping cream to make an Accordion Butter! and in the checkout line, I said to the someone behind me, Look. I opened my wallet and this someone looked at the accordion in the olive green armchair. This someone said nothing about the accordion. This someone said, "You know, look is a weak word." That is what this someone said.

I flipped my wallet shut, but I should have flipped them off!