2001-09-27 - 3:52 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: "The Lonely Goatherd" from "The Sound of Music". Odl lay eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

So, I have been shopping and cleaning all week preparing for the in-laws' visit, and happily busy at work besides. This is gonna be choppy and short, I think.

My elbow scrape is making me insane. It's super-sensitive -- I can feel the air flowing past it when I walk around and it's irritating. Argh.

On the positive side, I've been thinking a lot lately about the human body's ability to heal itself. Seeing as how I keep injuring my own.

Think about it. I go out there, fall off my bike, and rip off a section of skin. Bunches of blood vessels are torn, the skin's missing, etc. Then all these little bits in my body go to work, sealing off blood vessels, creating new skin, making it all nice and pretty and whole again. Not to mention all those white blood cells dying valiantly to save me from infection.

It sounds like something from science fiction! Like the Terminator!

No matter where this comes from -- whether it was created by a supreme Being, evolved, or is some alien's science project, it's nothing short of amazing.

So the other day I was in the grocery store behind a Muslim woman about my age, with her daughter. The daughter looked to be about a year old. I was waving at her and grinning, but the little girl was tired and wasn't into it. She alternated between staring balefully at me and hiding her face on her mom's shoulder.

She was wearing a very pretty dress, made of white fabric with gold streaks in it, and I mentioned to the mom how pretty it was. She said she made it herself. I was impressed, and told her so. I said that my mother used to make clothes for me when I was little but that I hadn't inherited any of her talents.

I feel very self-conscious when I'm talking to a Muslim woman. I always wonder what she thinks of me, standing there in my short sleeves and knee-length skirt, head bare. Does she think I'm a tramp? Do I make her uncomfortable? Maybe so, but it doesn't mean she won't talk to me. She was really nice.

Y'know, I've been thinking about the reaction I'm getting to those two articles I posted in my LiveJournal about Americans supporting Afghan-Americans and Muslims in general. People seem to be very pleased, but also surprised.

Frankly, I wasn't. This is what America is like. I have no doubt there are racists scattered all over -- I encounter one from time to time -- but in between are a lot of good people who are doing the best they can.

I knew this kind of thing was going on, but that it wasn't getting any press up 'til now. After all, it's a lot more exciting to quote some rabid idiot or report a death or beating than it is to say "Well, a great many Americans are either going about their business or making an effort to reach out to people who might be discriminated against during this difficult time."

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