Last day of Tai's visit this year

We finished off with travels around town, looking for perspective. How big is this city? How high are the hills? I got lost, as I often do. My son says I should have a GPS but I enjoy the adventure of being lost, discovering the unexpected, so long as I'm not in a hurry. Tai's like that too. So we got lost in the car but mostly wandered around on foot, pinching off blossoms of winter daphne and witch hazel. I took some pictures of her this morning and sent them to her partner, who found this one and another "the best photos I've seen of Tai since I've known her!!!" Three exclamation points. So clearly I had to blip it. I think it shows her laughing ease, her pleasure in the moment and this city.

I told her I wanted to blip her tonight and asked her what she'd like me to say to the world, on her behalf. She went up to her room and brought down a poem she loves.

Acceptance Speech
by Lynn Powell

The radio's replaying last night's winners
and the gratitude of the glamorous,
everyone thanking everybody for making everything
so possible, until I want to shush
the faucet, dry my hands, join in right here
at the cluttered podium of the sink, and thank

my mother for teaching me the true meaning of okra,
my children for putting back the growl in hunger,
my husband, primo uomo of dinner, for not
begrudging me this starring role--

without all of them, I know this soup
would not be here tonight.

And let me just add that I could not
have made it without the marrow bone, that blood-
brother to the broth, and the tomatoes
who opened up their hearts, and the self-effacing limas,
the blonde sorority of corn, the cayenne
and oregano who dashed in
in the nick of time.

Special thanks, as always, to the salt
you know who you are--and to the knife,
who revealed the ripe beneath the rind,
the clean truth underneath the dirty peel.

--I hope I've not forgotten anyone--
oh, yes, to the celery and the parsnip,
those bit players only there to swell the scene,
let me just say: sometimes I know exactly how you feel.

But not tonight, not when it's all
coming to something and the heat is on and
I'm basking in another round
of blue applause.


Tai adds, "I want to thank Kendall for this lovely journey through her beautiful city." Tomorrow she resumes the rest of her life, as I suppose we all do.