Who's Working Now

At night, the artist paints.

In day, the singer sings.

At morning the smoker smokes in her robe. Sunlight etches her clearly against the rubble of her cluttered back porch.

The same old man walks his tiny dog. He smokes. "Yuck," says my daughter, as we walk past.

My oldest son stopped by for a visit; walking back from the coffee shop, we speculated about what the real unemployment rate is in California's cities. The state claims 9.3% are out of work, but that's only people who've lost jobs that qualify for unemployment benefits -- perhaps covering most of the jobless but certainly not all.

We came up with an estimate that the actual percentage of unemployed is about 14-15%.

There are other problems that the numbers don't capture. Some workers have been cut back to half-time. They consider themselves lucky, given the environment, for having any income at all.

Meanwhile, the song-writer composes, the new Mom walks her baby, the drug dealers are in hiding after a recent raid. A young athlete, with an injured foot, decides to suck it up and get himself into the playoff game tonight.

The blogger stares at an empty screen, marveling at the times when he thought he any say at all over any of the things around him.

Because it is dreadfully clear now that he didn't, and he never will. All he has are words -- or not -- depending on the moment.

-30-