What do we want, what do we need?

I just bought a fake diamond solitaire ring at the local flea market for $1.00. I always wanted a diamond ring but never got one. I wore this new ring to a party this past Sunday thinking all the women would notice, comment and then I'd say, with great pride, "I paid $1.00 for it at the flea market" and impress everyone. No one noticed it even though I noticed how much mine looked exactly like theirs.

I saw this photo today amoungst all my others and thought about my ring experience. Hidden there amoung all the choices of clocks is probably THE PERFECT clock...the ONE clock I'd buy for some reason. But why is it THE clock? Just because it lets me be seen as special...to be seen as a diamond. Why can't I see the diamond that I am?

Oliver

Oliver, wild at times, almost ferrel, watches for a moment to enter the cat door of the recording studio on Lookout Farm in the Catskills. A look in his eyes and I see myself: afraid to trust people, almost desperate to connect, ridgid by past experiences. I love animals.

Oliver bit me and drew blood. I worried he had rabies because he died soon after.

His bite was a gift: Don't always assume others want your love and attention or even that they need you. I'm so self-centered to think I'm needed and myself always comes back to bite me!