ready?

Quick.  It's a test.  Are the stairs going up or down?

They're from the water tower on Alcatraz.  What does it say about our lives that we all sort of stood, looking at the miniscule prison cell with only a sink, bed and toilet and didn't think it seemed half bad?  Is it that grotesque, our over consumption?  My ten year old wondered how one might arrange those living conditions these days, without armed guards and violent roommates.  I told her she could be a hermit.  That's it, she said.  A hermit who occasionally sings in bars and acts in the theatre.  On the other hand, my seven year old wants to live in a camper in the parking lot of Costco, where he'll also work because they make a lot of money, that Costco.

Full or empty, big or small, dream or nightmare, up or down--it's all about perspective, isn't it?