L'aura del Campo

Winter: 4 Sult�n (January 22)

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TREASURE OF THE DAY

What it psychopathy?
According to scientific statistics, 8% of the American population has psychopath traits. I was diagnosed with psychopathy in my early teens. I had problems at school and my teachers observed cruelty and coldness in my behavior towards other children. Put simply, what defines a psychopath is lack of empathy. We cannot feel what other people feel. When normal people watch another person being severely beaten, they feel sick. It is a psychological mechanism to protect the human species. For a psychopath it is different however. We are unaffected by violence, it just doesn’t disturb us at all. My pulse won’t race. Just as a colorblind person will never understand “green” or “red,” neither will I ever understand the feelings of normal people. This lack of empathy means that psychopaths have little motivation of not resorting to violence.

To read the whole article go to:

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This is extremely concise and direct writing. One of the best I have read at WDC. Chilling to the bone.

As an emotional person it helps me understand my interactions with those who have little or none. It reminds me of why I must hold on to my empathy when I find myself as angry as a heart attack.

It explains why certain personalities frighten me. Why at the job I should've been more aware of the snakes-in-the-grass pretending to be something else.

I would highly recommend this to everyone who has been abused or traumatized. Chances are, a physchopath was involved.

2006-01-22
vespers, 37 degrees. 39 in Jeannette, PA.

Spoke to Brendan. I should be worried. He sounded too out of it to care that the Steelers won. He will care tomorrow when he feels better.

When I called my mother, she immediately mentioned the football game. She's loved football since she could go to games at the end of 12th Street in Jeanette as a child. Autumn is her favorite time of year, she said. (I thought it was winter; knew it has never been summer.) She's looking forward to Seattle winning. She lived there from 1981-1995. She'll be as pleased as punch if it's a Seattle-Pittsburgh Superbowl. Which isn't bad for someone who is 83.

Spoke to my Aunt Dot in Fayetteville, NC. Asked her about blackberries. Will be asking my mother and cousins too. It seems that there are certain memories that family members share. I'll need to start an item to contain the interviews. Aunt Dot turns 77 on the 29th. She's quite spunky.

I've put my interviews in a file "Blackberry people" that I will make public when finished.

2006-01-22
late afternoon, 46 degrees. 42 in Pittsburgh with ice and rain approaching. 36 in Denver.

I get to call Brendan after the game. He wasn't feeling too well earlier. Right now, he probably ain't feeling no pain! Pittsburgh up 24-3 in the 3rd quarter in the GAME.

See what I mean about rhyming? Did that earlier when I sent an email to my friend Gastón (who is from La Paz, Bolivia).

A sketch written earlier today (silly is as silly does):

Cow and kangeroo

There's a cow in the woods
chomping shadowed grass, dew laden.
Nearby in the meadow pond
the herring gull rides ripples before the storm
reflected in the caiman's eyes.
A chicken flutters by; the rooster follows.
And I observe this all with grins
and without sense, sense within
that the wheel of the world has spinned.
Like roulette balls my number's up and you,
hitching a ride in the kangeroo,
must know it too. [162.731]

Went outside for 5 minutes and nearly froze. It was a damp bone cold like back east. Usually it's a dry cold here. Saw a 2 point goal in the field crumpets game (see below for link) but couldn't stay.

So Pittsburgh won 34-17. Warm and tropical in the forecast, regardless of the temp.

Caught the end of the Bell concert. They've started again. Every Sunday at 5 p.m. Thought I'd have to wait till March. Got to speak to Hitatsu; it was too cold for Hina, her papillon, to be there.

2006-01-22
early afternoon.
43 and sun burning off the mist in the valley.
48 en La Paz, Bolivia donde Evo Morales es el presidente nuevo.

Coming to the library today I spoke to the guys setting up a game of field crumpets. Field crumpets, you say? Gosh darn. Ye'll just have to go to http://www.fieldcrumpets.com to find out, now won't ya!

You know that you should take a break from writing when ...
... letters to your friends start coming out in rhythmic rhyme.

Got a response from my brother-in-law for the birthday poem I wrote him. He liked it.

OVERHEARD

"Oldtimer's disease." Is Pooley-with-the-greying-hair trying to tell me something?

SENSED

Along the alley: an abandoned black t-shirt; light blue socks; an oak leaf face to the ground; plastic cups; outdated flyers; Colt 45; blue Parliament box; a string of foil; grease barrel smell; light grey sky, a momentary beam of sun; the scritch-scratch of a window scraping; my journey almost over; dog dung.

At eye level I saw a grey-brown spider hanging by an invisible thread, climbing very slowly towards a ledge 20-30 feet above at the top of the Office Tower. (39 degrees)

Green moss on orange bricks (like dwarf trees on islands of stone).

On my way to the pink Pi Beta Phi bench: a dandelion in bloom and danger risking daffodils, up about an inch.