Things unfolded quickly when nearly at the last minute my daughter was able to clear some things over in San Diego and head over to Phoenix to join us for our unorthodox version of Christmas. In light of not having a tree, I plucked these leaves from a nearby desert plant but couldn’t find lights or ornaments that were small enough to decorate them so this will have to do, plus it minimizes what gifts will fit underneath it. Not that gifts matter as there’ll be none of that exchange thing happening here.

By the way, if you are looking for some heartwarming story about family traditions, you should heed this warning and leave right now because this is not one of those. While over the course of these three and a half days, Caroline, Jessica, and I will have a most amazing journey into a surreal escape from everything that typically signifies this time of year, for a reader tomorrow’s entry could touch on things uncomfortable, disturbing even. Seriously, ignore these posts and come back after the 26th.

As of this evening, you are still safe to continue reading as what lies ahead is mundane. After the obligatory greetings, hugs, and small talk I got into the kitchen bringing Jessica along with me to show her how I prepare Sundubu Jjigae a.k.a., kimchi-and-tofu stew. Come to think about it, this Korean dish is red and white just like Santa Claus making this quite the festive, even celebratory, pre-Christmas dinner.

Just before dinner, we three decided that it might be interesting to see a movie this evening. It turns out that my daughter hasn’t been in a theater since before the pandemic, so since dinner comes first and then Caroline and I need to get some more walking in, we buy tickets for a 9:30 showing and head into our neighborhood.

Not only are we getting in those much-needed steps but also taking a route that showcases the skills of neighbors who made the extra effort with their Christmas decoration prowess. First up was a tree standing at least 30 feet tall and strung full of lights. We had found out the other day that a $400-a-day cherry picker was rented for this Herculean task. Further down the street was the most interesting blow-up yard decoration we enjoy, arriving in the form of a Santa opening the door to the outhouse from the inside and waving at us. Yep, even Mr. Claus has to take a leak between commanding all those reindeer from chimney to chimney.

With 9:15 approaching we were ready to trundle off to the movies because the showing of The Matrix Resurrections would be starting soon. In addition to actively avoiding Christmas music, we are also trying to keep clear of the 20 minutes of ads and trailers before the movie starts, one of the joys of reserved seating!

How was the new Matrix? Like so many movies these days, you have to bury 15 minutes of messaging into two hours of car chases, explosions, gunfights, humans flying, narrow escapes, and other action escapades that will satisfy the game players while the few real nerds who come for something bigger than that have to wait for deeper things. In this iteration of the franchise, we are challenged with the idea that we cannot differentiate between reality and entertainment because we are blind and deaf to our own enslavement to the endorphins we need to have pumped into our vacuous meaninglessness. But, should we choose by some freakish chance not to merely exist behind the facade of perceived reality, we will be confronted with the uncertainty of knowing who we are. Finally, if we’ve learned to love ourselves through the encouragement of others who help convince us that we are worth loving, we might come to understand that we have an abundance of love to give to others which will propel them too into being the greatest person they are capable of. So, wherein the previous iterations of the Matrix our hero Neo was becoming “The One,” this episode sees the woman he loves finding her full potential and together the two become The One…

…but the trick of perspective is a joke played on the audience. Trinity and Neo confront the Analyst in his San Francisco home claiming victory which offers the viewer the idea that love has conquered all and evil was put in its place, they thank the Analyst for giving them another “shot” and they fly off into the sunset, the standard well-worn trope of American romantic cinema. What may not be explicitly understood by the audience is that these characters are “in” the Matrix as their game-playing identities and are not dealing with code in reality or working to dismantle the alien possessor. After we saw the film we learned that there was an end credits scene where the game marketing people are still talking about how to bring the Matrix back talking about a concept featuring felines for a parody called “The Catrix” Those who’ve seen this thought the clip was an insult as it didn’t feature allusions to future episodes or supply hope for the next installment. What they missed is the idea that they themselves got caught up with the idea that these two game characters have “won” something and are freed of their shackles of living in a simulation but are in fact, still existing in a simulation except now they are digital heroes that the viewer can believe were real in the first place.

To be explicit, yes I liked the movie while the cinematic fireworks were absolutely unnecessary for this viewer. It was 12:30 before we left the theater and it was 2:00 in the morning before we fell to sleep. No matter, as we can depart for New Mexico in the morning whenever we want to. Tomorrow things will start to be imbued with the surrealism I mentioned above. Again, as I don’t know how explicit I might go with the reasons things skidded into absurdity, just don’t read the next few days of entries though you are certainly invited to enjoy the amazing photos that will be shared.

You never know what will come into your life if you don’t follow your instinct to reach out and so it was that today I found a valid moment of being thankful on Thanksgiving. My conversation started with Theo who stands in the middle in this photo. Theo entered my attention due to the word “KNOWLEDGE” emblazoned across the back of his t-shirt. He was here at this mostly empty Starbucks on a major holiday that invites people to enjoy a day of nesting with family, yet instead came here alone. After 5 minutes of dithering whether I should intrude, I did just that and asked if he was an artist. He laughed, “No, but the friend I’m meeting here any moment is; he’s a writer.”

Theo and I continued chatting as we spoke about him coming from Burundi, my time in Europe, and being thankful every day for the incredible luxury we are afforded by living in America. Then the friend he’s waiting for walks through the door and joins him ,and I’m introduced to Pacifique (pictured on the right) who also hailed from Burundi. For close to a half-hour we talked about the importance of every day being worthy of a holiday and of friendship that should mean something more than simply social media contacts.

Getting to Pacifique being a writer, I’d already learned that he would have a book coming out but the few details I knew I had been told by Theo prior to his friend’s arrival so it was time to ask Pacifique to share more about it. The book’s title is The Tears of a Man Flow Inward, and it is due to release next March. “Is it available on Amazon as a pre-order yet?” Yes, was his answer and so without learning more I grabbed my notebook and did a quick search for The Tears of a Man Flow Inward: Growing Up in the Civil War in Burundi by Pacifique Irankunda due for release on March 15, 2022. I was immediately struck by the serious tone of the part of the title Pacifique hadn’t mentioned and, without a second thought, I ordered it but was seized by the potential for it to be an emotional storytelling.

Then, just as I thought our ways were about to part, Pacifique joined me at my table asking me a few questions regarding my own path in life before he and Theo needed to head out. To say this was one of the best Thanksgiving’s ever would diminish that Caroline and I have shared thousands of Thanksgiving’s experiencing the flow of life, but this one certainly joins the ranks of the memorable.

Shopping for food here in Arizona is both a luxury and a chore. In order for me to collect the essentials for Caroline and my diet, I have more than a dozen locations I visit to find my desired ingredients. At the moment, I’m fasting which should be an indicator to my lizard brain to NOT visit anywhere that serves or sells food of any kind, but it’s inevitable that towards the end of food deprivation I go a bit nuts. The photo above represents a few things from nearly half-a-dozen shops I’ve patronized in the past 24 hours.

On the left is a loaf of German coarse rye bread from Heidelberg Bakery, the yellow container of Goldsaft sugarbeet syrup is from the same place. The ginger required me to visit three Asian stores as one had ginger that was drying out, the other had this rhizome that had experienced freezing which made it slimy, and then finally at H-Mart Korean grocery, I was able to nab the 11 pounds I require for a Burmese salad ingredient I need to replenish. While at H-Mart I also picked up silky tofu we use in the Korean dish Sundubu Jigae I’ve mentioned here before. The pomegranate and cashews are from Costco. There’s a bag of Khatta Meetha and a jar of Gujarati Methia Mango Pickle, both of Indian origins that Caroline and I bought at Turmeric Indian Cash & Carry. Below the pickle is a Chinese Szechuan Pepper Pickle we purchased at Lee Lee’s Asian Grocery where the Mae Ploy Panang Curry Paste was also found. The black currant compote from Poland was also found at Lee Lee’s but typically we’ll fetch that kind of stuff from somewhere like our nearby Balkan Bakery or another Eastern European grocer. Finally, the Rhubarb soda is definitely not from America and had to be ordered through Amazon like so many other things including our favorite Italian vinegar, bulk Himalayan salt, peppercorns from the four corners of the earth, two-year aged soy sauce, and various bulk and ethnic items.

But we’re not done. Not only did I buy other stuff at all those stores while I was out shopping, part of our repertoire includes stops at Whole Foods, a Carniceria around the corner, Food City (another Mexican-centric store), Mekong (Vietnamese-centric), and Nelson’s Fish Market, along with some of the traditional American grocery stores. Other online sources include Mangalitsa Estates for their pork (just look up Mangalitsa pig to see them), a place called Walleye Direct where we buy frozen walleye and perch, two different California growers from whom we buy bulk almonds and walnuts, Honey Pacifica because only eucalyptus honey will do, and Alma Gourmet when you’ve just got to have authentic Guanciale (pork jowl) from Italy.

This list is hardly definitive but is merely an example of some of the sources we are able to utilize. It is also meant to be a reminder to myself how fortunate Caroline and I are to be willing to take advantage of the food diversity we have access to. Certainly, a fair amount of time has to be invested in learning about the ingredients we have grown fond of or have an interest in while the time to collect these foodstuffs must be taken into account, but the luxury of sampling the breadth of earth’s many cultural offerings is never lost on us. While certain items can be pricey such as the two-year-old soy sauce, vinegar, Mangalitsa, and various German foods, the secret of it all is that Asian, Indian, and Hispanic stores have incredible bargains due to the way their commodities are bought, i.e., bulk as nobody only buys a pound of rice, an ounce of turmeric, or canned beans when dry beans in a 20-pound bag are so cheap.

There’s another reason for this post and that is the sense of disappointment we encounter when shopping in the various ethnic grocery’s around the Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe area. You see, we often notice that we are but a couple of a small handful of white customers. Many of the other white customers are with spouses of various ethnicities so that’s their way in. The black people we see shopping in these shops are often Guyanese, Jamaican, or African and are well accustomed to buying whole fish, goat, various organ meats, and bulk spices that help flavor the world’s foods beyond salt and pepper. The problem is that the dominant cultures are not present which means they are stuck in their tiny patterns of eating what they know and not supporting these stores that offer us culinary luxuries from around the world that we can try in our own homes.