A Short Story - In One Sentence(ish) Each Day
Background:
The book, “This Year I Will…,” has helpful advice including a Japanese idea known as “kaigan” where you focus on taking one action each day to accomplish a goal. Want to write? Do one sentence(ish) each day. Cool. Go. Hope you will stop by tomorrow, too.
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Kaliyah is seven and lives in the cardboard box to the right. Her home since birth for brown people. Up the hillside is a mansion built inside walls that look like movie-star teeth but no celebrity lives there. You know this place, too, and it’s been this way since last year – 2024 – the year we finish The Wall.
She descends from the box alone onto the trash heap wearing no shirt, dingy shoes, and pink Power Rangers panties as the Amazon drones fly overhead delivering their packages from the mothership. They see her and scan the garbage for resalable items among the debris. They know her, too, and if you ask Alexa for results she will say, "Kaliyah means bright one, shining one, in African. Would you like to research Africa for more results?"
A woman inside the mansion ignores this result. She does not like knowing their names even though one flick with her delicate hand will provide by subscription the basic, personal, or condemning data from sources once known as the Dark Web. Some privacy is available to the highest bidders but most choose to opt-out by selecting "I Agree."
We are each the billions who cross The Wall rather than fight as military drones watch and whiz by solar-power billboards in full color advertising on both sides from Texas to California reminding us:
A project made possible from gracious funding by companies like you.
Alexa speaks again to the woman: "Amazon guarantee delivery time: 3:34:34 pm. Would you like to add Kaliyah to your order?"
So much easier to shop online than 10 years ago.
The book, “This Year I Will…,” has helpful advice including a Japanese idea known as “kaigan” where you focus on taking one action each day to accomplish a goal. Want to write? Do one sentence(ish) each day. Cool. Go. Hope you will stop by tomorrow, too.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kaliyah is seven and lives in the cardboard box to the right. Her home since birth for brown people. Up the hillside is a mansion built inside walls that look like movie-star teeth but no celebrity lives there. You know this place, too, and it’s been this way since last year – 2024 – the year we finish The Wall.
She descends from the box alone onto the trash heap wearing no shirt, dingy shoes, and pink Power Rangers panties as the Amazon drones fly overhead delivering their packages from the mothership. They see her and scan the garbage for resalable items among the debris. They know her, too, and if you ask Alexa for results she will say, "Kaliyah means bright one, shining one, in African. Would you like to research Africa for more results?"
A woman inside the mansion ignores this result. She does not like knowing their names even though one flick with her delicate hand will provide by subscription the basic, personal, or condemning data from sources once known as the Dark Web. Some privacy is available to the highest bidders but most choose to opt-out by selecting "I Agree."
We are each the billions who cross The Wall rather than fight as military drones watch and whiz by solar-power billboards in full color advertising on both sides from Texas to California reminding us:
A project made possible from gracious funding by companies like you.
Alexa speaks again to the woman: "Amazon guarantee delivery time: 3:34:34 pm. Would you like to add Kaliyah to your order?"
So much easier to shop online than 10 years ago.
