Shakespeare at the Lotus

Last night I went out to the Blue Lotus - our new stain-glassed, coffee oasis in the heart of the city - to do a little grading for Pop Culture and hear "A Beginner's Guide to Shakespeare." It was written by a Scandanavian professor and preformed by a bunch of college students in Dutch. But someone behind me was translating it to his friend in the national language. And afterwards people were talking about it in the local language.

Best of all, even as I was reading about the evils of McDonald's and how ipods make forget cultural traditions, I was able to follow most of it.

I love cultural diversity.

Things I thankfully don't have

Rather than being thankful for what I have, I've been spending some time realizing that there are plenty of things that I am glad I don't have. It's odd but I am not the least bit deprived for not having:

Central anything

Hot water heater

Clothes dryer

Surround-sound or Hi-definition

Glass on our upstairs windows (only screens)

Microwave oven

Hard to pronounce tropical disease

Snow shovel

Carpet

Lawn Mower

Blackberry or iphone

I have too much stuff already. My bookshelves are full. I own DVDs I haven't watched. My television set is on too often.