View From the Hammock brought to you by Purple Frog

“We are so b-o-o-o-o-red! The food is disgusting! The smell is horrific!” I didn’t blame our Russian teenagers for their desire to get out of the old American church building. They were having a severe case of cabin fever. They came to see America. Their money burned their fingers. Shopping was the most desirable activity on their to-do list. The local bank employees called me one morning from the bank, “Lydia, are those girls yours?” “What girls?” “I am afraid that those girls on the corner are Russians. We first thought they were local prostitutes that we see on our corner every day, until we saw that those girls were way too young to make money on the corner. We do not want to upset you, but this corner has a dark reputation. We do not want your girls to get hurt.”  I ran outside and I saw my Russian teenage girls from the Summer Camp standing on the corner of 10th and Central, in the heart of downtown Kansas City, Kansas. There they were in their t

“Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life - well, valuable, but small - and sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. From the movie “You’ve Got Mail”