Prima Materia

Like many adults I am unsettled by clowns.

So it took me a few moments to appreciate this picture by local photographer Jason Geil. The motionless child in the background certainly doesn't help. But the lad in question turns out to be the sleeping son of a performer - who in the foreground is applying his colorful face paint before the show. The job of a rodeo clown must demand a peculiar mix of cowboy bravado, foolishness, and affection for angry wild animals. It's pretty hard to run in floppy shoes.

Watching your dad chase bulls while he wears make-up is either incredibly healthy or a Jungian nightmare. I can't rightly decide.

Speaking of Jung, there are news reports of a lion loose in the woods near the Ronald Reagan presidential library. Again I am not sure what it means, but it seems like a durable metaphor waiting to happen for any playwrights, painters, or poets in search of material.