San Juan and Beyond

Like Bed, Bath and Beyond but very, very different, though a bed was involved in our little trip to San Juan/Santurce. It was a little trip with a big trip wrapped inside, a surprise ball that unraveled spilling one little delight after another, even in the seriousness of the cause.

We laughed a lot, smiles in the midst of a cause that holds so much madness, Monsanto's tentacles spread like some horror movie creation, a painting that looks almost bucolic until, in true horror movie fashion, you see a twitch here, a serpentine wriggle there and realize the whole scene is actually a slowing rising monster.

Don't worry, everything is okay.

The townspeople, townspeople of the world, sleep unaware. Except the little boy and girl, best friends, who see it and start running about, trying to tell their parents, their friends, and finally strangers of the danger, the most dangerous danger. Instead of being alarmed, they are patted on the head; they're known for vivid imaginations. Then finally, an adult, usually the well traveled, rough but kindly stranger rides into town and having no deep seated town contentment wrapped in slumbering oblivion, believes the boy and girl and calls a town meeting, firing a few shots off instead of calling the mayor, who was one of many mayors (and governors and powers that be) who secretly invited the monster to town. Even and especially Puerto Rico town, where the monster was invited in many decades ago...

It's actually MUCH more than 1500 acres

The people, very very very slowly, after 100 years, start to pay attention, but only because there seems to be a few problems, maybe more than a few and maybe they can blame the monster. Maybe they should. The wells went dry because of the droughts, but wait! what is that in the well? It's big, it's moving, it's...connected to why the cows went dry (or, in the case of Monsanto, why the cows didn't go dry but instead produced an abundance of very dangerous milk, a flood of milk, waterfalls of milk, spilling across the land - you can read Monsanto's version and then the other side of the story - this link is from 1998, and not much has changed since). A few more listen but many don't. Especially the mayor, fat and happy and wearing his Monster Emperor's new clothes.


Oh well, it's just a story.

This was after we got back from lunch. It didn't seem like there were going to be many people, but like Topsy, it grew and grew and grew. I don't know the official count but maybe in the high hundreds plus, conservatively guessing (which I am not known for).

The fantasmagoric theater group Paper Machete came along with brilliant costumes

There were hipsters and socialists, communists and world order sorts (ok, one in particular, who looked quite mad and approached me 17 times to give me his literature) all getting along, all, ok, almost all, working for one cause, to rid Puerto Rico, the US and the world of Monsanto (and its ilk, but Monsanto is the biggest, why not start at the top?)

Lots of booing and hissing Coco Cola. The driver was laughing though - of all the streets in the world, I had to come on to this one.

All we are saying is give peas a chance

Lots of balcony hangers, either bewildered or giving encouragement

Bad seed

It drizzled a bit but only refreshingly, thankfully.

There's always mimes, right?

The police were a very benign presence, there was a good vibe all around.

This lady was dancing on her steps, clapping and smiling and singing

Natural isn't always the prettiest, but it won't kill you either.

There were lots of speeches going on, lots of tables with goodies for sale, but it was time to move on. But that is for tomorrow. One hint. It did involve a bar.

 Have a take time to talkaboutit Tuesday. Do something tactical.