Melons, People.
Fires, drought, fascism and watermelon.
It’s the little things. Melon. I’ve been doing a sugar detox that I can’t seem to stop because l like to feel starvy. It allows me to eat watermelon which I would’ve eaten anyway. Summer is driven by watermelon. I eat a lot of it.
Finding mental space between the fires, the drought and the fascism occupies the macro expanse of my fears and mind. The melon is the journey. The pursuit of melon. It's sometimes obsessive. It grounds me. That, along with a few other fleeting obsessions, keeps me occupied and in pursuit of relief.
It’s sort of weird and annoying how hung up I can get on choosing the right watermelon. I listen to it. I knock on it. When I believe the tone is correct I take it. I’m right 8 out of 10 times. When I’m not right, I get kind of mad. The impulse is to make do, eat whatever I get anyway. Then I just get madder with every piece I eat until I have to correct the problem. I angrily throw out the subpar melon and head back to find a perfect one. Unlike most things in life or life itself, a perfect melon is attainable.
I can’t change the world or the escalating end of it but I can probably get an amazing watermelon.
The last watermelon fury sent me to the store. I found one, with seeds. They didn’t have the seedless. I had forgotten my wallet so I just took the melon and ran. I felt guilty. I was going to go back and pay for it. Then I realized I should go see if I could find another one at another store. A seedless one. I did. I bought it. Then I took the first melon, the hot one, back to the store and returned it to the melon crate. Then I went home, cut the new melon. It was good. Then I felt bad for the stolen melon. We had been through some shit. So, I went back to the first store and bought them. It prefers them. The hot melon.
Now I have two melons and I didn’t think about the dying of our species during the entire undertaking and I did a live IG to capture it. If I could get hold of the security footage from the supermarket I’d have a feature length doc about doing the right thing after committing a crime.
Today I have a nice long talk with Jerry Harrison who was in two of the greatest bands ever, Talking Heads and The Modern Lovers. Thursday, I talk to comic Zainab Johnson about growing up Muslim in a huge family, being a math teacher, overcoming a life-altering accident and becoming a comic. Great talks.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
The Pursuit of Melon.
