These are the flowers and the flowering weeds from my garden. The garden knows nothing of the Home Depot or the mall and vice versa. The soil and the mountains and the strip malls exist on opposite poles of the suburban experience and I travel between them as a kind of mediator or Ambassador. If one side didn't exist would I appreciate the other less? Depending on my state of mind, I can feel like I'm in almost the exact right place or else hopelessly lost. The worlds we create reflect us no matter what we think or how much we focus on our limited choices. Whether things seem bleak or I'm feeling content, occasionally I must close ranks around myself and build a kind of fort made of the things I treasure most — in my case books and pens and coffee beans and plants. Furnished with music and wallpapered by photos and moving images. Thus fortified I then feel I can encounter the world on its terms and speak the language of other people. Of society.