My understanding

Take everything in this world that I understand and put it in a pile.

Then take everything in this world that I don’t understand and put it in a different pile, all its own.

In the first pile – the one with the things I understand – you’ve got about three things:

• The lyrics to Aesop Rock’s 2012 LP, Skelethon, certainly;
• The basic prayer and fasting rules for Islam, I think; and
• My brother’s wry sense of humor. 

The other pile – the one with the things I don’t understand – now, that one is taller. Dramatically so. Even prohibitively so, perhaps. Nearly everything is in there. It is a mountain. Teetering.

This Saturday, there is to be a protest. That has been decided. The protest is of a library. The library contains books on Islam.

They call themselves Heart of Texas – the protesters, I mean – and they are a group that fights for Texas secession from America. This is their whole mission and purpose, in fact.

They want to leave America.

I don’t want to leave America, but I went to their facebook page and the people there told me I should:

What does it mean when people who want to leave America tell me that I should leave America?

Is it an insult or a statement of camaraderie?

You can add this to the pile of things that I don’t understand.