She laughs

a little too hard.

She tries a little

too much.

She is supposed to be out

enjoying this thing.

But she can’t stop thinking

of him and how much she

wishes he were here,

instead of this guy,

who makes her laugh

a little too hard.

 Dreams

The stained glass

picture that is my dream,

shatters to thin, gossamer

shards as I as reach

up from sleep

grabbing at them, trying

to keep the picture in tack.

Too late, they dissolve,

sugar candy in my hands

and slip back into that shadow world

that is the nether

regions of my mind.

Bubbling just below the surface,

just out of reach

the images entice me,

tantalizingly close.

I turn to look and they

wash away,

chalk pictures in the rain.

PAPER HEART                                                                                                                              

I take out the paper,

red, pink and silver.

I lay out the best, small scissors and                                                           

freshest glue.

I carefully fold the colored paper

into two neat halves and slowly cut

the  paper heart.

And then another and another.

With the glue,

I place them together, delicately.

I create the perfect, beautiful

paper heart.

I hold this to you and you take it

and tear out a small hole

in the middle.

You hand it back to me

and smile – sweetly. 

I am left with a tear in the middle

of my beautiful, beautiful, heart.                      

They are old,

they are young,

they are middle.

They dress in all grey colors;

neither black nor white,

just faded shades of

everything.

They sit in the train station

and watch TV or sleep;

they don’t take the train.

The trains come and go

on every hour and  the half.

The people dump out in gabbling gobs then,

get sucked back in through

clanging metal doors.

The men sit and stare;

happy couples run and grab each other,

then say teary farewells.

Teens, in groups, walk arm in arm,

 chattering parakeets.

The men sit with stony expressions.

People drink coffee and eat ice cream.

The stores open and close,

the people go home.

The men sit;

they don’t take the train.

LINDA VALDEZ

Are Mexicans still spending millions of dollars a day in Arizona? We’ll soon find out

Opinion: Arizona leaves money on the table when it comes to tourism from Mexico – we just don’t know how much. A new study will fix that.

Linda Valdez

The Republic | azcentral.com

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There’s gold along Arizona’s southern border and it should be more aggressively mined to benefit you and your family.

But you don’t hear much about it.

What you hear is the bad stuff about Arizona’s border with Mexico. (And, yes, there are problems.)

But let’s face it: The average Arizonan has little to gain from the relentlessly negative political hyperbole about the border.

Mexican shoppers help you

On the other hand, you and your family have a great deal to gain from increasing the number of legal Mexican shoppers to our state.

That’s the border story you don’t hear. But should.

Gov. Doug Ducey – who has done his share to feed the Trump administration’s big, bad border frenzy – is going to help tell that story by updating a 2008 study into how much Mexican shoppers spend in our state.

There’s gold in that spending.

How many millions? We don’t know

How much? We don’t know.

We do know the contribution of Mexican shoppers to our economy was significant a decade ago.

The 2008 report done by the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management found Mexican visitors spent more than $7.3 million a day in Arizona stores, restaurants, hotels and other businesses.

That money supports businesses and jobs, as well as producing sales tax to help fund basic state and local services – like your child’s school.

It supports schools and local services

The 2008 study found legal Mexican visitors represented “a staggering 48.62 percent of the total taxable sales in Santa Cruz County.”

Keep in mind: The 24 million visa-holding Mexican travelers who came here that year far exceeded the number of people who crossed the border illegally in any year.

You didn’t hear much about those legal border crossers, which is a real shame.

Arizona didn’t do much to treat them like valued customers, which is a lost opportunity.

Dissing our customers wasn’t smart

In 2010 – after years of ugly rhetoric about the dangers of the border – GOP Gov. Jan Brewer signed a xenophobic anti-immigrant law that resulted in boycotts, lost conventions and bad press.

It also inspired deep resentment in Mexico.

Despite it all, Mexicans continue to visit. 

A recent study for the Office of Tourism found that in 2017, tourists who stayed overnight in our state spent $22.7 billion in Arizona. Two-thirds of the foreign tourists were from Mexico, according to reporting by The Republic’s Russ Wiles.

We don’t know how many more Mexicans would have come if we’d been nicer. We do know that neighboring border states – and Nevada – were courting Mexican travelers while we were making rude gestures.

A new study is coming – at last

What’s more, this broad study of tourism did not capture day trippers from Mexico or people who stayed in private homes, so it most likely under-represents the contribution of Mexicans to Arizona’s tourism economy.

We need an update of the 2008 study for that – and at long last, Ducey’s Office of Tourism is getting ready to do it.

Scott Dunn, director of communications at the tourism office, says a request for proposals for a new Mexico visitor study should go out in September.

 “The more data we have, the better we can grow the Mexican market . . . our largest source of international travelers,” says Dunn.

Here’s what the study needs to do

He says it will be a “comprehensive study of the Mexican market,” but adds that it is too early in the process to say exactly what it will cover.

There are a few important things to consider when when designing a new study.

• A new study of Mexican tourism has to look at day trippers who shop in border cities. The recent, broader tourism study looked only those who stayed overnight.
• The study should also build on information from a 2015 report for the Maricopa Association of Governments that said expanding the border crossing zone statewide could to increase the overall number of Mexican tourists and “generate up to $181 million in additional estimated spending and 2,179 additional jobs … ” Currently, visa-holders who have passed all legal requirements to travel in the United States still need a secondary permit to travel more than 75 miles into Arizona – effectively limiting their shopping to Tucson.

Give Gov. Ducey some credit

Unlike Brewer, Ducey has worked the Mexican market to Arizona’s advantage.

Under his administration, Arizona opened a trade office in Mexico City, assigned liaisons to encourage trade and worked with Mexican elected officials to build relationships. He even touted Mexico as Arizona’s top trading partner.

That trade relationship accounts for $2.4 billion a month in commodity flows to Mexico through Arizona’s ports of entry, according to July Arizona-Mexico Economic Indicators prepared by Eller. But that’s down from $2.9 billion in March 2017.

We still need a cheerleader

Our economic relationship with Mexico requires attention – just like any other relationship. Arizonans need to understand that.

Yet Arizonans continue to hear more about the problems at the border than about the great economic benefit and opportunity the Mexican border represents.

That needs to change.

The overdue update to a decade-old study of Mexican shoppers is a good sign.

But we also need to hear more from our elected officials about the gold mine on our southern border.

Reach Valdez at linda.valdez@arizonarepublic.com.

As the year 2021 starts to wind down, it becomes time to reassess the year and maybe our lives. So much has happened in the last year and a half with Covid. Much of it bad (social isolation, losing friends and family members), some good (connecting with more and more people by Zoom.) It is time to think: I am getting what I want out of life? Am I happy? What can I do now and in the near future to bring my life more in alignment with what it should be? If nothing else, Covid has been a reminder to each of us that things happen and we might not have as much time on this planet as we thought. cew

Oct 18, 2012, 02:40pm  Forbes Magazine

The 25 Biggest Regrets In Life. What Are Yours?

Eric Jackson

Contributor

I write about technology and media

Fork in Road

We are all busy. Life happens. There’s always something to distract us from getting around to certain things we know we should do.

Soccer practice.  Work. Home renovations. Getting that next big promotion.

And with the explosion of always-on smartphones and tablets delivering a fire hose of urgent emails, not to mention Twitter and Facebook (FB), in recent years, things have only gotten busier.

In the backs of our minds, we know we’re neglecting some stuff we should do. But we never get around to it.

Then, something happens.  A good friend or loved one – maybe close to us in age – drops dead unexpectedly.  We begin to think about what our biggest regrets would be if we were suddenly sitting on our death bed.

Here is a list of the 25 biggest ones we’ll probably have.

The question is, are you going to change anything this afternoon or tomorrow in light of this list?  Or are you going to go back to your busy life?

Death in HR – Conclusion

Brother Huang stood up. “I think Chi Li has had enough for right now. She will go back to meditation. Mr. Sam, if I could speak to you further at my office.” Huang turned away and walked with the girl back into the meditation building.

Sam walked back to the brother’s office and saw the young man again inside.

“He wants me to wait.” The young man nodded and went back to work.

In a few minutes, Brother Huang returned to his office. He sighed and poured himself another cup of tea. He waved the tea pot at Sam who declined.

Huang plopped himself down on his chair.

“Ah, as you can see, Mr. Sam, Chi Li has been very traumatized. It is going to take some time. She will need medical help.”

“Yes, but you have done so much for her here.”

The old man nodded. “Yes, we have, we have. But. . . there is more.” He touched a finger lightly to his forehead. “You understand, that we cannot quite touch.”

Sam nodded.

“You will have the mother contact us, yes? And we will talk.” He handed Sam a business card of his own. Then, reached behind him and pulled out a couple of brochures. “And should you, Mr. Sam, wish to come and study meditation with us some time, you would be welcome.”

“I would be honored, Brother Huang.”

They both got up and bowed to one another. Sam stuck the card and brochures in his satchel and let himself out.

                                                            ###

Brother Huang watched as the big American left, his arms akimbo on his hips. He sighed and turned back to his office.

“Did you tell the American about the fox?” his younger co-worker asked him. “How she came here as an injured fox and then turned back into a woman?” His thin eyebrows were up.

Huang sighed again and shook his head. “No, he would never believe me.  Never.”

                                                                       ###

Back home in Tranquility, California, Sam was in Kristie’s kitchen pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“The whole thing is fantastic, Sam. Unbelievable!”

He nodded to her and sipped from his cup.

“How did you know? How did you ever know to look for her there, in all of the out of way places?”

“It started with the grandmother really and the little Buddha shrine in the apartment. The grandmother told me the whole family was Buddhist and practicing Buddhist, not just lip service. Vivian, or Vi, had completely turned her back on the whole thing. Rejected it completely.”

Kristie sat at the kitchen table and listened, transfixed.

“But then when I went to her apartment, I found the same little shrine, just stuck in a dusty corner. That’s when a little idea came to me.”

“But to walk there, on foot. And, how did she know where to go? She had never even been to the place.”

“Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. She had been there before. When she was a kid and her father was still alive. She used to go with them and the grandmother too. They would go for weekend retreats to do meditation. But, then the father died, the mother didn’t drive much, the grandmother not at all and they forgot about the place.”

“But she didn’t and after all those years. Amazing.”

Sam nodded his head and tamped his mustache down a bit.

“So now what?”

 “Well, the mother is at Green Veil, going to spend a little time getting reacquainted, kind of thing. Then, she will encourage Vi to give up the fancy apartment and get some therapy.”

“Ah, the job at Hi-Tech?”

“Ah, yes. Hi-Tech. Quite a place that. Don’t think Vi will be going back to Hi-Tech.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Let’s say a little fox whispered in my ear.”

“Oh, Sam. I never know when to take you seriously or not.”

He grinned at her.

“Hey, dinner’s on me. I got paid.”

“I’m in. Our favorite place?”

“Our favorite place – steaks, baked potatoes and with any luck, apple pie.”

“Sam, you’re a pig.”

“Yup.”

                                                            ###

That night a big, harvest moon hung in the sky. Moonlight twinkled on the leaves of the plantings around The Green Veil Monastery.

Quietly, a window opened, and a lone figure crawled out and then crouched on the wet grass. The figure, tall but very thin, moved into some bushes and there was a faint rustling sound. Another figure came out of the bushes, but this time it wasn’t human. It was a red fox with a thick, bushy tail. The fox sniffed the air a minute. Then, looking around, almost with stealth, the fox scampered across the grass and ran into some green undergrowth.

The bright moonlight continued to fall on the silent, green landscape.

                                                               ###

Some months later:

In downtown San Francisco the lights shone brightly in the big hotel and loud music could be heard out to the sidewalk. Inside, multi-colored balloons danced at the ceiling and a huge Hi-Tech, Corporation sign hung in silver letters on one wall. Happy Holiday Event! was proudly displayed on the sandwich sign at the front door. The maitre’d checked off names from a guest list. A large crowd, dressed in their finest, were milling about, eating canapes and sipping drinks from an open-bar.

CEO, Dan Cole and Jeremy Bright, Head of HR, stood together at the side of the festivities. They both looked dapper in black tux’s and matching bow ties. Jeremy held a crystal champagne flute and Dan, a cut-glass tumbler of scotch.

“Good turn out,” commented Dan.

“Yep,” replied Jeremy, “good year.”

They both sipped their respective drinks.

“People seem to be having a good time,” Jeremy opined.

“They should, for all the damn money this thing cost,” Dan said grudgingly.

“Too bad Vi couldn’t make it back for the party,” Jeremy looked at Dan. “I hear she has really changed. Gone all Buddhist or some such thing.”

“Pah,” Dan grunted. “Yeah, too bad.” He turned and smiled at Jeremy.

They clinked glasses together.

“Don’t I just know it, don’t I just know,” Jeremy smiled back. They both laughed and turned back to the party.

                                                           The End

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