December 2, 2002

    As it happens every night， beloveds， while we turned in the night

    sleeping uneasily the world went on without us.

    We live in our own time zone and there are only a small million of

    us in this time zone and the world as a result has a tendency to

    begin and end without us.

    While we turned sleeping uneasily at least ten were injured in a

    bomb blast in Bombay and four killed in Palestine.

    While we turned sleeping uneasily a warehouse of food aid was

    destroyed， stocks on upbeat sales soared， Australia threatened first

    strikes， there was heavy gunfire in the city of Man， the Belarus

    ambassador to Japan went missing， a cruise ship caught fire， on yet

    another cruise ship many got sick， and the pope made a statement

    against xenophobia.

    While we turned sleeping uneasily perhaps J Lo gave Ben a

    prenuptial demand for sex four times a week.

    While we turned sleeping uneasily Liam Gallagher brawled and

    irate fans complained that "Popstars： The Rivals" was fixed.

    While we turned sleeping uneasily the Supreme Court agreed to

    hear the case of whether university admissions may favor racial

    minorities.

    While we turned sleeping uneasily poachers caught sturgeon in the

    reed-filled Caspian， which shelters boar and wolves， and some of

    the residents on the space shuttle planned a return flight to the US.

    Beloveds， our world is small and isolated.

    We live our lives in six hundred square feet about a quarter mile

    from the shore on land that is seven hundred square miles and five

    thousand miles from the nearest land mass.

    Despite our isolation， there is no escape from the news of how

    many days are left in the Iraq inspections.

    The news poll for today was should we invade Iraq now or should

    we wait until the inspections are complete and we tried to laugh

    together at this question but our laughter was uneasy and we just

    decided to turn off the television that arrives to us from those

    other time zones.

    Beloveds， we do not know how to live our lives with any agency

    outside of our bed.

    It makes me angry that how we live in our bed-full of connected

    loving and full of isolated sleep and dreaming also-has no

    relevance to the rest of the world.

    How can the power of our combination of intimacy and isolation

    have so little power outside the space of our bed？

    Beloveds， the shuttle is set to return home and out the window of

    the shuttle one can see the earth.

    "How massive the earth is； how minute the atmosphere，" one of

    the astronauts notes.

    Beloveds， what do we do but keep breathing as best we can this

    minute atmosphere？