That thing that happens when your brain won't focus

I just really want to post a favorite poem right now. I am starved for good poetry! I came to understand someting very interesting about the Swiss the other day. Roberta, the mother of the family I'm staying with, was complaining about how the lady at the check out counter wouldn't ring up her groceries because it was the 10 items or less line, and she happened to have 11 things in her basket (she ended up replacing one of the items on the shelf rather than going to another line). The other day at the gas station another lady at the counter yelled at her for pumping gas the wrong way. She says that she has also been reprimanded for parking on the line instead of within it by Swiss passerbys. I think this is all hilarious, especially because I have not had anything like this happen to me yet, but it left an impression on me, and it is this: when was the last time you heard of a famous artist or piece of art from Switzerland? What about an award winning actor or director, or even a poem by a Swiss author? People go on and on about their amazing banking system and Switzerland has produced some incredible scientists and mathmaticians, but there is almost no flow of creativity ebbing from this country. Roberta said the reason for that is simply this: from almost their infancy, the Swiss people have never been taught to think outside the box (and of course I am speaking in generalities). There is only one way to do things, and it must be done that way, or else chaos is the only predictable outcome. I then began to think about the wonderful gift of questioning everything. Perhaps they just never learned to question things in the right way, or were never given the option to try. Working with kids has really made me appreciate this because they really do have a question for practcally everything. Why do I have to do that, what makes this, what does that mean? Rachel, who is also a nanny here now, told me a fantastic story about how one of the little boys she takes care of asked her what the word 'stupid' meant, and she responded that just kind of means different or it is when someone does something silly, etc. Then he responds: "Like eating someone?" Yes, indeed eating someone is stupid. And I think that is a perfect question. I think it is questions like that which stir creativity within us, which stir us to become creators and makers. Question everything. Create more. 

I am a mountain underneath the sea
I feel the roaring waves crash over me
I hear the wind, I smell the salty breeze
The Nile brought Cleopatra to her knees

Five hundred thousand leagues beneath the sea
Five hundred thousand more unanswered dreams
Ebbing away like water on the sand
That leave only questions and memories

The orchestra of water on the rocks
Beneath my feet have told me all they know
They whisper of a better day to come
The wind and leaves are telling me it's so

All day I looked into the wet abyss
And peace arose, could I ask more than this?