American Slop
(by Vanessa Stirling)
My childhood as the daughter of a geophysicist in the oil industry covered four continents and ____ countries. I can never immediately recall how many countries, without going finger by finger around the world, enough for faded, old U.S. and U.K. passports to present a welter of smeared visa stamps. However, my practical mother documented each place chronologically for me. She, by her nature, supplies the quantitative structure of Chronos to my personal history, compared to whimsical, moment-driven, Kairos. Chronos (as in chronological) can be measured, but not by my mind. Kairos is qualitative, a moment, the right moments.