Email from Patti Smith

GREETINGS

It's been a long time since I have sent a greeting, but it's funny, I think of them all the time. I write them in my head as I am walking about Paris and Lisbon or my own city streets. I silently wished everyone a happy new year as I walked through Chinatown in the first
hours of the New Year. I was searching for a bowl of duck congee. This is simple rice porridge with a bit of duck and garnish on top. Unfortunately everyone was out of congee and I had to eat cold sesame noodles instead.
All this brings to mind that we are entering the Chinese Year of the Rat, officially beginning February 7. It signals a time for hard work and renewal. We are counseled to reclaim and magnify our sense of humor. We will need these attributes as we move through 2008. An election year is always a time of change, of vigilance and self examination. We have to be as sturdy and resilient as a rodent.
Those that have rat problems can always get a cat. Or consider that in the Indian city of Deshnoke rats are revered. Those hanging about the ancient temple Karni Mata are destined to be holy men. Eating rice that has been nibbled by such a rat is considered a blessing.
Well, I didn't get my rice porridge, blessed or not. But I will try again. Meanwhile for cold nights there is an excellent new translation of War and Peace by Pevear and Volokhonsky. (Knopf). It's hardly cold tonight so I may choose something lighter like Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. After I finish.

This time I didn't make a greeting in my head. I wrote it down and send it off with all good wishes.

patti smith