the selected of betters

so i'm sitting here reading through old batman comics and eating sour cherry jam that bills itself (on the flowery yellow & purple label) as "The Selected of Betters". A sad synonym for best though maybe it's just the better i can do at this point.

I was teaching english to a taxi driver the other night and taught him 'good, better, best' and i think he couldn't handle the fact that the word 'best' was shorter and so much less impressive than 'better.' he kept thinking I was wrong and feeling around for a bestester word.

Then he taught me the lovely dari word ishtyarwhich means appetite and i taught him the english word and he said:

appetayat.

and i said: appeTITE.

and he said: appetaYAT.

and I said: I, I, I. AppeTYte.

and he said: AppeTYte.

And I said: right, right. And it was quiet then in the taxi it was midnight we were passing by the neon green patio of kabul's main wedding hall so bright against the absolutely dark city and I said the word 'appetite' again feeling so-- sturdy in its syllables.

And my taxi driver said, with equal satisfaction: appetaYAT.

and i thought: i feel so happy at this one little moment and no one will understand why. or even try to - since this isn't a story that's at all tellable. what do they call a black hole that's so powerful it bends time, so it doesn't participate in the linear progression of cause and effect? a singularity. that's it.

just one of those singular little epiphanies of travel.