Heat wave

How the weather got to be such an interesting (boring) topic... or how many days can they say it's not going to change much...plus how the other states are doing it (the heatwave) and how others in your town are doing it (surviving the heat wave), and has anyone lost their sense of humor over this thing?  I liked the piece about the steak cooked in someone's car on the dashboard in 2-3 hours.  Aren't there other places/ways to experience the heat differently?  Like the moderating influence of a cool shower or bath, the delights of ice cream, or the appeal of a big fat, cold watermelon?  And how's that doing for your health?  Are you slowing down more?  Taking it easy?  Being gentle with yourself as you waft with the heatwaves moving outside?  Feel like a langorous, ponderous hippo yet?  Or  a huge, bloated elephant?  Are you attracted to the ponds the alligators hide in...and would do anything just to get in there with them?  It all looks so appealing....to enjoy the heat and take the day off...  Is your head off somewhere in the wild blue yonder, dreaming about God-knows-what, while you lay back limply in your easy chair?  Is trying to get your mind to focus about as hard as getting your kids to eat vegetables or cleaning out the refrigerator?  Do you feel like life has sped up 120% and you've slowed down that same amount?  Does watching the trees wave in the breeze make you dizzy?  Are you getting sleepy...sleepier....your eyelids are getting heavy...your eyes are closing and you feel so sleepy...you just want to drift off to sleep....more and more relaxed....just let go....

(see you in that first cold front in October...)

Women make men and men make women

I know I haven't written in awhile.  I had things in my "real" life overtake me and my interest in writing noteworthy copy took a backseat..... but I am up again and on my way......

I ran across this quote and it spoke to me.  I hope you like it too.

Strong Men and Strong Women

“Men have been afraid of women and have therefore dominated them, unconsciously, for very much the same reasons I believe they have been afraid of their primary processes. Remember that the dynamic psychologists are apt to think that much of the relationship of men to women is determined by the fact that women will remind men of their own unconscious that is of their own femaleness, their own softness, their own tenderness, and so on.

And therefore, fighting women or trying to control them or to derogate them has been part of this effort to control those unconscious forces which are within each one of us...

Only as men become strong enough, self-confident enough and integrated enough can they tolerate and finally enjoy self-actualizing women, who are full human beings.

But no man fulfills himself without a woman, in principle.  Therefore,  strong men and strong women are the condition of each other, for neither can enlist without the other.  They are also the cause of each other, because  women grow men and men grow women.  And finally, of course, they are the  reward of each other.  If you are a good enough man, that’s the kind of woman you’ll get and that’s the kind of woman you’ll deserve."

A.H. Maslow

Emotional Blocks to Creativity

Thanks to:

Lynne Namka, for posting this quote in her newsletter.

www.AngriesOut.com
Photo thanks to:  http://birthofanewearth.blogspot.com/ 

Oh what a wonderful poem

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.

- Mary Oliver

the land of colors and shadows

...just sprucing things up in my environment, getting ready for the Autumn to step into the space and wisk me away to some swirling, brisker, nippier, and all-that-stuff land of orange-yellow-red fall foliage and the shadows of our deep selves coming up to be acknowledged and released.

There's wonderful magic afoot!

What a load of junk!

In 1991 the Great Wall of China lost its title as the largest man-made structure in the world to the New York City landfill in Fishkill, New York!

Austin’s own landfill on Highway 290 could swallow up the Texas State Capital today. And they want to expand it.

(I don't know who "they" is, but that's what the blurb said.) (Sorry that I don't have citation for this info. Photo by Chris Jordan.)

This cartoon is by Dave Walker.

Summer is here like a blanket ... and a nice glass of tea

All I can say is that the summertime is wonderful and the summertime is horrible... for getting anything done. The heat, the crickets, the palpable waves of heat... did I mention the heat? Even inside this fortified air-conditioned building on the fourth floor where I work I feel the ennui of it permeating this brick-and-glass skeleton.... no, maybe that's my imagination. It's just there's nobody here except us staff and like strings attached to balloons, I can "feel" the instructors all playing at the beach, running around town doing errands in their Hondas, sipping champagne from fluted glasses, and eating nachos and dip with a beer chaser.... and I am staring at four walls wondering when it's going to end... ha, ha. Got to have a sense of humor about it..... At least I have peace and quiet. That's something you don't see everyday during the school semester with hordes of newly arrived students and waves of brisk-walking instructors with tablets, pens, carts loaded down with markers, glue, scissors, etc. And me with my office keys, to remind me of where I fit in this giant labyrinth.... Oh, the mind of imagination. If only they knew my inner world and how it embellishes the day with strokes of fantasy, interests, and passion......
Sweet Iced Tea by House of Sims on Flickr

it's okay to lighten up now....

Beautiful flowers I saw at the Art City Austin event on April 25-26, 2009 in Austin, Texas.  Saw many, many more tents with lots of beautiful and dynamic work -- a huge variety of work, including crafts and metalwork.  

Austin is growing as an arts center as well as music center, and I'm really glad about that (because I make art and love art).

From National Geographic's Gallery: One World, One Tribe

I just thought this piece was an amazing story, a bit of real history that lept out at me.  And such a contrast to our rich democratic American society.

"To escape the firing squad, Gulag prisoners would get the portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin tattooed on their chest. Who would have dared shoot at one of Socialism's heroes? Gennadi Vassilievich had done his military service in the '50s. He had traveled all the way to the Chinese border under Stalin's order. After the collapse of Socialist ideology, Gennadi added a cross.

On the Russian bank of the Amur River, I observed him, staggering along, lost and dressed in rags. Through his half-opened shirt, I saw his tattoo. I came near him and greeted him. I detected fear in his eyes. I introduced myself and asked his name. With difficulty, as though he were scouring his memory, he announced, 'Gennadi Vassilievich,' and started to weep. Then he apologized. "You know, nobody has asked me my name in ten years. Nobody. Ever since the day I was thrown out of the plant where I worked, out of the house I lived in. I have roamed the streets for ten years.'"

Photograph and caption by Reza

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photos/reza-one-world/gulag-prisoner.html

cell phone angst and Star Trek

Okay, it's over. My digital detox "fast" which was really a modified diet of select emails to a few family members and a few friends, plus some indeterminate web surfing in lulls in the work day (horrors!) -- is over.

I've cancelled my internet account at home (my router quit and I seized the opportunity) and tried to turn my new cell phone into the ultimate social device for solace and new "connections." Ha, ha. That's a laugh. Ten million micro-hair-pulling-seconds later, after something approximating an eternity of trying to learn the menus on that cell phone, I have given up and given the Devil his due. Maybe he's the one who designed it (!!)

With that said, the cell phone looks beautiful, anyway. Like one of those Star Trek communicators. It got your attention, right? ... when Captain Kirk flipped it open and spoke into it with bold authority. That's how I imagined I looked when I flipped it open in public and... that's where it stopped. It took me so long to figure out which buttons to press to make a call. And forget it if you're trying to look up your messages or anything like real data on the phone. I don't know how many times I've pushed buttons and followed menus and toggled and back-tracked trying to find my way out... and felt like I was caught in a trap of evil design. Did I say the Devil? I mean the Evil Overlord. You know, @T&T (which is really a front for the largest religious cult in the world... and I could go on and on about this, but really, who would listen?) ..... no, I've already gone back (at least in my head) to the "good old days" of picking up my telephone handset and unthinkingly? blindly? punching in the number and hearing it ring and waiting for someone to pick up. Is there anyone out there? Anyone at all?

Digital Detox Week

Digital Detox Week | Adbusters Culturejammer Headquarters

Source: www.adbusters.org

Adbusters challenges you to do the unthinkable: unplug. For one week (April 21-26) say good-bye to Twitter and Facebook. Turn off your TV, iPhone andXbox.

I'm doing it, except for posting this and checking business and family email (and even then will call family when time allows and let them know). Already moved the TV into a corner (where it usually has me, ha, ha) and read a novel for a change. Plus it helps that I just got a cell phone for the first time and wanting to spend my "free" time learning how to use it. More later.....but I'm liking it.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you regardless of religious or spiritual persuasion.

What do I want to tell you about?

What do I want to tell you about? A few days ago, I saw a PBS show on Irshad Manji who is ...

... the internationally best-selling author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in her Faith. Through a new lens, this questioning Muslim takes a journey to reconcile her faith in Allah with her love of freedom. Along the way, she reveals the personal risks — emotional and physical — that come with such an urgent mission. The result is FAITH WITHOUT FEAR.

I was very impressed with Irshad. I emailed her for her picture, but so far I have just gotten back an automatic reply. I plan to write her again and to get familiar with what she's saying and learn a little about Islam and her culture. Mostly, I was impressed with her clarity of thought and courage in speaking up and doing so without resentment and blame. It's not so much that she was logical (in what I've heard so far), as that she is open-minded and yet cuts through all the dogma (and superstition and judgments) with ease.

What I found amazing, was that I understood her and could relate to her easily. She seemed to be speaking for me in some instances. This part is harder to explain but I come from a southern Baptist family background and was steeped in the tradition of rigid rules and codes of behavior that go along with that, combined with just plain ole Southern mores and small town predjudices and do's and don'ts. I have spent most of my adult life challenging the narrow mindset that I grew up with. Irshad has challenged some of what her mother has taught her and (which her mother still believes) about her religion and I found myself strangely moved by Irshad's clarity and strength. To me, this kind of intelligence and courage is to be recognized and applauded. It is not clouded by political manueverings (as far as I can tell) or anything related to flattering, pleasing, persuading (except to think it through), pretending, obfuscating, or denying. It is just stating the facts and knowledge gleaned by going to the source - the Quran (Koran) and paying attention to how people interpret it and live it -- what they do in its name.

This is a high achievement for someone in our time and with this volatile an issue, but even more so for a woman, seeing how women are not given much respect or say-so in the Islamic culture. That's why I say: what a breath of fresh air!

Virginia Tech Sorrow

I wanted to extend some sympathy and lovingkindness to the families and friends of the victims of the Virginia Tech rampage, as well as to all the students there and this is what came through. It represents Nature (in the persona of the flower), looking on with sadness and feeling sympathy for the anguish of the Virginia Tech students (symbolized by the young man's head coming out of the earth).

It was amazing that I was able to access this symbolic portrayal of how I felt given the sensationalism and lurid detail of some of the network news station coverage that was available on TV. It was disturbing.

I wanted to express my feelings in an uncomplicated, yet poignant way. My hope for you is that you find a way to express yourself ... if you were moved by this tragedy.