Santa Was Not Amused.

But Ariel and I were.

However, threatened with getting coal in my stocking -- and because I realized there might be more family reading my blog than I remembered (heh.) -- I have removed the post.

And, Doug? We appreciate your ribald riposte. We expected no less.

xoxo
M & A

The (Ink)Well Run Dry

I am concerned about my writing ... um, what's happened to it? I'm hoping this is a temporary dry period and that, sooner or later, I'll start coughing up full, coherent paragraphs about meaningful topics again.

Part of it is life. Which is busy and full. A full time job is not the friend of creativity. Fatigue and the attempt to maintain my primary relationships leave me with not much time to sit and foment anything but spare, irritable comments on other people's blogs.

I am a great believer in free association and its ability to tap into baserock communal human spirit -- the collective unconscious.

Wish I had time to be still, roam the emptiness and find some content.

Perspective: Time

Time is too slow for those who wait/ Too swift for those who fear/ Too long for those who grieve/ Too short for those who rejoice/ But for those who love, Time is not.

Henry Van Dyke

Time, Time, Time/ see what's become of me/ While I looked around for my possibilities/ I was so hard to please.

Paul Simon

We're captive on the carousel of time/ We can't return we can only look behind/ From where we came/ And go round and round and round/In the circle game.

Joni Mitchell

If you're lost you can look/ And you will find me/ Time after time/ If you fall I will catch you--/ I will be waiting/ Time after time.

Cyndi Lauper

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving ...

No, no, beauty takes second place to ...

the baking of pie,
the shredding of dry bread for dressing
the spicing of yams
the peeling of potatoes
the slicing of brussels sprouts
the crushing of cranberries
the opening of cans of creamed corn

.... and tomorrow, the championship, The 11 lb. Turkey. Who knew how gratifying it could be to be up to your elbows in a turkey carcass. Just me, the turkey and some unidentifiable objects. euuuw.

I'm gonna need that Moment of Beauty by the time that menu gets done with me.

Of the many things I'm grateful for, my blogfriends are at the top of my list. Whether poster or lurker, I value -- and thank -- you all.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007.


Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Aspiration

Whoever makes love grow boundless, and sets his mind for seeing the end of birth, his fetters are worn thin. If he loves even a single being, good will follow. But the Noble One with compassionate heart for all mankind, generates abounding good.

Buddha

Today I Smell Excellent

With a slight nod to the original intent of this blog, or at least part of its intent: to bring fragrance to a smelly world ... today I wear my holy grail scent, the scent for which I would forsake all other, if forced to, and I certainly hope that doesn't happen, because all my other bottles would be homeless and that would make me ineffably sad -- and did I mention I got my toes painted fire engine red today? Fun. Oh, right. The fragrance.

Ta'if by Ormonde Jayne. A rose by any other name.

Also, just now, I read a snippet on a piece of artwork featured in someone's decor blog. Here is a paraphrase: "At some time in her life, usually by midlife, a woman makes her most important decision: whether to be bitter." Cheerful, huh? I think you know where I land on this issue.

And Thanksgiving is coming!!!

Image of Ta'if roses by Silvija Seres

Honor Where Honor Is Due

Veterans Day 2007

With thoughts for all Americans who served honorably wherever they were sent ... including my father.



British children marking the grave of an American soldier of WWI.

What Will It Take for Americans to Redeem Their Humanity?

The surreal experience of hearing actual debate on PBS about whether waterboarding is torture.

One individual -- a former intelligence officer who has been waterboarded and who has waterboarded other individuals he was training in the technique, says, "It is not simulated drowning, it is actual drowning."

"It is slowly filling another human's lungs with water until they are willing to tell you anything you want to hear. Anything to make it stop. It is torture and it was used by individuals tried in the Nuremburg Trials. It is against all norms of prisoner treatment, including the Geneva Convention."

It has been used in Argentina, in Burma ... in what other countries despised for their absence of human rights?

And yet, the other American in this discussion wants to give the President his "full arsenal, a full toolbox." Dear God.

What does it take for us to redeem our humanity? Haven't we done enough?

One Crone's Perspective

Main Entry: crone Pronunciation: \ˈkrōn\ Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, a term of abuse, from Anglo-French caroine, charoine dead flesh — more at carrion Date: 14th century : a withered old woman Merriam-Webster Online

One of my favorite -- ok, my favorite -- bloggers used the term "crone" in a recent post and I want to understand why I have such a visceral negative reaction to that term.

It ranks right up there with "old lady perfume."

I think it's having a stereotype pushed up into one's face. It may not have been intended as a pejorative -- we need to own our own reactions -- but I am bristling.

Again.

Why am I so sensitive to the idea that I am a woman of a certain age? Because it's at such a variance with how I feel, how I look, what I do, who I am.

And this blog mention isn't the only place I'm finding my nerves vibrating on top of my skin at the idea that I'm getting old. And I'm a woman. So I am getting to be an old woman.

But, but ...

Being a 56 year old woman is nothing like I thought it would be.

It's more fun. More alive. I'm more free, and more sensual, better looking and smarter than I thought 56 year old women were. More than I was at 26.

Maybe my emotional reactivity needs to catch up with my reality. Actually understanding that living well is the best revenge against age and inevitability.

I intend to bring new meaning to "Live hard. Die (young). Leave a beautiful corpse." Two out of three won't be bad.

All Saints' Day and Día de los Muertos

Rabbit! Rabbit!