A Topic for Discussion

I love quotes and collect them, but every once in a while, one gets under my skin and I just can't shake it.  This quote from Steven Soderbergh has been haunting me for months now:

"What tragedy has [art] kept from happening?  Tell that [that art makes the world a better place] to the 13-year-old girl from Somalia who got stoned to death last week after being raped by three men and then convicted of adultery, buried up to her head, and stoned in front of a crowd of 1,000 people.  If the collected works of Shakespeare can't keep that from happening, then what is it worth?  Honestly?"

What do you think?  Do you agree with Mr. Soderbergh?  I love the humility in that quote, but at the same time, I respectfully disagree.  I think we couldn't possibly bear to live in a world in which a 13-year-old girl is stoned to death, in which hundreds of thousands die in an earthquake, unless that world also included the collected works of Shakespeare and Mozart and Monet.  Somedays, it's only the collected works of Shakespeare that keeps us all from flinging ourselves head first out the nearest high window.

Your thoughts?

Things to Do When You're Snowbound

Just give in to it and let the snow pile up.

Have your mother dump a load of laundry, still warm from the dryer, on you. 

Wrap her clean, warm panties around your head.

Sit still and contemplate how pretty your glossy black feathers look against all that snow.

Leave a door in your heart (and your playhouse) open.

Be really annoying while looking really innocent.

Lick someone's paw.

Lick someone's face, even though they pull away.

Yawn your stinky dog breath in someone's face.

Sit around looking really sleepy and bored.

Hug your dog and sass your mama.

Sweep the car.

Scrape the ice.

Lose your gloves and use your mama's gardening gloves instead.

Practice your photography skills.

Catch snowflakes on your tongue.

Let the snow wash over your face.

Make your mama put down her camera for a snowball fight.

Accept the things you cannot change and let the snow pile up.

Proud Parent of a Terrific Kid - Redux

That's my baby on the second row, right next to the principal.  That's right, MY baby! 

I Love My Kid

Yesterday, we were talking about places we would like to visit.  Lil Sweetie said, "What's that state with the hamsters?  Oh yeah, I want to visit New Hamster! "

This kid never disappoints me with her ability to make me smile.

Be It Resolved

Yesterday, I was having lunch with my friend, T.  T. masquerades as a mild-mannered bureaucrat and soccer mom, but secretly she is a sage.  There we were, having lunch at a local bakery and chit-chatting, when the most profound statement fell out of her mouth.  What she said was that her New Year's Resolution was to fix the things that weren't working in the lives of her and her family.  Eureka!  Isn't that the best New Year's Resolution ever?  I mean, it just sums it all up, right there. 

In contrast, my New Year's Resolutions are not profound in the least.  (Although next year, I may copy Ms. T.  Seriously, hers is the best New Year's Resolution I've ever heard.)  So, what are my  resolutions? Well, for this year, I hope to shed a lot of excess baggage. Meaning clutter and weight. It’s difficult for me to put this out there, as I’ve struggled with my clutter and weight issues for years. I have a lot of shame around these topics, particularly my weight. Putting this out there is scary. What if I fail? Like I have so many times before?

And, I don’t want to turn this into a weight loss blog. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I don’t want to obsess about my weight and what I’m eating and how much of what kind of exercising I’m doing. I probably think about food too much now—I read cookbooks for fun, y’all! Fattie porn! But I don’t want to replace that kind of obsession with an obsession over calorie counts and fat grams and carbs. I want to devote more of that emotional and intellectual energy on living my dang life! I want my thinking and actions around food to just be normal. That’s not too much to ask, is it?

So, I don’t have a food plan or exercise plan per se. I am working a program called “The Grown Up Girl’s Guide to Weight Loss”. I’m not dieting, I'm making better food choices. I’m being gentle with myself. I’m giving myself credit for the things I do right, not beating myself up for the things I do wrong. I’m taking baby steps. I’m thinking long term. I’m expecting results to come, but slowly. And I’m hopeful.

Happy MLK Day

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

You Are My World

My heart bleeds for the people of Haiti. I watched footage last night of attempts to free an 11-year-old girl from the rubble. Her cries haunted my dreams. I don’t accept that there is nothing we can do—we can pray, we can pony up some cash, we can encourage others to do the same.  Please help in the ways that you can.

“We are inevitably our brother's keeper because we are our brother's brother. ” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.