“Friends” – Photo Friday

PHOTO FRIDAY

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Today’s Photo Friday entry is entitled: Friends © Jan Marshall  

My goodness.  I have been blessed with many excellent, wonderful, loving, fun, supportive, etc. ad nauseum (!) friends.    I have been blessed much more than I deserve.  If friends were riches, then I should be called one of the world’s wealthiest women. 

This past summer I met a woman named Angelica.  (The g is soft, like in girl.)  She was at the same camp in Ispica, Sicily, as my teen missions team.  She was there from Austria with five German and Austrian men, one of whom was her husband.  They were there also as missionaries and were working alonside ”my kids”.  They’d been there some weeks prior to our arrival.  Angelica could not have been more thrilled to see me show up.  She was quite tired of all “the mens”, as she called them!    She was anxious for female companionship and conversation.  As I was the only real “adult” in my group and I had no one really to talk with either, we were a perfect match. 

A few times a week we’d go to the local Conad grocery store in town to pick up whatever we were in need of.  Though my time was limited, we managed to find time to get cappuccinos and have a private chat and laugh together.  You’d probably laugh, too, if you were to overhear us!  Her native language is German, mine is English.  She speaks some English and a little Italian.  I speak no German, but some French and Spanish.   Between all those languages, we manged to understand each other, at least mostly!  Once she was trying to explain to me an illness that one of her children died from many years ago.  She couldn’t find even the most rudimentary of words to explain what it was in any language and it was really frustrating her.  ”I only know in German” she finally said after many extremely failed attempts to say anything at all.  So, give it to me in German then, I said.  Maybe it’ll be close enough to something I know. 

The German word for the disease turned out to be the same as the English word…exactly the same!  We laughed long at that and learned that sometimes German works just fine.

We were old friends from the very beginning.  I love friendships that start like that.  I hope to visit her in Austria one day.  She hopes to visit me in America one day.  I am looking so very much forward to sharing a cappuccino and laughter with her again.

Angelica at a cafe in Pozzallo.

Our favorite little caffetteria in Ispica.

Yum Yum Yum.

Good friends.  Good times.  Good flavors.

Please visit “A Curious State of Affairs” and “Sky Windows” to see their entries for the week.  And please consider joining us next week.

Next week’s topic?  “Portrait”.  And Lady Luck promises she has something good for us as her entry!

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Barak Obama Wears a Kilt*

What’s the big fuss about the picture currently making big news of Obama wearing a traditional tribal outfit when he visited his father’s homeland of Kenya back in 2006?  It just happens to be a wrap around skirtlike garment and a turban.  So what?

If his white mother was from Scotland, and Barak had gone there for a visit and donned the family tartan, would we even be having this conversation?

Is the Clinton campagin behind the recent circulation of this picture?  If so, does she really think America is dumb enough to fall for her fear tactics?  Gee, there are pictures of me wearing a Mao hat I got in China.  I own a watch with a hammer and sickle on it that I bought in Russia.  I have a Che Guevara T-shirt I picked up in Cuba.  None of these things make me a communist any more than wearing a turban makes Obama a muslim extremist terrorist.

What do YOU think of his wearing this outfit and the current brouhaha?

(*Okay, he didn’t wear a kilt.)

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“Joy!” – Photo Friday

PHOTO FRIDAY

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Today’s Photo Friday entry is entitled: Joy! © Jan Marshall 

My computer has been out of commission for a week.  I have it back, and it seems to be working just fine.  I missed having it GREATLY!  Seems it was “killing” AC adapter/chargers.  The connection inside had come loose fromt the mother board and so it was arcing electricity and causing power spikes.  The man who fixed it checked my two adapters and confirmed that they were completely dead.  I put an order in from Dell for a new one and was anxiously awaiting its delivery, but when I tried my old adapters one last time before throwing them away, I found that one of them, despite having been declared legally dead, worked!  I wasn’t sure I’d have my laptop back and in working in order in time to post something for this Friday’s Photo Friday.  But I do.  Happy happy joy joy! 

Despite my morose, loner, pessimistic leanings, , I manage to find much to be joyful about in life.  It has taken practice and work, let me tell you!  I have made it part of my personal life plan to find joy where it can be found, and to embrace it as fully as I know how to do so.  There’s a verse in the Bible that says “do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).  If I enjoy the things that bring joy to the Lord, I find strength to endure the things that cause grief.  I think children are one of those things.

One of my brothers and two of my sisters have given to me the gift of nieces and nephews.  Children inately find joy in unexpected places.  We can learn much about joy just by watching children.  On one of my visits to California to visit my family, I took one of my nieces and two of my nephews to the park.  We happened upon pigeons while we were there and the chase began.  I know this is a photo meme, but I’m posting a video this week.  The quality is horrible as my old digital camera had limited video capabilities.  When I played it back, it shocked me a little to hear my own voice and laughter…I enjoyed their chasing the birds more than they enjoyed their own chasing of the birds. 

Now, although the whole point of chasing pigeons would be to catch one, when my nephew Mitchell actually did, it stunned him!  The lesson I took away from this pigeon chasing escapade?  Don’t chase what you aren’t prepared to catch!    And if laughter is the best medicine, then this little trip to the park cured what might have ailed me.

I had to make a choice between the nurse in me that screamed “PIGEONS ARE FILTHY, DON’T TOUCH THEM!!!” and the person in me who wanted to experience the potential joy of the moment.  I guess you can see and hear that I picked the joy option…

Please visit Lady Luck’s blog “A Curious State of Affairs“ to see her entry, and for links to the other entries for this week.

Next week’s topic?  Friends.

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“Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA”

Jan of the lovely blog “A Curious State of Affairs” tagged me in a meme about books.  She tagged me because she is “intrigued” to know what I’m reading! 

The rules are:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

I love to read.  Every once in awhile I get myself into a bunch of books at the same time.  Right now I am in the middle of reading three books.  I also have a few that I have started, but put them aside and can’t say I’m in the middle of them as I will have to start them all over again.  The books I am reading are:  “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, “The Purpose Driven Life”, and “The Case for the Real Jesus” (this is the book that I have most recently had opened).  The books I have started but need to start all over again are:  “Silent Coup – The Removal of a President”, “Wuthering Heights”, “Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger”, and “Compromised: Clinton, Bush, and the CIA”.

 

(As an aside note, I am always in the process of reading the Bible.  If I’d been on the other side of the couch, that would be the book I’d be “memeing” on).

The rules are to grab the NEAREST book to me.  When I read Jan’s post where she tagged me, I was on my couch in the living room and “Compromised…” was on my coffee table.

Per the rules, here are the three sentences I am to share:

“We’ll moth-ball the camp until March if we can get just four or five crews graduated and shipped on down there, ” Sawahata said.  This would be a welcome releif for the instructors because winter weather was now impacting the flying schedule.

Seal was showing up more often in Little Rock, in a much better frame of mind and seemingly much more relaxed than before. 

What?  That doesn’t make you want to go out and get this book and read it???    My brother lent the book to me two years ago, and is very anxious for me to read it.  I keep it on my coffee table because I don’t want to disappoint him.  But so far I’ve been disappointing him for two years…it’s a difficult read.

The book is nearly 600 pages long and through the eyewitness account of Terry Reed (a former CIA asset) seeks to offer a behind-the-scenes insights into the sordid world of intelligence.  I can’t even provide a synopsis.  It delves into the Iran-Contra story, drug trafficking, payoffs, fund diversions, assassinations, Bill Clinton and the Arkansas-CIA connection, and on.  Terry Reed became a liabilty when he couldn’t be controlled and was hauled into federal court on charges that turned out to be false and he was acquitted.  In order to set the record straight, and to clear his name, he wrote this book.  Part of me doesn’t really want to read it because I don’t really want to have to deal with how disgusted it will make me.  I doubt that knowing anything that is in the book will serve any good purpose for me.  I ALREADY don’t trust government.  I ALREADY don’t think that Bill Clinton is a good man.  I AM very curious to see how former president Bush plays into this complicated and dark tale, though.  So perhaps I’ll  put this book back on the stack, but at the top…

The five bloggers I am tagging are:

1. Brooke of “So I was Thinking” because I bet she’s reading a thousand books.
2. Sarah of “Anatomatizing of the Grey Matter” because she’s not busy enough already! 
3. Shirley of “Shirley Buxton” because she’s a writer and prolific blogger and I have no idea what kinds of books she might read, but I’d sure like to know.
4. Larry of “Hallelujahs“.  Haven’t heard much from Larry lately!
5. Peter of “where’s peter” because he realllllly needs to update his blog!    

I don’t even know if these bloggers will be checking in here any time in the near future, but I hope they do and that they participate!

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Do I Feel Lucky Today??

You are a South African bush pilot working for Blue Sky Aviation.
You fly in some critical medical supplies, enjoy a quick lunch at the hospital.

It’s a stifling 100 degrees in the shade and you’re eager to get back up to the cool, high blue yonder.On the way back to your plane, you discover that the only bit of shade within 1 mile has become very popular. You start calculating the distance to the plane door and wonder…

Do I feel lucky today?

(I ran this through Snopes.com, just to make sure it wasn’t faked.  It wasn’t.  I don’t know about YOU, but I’ve never felt that lucky in my whole entire life!  I also tried to figure out to whom I could give credit for this picture, but was unable to determine its origin.)

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“Pathos” – Photo Friday

 pa·thos  (pā’thŏs’, -thôs’) n.  

1. A quality, as of an experience or a work of art, that arouses feelings of pity, sympathy, tenderness, or sorrow.
2. The feeling, as of sympathy or pity, so aroused.

There’s is nothing quite like the visual art of photography to evoke our emotions.  I love that it’s an art form that is available to everyone.  Most cannot paint, most cannot sculpt, most cannot draw, but everyone can point and shoot.  With the advent of the nearly idiot-proof digital camera, even the most unskilled eye and wavering finger can inexpensively capture wonderful images.

I love taking pictures.  My primary camera is a Nikon Coolpix S4.  The lens swivels 170 degrees allowing me to easily get shots from all kinds of angles.  Often my best pictures are ones that I did nothing to set up.   

I took this picture during the summer of 2006.  It was taken in Kansoka, Zambia.  This was “foot washing day”.  We had hundreds of orphans come to get loved on/hugged on/held/played with, as well as to get, in most cases, their very first pair of shoes and socks.  This particular little girl had captured my attention throughout the day.  I don’t know her story.  I don’t even know her name.  I never learned the stories of most of the thousand or so orphans we met that summer.  But most of them shared at least part of the same story.  In Zambia alone, more than three quarters of a million of them have been left alone in the world having lost one or both of their parents to malaria or AIDS.  The “lucky” ones had older siblings to care for them.  One 10-year-old we met was the oldest left in his household.  He had become the man of his family and was now responsible for the care of his four little brothers and sisters.

Life has dealt this little princess a very hard blow.  Life in sub-saharan Africa is difficult for most in the best of circumstances.  To be a child, perhaps even a baby, and to be left parentless, makes an already difficult circumstance a precarious one.  And yet many of their young faces still shine.  They laugh and play just like children do.  They are full of hope.

I look at her face and my heart is both completely broken, and yet paradoxically full. 

Pathos.  

(Click HERE for links to more Photo Friday submissions.  And please consider playing along with us!  We’re only three, we’d like to be more!)

Next week’s Photo Friday topic is “Joy!”.

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“Re: Essay and other such rubbish” – PART II

Here is the second installment from my 16 year old nephew Richard’s ’Essays on the benefits and Wonders of what Society Deems as “Negative Traits”‘.  (Click HERE to read the first).  Enjoy! 

Part 1: The Joy of Pessimism

PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist

with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary
US author & satirist (1842 – 1914)

            The average member of a society, when hearing the word “Pessimism”, conjures up images of sour-faced, ill tempered individuals who darken those around them with their morose countenance. This is but an atypical example.

            True Pessimists, myself included, have simply experienced enough of life’s trials and difficulties to conclude that things rarely, if ever, go as planned, and, more often than not, drown in the slough of inadequacy and disappointment. A true pessimist realizes that any hope in the things of this world will eventual succumb, suffocated by the festering miasma of time, dissatisfaction, and extraneous, albeit not unpredicted, circumstances.

            There is a certain joy, however, reserved only for we true pessimists. Our mindset tends for us to set low expectations of life around us. The truth of the matter is, however, that in our civilized life, with our inexhaustible supply of resources, pursuits, and possibilities, things never fall too far into disarray. We pessimists, by keeping our expectations low, often see them fulfilled, despite the fact that all does not go to plan. Moreover, should everything go as planned, our expectations are fulfilled above and beyond what we had hoped for. This constant fulfilling, as a result, makes us happier individuals, for our lives progress far better than we expect. In this, optimism seems to the observing pessimist not only absurd, but oxymoronic. An optimist always has high expectations and hopes, which are rarely if ever fulfilled, yet they remain happy. A Calvin and Hobbes comic strip emphasizes the credo of we true pessimists best:

Calvin and Hobbes are walking in the woods. Calvin turns to Hobbes and asks, “If  you could have one wish, what would it be?” Hobbes ponders this for while and replies, “A sandwich”. Calvin proceeds to condemn Hobbes as a fool for using his wish as such, listing all the things he could have wished for. At the end of their walk, Hobbes goes to the kitchen, makes himself a sandwich, and says, “I got my wish”.

            In the end, true pessimists see their low expectations fulfilled all the time, and we are happier as a result, whereas optimists rarely see their high expectations fulfilled, but are still happy because they are optimists, always looking forward to the future.

If “40 is the new 30″, and “pink is the new black”, then it appears that “pessimism is the new optimism”! 

What do you suppose his NEXT essay will be about???

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“Re: Essay and other such rubbish” – PART I

That was the subject line of an e-mail I received from my nephew Richard.  I had called his house moments before and my little sister Whitney was cracking up about this new bit of writing that Richard was reading to her.  He said he was going to send it to me to read.  I asked him if it was okay if I put it on my blog if I liked it.  He’s been the subject of many of my posts already, so I’m pretty sure that he knew that this was more than a distinct possibility.  BUT, I like to get permission to “publish”, if you will, the creative works of another.  Permission was granted.  This tome of his is a work in progress.  I hope to be receiving more of the essays that make up the ESSAY in the days to come.   Here is the first installment of:

Essays on the benefits and Wonders of what

Society Deems as “Negative Traits”

Introduction

            My intent for these essays is that they be used to show the lighter side of what many deem as negative traits, and how they are beneficial to those blessed with them, if used properly. I started writing these essays on a whim: I was in study hall, and, having successfully completely all of my math work, I decided to pass the rest of study hall writing an essay on pessimism, extolling a thesis I had contrived regarding pessimism some months earlier, and then seen mirrored in a fellow classmate of mine. This one essay snowballed into a series of essays dealing with related subjects. So, here they are:

Okay, well, that ought to whet your whistle!  You’ll have to wait for the next installment!  It’ll be worth the wait though.  It’s called “The Joy of Pessimism”.

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“The observed of all observers” – Photo Friday

This week’s Photo Friday was quite a challenge for me.  “The observed of all observers” is a line taken from “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare.  I will admit to you that I have never read “Hamlet”.  In fact, the only work of Shakespeare’s that I have read in its entirety is “Romeo and Juliet”, and that was in the 7th grade.  I have been ignorant of even the basic plotline.  All I could connect with the play is a skull (a talking one perhaps?), a murdered father, and a couple of quotes that I’ll probably get completely wrong:  “out damn spot”, and “get thee to a nunnery”.  As “Hamlet” is Shakespeare’s longest play, and as I only had a week to put this post together, I didn’t think I’d have time to read the whole thing in order to glean inspiration.  Ergo, I figured I’d read a synopsis or two.  Which I did. 

Kind of a depressing play!!!  Hamlet is a king.  The king of Denmark.  His son is also named Hamlet.  Hamlet’s (the prince’s) father is killed.  A ghost identifies the murderer as the king’s brother, Claudius.  Claudius marries Hamlet’s mother.  Hamlet is torn by wanting to exact revenge, but isn’t sure if the ghost is the best source of information.  He feigns mental instability while trying to figure out what to do.  Hamlet is depressed.  His feigned mental instability becomes real.  Claudius’ most trusted advisor is Polonius.  Hamlet loves Polonius’ daughter Ophelia.  Hamlet kills Polonius in a case of mistaken identity.  Ophelia is depressed.  Hamlet is disgusted by Ophelia’s immodest behavior and spurns her.  Ophelia is depressed.  Ophelia commits suicide.  Hamlet’s mother dies when she drinks poisoned wine meant for someone else. Hamlet dies at the point of a poisened blade but manages to finally kill Claudius before breathing his last.  He also manages to make someone called Fortinbras his heir to the throne.  Fortinbras orders Hamlet’s body to be carried off in honor.  The end. 

The line which is our assignment was taken from the words of Ophelia about Hamlet after he tells her to get to a nunnery:

 O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s, eye, tongue, sword;
The expectancy and rose of the fair state,
The glass of fashion and the mould of form,
The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
And I, of ladies most deject and wretched,
That suck’d the honey of his music vows,
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason,
Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh;
That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy: O, woe is me,
To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

Yeah.  I’m with you.  I’m not exactly what it means, either.  She sounds like a girl who’s pretty upset that her wacked out boyfriend broke up with her, even if he is wacked out. 

What to do????!!!

We have murder, love, rage, insanity, plots, war, incest, hatred, ghosts, poison, immodesty and all manner of other grim and dark elements.

Which leaves me trying to figure out how to capture ANY of this in a photo!

I wrote all of the above nearly a week ago.  I am nearly inspirationless still, and this “assignment” is due!  The only thing I kept thinking about all week long was my college days.  My dorm room was up in the dormers on the fourth floor.  They were the coolest of all the rooms in our building, called “East Hall”.  The rooms on our floor faced towards a hill which led up to one of the boys’ dorms, and overlooked the parking lot.  We learned a lot, and kept tabs on a lot, just by occasinally paying attention to what was going on outside, by observing, if you will. 

Most of us in this little enclave suffered from more than the average amount of boyfriend drama, though perhaps not as much drama as Ophelia apparently endured.  I’d only been there about a month before the drama got to be almost hilarious.  We all decided that we’d rather live in a convent than have to deal with boys.  “Get thee to a nunnery” became our motto, our battle cry.  We called our little wing of rooms “the convent” and swore off boys.  We bought matching baseball shirts and had them personalized, just for our “team”.  The swearing off of boys didn’t last long, but the convent lived on.  It’s probably still the convent to this day.

I happened across that shirt a few weeks ago.  That’s probably why it’s the only thing I could think of for this entry.  So, instead of something creative, this is what you get….the official “convent” shirt of Houghton college:

 

This post was so much more about the story than the picture!  I’ll do better next week, I promise!

Click HERE to link to the site of Photo Friday’s hostess to check out the other entries for this week!

Next week’s assignment?  Pathos.

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(Not So Raucous) Caucus

This evening I did something I have never done before.  In fact, until a few weeks ago, I never even thought about doing it because I was always working.  I wasn’t even sure HOW to do it.  So I went online and found out WHERE I could do it.

Tonight I headed down to my local Republican precinct and attended the party of my political registration’s caucus.  I had literally no idea what to expect.  The online information stated that the caucus was to be held at my local elementary school.  In my mind I envisioned a bunch of other local registered republicans sitting on grandstands and debating the merits of this and that and the other candidates, and then, at the conclusion, we’d all rasie our hand vote for our candidate of choice.

That’s not EXACTLY what happened, but pretty close!  At least in part.  Each precinct gathered in assigned classrooms.  I sighed to myself and hoped that this misspelled sign was taken down off the door to the 4th grade classroom we met in before the kids showed up for school in the morning!

 

Our classroom was full.  We had 25 registered Republicans show up.  From what I hear from others who had done this before, this was quite a turnout.  Our meeting started with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance.  There were a number of items of business.  I volunteered to be a teller, or a vote counter.

The actual discussing the candidates part of the meeting was quite tame.  Speakers were limited to two minutes and could speak in support of or against the candidates.  We had ten people speak.  Most spoke strongly in favor of Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee.  A few spoke gently against McCain and Romney.  And then we took a written straw vote (our actual primary takes place in August).  The votes were collected in a little basket and I and the other two tellers took them outside for the count.  My precincts finals:

The results were called in on speaker phone with all of us as witnesses.

More items of business followed.  I was one of the three chosen to be county delegates for our county meeting in March.  I am excited to be part of the actual political process instead of just showing up and voting on election day.

We started at 7:00 and were done by 8:30.  I will be seeing Dale and Betty again as they are the other county delegates.  So far the whole process has been very hands on. 

I have always said that if you don’t vote, you lose your right to complain about politicians and the state of things.  I guess that I am insuring my right to complain loudly! 

When I got home I decided to watch FOX News’ coverage of Super Tuesday and was both shocked and delighted to see that Mike Huckabee is having a great night!  If Romney wins, I guess I can close my eyes and plug my nose and pull the lever for him…and then go home and take a shower.  If McCain wins I’m afraid in order to get a less liberal candidate that I’ll have to vote for whoever the democratic candidate is.

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Siesta – Photo Friday (possibly not for the faint of heart or delicate of stomach…)

I thought I needed to do something more divergent for this entry than I did for my last entry.  Siesta is the spanish word for “nap”.  So then, I thought I would post on something that incorporated ”spanish” and “nap”.

And OF COURSE, the “Momias de Guanajuato” came to mind.  Isn’t that what came to YOUR mind??? 

Some years ago I was invited to my friend Manuel’s wedding which would take place in central Mexico.  In the state of Aguascalientes, to be more specific.  Central Mexico is very unlike the border towns of Mexico that I was familiar with.  Many of the towns are reminiscent of colonial Europe.  We visited the capital city of Guanajuato as well.  The city, also named Guanajuato, is a wonderful place.  Guanajuato has no stop lights or neon signs.  The streets are winding and often narrow and cobblestoned.  There is a system of hundreds of years old underground brick and stone tunnels which snake beneath the city and help move traffic around unseen.  There are large plazas, beautiful cathedrals and theaters and parks.  Up on a hill is a massive stone figure named “el pipila” which overlooks the entire city.  (As I write and look through my scrapbook from this trip, I can see that I am going to need to post more in the future on this subject.) 

One of the things this city is famous for is its “Momias”, or mummies, including the smallest mummies in the world.  We decided we must see the place and take a gander at the curiously preservered dead. 

Weird.  Very weird.  Seems the location/soil conditions and weather where these people were buried were just perfect for the making of mummies without any preparation of the bodies.  In some cases the bodies would be mummified within just a handful of years from interment.

Here are a few of the mummies at the museum.  The pictures are not all that great as 

1) flash photography was not allowed, and 

2) these are digital photographs of 35 mm print originals.  But here they are nonetheless!

Look at the preservation of this man’s skin!

Some of the mummies were clothed, some not.  Some were just in shoes and socks.

This little one is called “la momia mas pequena del mundo”, or the world’s smallest mummy.  She and her mother both died during a C-section.

This postcard is rather irreverant, don’t you think?

So, there you have it.  Final slumber in Mexico…

Not your average siesta!

Click HERE to visit Lady Luck’s blog for more entries in her meme, Photo Friday!

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