While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance picking something up and throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young boy, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water. He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what you are doing?” The boy paused, looked up, and replied, “Throwing starfish into the ocean.” The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” To this, the boy replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.” Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “Do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile. It can't possibly make a difference!” The boy listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it back into the ocean and said, “It made a difference for that one.”
I'm not sure what this post is about, really. The post-holiday, pre-inauguration gloom is setting in and it seems like a good time for a little more beauty in the world.
Making a difference one starfish at a time is a beautiful thing. We can do this, America.
As we inch our way into 2017, a year that many fear may be even more challenging than the annus horribilis we just booted out the back door, it might help to entertain some fresh perspective.
Sure, the 2016 election and all the ugly, brutal months that preceded it, may have been the beginning of the end of the United States as we knew it, but from a universal perspective 2016 was an infinitesimal blip within the infinite expanse of existence. The universe, the earth and even these divided States we still hope to call America will survive Trump. They will even survive the band of sycophants and opportunists known as the Republican congress.
Life will go on and in a hundred years - still an infinitesimal blip of "time" - things may very well be better for this horror show. People may have learned from this catastrophic mistake and the study of civics and history may even be valued again. Who knows? Maybe the principles that our liberal and enlightened founders hoped to enshrine in the founding documents of these United States will at last be restored as our guides.
That's the hopeful idea I leave with you tonight - and for your Tuesday Tonic, here is James Taylor crooning his thoughts on the secret of life.
Everyone is talking about New Year's resolutions and for once, I am making one, too.
I resolve to write more. (The secret real resolution is to write daily and post here daily - I'm on the fence about publishing that part for obvious reasons. Ha. We will see if this aside will make the final publishing cut, thus committing me to keeping the resolution or slinking away in self-induced public shame. Double ha)*.
An online friend posted some words of wisdom which I think is appropriate to share (with permission) at this juncture:
"Here is the trick to sticking with resolutions. They involve either making a new good habit or breaking an old bad habit. Research has shown fairly consistently that habit forming and breaking takes roughly 3 weeks to take hold, so if you make it 3 weeks you have a pretty good shot at keeping your resolution. But this is also part of why January 21st is widely regarded as the most depressing day of the year!" lily cd re
So, there you have it, NiftyUniverse! Don't worry about sticking with your resolutions for a whole year. Simply resolve to do your new thing for three weeks, and the rest will take care of itself!
Isn't that just ducky? Yes, faithful followers! Here comes a Ducky photo!
2017
The New Year comes quietly puppies sleeping, comfort and joy Keep on, with courage and love.
And one more poem since I am in a philosophical mood! Remember, kids:
Only a night from old to new!
Only a night, and so much wrought!
The Old Year’s heart all weary grew,
But said: “The New Year rest has brought.”
The Old Year’s hopes its heart laid down,
As in a grave; but, trusting, said:
“The blossoms of the New Year’s crown
Bloom from the ashes of the dead.”
The Old Year’s heart was full of greed;
With selfishness it longed and ached,
And cried: “I have not half I need.
My thirst is bitter and unslaked.
But to the New Year’s generous hand
All gifts in plenty shall return;
True love it shall understand;
By all my failures it shall learn.
I have been reckless; it shall be
Quiet and calm and pure of life.
I was a slave; it shall go free,
And find sweet peace where I leave strife.”
Only a night from old to new!
Never a night such changes brought.
The Old Year had its work to do;
No New Year miracles are wrought.
Always a night from old to new!
Night and the healing balm of sleep!
Each morn is New Year’s morn come true,
Morn of a festival to keep.
All nights are sacred nights to make
Confession and resolve and prayer;
All days are sacred days to wake
New gladness in the sunny air.
Only a night from old to new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born.
Today is the 203rd anniversary of the birth of Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. Most people know that Verdi was one of the greatest opera composers of all time, but even if Verdi's name doesn't ring a bell (or clang any anvils even), there are numerous hummable Verdi tunes that many people actually do know. They just don't realize that they have been humming Verdi until they hear the tunes performed (in a flash mob, for instance)!
Giuseppe Verdi had a long and eventful life. An agnostic atheist, Verdi managed to escape a lifetime of composing and performing sacred music for the church - the fate of most composers throughout history - and succeeded in earning a comfortable living. He was interested in the complex challenges of the human condition and one of the reasons for his outstanding success was that he broke new ground by exploring deeper ethical and emotional themes. Such work requires a depth of artistic honesty which would have been impossible in a religious context. As his first wife, Margherita, wrote: “Never, absolutely never, would he [Verdi] settle in Busetto. Having dedicated himself to theatre music, he would succeed in that and not in music for the church.”.
As if that wasn't all cool enough, Verdi was also a man who knew his way around the kitchen! He enjoyed cooking and dining with friends and family and he created many of his own unique recipes. Here is one that I invite you to try to celebrate the great composer's birthday:
Risotto Giuseppe Verdi's Style Ingredients ¾ lb. Carnaroli rice 2 oz. butter 3 oz. mushrooms 3 oz. asparagus tips 3 oz. Prosciutto di Parma 3 oz. canned tomatoes 3 ½ tablespoons light cream 4 cups meat broth Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to taste ½ onion, thinly sliced Preparation: (25 minutes preparation + 16 minutes cooking) Clean and finely mince the onion. Clean and thinly slice the mushrooms. Clean and blanch the asparagus in salted water: cool them in water and ice. Mince the prosciutto finely. Blanch the tomatoes, peel, seed and cut them into cubes. In a pot melt ¼ of the butter, add the onion and slowly cook it until soft and golden. Add the rice and toast it for about 1 minute. Add the broth, 1 ladle at the time, waiting until it has been absorbed before adding the next one. After 8-10 minutes, add mushrooms, prosciutto, asparagus and tomatoes. Stir well, cook for another 2 minutes and add the cream. When the rice is “al dente” (about 18 minutes), add butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, then stir well and cover with a lid. Let it rest for 2 minutes and serve. Serves 4. (This recipe was created by the French chef Henri-Paul Pellapratt (1869-1952), the "father of modern French cooking", who dedicated it to maestro Verdi. via NPR)
Last and best of all - for your listening pleasure, here is a terrific video taken from the Metropolitan Opera HD series featuring the company singing "Va Pensiero" (also known as the "Hebrew Slaves Chorus"). It is hard to believe that this stirring piece - one of Verdi's most well-known and beloved - comes from one of the composer's earliest works. It is from Nabucco, Verdi's first successful opera which catapulted him to the 19th century equivalent of stardom at the age of 34.
Va Pensiero (English lyrics) "Fly, thought, on wings of gold, go settle upon the slopes and the hills where the sweet airs of our native soil smell soft and mild! Greet the banks of the river Jordan and Zion's tumbled towers. Oh, my country, so lovely and lost! Oh remembrance so dear yet unhappy! ..."
"You may have the entire universe, if I may have Italy."
(This essay was first posted in March 2012. Reposting with slight edits to reflect more recent historic events. :) )
On Shakesville, Melissa McEwan now and then posts a photo of my idol, Hillary Rodham Clinton. She made a joke about how often she posts these photos and several commenters echoed what I was thinking - she could post them every day and I might actually visit her blog even more often, not less often! Hillary is that much of a draw to me.
I was one of those housewives Hillary did not choose to be like back in the 1990's (though my kids can tell you I was stronger on "exploring" and crafts than I was on baking cookies), and yet I could not understand the uproar over her remarks back then. That was my first glimpse into the hatred that conservative women have for progressive women and it was probably my first inkling of just how deep and complicated the schisms in American society have become. This will be one of many posts on this topic.
What Hillary was pointing to was the truth...
What Hillary was pointing to was the truth: in spite of the lie that we can "have it all", women can't be everything they would like to be - at least not at the same time - not really. We can be full-time homemakers, but then we will not be respected as persons who have something to say outside of domestic issues. We can be full-time employed workers (and obviously full-time moms still), but then we are vilified by the stay-at-home contingent as 'bad mothers'. Many of us can and must be something in between- struggling to be both full-time moms and part-time workers - and discovering the awful truth that we are not allowed to feel good about either of them. Hillary wanted to make a difference in this country, but she knew that in order to do that she would not be able to stay at home full-time, even if she had wanted to do so.
Many of us can and must be something in between- struggling to be both full-time moms and part-time workers - and discovering the awful truth that we are not allowed to feel good about either of them.
I found Hillary refreshingly honest, admirably capable and formidably intelligent. I knew what she was saying - women just don't get to do both of those things in our culture, not really, and she was speaking to that - I found her impressive and likable. I heard in her remarks the painful conundrum that is a woman's experience in public life - no matter what she did, she was going to be wrong and ridiculed for even trying. And yet, she did keep working. She did continue to work and she did continue to put herself out there in public life. She has never stopped trying to make a difference for women in the world, and she has succeeded.
Women the world over are inspired by Hillary Rodham Clinton. I am inspired by her.
Women the world over are inspired by Hillary Clinton. I am inspired by her. Men the world over are inspired by her, too, and this is a fact which has become even more evident in recent months as both women and men have lined up to endorse and support her nomination as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States of America.
Here is a short clip from the Women in the World summit held in March 2012 at the Lincoln Center. Hillary urges women to be "fearless"in fighting for equality, justice and civil rights for women. Coming from someone who has had to be fearless in the face of unremitting attacks in the public sphere, her words have particular power.
We are entering what is likely to be one of the ugliest and most exhausting presidential campaigns in American history. I will have Hillary Clinton's back. More importantly, millions of men and women all across this country will have her back, too. They get it - we are stronger together.
Starry Night Over the Rhone - Vincent van Gogh 1888-89
If this film project is even half as good as it looks like it will be, it will be worth clearing your schedule to go see it. The concept reminds me a little of the very cool and thought-provoking film Waking Life. Except in reverse.
Café Terrace at Night - 1888
Waking Life used animation software to convert actual film footage of live actors into drawn-looking, animated film.
Loving Vincent uses animation techniques to bring actual paintings in the style of Vincent van Gogh to life. The story of van Gogh's life is told with the visual component completely composed of modern artists' renditions of his famous paintings and then animating them.
This has got to be one of the most exciting forays into animated film that I have ever seen. The trailer is thrilling - the artist's style has been lovingly recreated and faithfully matched with the timeline of van Gogh's life.
I'm at a loss for words to describe how interesting this project sounds. Visually gorgeous, a compelling and fascinating story and a unique and groundbreaking approach to filmmaking. It cannot arrive in theaters near me quickly enough!
Re-enter the wizarding world of Harry Potter? Yes, please, NOW!
Wait. What??!! I have to wait until November 2016??!!?? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
The New Year has not even begun yet and now there is a reason to kind of hope 2016 flies by! J.K. Rowling and company really ought to be ashamed of themselves - this is aiding and abetting very unhealthy thinking!
And wait, wait! It gets better! Eddie Redmayne in the lead as Newt Scamander!
Ok, so this trailer is laughably lame. Absurd, pathetic, unsatisfying and oh for the love of all that is magical, can't they release this film in the spring instead?!?
This newly released movie poster, on the other hand, rocks! How will wizarding world fans ever survive the wait?
Only 10 days left until Christmas -- ARE YOU READY?!
Tree trimming, cookie baking, carol singing and memory making - there is a lot of fun and stress and activity and stress and JOY (and stress) in all the preparations this month for those who celebrate winter holidays.
So, just to take you mind off the unfinished TO DO list -- imagine for a moment how an ELF must feel just 9 days before it's load up the sleigh day! (Talk about stress!)
Bend your ear toward the screen and click on the little box below. Listen to the Elf's Lament by The Barenaked Ladies (with Michael Bublé).
Elf: I make toys, but I've got aspirations.
Elf's Lament
I'm a man of reason, and they say "'Tis the season to be jolly"
But it's folly when you volley for position
Never in existence has there been such a resistance
To ideas meant to free us
If you could see us, then you'd listen
Toiling through the ages, making toys on garnished wages
There's no union
We're only through when we outdo the competition
I make toys, but I've got aspirations
Make some noise
Use your imagination
Girls and boys, before you wish for what you wish for
There's a list for who's been
Naughty or nice, but consider the price to an elf
A full indentured servitude can reflect on one's attitude
But that silly red hat just makes the fat man look outrageous
Absurd though it may seem, you know, I've heard there's even been illegal doping
And though we're coping, I just hope it's not contagious
You try to start a movement, and you think you see improvement
But when thrown into the moment, we just don't seem so courageous
I make toys, but I've got aspirations
Make some noise
Use your imagination
Girls and boys, before you wish for what you wish for
There's a list for who's been
Naughty or nice, but consider the price to an elf
You look at yourself
You're an elf
And the shelf is just filled with disappointing memories
Trends come and go, and your friends wanna know why you aren't just happy making crappy little gizmos
Every kid knows they'll just throw this stuff away
We're used to repetition, so we drew up a petition
We, the undersigned, feel undermined
Let's redefine "employment"
We know that we've got leverage, so we'll hand the fat man a beverage
And sit back while we attack the utter lack of our enjoyment
It may be tough to swallow, but our threats are far from hollow
He may thunder, but if he blunders, he may wonder where the toys went
I make toys, but I've got aspirations
Make some noise
Use your imagination
Girls and boys, before you wish for what you wish for
There's a list for who's been
Naughty or nice, but consider the price
Naughty or nice, but consider the price
Naughty or nice, but consider the price to an elf
