I have been sick this week. It seemed at times as if my skin had been removed, pummelled with a tenderizing mallet, then wrapped back over my bones, mashed into place with a good whack to my lower back..
I am very much looking forward to a return to health, which I hope happens very soon.
Very.
Soon.
OMG.
I have just discovered United Nude shoes. These are incredible! I have never seen them ‘in the flesh,’ tried them on, etc. But from the photos, they are GORGEOUS! I love the way they play with geometric shapes. So stunning!
One of the most popular posts on my blog is https://shawnbird.com/2011/03/02/places-to-look-for-lost-keys/. Since last March when I wrote that one, my keys have been reasonably well behaved, staying clipped onto the handle of my purse where they belong most of the time. (This is a good strategy- I use a large carabiner clip). For Christmas this year my husband was finally able to find a gift he’s been hunting for about 20 years. He bought me a key finder.
A key fob is attached to my key ring, and I just push a button on the finder and the key fob beeps. It beeps VERY quietly, but it beeps. So long as my hearing stays good, and I don’t lose the finder component of this system, it may do the trick.
PS. He found it at Canadian Tire, if you need one too.
In Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones comments to her diary, “Wonder what Mark Darcy would be like as a father. Father to his children I mean, not to me. That would be a weird Oedipus-like thought.”
Ha. I love Bridget Jones. I think there is far too much Bridget Jones inside each of us. There is always something that makes us feel somewhat inadequate and afraid.
I like this quote, though, because of the allusion. When I teach allusion to my high school students, I tell them that it is all around us, but that kids often miss it, simply because they don’t know the work alluded to. To be well educated, is to have an understanding of the breadth of literary heritage, so you can recognise allusion!
Here it is in action. Bridget Jones refers to Oedipus. There’s a lot of meaning encapsulated in this reference, if you know to what she is alluding.
The story of Oedipus Rex is an ancient Greek play written by Sophacles some 2500 years ago. The summary is that a king is told that he will be killed by his son, so when his son is born, he maims him and tells the wife to kill him. The wife gives the baby to a servant who tells her he’s killed it, but in fact sends it to be raised far away. Meanwhile young Oedipus wonders if he’s adopted. He goes to the Oracle to clear it up, and instead of a straight answer, is told he’s going to bed his mother. He presumes that means he’s not adopted, and runs away to escape that fate. The king, his birth father, comes across young Oedipus on the road, they have an altercation, Oedipus kills his father (not knowing it’s him of course) and thus one prophecy is fulfilled. Then he ends up marrying his mother and becoming king. When he eventually finds out, he tears out his eyes in torment. There is an underlying message here about the inevitability of destiny, etc.
Obviously, a 2,400 year old play is in public domain. You can read it here: http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/oedipus.html
Now, lets come back to Bridget. What layers of meaning are there in her side-comment about Mark Darcy being her father in an Oedipus-like way… Hmmm
Allusion makes everything far more intriguing.
PS. In my classroom, when I’m teaching Senior English, there is an “Allusion board” for students to post examples of allusion that they find in literature, movies, and news sources. One reason that I teach 1984, despite students’ horror of it, because it is a book that is alluded to constantly.
I’m spending a lot of time the last couple of months reading Diana Gabaldon novels. The Outlander series is about standing stones, and the opportunity to time travel on the sun and fire feasts of assorted solstices. When I realised the day, I posted this on the Diana Gabaldon Facebook site, but I thought I’d share it with you as well.
On this Winter Solstice Day, may the stones guarding your reality open to your dreams…
What are your dreams?
What is standing in the way of achieving them? If your desires are attainable, just as a little more light is added to each day from today onward to summer, take a few moments daily to take steps to fulfilling those dreams. Write a few words, learn a few things, work out a few minutes. Each small step leads closer to reality. Then the stones of your reality won’t be blocking you, they will be the doors to your destiny.
My dad is in the hospital this week. I watched with dismay how one harried and dismissive LPN managed to set an entire room in disarray. My father– weak, blind and quite deaf–was in quite a state, knowing something was going on, but helpless to deal with it, and not clear about what it was. I caught enough talk between patients and staff while I was there to know he hadn’t imagined things.
One person’s skill set makes all the difference. One person who is knowledgeable, pleasant, courteous, and respectful of the patients can improve the environment. A person who is sharp, unwilling to listen, dismissive of concerns or desires, causes more trouble, and more problems erupt.
As my father tried to explain what he had experienced, and I tried to offer (what I thought were) logical interpretations, he shook his head and remarked, “This is what makes people think they’re going crazy.” He was right. He didn’t have the picture completely right, but he had enough of it to set off alarm bells. I wonder how often this happens in extended care facilities? The elderly patients may frantically try to explain what they’ve experienced, and because their hearing or visual impairments make some of their observations unclear, and their interpretations may seem a little whacky, and their slurred speech requires some concentration to attend to their meaning, do people think the elderly person is hallucinating?
It is a valuable lesson on how one person’s incompetencies can negatively impact others. Attempting to mask incompetencies just leads to more problems, like ripples spreading in a pond. Listen. Find the problem. Attend.
As you’ll know if you’re a long time reader of this blog, I was an exchange student in Finland. As a result, I speak passable Finnish (even now) and I have a house full of Finnish decor items. These become particularly noticeable at Christmas, as my host families have tended to send special ornaments over the years.
A few years ago, I was at a teachers’ workshop and the speaker showed a graph of the national ratings of educational systems. He was pointing to Canada’s number three placement when he asked, “Why do we tend to look at the US for innovative educational ideas, when they’re 23 places below us in these rankings? Why aren’t we looking to the countries above us?” That made sense to all of us in the room. When I looked at the ratings and saw that Finland was number one, I thought perhaps that was an area of potential master’s studies.
One of my Finnish friends drew my attention to the book Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg today, and I have just ordered it. Stay tuned for a review.
I stumbled on this excellent essay today by professor Kip Wheeler, a Chaucer scholar who teaches in Tennessee at Carson-Newman College. What Professors Expect discusses the value of a liberal arts education, and explores the true purpose of going through the educational process. Worth a read for students pondering their options and goals.
All of his hope for his future was absolutely exploding into nothing. I think that just completely destroys somebody in a moment. ~Richard Armitage
(from http://www.tv.com/people/richard-armitage/trivia/)
Armitage is referring in this quote to a character who must kill his beloved, so the observation is a bit of an understatement! Taking the remarks out of that specific context, however, there is a bit of a message here.
When we do not have hope, we are destroyed. In desperate situations–times of war, for example–those without hope have no strength to carry on. They give up and are lost. In contrast, those who hope that better days are coming, fight strength to live another day.
Proverbs 29:18 suggests that “Without vision, the people perish.” Vision can be equated with hope in this situation. You have to be able to imagine a better future, and if you can begin to actually formulate plans to improve the future, so much the better. Vision is hope.
I know someone who is going through a bitter divorce at the moment. Bitterness, agony, rejection and depression are sucking hope out of life, and there is no positive vision. Unable to hear that he holds in his own hands the ability to create his own happiness, helplessness has overwhelmed him.
The second part of Proverbs 29:18 adds, “but he that keeps the law is happy.” I’m not sure how vision fits with keeping the law. How does do they relate to each other? The idea of obedience bringing happiness fits with theocratic governance, of course, but vision and obedience seem somewhat at odds. Those who take the vision and make it power have the joy of living in a spirit of grace, whether or not they’re happy with the law.
Shawn L. Bird 
pray plant January 14, 2012
Tags: consonance, house plants, poem
red clover
keeled over
petals unfurled
pallid curls
pray, prayer plant
for power to survive
are you strong enough
to live long enough
pray
little plant
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