Weblog 183

August 9, 2009~ 12:00am
This has been a weird week. It turned darker on Tuesday with the shootings here in Pittsburgh, and I felt its effects every day since --in dreams as well. I've had some pretty amazingly convoluted dreams that have stumbled into the nightmarish, time and again.



Things half-seen, half imagined. Awful things. I believe I'm angry over what happened, but I'm equally angry at the pornography of its aftermath, angry at the kind of society that produces such killers in the first place. I despair because I think the true causes are missed -- and that folks are blind to it because it would take too much change - in attitude, in priorities - to set things to rights again because we've traveled so far down a dark road-- and willingly, what's there at the end...



holds nothing but more tears, more horrors, and so much loss of what is precious- or used to be precious in human life. Things like real (not 'virtual') connectedness, respect, privacy--- sharing when its appropriate-- even simple patience. I see these as discarded, and we're left with only sensation through the constant buzz of the new, the extreme, the shocking and the scandalous. Those things seem to be all that folks care about anymore. Instant perks and jolts. Constant twitters and beeps. I hate it....I absolutely despise it.

(And people sure do take exception to seeing anything other than the perpetrator as the cause. Give folks someone to tar and feather and things can go right on as they were...unexamined and unchanged.)

Luckily for me, there are still things like grandchildren, and seeing the world through their eyes. Hopefully with love and lots of instruction, the richer life is still possible for them. That's what I see in this interesting 'blended picture' of a portly old cello player



and the very different instrument the little girl is seeing and hearing. It's her delight she sees. Her dance and her energy. It bends the world into more colorful shapes to create beauty a child sees clearly.

And today was Kay's fourth birthday party. Looking at the open canvas of her face, that wide-eyed openness



--those things lift me out of the doldrums. Every time. Faces of children. The way they see the world, and the way they believe....I mean honestly....



have you ever seen a more earnest wish made over a birthday cake? LOL!!! I think not! And I LOVE IT! Kids believe. I wish more of us did. I wish we had a better world to hand to them.




August 11, 2009~ 5:00pm
I love clean designs....and you know I love sites that feature creative types who've been able to market their beautiful designs via the web, so I was delighted to find another site like ETSY -(still my hands down favorite)- but along those lines. A place that's bright and welcoming, clean lines and vibrant colors, and LOTS of unique items. How about these beauties...a comfy, whimsically designed version of the Bentwood rocker, and the lovely spiral dish below it.







To check out other items, and just to enjoy a browse through a terrific online catalog of hand-crafted furniture, jewelry, gifts of all kinds, visit Hidden Art Shop. (Trouble is, for us 'Yanks', the prices are in pounds, and if you know anything about currency conversion, it's not really much of a deal for us, with everything being about half again as much in American dollars) -but it's fun to look, anyway.

Such sites perk me right up. Clean lines.....imagination.....quality items. Great going, Brits!




August 12, 2008~ 7:40am
WOW! Take a look at this!



It's a GIANT PITCHER PLANT. Carnivorous. Can eat not just insects, but small animals. (LOL!!! Can everyone say "Audrey II"-- from 'Little Shop of Horrors'?)

What is really interesting to me, is that my daughter Holly has a hanging basket of these things right outside her front door.....the BIG difference is that each 'pitcher' is only about 3" long-- (and it's a good thing for her dogs, right?)
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