There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair.
Donella Meadows
You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2018.
Tags: Quoting
New Mexican Black Dog. Maybe not technically a breed but the most accurate description of our girl. She is most likely a Kelpie – Cattle Dog mix, but we’re happy to let the mystery linger.
What we DO know – that she loves all that is important in a dog’s life – to hike and walk and eat and cuddle and play. Oh, and dig holes (grrr…) and run, especially after rabbits and squirrels.
Good morning, dear reader! Last evening’s 80% chance of precipitation brought this lovely bit of fluff down on our burgeoning patch. Always a welcome sight, I must say. The cute birdhouse is eagerly awaiting tenants, but I honestly think the entry is a tad small for most of our fine feathered neighbors. In any case, it looks darn cute.
We have tulip and crocus and daffodil, nestled and budding under the blanket. To say that I am eager for their blossoms is an understatement. How spoiled I was by the evergreen and early color of the Pacific Northwest! Camellia, daphne -theat scent, too, how I miss you. Everyting is coming along, however, juniper and lodgepole and a few whippersnapper aspens, too. Grow, grow, grow!
And there I am, wandering about, sandals and Grandpa’s robe. The comforts of home.
This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
Walt Whitman
Tags: Quoting
I have a serious lament. Too many people are mean, and too many people delight in it, especially in movies and on television. I cannot tell you how many times I am recommended a fil-um or show to be immediately struck by cruelty spun as humor. “Oh, look at me! I am a jerk and am going to purposefully hurt someone. Isn’t it hilarious?” There is enough wickedness in the world; I do not have any desire to make it my entertainment. So, as you might imagine, I start a lot of t.v. watching without even remotely crossing the finish line. Yes, sometimes it is annoying, especially when trying to come to a consensus with friends, but I feel I must stick to my principles on this one. Love and kindness are worth the effort! Forever and always.
Remember quite a while back, how I talked about the hubster and I never having cable television? Well, looky who joined the revolution, peeps! About six months ago, Greg called the cable company about some technical difficulty. While on the phone, the nice fella who helped him gave us a discount bundle for HBO and our internet for less than we were paying for the internet alone – an offer we couldn’t refuse! It took us another three months to actually hook our television up to it, but that is another story.
So anyhoo, we started perusing their On Demand offerings and found High Maintenance, my absolute favorite show. Seriously. I love, love, love it. And crazy coincidence, I saw an interview with Ben Sinclair (the handsome bearded guy on the bike) on you tube where he opined the attack on love, basically sharing my lament from above, so even more reason to be enamored.
What the heck is it about, you say? A guy, known only as The Guy delivers marijuana to Brooklynites (Brooklyners? No clue, sore-ee.) via bicycle. Each show is a vignette about the lives of his customers or someone involved on the periphery of their lives. It’s a beautiful show about humanity and pot smoking. Such fabulous writing! I couldn’t be more smitten.
Surprise, more HBO viewing. Issa Rae’s most fabulous insecure – a recently turned thirty-year-old woman copes with the ups and downs of life, work, and relationships, both romantic and friendly. More great writing!
The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes – the title kind of nails it. Homes for the 1% mostly, too. Exquisite, oftentimes outrageous, all an absolute wonder to behold.
Well, whaddya know? It seems I have never spoken about Rita before. A super Danish series (season four!) that follows the life of a rather fine teacher with a pretty messed up personal life. She’s working on it.
Big Dreams, Small Spaces is the antidote to the Extraordinary homes from above, highlighting what determined people can create with mostly limited budgets and time. It made me a little homesick for my Portland garden – all that rain and GREEN!
Felix and Meira – A man and a woman live in the same neighborhood, yet worlds apart. Felix is coping with the death of his estranged father and asks Meira, a Hasidic mother at the park with her baby in tow, how to cope with the loss. They forge a forbidden friendship as he helps her come to terms with her incompatibility with the religion that has defined her entire being. Wow, just wow.
Tags: Movies
