I watched part of Ghost tonight. The movie with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. There is a scene before Patrick Swayze's character is killed where Demi Moore's character says that she loves him. He says "ditto" and she asks him why he never says that he loves her. He says that people say it all the time and they don't mean anything by it. She says that that may be so but she needs to hear it. She needs to hear that he loves her. Then he is gone and he never gets the chance to say that he loves her.
In my life I have only said that I love a handful of people and every single one of them I meant it when I said it. And part of me will always love them. Love for me is admiration and fondness and a desire for them to be happy. I don't regret loving any of them and I wouldn't take back the expression that I loved them.
Love and caring unexpressed are like ghosts. Unresolved emotional business that leave bitter regret and the residue of what might have been. Even if the love and caring are not returned at least the recipient of the expression has been given a gift of love and caring and they can state that they don't return it. There may be heartbreak but there is clarity in the situation. Honesty. And things can resolve.
To not express love deprives the world of badly needed positivity. To express love meaninglessly does as well. There needs to be both sincerity and fearless expression.
And if when one expresses love and caring the emotion is returned, then the love can grow. Love is never something that can be asked for or expected. It can only be freely given.
The expression of love requires more courage than walking into a lion pit or facing a combat situation because there is no certainty of what may happen, but it is still better to express than to not and miss the opportunity.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Perceptions--revised so the link is there!
I watched this video yesterday and I want to share it with others. If you watch it, please do me the favor of telling me your reaction in a comment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
So far I have shown this video to 11 people and I will share the results in the next few days.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo
So far I have shown this video to 11 people and I will share the results in the next few days.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Outside my Back Door this Evening When I Arrived Home
It snowed today in Aspen. We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
When the future is not as we envisioned it would be back in 1950
Here is a poem that I wrote a couple years ago. I usually do not post my creative writing on my blog because I try to circulate stuff to have it professionally published and if it appears on my blog it is considered previously published. I am posting this poem because it is something I wrote and want to share-- however if anyone decides to use it for something please link back to my blog and give me credit.
When the future is not as we envisioned it would be back in 1950
I’m Movin’ On, Destination Moon
Throw a steak on the grill, stir a chilled martini, and enjoy white picket bliss
Left on Rocket 88 When Worlds Collide
Technicolor blue skies, you just have to ignore the Ruskie A-bombs
Throw a steak on the grill, stir a chilled martini, and enjoy white picket bliss
Have Mercy Baby, it’s The War of the Worlds
Technicolor blue skies, you just have to ignore the Ruskie A-bombs
Honey Hush Them
Have Mercy Baby, it’s The War of the Worlds
Brown versus the Board of Education
Honey Hush Them
Blacks can’t vote and women can’t leave the house
Brown versus the Board of Education
Ain’t It a Shame on This Island Earth
Blacks can’t vote and women can’t leave the house
But if you don’t talk about it, it’s okay
Ain’t It a Shame on This Island Earth
The Russians put Sputnik into space
But if you don’t talk about it, it’s okay
20 Million Miles to Earth Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On
The Russians put Sputnik into space
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman For Your Precious Love
20 Million Miles to Earth Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On
Let’s not forget the untamed, hellfire shouts of Elvis
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman For Your Precious Love
The double helix of DNA twisted and grabbed attention
Let’s not forget the untamed, hellfire shouts of Elvis
Will you Love Me Tender?
The double helix of DNA twisted and grabbed attention
It! The Terror From Beyond Space
Will you Love Me Tender?
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
It! The Terror From Beyond Space
Visions of cities in the sky, gyrocopters, and push button living
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
When the future is not as we envisioned it would be back in 1950.
copyright 2008 Annette Bowman
Friday, October 22, 2010
Fierce
I woke up this morning with my heart pounding, thrashing, and in a cold sweat. It's been another tough week. I had my first migraine in 2 years on Tuesday, work, and I found out my car is not in the best of shape.
This week I watched 2 biographies while walking on the treadmill. One was about Anne Rice who pounded out Interview with a Vampire after losing her daughter to leukemia. In the biography that I watched, she and her husband had drifted apart and were drinking heavily to cope with their daughter's illness. After the little girl's death, Anne Rice felt like a failure as a mother and a wife. All she had left was the writing and she poured herself into Interview with a Vampire. I remember thinking as I watched the documentary that she was writing about the undead as though clinging to life.
The other biography that I watched was about H.G. Wells whose mother thought that someone of their working class background could do no better than to become a draper. She apprenticed her son twice to drapers and both times he was dreadfully unhappy. H.G. Wells read and studied and earned honours and prizes that landed him the opportunity to attend the University of London. He was a fierce alternative thinker and prophesied modern warfare, created all the models of science fiction, and wrote novels that inspired the suffragettes. His personal life he lived without compromise. He believed in free love and that sex was an expression of admiration and for fun. He had an open marriage with his second wife and numerous open affairs. Until he become a premier novelist, he was routinely kicked out by landladies who did not like his scandalous lifestyle. But he carried on.
Both Anne Rice and H.G. Wells exhibited ferocity. Anne Rice in her passion for her child and her writing. H.G. Wells in the way that he refused conventions.
I have been having a hard time with life and writing. I want to travel and possibly teach English overseas. I want to experience different cultures and see different things. I want to write. All of this is a bit scary. Takes effort to figure out. And is a risk to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.'"
The things that we are afraid to do are the great accomplishments. The things that bring satisfaction. Fear is such a part of life in small and myriad ways. I think we have to feel the fear and do whatever we shall do despite it. Become fierce.
This week I watched 2 biographies while walking on the treadmill. One was about Anne Rice who pounded out Interview with a Vampire after losing her daughter to leukemia. In the biography that I watched, she and her husband had drifted apart and were drinking heavily to cope with their daughter's illness. After the little girl's death, Anne Rice felt like a failure as a mother and a wife. All she had left was the writing and she poured herself into Interview with a Vampire. I remember thinking as I watched the documentary that she was writing about the undead as though clinging to life.
The other biography that I watched was about H.G. Wells whose mother thought that someone of their working class background could do no better than to become a draper. She apprenticed her son twice to drapers and both times he was dreadfully unhappy. H.G. Wells read and studied and earned honours and prizes that landed him the opportunity to attend the University of London. He was a fierce alternative thinker and prophesied modern warfare, created all the models of science fiction, and wrote novels that inspired the suffragettes. His personal life he lived without compromise. He believed in free love and that sex was an expression of admiration and for fun. He had an open marriage with his second wife and numerous open affairs. Until he become a premier novelist, he was routinely kicked out by landladies who did not like his scandalous lifestyle. But he carried on.
Both Anne Rice and H.G. Wells exhibited ferocity. Anne Rice in her passion for her child and her writing. H.G. Wells in the way that he refused conventions.
I have been having a hard time with life and writing. I want to travel and possibly teach English overseas. I want to experience different cultures and see different things. I want to write. All of this is a bit scary. Takes effort to figure out. And is a risk to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, 'Always do what you are afraid to do.'"
The things that we are afraid to do are the great accomplishments. The things that bring satisfaction. Fear is such a part of life in small and myriad ways. I think we have to feel the fear and do whatever we shall do despite it. Become fierce.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Free Mojo
Tonight I was compelled to go grocery shopping because I had a coupon for a free dipped Mojo bar. So before I begin expanding on my grocery store adventure, I need to take a moment and pause to reflect on the concept of a free dipped Mojo bar. Somehow free mojo seems wrong in a cosmic karmic sort of way like this thing is going to come around and bite me in the booty. And then there is the idea of a dipped mojo. I have a very dirty mind and this takes my thoughts in directions better left unstated lest innocent eyes perchance upon this post. And then there is the whole golly gee whiz bang combination of a free dipped Mojo bar.
I immediately decided it had to be car food.
It seemed the only logical conclusion.
While the cashier rang up my groceries, I chatted and explained that I was geeked because I had a coupon for a free dipped Mojo bar and it was going to be car food because car food has no calories.
She stopped, looked at me, and smiled. She inquired with a smirk, "Car food has no calories?"
I said, "Yup. Food eaten in the car has no calories. There is a void and the calories just disappear."
She liked this idea. The guy bagging my groceries asked, "So, anything I eat in my car has no calories?"
I looked at him and said, "Yup, not one calorie."
He said, "Wow, that means I have had about 40 calories all day." He stopped and looked askance. "What about fast food?"
I explained, "That's the beauty of it. It's eaten in the car. No calories."
"Cool," he said.
I paid for my groceries and pocketed my mojo and started to leave. The woman behind me told the cashier that she did not have her discount card. I smiled and volunteered mine. I love to foil the computer program that is tracking my purchases and trying to figure out what to market to me in this way. Probably how I got the free dipped Mojo bar.
As I was sitting in my car, reading the packaging on the Mojo bar which announces that it is a sweet and salty trail mix bar and had a full nonexistent 210 calories, I watched a woman instruct her three children to climb into the back of her Jeep and she would pack the groceries in around them. I smiled and commented that it was safety packing to make sure that in a collision there'd be no cracked eggs or bruised bananas. She smiled and explained that her husband had the big car and that she only a wee way to go. It was kind of fascinating to watch her figure out the puzzle of getting three kids and a full grocery cart of food all into the Jeep. This woman has thinking skills that could solve some of the world's thorniest issues. Wish I had another Mojo bar to give to her. She deserved one! By the way, the Mojo bar was delicious.
I immediately decided it had to be car food.
It seemed the only logical conclusion.
While the cashier rang up my groceries, I chatted and explained that I was geeked because I had a coupon for a free dipped Mojo bar and it was going to be car food because car food has no calories.
She stopped, looked at me, and smiled. She inquired with a smirk, "Car food has no calories?"
I said, "Yup. Food eaten in the car has no calories. There is a void and the calories just disappear."
She liked this idea. The guy bagging my groceries asked, "So, anything I eat in my car has no calories?"
I looked at him and said, "Yup, not one calorie."
He said, "Wow, that means I have had about 40 calories all day." He stopped and looked askance. "What about fast food?"
I explained, "That's the beauty of it. It's eaten in the car. No calories."
"Cool," he said.
I paid for my groceries and pocketed my mojo and started to leave. The woman behind me told the cashier that she did not have her discount card. I smiled and volunteered mine. I love to foil the computer program that is tracking my purchases and trying to figure out what to market to me in this way. Probably how I got the free dipped Mojo bar.
As I was sitting in my car, reading the packaging on the Mojo bar which announces that it is a sweet and salty trail mix bar and had a full nonexistent 210 calories, I watched a woman instruct her three children to climb into the back of her Jeep and she would pack the groceries in around them. I smiled and commented that it was safety packing to make sure that in a collision there'd be no cracked eggs or bruised bananas. She smiled and explained that her husband had the big car and that she only a wee way to go. It was kind of fascinating to watch her figure out the puzzle of getting three kids and a full grocery cart of food all into the Jeep. This woman has thinking skills that could solve some of the world's thorniest issues. Wish I had another Mojo bar to give to her. She deserved one! By the way, the Mojo bar was delicious.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Please Reconsider Columbus Day
October 11 is Columbus Day in the United States. It is also observed in Spain and throughout the Americas on Oct. 12. Columbus Day is a publicly created and observed holiday based on a notion from the past that Columbus discovered the Americas. However, many different people discovered America before Columbus bumped into the archipelago of the Bahamas-- the Clovis people, the Vikings, and maybe the Chinese to name some. Further, Christopher Columbus' voyages were bankrolled by Queen Isabella of Spain and ushered in the whole Spanish colonization of North, South, and Central America as well as the European colonization across the globe. Christopher Columbus' wild scheme to sail westward to Asia was a huge business gamble that somehow caught Queen Isabella's attention because the Spanish were looking for a way to accumulate gold in their coffers and an easy trade route to the luxuries of the East might have accomplished this. Despite the fact that Columbus underestimated the circumference of the earth drastically (he thought it was a quarter of the actual distance-- he should have studied Ptolemy who had it correct!), the Spanish found gold and slaves that made Spain one of the wealthiest kingdoms in Europe. Christopher Columbus was made a very wealthy man because he was named Admiral of the Ocean Sea and made viceroy and governor.
So, Columbus did not discover the Americas, he was a bad navigator and seaman, had great luck, was a successful opportunist, and became wealthy.
He also was arrested for governing tyrannically three years before his death and many people gave testimony against him and his brothers for atrocities that he committed in the Spanish colonies.
Why are we honouring this man? What are we celebrating when we celebrate Columbus Day? World Conquest Day? Why don't we just distribute smallpox laden trinkets, hold an orgy with a few people with STDs in the midst, enslave a population, steal, and pillage? How is what the Spanish did in the "New World" any different than what the Third Reich did in Europe during World War II? Genocide happened in both instances in which beliefs and the drive for resources fueled a type of culture war but we call what the Nazis did the Holocaust. And we celebrate Columbus Day?
I think we should reconsider Columbus Day. Let's create an Indigenous Peoples Day.
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il5hwpdJMcg&feature=player_embedded
So, Columbus did not discover the Americas, he was a bad navigator and seaman, had great luck, was a successful opportunist, and became wealthy.
He also was arrested for governing tyrannically three years before his death and many people gave testimony against him and his brothers for atrocities that he committed in the Spanish colonies.
Why are we honouring this man? What are we celebrating when we celebrate Columbus Day? World Conquest Day? Why don't we just distribute smallpox laden trinkets, hold an orgy with a few people with STDs in the midst, enslave a population, steal, and pillage? How is what the Spanish did in the "New World" any different than what the Third Reich did in Europe during World War II? Genocide happened in both instances in which beliefs and the drive for resources fueled a type of culture war but we call what the Nazis did the Holocaust. And we celebrate Columbus Day?
I think we should reconsider Columbus Day. Let's create an Indigenous Peoples Day.
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il5hwpdJMcg&feature=player_embedded
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The World is a Weird Place
I am currently engaging in a debate about whether or not it is ethical to clone Neanderthals. I am not certain if it is or not. If we were to clone the Neanderthals it would be for human (homo sapien) reasons and this might be selfish. But then again there is some evidence that homo sapiens did in the Neanderthals. Do we owe it to them to bring them back? I am also thinking that they had intelligence and were very similar to us so maybe my inclinations that we should clone them are coming from some kind of empathy and desire to have a species similar to us be resurrected.
But they wouldn't be the same as the Neanderthals of prehistoric times. They would be in a different context. Would they be able to cope and survive? Maybe they would like driving cars? Maybe they would like ice cream? Maybe they would like Detroit? Maybe they would have no ability to understand the concept of property and would walk into a store and grab everything they wanted and who would stop them? Maybe they would have encoded in their genes an instinctual hierarchy and murder wouldn't be out of the question?
Who knows?
And we live in this world where such issues come up.
In the process of debating this issue, I raised that I would like our species to survive in the long run despite that we are dealing pretty ineffectually with major issues like our own over populating the planet and global warming. And we may just destroy the planet to the point where it cannot reboot and no life will be able to exist on earth. (If you have doubts about this check out this link about the toxic sludge devouring Hungary, it makes any monster movie look like a tea party: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/toxic-sludge-hungary-reservoir-collapse or this one: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/201010773641415530.html)
And if seriously considering the ethics of cloning Neanderthals, Hungarian toxic sludge, and the UN considering an ambassador to welcome any extraterrestrials (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8025832/UN-to-appoint-space-ambassador-to-greet-alien-visitors.html)that might stop by isn't mind bending enough, then there is THE Tea Party. Ugh. Another post. Every time I hear a clip of Sarah Palin I get an image in my head of her with a red clown nose, big red lips, and driving the clown car that seems to remind me of the Tea Party. I described this image to a friend of mine and he thought that my image reminded him of the Joker that was Batman's nemesis. Somehow I cannot see Batman as a liberal but the Democrats could use a hero right now despite that Michelle Obama was listed on the Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women along with Lady Gaga (http://www.forbes.com/wealth/power-women/list) who ranked higher than Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, and Sarah Palin.
And speaking of weirdness there is the movement out of Texas to rewrite history and take out liberal people like Thomas Jefferson and Thurgood Marshall, include organizations like the National Rifle Association and the Heritage Foundation, and rename the form of government in the US not a democracy but rather a republic because the word democracy is too close to the word democrat and shows a bias that children might learn to associate good things with something like a democracy or a democrat. The last bit I find particularly scary because the phrase "the democracy is dead, long live the republic" keeps toodling through my head. But when I get most of my news from the BBC and the Telegraph in the UK, the Christian Science Monitor, or the Al Jezeera News network because these offer more unbiased and extensive international and US news than anything on the major news networks in the US, it makes me wonder how healthy the democracy in the US is. Perhaps at this point in time the rights of citizens in the US are very strong and lean towards a type of representative democracy, but if no one knows what is going on can there really be an empowered citizenry?
So, in this highly changing time period where we can even consider seriously the idea of cloning Neanderthals, perhaps they wouldn't want to come back to all this.
But maybe they would want to come back to listen to and dance to these two Japanese school girls sing Tom Lehrer's The Elements Song. This made me smile today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljsUVDOcYB0&feature=player_embedded
But they wouldn't be the same as the Neanderthals of prehistoric times. They would be in a different context. Would they be able to cope and survive? Maybe they would like driving cars? Maybe they would like ice cream? Maybe they would like Detroit? Maybe they would have no ability to understand the concept of property and would walk into a store and grab everything they wanted and who would stop them? Maybe they would have encoded in their genes an instinctual hierarchy and murder wouldn't be out of the question?
Who knows?
And we live in this world where such issues come up.
In the process of debating this issue, I raised that I would like our species to survive in the long run despite that we are dealing pretty ineffectually with major issues like our own over populating the planet and global warming. And we may just destroy the planet to the point where it cannot reboot and no life will be able to exist on earth. (If you have doubts about this check out this link about the toxic sludge devouring Hungary, it makes any monster movie look like a tea party: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/10/toxic-sludge-hungary-reservoir-collapse or this one: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/201010773641415530.html)
And if seriously considering the ethics of cloning Neanderthals, Hungarian toxic sludge, and the UN considering an ambassador to welcome any extraterrestrials (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/8025832/UN-to-appoint-space-ambassador-to-greet-alien-visitors.html)that might stop by isn't mind bending enough, then there is THE Tea Party. Ugh. Another post. Every time I hear a clip of Sarah Palin I get an image in my head of her with a red clown nose, big red lips, and driving the clown car that seems to remind me of the Tea Party. I described this image to a friend of mine and he thought that my image reminded him of the Joker that was Batman's nemesis. Somehow I cannot see Batman as a liberal but the Democrats could use a hero right now despite that Michelle Obama was listed on the Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women along with Lady Gaga (http://www.forbes.com/wealth/power-women/list) who ranked higher than Nancy Pelosi, Sonia Sotomayor, and Sarah Palin.
And speaking of weirdness there is the movement out of Texas to rewrite history and take out liberal people like Thomas Jefferson and Thurgood Marshall, include organizations like the National Rifle Association and the Heritage Foundation, and rename the form of government in the US not a democracy but rather a republic because the word democracy is too close to the word democrat and shows a bias that children might learn to associate good things with something like a democracy or a democrat. The last bit I find particularly scary because the phrase "the democracy is dead, long live the republic" keeps toodling through my head. But when I get most of my news from the BBC and the Telegraph in the UK, the Christian Science Monitor, or the Al Jezeera News network because these offer more unbiased and extensive international and US news than anything on the major news networks in the US, it makes me wonder how healthy the democracy in the US is. Perhaps at this point in time the rights of citizens in the US are very strong and lean towards a type of representative democracy, but if no one knows what is going on can there really be an empowered citizenry?
So, in this highly changing time period where we can even consider seriously the idea of cloning Neanderthals, perhaps they wouldn't want to come back to all this.
But maybe they would want to come back to listen to and dance to these two Japanese school girls sing Tom Lehrer's The Elements Song. This made me smile today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljsUVDOcYB0&feature=player_embedded
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