Here’s a tandem response today: integrating #Reverb10’s Day 13 prompt on “Action,” asking “What’s your next step?” with my dovetailed thoughts to Tara’s question posed to us: “Why do you make?” (I am going to put aside for now the fact that when I nannied in 1989, the family used the word “make” as euphemism…
Category: People are people
My philosophies of people and their people-ness.
“Your Life’s Work of Art has Already Begun”
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Day 10, #Reverb10 Prompt: Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Thanks, Susannah Conway!) “To create a work of art you’re proud of, step back on occasion, ask for feedback, paint over, change directions, and switch your medium. Just don’t wait to begin to paint, don’t…
Parties: Math Made Fun!
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Day 9, #reverb 10: Party.What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? (Thanks, Shauna Reid) Here’s the best party advice I ever learned: Never –ever– hang your invite up on a wall. Parties are simple mathematical equations. They are algebra. On one side of the = sign is everything you need for the party:…
The Opposite of Boredom
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Apparently I am riffing away on Tara’s 4-part series; maybe because the content of the series– “The Deconstruction of Ennui” — is like my own personal gospel choir Hallelujah-ing behind me while I work. Consumption is one of those things I’ve written about before, but I don’t think I’ve ever connected it to boredom. When…
Zen and the Art of Tedium
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A conversation about boredom at Scoutie Girl yesterday got me thinking again about the daily tasks that constitute part of the “work” of my life. Not the least of these is feeding a family of six. Not the worst of them is laundry. Some I despise for no particular reason, like emptying the dishwasher. Whenever…
Where Wisconsin Is…
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…And Other Existential Observations on Home My colleague (we both teach at university) said, quite innocently: “I guess I don’t think of Wisconsin as the Midwest.” This while I was rapping a heavy mix of Madison virtues and Midwest easiness. “Oh,” she said when I called up the map. “I guess I thought it was…
On Seeming Effortless
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Cinnamon rolls have to be one of my favorite foods. Over at Pioneer Woman this morning I was drooling at her recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Sweet Rolls. The recipe even starts from the yeast, and not from a blue can you tear paper off of and bang on the counter’s edge. Man, I like…
I’m Smarter Than You…
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Or, At Least That’s What You Think My oldest sister, Kathy, felt the crush of competitiveness in our family the most. And why shouldn’t she? After all, she was succeeded, one after another, by 5 cute little bundles that usurped her crown. And meanwhile, more and more responsibilities were dumped on her little shoulders Coming…
On Loving Things
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Thanks Tara! It’s Another We Scout Wednesday great topic. I have talked often here about how we should all de-stuff ourselves. Get rid of everything and just stop the consumption train. It’s no secret how I feel about that. I am the anti-packrat. At my house, if you leave your sh*t on the counter too…
Shhh! I’m reading!
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Found: Beautiful Writing Ooh, so yesterday’s post was so amazing because the replies came in with such wonderful responses and referrals. I haven’t gotten to look at ALL of them yet of course, but I am LURVE with this one “Today’s Letters”, referred to me by mac and cheese buddy, Stacy. I am a sucker…
I Need You Now… More Than Words Can Say
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I’ve mentioned before that I am making some changes to my blog, and that they will be happening over the course of time. Key to the success of my space, though, is making it a bit less MINE and a bit more YOURS. We like to think of ourselves as islands — There’s ME and…
Taking the Bagel
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The truth about life lies in this pat of butter. We can ask for what we want. We can even PAY for what we want. We can desire and expect it. But we won’t always get it. Here’s the bagel I had for breakfast at my favorite Milford cafe. I order it in this way.…
On Being Brand New
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Only once do we have the chance to ACTUALLY be brand new. We arrive on the earth, sticky and discombobulated, completely unprepared for all this light and noise. From then on, we are experienced. We’ve seen it all. So we have to do all manner of contortions to reinvent ourselves. The book I am reading…
Please Accept This Spider Drawing as Payment
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Artists are basically fucked in America. They work their asses off, often all day and all night, spend heaps of money and thought on their craft and at the end of the month, they still have nothing with which to pay their water bills. So can they flush their toilets? NOOOO! One of the offspring…
Time, Sculpted and Consumed
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We have time, and we use it up. It is the ultimate commodity in a temporary life. In a creative space, it seems to waiver in form: great gaping hours of fearful emptiness, or ultra-thin slivers of panicked release. Between reading Jon Kabat-Zinn’s “Wherever you Go, There You Are” and Scoutie Girl’s latest post on…
