June 28th, 2016 → 5:54 am
“[I] have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps…
as honorificabilitudinitatibus.” – Love’s Labor’s Lost
I’ve been doing some more research on Tudor England lately, and the words I’m discovering delight me! Including cooper, rufous, tatterdemalion, aglet, peascod belly, and parchminer (not to mention honorificabilitudinitatibus).
In addition, while writing a story yesterday morning I put down the word “trumble,” as in a loud, rumbling, trundling wagon. Yet, when I checked on it later, I had apparently made the word up! How is “trumble” not a word? Doesn’t it sound like it should be a word??
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
June 24th, 2016 → 5:03 am
“I turn my back.
There is a world elsewhere.” – Coriolanus
Wow. Big turn of events. I pray the fall-out isn’t quite as bad as projected.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
June 20th, 2016 → 5:26 am
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” – Richard II
One of Shakespeare’s most famous odes to his motherland. Good luck on the vote Thursday! I’m quite anxious to see what happens…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Politics/Politicians
June 12th, 2016 → 6:15 am
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” – Sonnet 18
I know it is only June 12, but a friend asked me the other day when we could go on a floating trip together, and the earliest date I could come up with was near the end of July! Our summer is so booked it feels practically over. Ah, summer, don’t go, stay, please, stay!
June 6th, 2016 → 5:56 am
“…thoughts
Which ten times faster glides than the sun’s beams
Driving back shadows over lowering hills.” – Romeo and Juliet
Good thinking can drive back the shadows. I wish we saw more of it in the political sphere. Frankly, I wish we saw more of it everywhere! Happily, myself and the renowned scholar Onyeka will be contributing to an atmosphere of intriguing thoughts and useful discussion in an online Goodreads discussion this Tuesday, the 7th. Please join us!!
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
June 2nd, 2016 → 6:24 am
“Where is the life that late I led?” – Henry IV, Part II
Just returned from a vacation to Alaska (see Mendenhall Glacier pic below). My son was up all morning yesterday asking when we would be going back. I think that means it was a success for all! That, or my son just doesn’t want to go to summer camp. 😉
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
May 16th, 2016 → 5:50 am
“They threw their caps
As they would hang them on the horns of the moon.” – Coriolanus
Happy graduation to everyone finishing college, high school, kindergarten, or anything else this month. Wo-hoo!
May 12th, 2016 → 5:57 am
“Momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(Note: “collied” means “dark,” and “in a spleen” means “in a flash”)
People have different views of motherhood. Some say it is the best thing they ever did (my own mother used to say that), some say it is the hardest; I’ve seen studies that show that parents are less happy than people without children, and other studies that find that they are more fulfilled. I think you simply can’t know until you are in the middle of it. And I also think that the experience will be different for each person, as childhood is. For me, motherhood has been a joy, though I will admit that it is more work than not. The majority of my time spent in relation to my child is spent cleaning, reprimanding, organizing, trying to figure out what the hell is going on or what just happened. There are times, in the midst of the chaos, when I wonder what I am doing. But every morning when my son wakes up, the very first thing he does (before even going to the bathroom) is to find me and give me a very long, very extended hug. Sometimes this morning hug lasts for a few minutes even! And in the still quietness of the house, with my husband asleep in the bedroom and nothing making a sound but my son’s beating heart against my own, I think, this one moment makes it all worth it. Literally. It may seem odd that 60 seconds of pure joy are worth what is often 5 hours of thankless frustration later in the day, but I can’t explain it, it is. When I hug my son in that brief morning moment, and he’s just all relaxed and warm and draped over me, the comfort is exquisite. It is like we are one.
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
May 7th, 2016 → 5:36 am
“Such wind as scatters young [women] through the world
To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
Where small experience grows.” – The Taming of the Shrew
There has been a lot of press around Malia Obama’s decision to take a “gap year” between high school and college. I would just like to note that I took a gap year 20 years ago now, before it was ever made cool by a president’s daughter. Mine was between college and graduate school and I worked at a minimum wage job for half of it, and for the other half drove around the U.S. in a car worth $300, staying at youth hostels and camp grounds, and visiting 44 out of the 50 U.S. states. It was amazing. And yes, everyone should do it.
May 3rd, 2016 → 5:00 am
“O that this too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew.” – Hamlet
Shakespeare has numerous quotes on suicide. Many of the best authors often do! I’ve been reading Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery this week, and came across one of the most beautiful, accurate descriptions of nonemotional suicide I’ve ever come across. I quote only a part of it here: (for full impact you should probably read the whole thing)
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other