tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32263492024-02-20T18:57:22.088-05:00kalilily time<center><strong>This is where Kalilily Time began, now in its 12th year, but moved.</strong></center><br>
<center><strong>I am now located at <a href="http://www.kalilily.net">www.kalilily.net</a></strong></center>Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.comBlogger321125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1077585732184370242004-02-23T20:22:00.000-05:002004-02-23T20:24:12.546-05:00Home Sweet HomeI'm heading back to the old homestead, back at the real <a href="http://www.kalilily.net">kalilily time</a>. Sorry for the inconvenience, but <a href="http://www.communique.portland.us">b!X</a> has finally got his DSL back and so I'm back in business on MT. At least I am now -- until the next time fate intervenes.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1077547743581466122004-02-23T09:49:00.000-05:002004-02-23T09:55:05.343-05:00DebaclesI'm frantically trying to turn around a editing job that needs to be done in a couple of days, but I just have to note an excellent piece by <a href="http://www.staugustine.com/stories/022204/opi_2139503.shtml">Walter Cronkite about The Marriage Debacle</a>. The right wing would do well to pay attention to the perspectives of this respected elder statesman about the gay marriage issue, which conclude with the following:
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<br /><em>Where is the Christian tolerance in those right-wing Christian leaders who would impose their religious beliefs on the entire diverse population of the United States, even to the extent of a Constitutional amendment curtailing our rights of religious freedom?
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<br />As the CCR leadership presses this matter, which they depict as a moral issue, they threaten a religious war that will split our nation at a time in our lives when unity would be helpful in attacking far more critical problems on which the future of our nation depends -- our foreign policy, the economy, education, medical care and the environment, to name a few.
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<br />In the difficult days ahead, the tolerant among us -- Republican, Democratic or Independent, Christian, Muslim, Jewish or nonbeliever -- are going to have to try to preach another morality, and that is the morality of tolerance.</em>
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<br />And speaking of debacles, <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/23/politics0907EST0509.DTL">what the hell is Ralph Nader thinking</a>!!! He used to be a smart man who understood that personal ego needs to come second to larger human issues. How the mighty have fallen.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1077427776357402042004-02-22T00:29:00.000-05:002004-02-22T00:35:05.966-05:00Out of FocusI think I remember a time when I could focus on one thing at a time -- a poem, a person, a pleasure -- when the process was as important as the product. I'm trying to remember when the last time was that I felt that focus, that stillpoint. Oddly enough, I think it was was a decade ago when I used to go out on Thursday nights to dance the Hustle for hours on end. I would follow the lead with such total focus that all I was aware of was my blood humming to the rhythm of the bass and my body carving sharp arcs through the smokey air.
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<br />I think I used to know that same kind of focus when writing a really good poem, feeling the rhythm come, hearing the hum of swarming words. But that was when I lived alone, with long, quiet moments to feed my focus. That was when I would have hours of down-time at work, alone in my own office, with nothing to do but let myself succumb to the processes of dream time.
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<br />I think what happened is that I got really good at my job -- multi-tasking, meeting deadlines, serving many masters. Scheme thinking. Quick thinking. No time to dream, alone, in a corner with a window.
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<br />I think what happened is I learned to care too much. I think what happened is that I let the world nibble away at my layers so that I lost my deepest secrets.
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<br /><a href="http://www.thewhitemoon.com/gallery/Artemis2.html">"The Many Breasted Artemis"</a> my shrink once noted, as I unloaded my distress at being expected to always be the nurturer, the feeder, the source of unlimited resources, the problem-solver, the responsible one.
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<br />I thought that when I retired, I would be able to find, again, that dreamy focus. Instead, it takes me until midnight to finally breathe evenly and deeply, to let go of all of the knowing. It takes me until midnight to finally feel the yearning for deep secrets.
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<br />But to have secrets, one has to have a life beyond the giving of care.
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<br />I'm waiting for my time to come again, when I will, again, simmer and stir, ladle, at last, into mounds of midnight words, that witch's brew.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1077308059599474362004-02-20T15:14:00.000-05:002013-06-28T15:13:16.428-04:00You can't choose your family....... but you can choose your friends. And, in many cases, friends become better than family.
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<br />I'm thinking this because of conversations that have been going on as a result of something <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/fires/connecting/community_member_or_writer.htm">Shelley Powers </a>wrote about "community" and that <a href="http://www.allied.blogspot.com/2004_02_15_allied_archive.html#107716005867539875">Jeneane Sessum </a>took off on.
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<br />I'm thinking this because, surrounding the quilted piece that a friend made for/about me, I've hung photos of family and friends -- my community. Together they make up my "wall of power" -- of which I'll post a photo when I get back to my regular weblog.
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<br />I'm thinking about this because my family of origin includes too many <a href="http://www.voicelessness.com/narcissism.html">narcissists</a>. They wear me down, weary me, stir worry. So it's my friends who help to keep me sane.
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<br />Community.
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<br />Some people seem to need the support of a close -- and often closed -- community. They feel protected by norms, rules, limits which they are not supposed to cross. "Beyond here there be dragons" the old world maps used to say. Stay where it's safe.
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<br />Then, there are others, like me, who are more comfortable walking the rim. Not really outsiders, because we tend to keep our fingers on the other pulses. And not really loners, because we do form friendships. But we don't really join or participate in large group-think. We like the freedom of the range, dragons or not. It's not that we particularly like dragons, but we'd rather risk incineration than accept the confinement of rigid community. Rim Walkers. <a href="http://www.oxygen.com/xena/">Warriors</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/series/-/108/mass%5Fmarket/103-5272863-5542267">Dragon-riders</a>. Mythology is full of the glory of such lifestyles.
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<br />Somtimes it's nice to be nice. But spice is more alive, and also a lot more fun. You just have to make sure your skin is thick enough to withstand the heat.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1077251807726186082004-02-19T23:55:00.000-05:002004-02-20T23:31:03.623-05:00Worried and WearyMy mother turned 88 yesterday. I just had some major dental renovation completed. I haven't even begun my taxes. I finished knitting two sweaters for myself that came out really well. I keep thinking of all of the things I want to blog about and then get so tired that I never make it to the keyboard. But here it is, after 11 p.m. and here I am.
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<br />Speaking of knitting, <a href="http://www.ghostgum.com/allan/">Allan Moult</a>, over there on the other side of the planet from me, is publishing an attractively designed online magazine, <a href="http://www.leatherwoodonline.com/">Leatherwood Online</a>, that recently had a <a href="http://www.leatherwoodonline.com/arts/2004/hugs/index.htm">really neat article </a>about
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<br /><em>a powerful art installation .... enabling everyone and anyone in the community to actively participate in the creation of a statement reflecting their love, care and willingness to protect the beauty of the Styx forest from further old growth logging. People throughout the community could knit red wool into pieces as short or as long as they personally had time and ability to produce, to be sewn together into 'hugs' that would be wrapped around the bases of trees.</em>
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<br />I love the photos of guys knitting these bright red "hugs," -- punk guys, guys in suits, guys tending bar. What a multi-layered message about what's really important!
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<br />Jim Kulleny at <a href="http://www.noutopia.com">NoUtopia</a> is always posting important messages that add significantly to my worry about what's happening to my country. I happen to really like his piece on <a href="http://www.noutopia.com/#anchor368571">The Incorporeal George Bush</a>, that. along with a great cartoon depicting George Bush's Vietnam war "decorations," ends with
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<br /><em>For some, though, class discrimination is a way of life and as natural as falling into the presidency. This is what should matter to a nation stuck with the silver-spooned George W. The particulars of his story are important only as they reveal that while the probable Democratic nominee chose to lay his life on the line, George was busy forming an essential and enduring part of his character: enjoying the perks of influence while testing the meaning and value of connections and learning to smirk about it.</em>
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<br />Meanwhile, I've been in and out of the <a href="http://www.orkut.com">orkut.com </a>poetry community, feeling like the "matriarch" that one of the poets (as a compliment) said I am. Well, I certainly have been writing and publishing poetry longer than most of the other poets in that community have been alive. As a matter of fact, I just took a big risk and applied to the <a href="http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/">New York State Writers Institute</a> for acceptance into their <a href="http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/workshop.html">upcoming workshop </a>led by poet <a href="http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/grennan.html">Eammon Grennan</a>. They only accept "experienced" and "published" poets. While I fit into those categories, it still remains to be seen if the poems I submitted are good enough.
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<br />Actually, I did get accepted into and particpated in a Writers Institute workshop with <a href="http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/montague.html">John Montague</a>, back in 1996. Suggestions he made for one of my poems helped me to get it published in <a href="http://www.berkshirewritersroom.org/review.html">The Berkshire Review.</a>
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<br />I have no idea what my chances are of getting into the upcoming workshop, but, hell, it was worth a try.
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<br />I've been a little frustrated about not being able to post photos on this site. My friend Joan, the quilter, finished the piece she was making for me/about me. When b!X gets his DSL account straightened out, which he says might be as early as this Tuesday, I'll have to get back on my regular weblog and post a photo. I've got it hanging in the middle of what has become my "wall of power." Joan says that this piece is a reflection of her perception of my "inner" self. She's making another one for me that's more funky; she says that it includes an image of Betty Boop (a favorite character of mine) and one of my poems as well. Now, that's a real friend -- especially since, if she were going to actually sell the one that's hanging on my wall, she said she'd have to charge $300.
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<br />It's nigh onto midnight. Tomorrow I will find out if the people who need someone to edit their 400-page (about 8-times longer than it should be, as far as I'm concerned) proposal for a <a href="http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/rscs/charter/charterschools.html">Charter School </a>are willing to pay me enough to make it worth my while to get it done by their deadline, which is next Thursday. So, if I'm absent from here -- again -- this time you'll know why.
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<br />Just to add to my worry and weariness, on <a href="http://www.buzzflash.com">BuzzFlash</a>, Maureen Farrell reminds me of those kinder, gentler days in her piece on <a href="http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/04/02/far04004.html">The Way We Were</a>
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<br /><em><strong>War</strong>
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<br />"The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war." – John F. Kennedy, June, 1963
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<br />"F*ck Saddam, we're taking him out!" -- George Bush, 2002</em>
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<br />Sigh.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1076638837176131022004-02-12T21:20:00.000-05:002004-02-12T21:22:26.576-05:00Families in Jeopardy<a href="http://www.hrcactioncenter.org/campaign/bush_fma"><em>According to The Washington Post, President Bush will endorse the anti-gay Federal Marriage Amendment. In doing so, he parts ways with a majority of Americans who do not believe we should write discrimination into the US Constitution. Amending the Constitution to discriminate against same-sex couples and our families is shameful - and we need to make sure that our elected officials know it</em>. </a>. You can go <a href="http://www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/index.shtml#petition">here</a> to sign a petiton to support the right of every American to marry the individual of his/her choice.
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<br />Even though I am heterosexual, I have always had gay friends. I become friends with people who share my creative interests. I have danced with both gay men and gay women. I'll dance with anyone who's a good leader.
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<br />Having been educated in Catholic schools until I went away to college, I never even knew what homosexuality was until during my sophomore hear in college, when a female classmate decided she had a crush on me. I didn't know that at the time; I just figured she wanted to be friends, and so I was friendly to her. It wasn't until she invited me up to her room, and I went, and she asked me to sit on her bed, and she tried to kiss me that my perspective on the sexualities of the human species began to broaden. I remember stuttering out some lame excuse and stumbling out of her room. It took me a while to process what had happened; I didn't want to hurt her feelings, and I didn't have any idea how to handle the situation. So I tried to avoid her. But she was always there. I even found her sleeping in my car. I finally gathered up the courage to tell her that I wasn't interested in her. It was all so awkward, so painful for both of us. No one was really out of the closet then; no one really wanted to talk about what it's like to be gay.
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<br />How different it all is now. Last month, when I ran into one of my gay friends/former colleagues and her partner at a movement workshop, we all hugged and asked about our kids and what we were up to and how our kids were doing. (My friend had a daughter through artificial insemination, and she and her partner are raising the girl together; they are a loving and committed family in most most nurturing sense of the word.)
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<br />It seems to me that, if there is such a thing as a human soul/spirit, it is gender-neutral. Marriage is the joining of spirits, the connecting of souls. What matters is how you join your lives, not how you join your bodies.
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<br />This world is full of so much violence and hatred and abuse and fear. <a href="http://www.hrc.org/millionformarriage/hrc_adcenter/index.html">We should support and celebrate any human union that is founded on caring and love and respect</a>.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1076630161038661382004-02-12T18:56:00.000-05:002004-02-12T18:57:50.670-05:00The Bush Action figure.Heh. It's about time --
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<br /><a href="http://www.southpoledudes.com/dishonestdubya.html">Check this out</a>!Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1076446919222348782004-02-10T16:01:00.000-05:002004-02-10T16:03:46.623-05:00So, how does this look?I needed to change this template so that I could have a sidebar that would take links. And I figured out how to add a Comment feature. I was hoping that <a href="http://communique.portland.or.us">b!X</a> would have his server hooked up to his DSL by now, but I'm beginning to think it's never going to happen.
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<br />So, how readable is this new format? Hello?? Hello??? Anybody out there who knows where I'm living these days?Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1076352866199641022004-02-09T13:54:00.000-05:002004-02-09T13:56:41.263-05:00Gun Shots in theSpring AirIt's almost 40 degrees here today. And about 15 miles from where I live, at Columbia High School (where I taught back in the 70s), a teacher is shot today. Apparently Michael Bennett, a Special Edcuation teacher, is OK and no students were injured. The local news speculates that it was a student who did the shooting; officially, he's described as an "intruder."
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<br />When I was barely in my mid-twenties with no real teaching experience under my belt, that school hired me to spend each afternoon facilitating a "supervised study" double period with potential drop-outs. Talk about trial by fire! After the first few weeks of surviving their testing me (like one of the boys walking in holding a boot and announcing to me that he found a rubber and what should he do with it), we all managed to find a common ground. We spent most of the rest of the year sitting around and talking about whatever interested them at the moment. For a while it was the pregnancy of one of the girls.
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<br />They were problem kids, angry at lots of people and things. But they didn't bring guns to school and shoot teachers. What's happening to our children!Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1076343393266428972004-02-09T11:16:00.000-05:002004-02-09T11:40:59.296-05:00WWJD with Rapturous Right Wing-Righteousness?Maybe it all boils down to whether you're a fan of the god of the Old Testament or New Testament. Me, I'm a fan of neither (although the New one is more to my liking), but I don't really count in this world of right-wing righteousness anyway.
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<br />On <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/05/60minutes/main598218.shtml">60 Minutes</a> last night, the self-righteous Ratpure-Awaiters explained how they will be going to "heaven" and the rest of the world's population will not. They base their rapturous opinions on their interpretations of what goes down in the bible's apocalyptic <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/brevelation.html">Book of Revelations</a> -- which, <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/apocalypse/explanation/brevelation.html">according to scholar Eugene Gallagher</a> (the Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies at Connecticut College), <em>essentially offers an arsenal of apocalyptic images and predictions that can be used to target any specific time as the apocalyptic moment</em>.
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<br />"With [George Bush in] the White House, Tom DeLay...in the House of Representatives...these are parts of the righteous army that has finally come into its own" stated the righteous Rev. Peter Gomes, a Baptist theologian at Harvard University, in the Morey Safer CBS interview.
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<br />If that doesn't scare you, I guess you're one of them.
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<br />Meanwhile, <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~ipnet/ap0301.htm">over in Iowa</a>,
<br /><em>An ordained Mennonite minister and her husband were among five co-defendants in a four-day civil disobedience trial in Des Moines (Feb. 3-6.) The five sought to hold the Iowa National Air Guard accountable to international law over their bombing patrols in Iraq. "This was a small action we were led to take as another opportunity to witness to Jesus’ way of peace," reflected Pastor Jennifer Davis Sensenig of Cedar Falls Mennonite Church. "We felt called to protect the spiritual and physical welfare of our soldiers as well as the people of Iraq, and work for a more secure world for everyone’s children. Our mutual security is gravely threatened by the irresponsible and illegal foreign policy the US is currently pursuing in the Mideast." </em>
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<br />Now, really, what do you think that peace-loving, compasionate Jesus Would Do? Rapture away the right-wing righteous or <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/2/8/20217/87619">stand with those whose faith is based in peace and compassion</a>? Check out Frank <a href="http://sandhill.typepad.com/sandhill_trek/2004/02/good_news_bad_n.html">Paynter's piece here</a> for more on the current persecution of peace activists.
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<br />Oh yes, this might well be an <a href="http://www.survivingtheapocalypse.com/thefeatures/">apocalyptic time</a>. But guess where the evil is that's making this happen. I think I asked this before, but why hasn't anyone made a big deal of Bush being the real "<a href="http://www.lcg.org/files/booklets/atc/default.htm">AntiChrist</a>" of this century?
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<br />The way I've always understood the AntiChrist is that he/she would be a kind of "wolf in sheep's clothing," someone who, on the surface, seems to be truly righteous and leading true believers to their salvation, but really is manipulating everyone for his own evil-doing-motivated ends -- ends that involve personal, economic, and environmental mayhem and murder and means that cause rifts between peoples and philosophies. Sound familiar?Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1076340793574564302004-02-09T10:33:00.000-05:002004-02-09T10:36:12.796-05:00Dealing Dean Dirty<em>Dean Returns To Wisconsin After Disappointing Weekend</em>
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<br />So goes at least<a href="http://www.thechamplainchannel.com/politics/2832304/detail.html"> one headline </a>reporting on the last round of Democratic caucuses.
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<br />So let's see. Kucinich gets a positive nod for finishing third, even though he has fewer delegates than Al Sharton. But Dean -- who twice in three days finished in second place (Washignton and Maine) in better showings than he was making before, and continues to have the 2nd highest number of delegates, gets only "disappointing" and "downward spiral" and the like. But Edwards, who is third in the delegate race, is still considered to be in the running.
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<br />Just another frustrating example of how the mass media continues to purposefully skew and screw.
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<br />Feh!Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1075950416648643132004-02-04T22:06:00.000-05:002013-06-29T15:23:20.365-04:00A Kalilily RetrospectiveAs I poke around this old homestead, I'm uncovering some pieces that I like that I wrote once upon a kalilily time. So here are a few to link to if you have nothing better to do.
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<br />Like this early one about the<a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_06_23_kalilily_archive.html#385194449"> blog as the village water pump</a>.
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<br />And this on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_02_17_kalilily_archive.html#9971854">a little history</a>.
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<br />This <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_06_09_kalilily_archive.html#85162791">about Sybil and Cybill</a>.
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<br />This on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_05_26_kalilily_archive.html#85134780">faith and fairies</a> and the <a href="http://www.blogsisters.blogspot.com">Sisters of the Blog.</a>
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<br />This on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_05_26_kalilily_archive.html#85134094">Crone magic</a>.
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<br />This on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_05_05_kalilily_archive.html#85078703">planting grave-sized gardens</a>.
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<br />This on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_02_10_kalilily_archive.html#9804596">living and dying and blogging</a>.
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<br />This on<a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_03_10_kalilily_archive.html#75007062">dancing with my shadow</a>.
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<br />Or this on the <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_03_31_kalilily_archive.html#75084835">digital divide</a>.
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<br />Or this on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_04_07_kalilily_archive.html#85000204">a poet I know</a>.
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<br />Or this on <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2001_11_25_kalilily_archive.html#7547015">having no political power</a>.
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<br />On <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2001_12_30_kalilily_archive.html#8432509">blogging as journalism</a>.
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<br />On <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_03_03_kalilily_archive.html#75001303">being an elitist</a>.
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<br />On <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_03_03_kalilily_archive.html#10504473">becoming a feminist</a>.
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<br />On <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_02_24_kalilily_archive.html#10320570">Sci Fi and me</a>
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<br />On <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_03_24_kalilily_archive.html#75036982">Jezebel as feminist.</a>
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<br />On <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_04_14_kalilily_archive.html#85021295">gods and daemons</a>.
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<br />On my un-scholarly, heterosexual, female chauvinist <a href="http://kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_04_14_kalilily_archive.html#85017402">opinion about Camille Paglia</a>.
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<br />Meanwhile, back in the real world, it turns out that my mom has to have by-pass surgery on her leg before she can have corrective surgery on her foot. The by-pass is not advisable, so the corrective is impossible. Now we have to come up with a Plan B.
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<br />And, if anyone reading this knows what Blogger time zone I'm in on the East Coast, I'd love to know so that I can set my post time correctly. I can't figure out where I fit in all the choices that they give. Nothing says plain old Eastern Daylight Savings Time.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-1075909373414136622004-02-04T10:42:00.000-05:002004-02-04T10:50:26.763-05:00Everything LeaksI read that yesterday somewhere over at <a href="http://www.allied.blogspot.com">Jeneane's</a> but now I can't find the place where she posted it and she got it from someone else anyway.
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<br />At the moment, my home blog at kalilily.net has leaked somewhere into the virtual space over Portland, Oregon, where my son <a href="http://communique.portland.or.us/000001.html">b!X </a>has his server and where kalilily.net resides. He's on his back-up blog as well.
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<br />So, consider this my vacation home-away-from-home. It's pretty rustic here -- no comments. At least not at the moment. I have to find the time to go and read through the full-topic index here at Blogger and figure out how to do some of the things I take for granted over at the MT site.
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<br />And now, I'm off to take my mother to the vascular surgeon to find out the results of the MRI she had last week to determine why she has 50% circulation in one leg (which, it seems, is why a sore is not healing). And so it goes.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-852020592002-06-26T21:18:00.000-04:002004-01-24T16:10:48.840-05:00<center><H1>The Crone Has Flown</H1>
<br /><b>Goodbye Blogger. Goodbye Ev. Goodbye old template. Goodbye old posts. Goodbye old archves. Goodbye old comments. Goodbye old URL.
<br /><br>The Crone has flown to Movable Type and her own domain on the coat tails of <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com">theonetruebix</a> and his <a href="http://www.spartaneity.com">Spartaneity Project.</b></a>
<br /><br><H1>So, link to me now at <a href="http://www.kalilily.net">www.kalilily.net</a></H1>
<br /><br>
<br /><br><H1>Or else....</H1></center>Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-852012512002-06-26T15:48:00.000-04:002002-06-26T21:10:58.000-04:00<b>Consensual Amnesia </b><a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/25/2249.html">(Why Dissent Matters)</a>
<br />I have a hard time keeping up with the pithy (no, I'm not lisping) stuff that b!X is tossing into his blog these days. But his intensity makes in unnecessary for me to blog about the depressing and oppressing tenor of the times. All I have to do is link you back to him. So that's what I'm doing to clue you in about the illegality of the pledge of allegiance, <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/26/1203.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/26/1226.html">here</a>; the <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/25/1823.html">citizen rebellion </a>in Northampton, Massachusetts; and the <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/26/0244.html">environmental tragedy </a>of progress.
<br />
<br />And while he's running virtually around to gather all of that crictical citizen information, he's also been <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/25/2120.html">working</a> on revving up <a href="http://www.spartaneity.com">spartaneity.com</a>, with my new blog as the current project. So, watch for the Crone's Grand Re-opening in MT, coming soon to a screen near you.
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<br />And, by the way, <a href="http://www.rageboy.com/2002_06_23_blogger-archive.html#85199544">forget Aunt Sally, Rage Boy</a>. The Crone is <a href="http://www.kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_06_23_kalilily_archive.html#85196147">three</a> <a href="http://www.kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_06_09_kalilily_archive.html#85171827">for</a> <a href="http://www.kalilily.blogspot.com/2002_05_19_kalilily_archive.html#85116808"> three</a>.)Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851989682002-06-25T21:27:00.000-04:002002-06-25T21:27:11.343-04:00<b>Conspicuous by its absence...</b>
<br />...is mention -- in the blogs that I read -- about <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Dave Winer's </a>bi-pass heart surgery that was the painful result of his cigarette smoking. I know that many of my blogger friends smoke. I'm sure that they don't want to think about what happened to Dave. Obviously, they don't want to blog about it. (I think that's called "denial.") Except I noticed that b!X, also a smoker, is forcing himself to take <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/25/1636.html">a hard look </a>at the issue.
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<br />So, if you smoke and are reading this, please take your own hard look at what <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2002/06/23">Dave has to say</a>, including this:
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<br /><i>OK, here's the deal. I did not have a heart attack, but it was close. I had bypass surgery, which I am now recovering from. It was my fault -- I had classic warning signs that I ignored. No family history of heart disease. Most important -- I wanted to keep smoking. The numbers are good if I quit smoking. If I don't the numbers are totally awful</i>.
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<br />Blogging about what you went through is doing a real service for your fellow bloggers, Dave. I know that they probably don't want to hear it. All the more reason for you to blog it.
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<br />How fragile our real lives really are.
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<br />I feel fortunate that I never got into smoking -- just some early adolescent puffs out the bathroom window and some late adolescent drags while playing college sophisticate. I had very bad asthma as a kid; I knew getting hooked on nicotine would probably mean giving up non-stop lindy-hopping. And I'd always rather be dancing -- although these days Salsa is my preference. Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851976992002-06-25T12:21:00.000-04:002002-06-25T12:21:10.030-04:00<b>Meet the Geek Icon</b>
<br />She's young, she's smart, she thinks, she writes, she sees, she cares, she believes. She's the subject of <a href="http://www.sandhilltech.com/weblog/blogger.html/2002/06/24.html">Frank Paynter's latest interview.</a> <a href="http://www.jngm.net/arjlog/">Andrea Roceal James</a>, my Apprentice Crone. Check her out, in words and pics. The world needs more like her.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851961472002-06-24T22:04:00.000-04:002013-06-29T15:20:40.851-04:00<b>The Crone Chants a Full Moon <i>Om</i>.</b>
<br />The full moon commands the deep night sky. I take my ritual outside, stand with arms outstretched to the bright promise of the moon. I wear the shirt on which I painted the magic mandala. I chant. <i>Aum. Aum. Aum</i> -- the sacred sound of OM. I watch the thin strands of clouds move into the form of the syllable. There is no wind. There is no sound other than the hum of the universe.
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<br />Sons are borne. Sons are born. Sons are borne. This full moon is for my son, too far away to see the sky as I see it. Across the continent, tonight I send magic through the ether. Tomorrow, I send magic through the mail. The Crone chants Om. Om. Om. See the mandala moon. Chant Om. Intend. Become.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-3851944492002-06-24T11:11:00.000-04:002002-06-24T11:16:03.000-04:00<b>Blogdom as the Village Water Pump</b>
<br />From an print newspaper article by Jay Bookman, who writes for the <a href="http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/"><i>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</i></a>:
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<br /><i>In his 1964-classic "Understanding Media," Marshall McLuhan related the story of several post war villages in India where UNESCO, the United National relief agency, had installed pipes to deliver running water to each home. After a few months, village elders went to UNESCO officials and asked that the pipes be ripped out.
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<br />The villagers had realized that nobody congregated any longer at the village well, where they used to wait in line to fill their water jugs. The well had been the communal center of village life, the place where gossip was exchanged and village values reinforced. It was the place where the village met to create a sense of identity.</i>
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<br />I suppose that when <a href="http://www.well.com/aboutwell.html">"The Well" </a>was created, the idea was to bring that village well into cyberspace. What has really accomplished that miracle, however, is blogging. We meet here to exchange gossip, reinforce "geek" values, argue politics, and share opinions on everything from gender issues to software preferences. And, just like at the old village water pump, we each establish our very specific voice, recognizable after a while by all of the others who gather with us. Then instead of a couple of us going back to my hut to balance some herbal refreshment on our laps while we hash over more personal trials and tribulations, we e-mail or instant message, with our cups of coffee or tea balanced (just as precariously) on our CPUs.
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<br />Just as the village values were reinforced at the village water pump, the values of a non-discriminatory, free-speaking global village are constantly being reinforced at the flowing pump of our collective blogs. We are becoming a village with our own identity.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851916022002-06-22T23:04:00.000-04:002002-06-22T23:32:52.000-04:00<b>Being a Woman is Often No Treat</b>
<br />This <a href="http://www.blogsisters.blogspot.com/?/2002_06_16_blogsisters_archive.html#85179368">post</a> and this <a href="http://www.blogsisters.blogspot.com/?/2002_06_16_blogsisters_archive.html#85190637">one</a> on Blog Sisters have drawn attention to the fact that religious fundamentalists around the world are joining forces to halt the efforts of women around the world to ensure their rights as autonomous human beings.
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<br />Back in 1975, the First world Conference on Women in Mexico City called for a Treaty for the Rights of Women. I still have in my jewelry box the pin that I bought to assert my support of that still U.S.-unratified Treaty and of the (finally) official acknowledgement by the United Nations of International Women's Day (<a href="http://www.isis.aust.com/iwd/stevens/firstiwd.htm">which was first established in 1911</a>). The bird-in-flight design of that pin is the logo for the current web site of the <a href="http://www.womenstreaty.org">Treaty for the Rights of Women.</a>
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<br />I am asking that all who read my weblog <a href="http://www.housedotgov.com/ccmc/">take action</a> and overwhelm our government "leaders" with statements of support for this Treaty. Why? Because (as the Treaty site indicates) even though the lives of women in some countries have improved, there is still much that needs to be done on these issues:
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<br /> -- Female genital mutilation: 130 million women are victims worldwide;
<br /> -- Maternal mortality: 510,000 women die each year from pregnancy-related complications;
<br /> -- Obstetric fistulas: some 2 million girls suffer uncontrollable leakage of urine and feces through vaginas damaged in obstructed labor, most because of forced early marriage;
<br /> -- Sex trafficking: 2 million girls are sold into sexual slavery each year;
<br /> -- HIV/AIDS: women are four times more vulnerable than men, and 1.3 million die each year;
<br /> -- Violence: an estimated 25 to 30 percent of all women experience domestic violence;
<br /> -- Discrimination: millions of women lack full legal and political rights.
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<br />Today, the headline of an Associated Press <a href="http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAILDEMP2D.html">article by David Crary </a> announces <i>Bitter Divisions Resurface Over Global Women's Rights Treaty That U.S. Has Never Ratified</i>. There is great pressure being exerted by Americas religious fundamentalists to join with kindred soul-less males throughout the world to to destroy the spirits of women by defeating the Treaty for Women's Rights.
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<br /><center><A HREF="http://www.womenstreaty.org/graphics/newtakeaction.jpg"><IMG SRC="http://www.womenstreaty.org/graphics/newtakeaction.jpg"
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<br />Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851911222002-06-22T15:51:00.000-04:002002-06-22T15:52:29.000-04:00<b>Just who's really in control here?</b>
<br />b!X <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/21/1610.html">posted the other day </a>"about a recent poll from blowhard William Bennett's new <a href="http://www.avot.org/">pro-war group</a>." As usual, my erstwhile son presents the issue better than I might, ending with:
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<br />A<i>lthough I do find it interesting, as always, that apparently those who make themselves allegedly subservient to a God who commands against killing might be the most willing to go unquestioningly off to kill at the behest of their government. Which, I guess, means that it's not about God -- because, well, you know, you're suppoed to obey his commandments and all -- but about a preference for being under someone else's control.</i>
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<br />And so, again, yet another affirmation of the wisdom of my remaining an irreverent non-believer and equally irreverent citizen.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851900752002-06-21T23:15:00.000-04:002004-02-09T11:31:28.043-05:00<b>Holy Halley!</b>
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<br />I'm back from my trek to the Maine shore, where the highlight was a chatty day spent with <a href="http://halleyscomment.blogspot.com/">Halley Suitt</a>, walking on the beach, analyzing sea weed, reading Tarot cards, and doing some major Blog Sister bonding. It was pretty windy on the beach that day, but it was Halley who really blew me away with her amazing energy -- both head and heart -- and her genuine openness to whatever life throws her way. I have always liked what she says in her blog; what's even better is how she says it all in person.
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<br />The rest of the week was just what I intended -- lots of beach time (yes, Maren, I did wear lots of sunblock), quick reads through a couple of sexy mystery novels, and hours of just doing absolutely nothing. The bright half-moon meandered past my bedroom window each night, and clear blue skies woke me each morning. The real beach season started today, so even the beach time was peaceful, wrapped in the hushed rushes of Maine's mini-waves.
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<br />Tonight's the Solstice, and I've just finished painting a t-shirt for b!X with an image of the <a href="http://www.isibrno.cz/~gott/mandalas.htm">Sri Yantra.</a> Now it sits with a major crystal -- progammed by <a href="http://www.gemfinders.com/MarcelVogel.htm">Marcel Vogel</a> himself -- holding its center, waiting for the full moon on Monday, when the ritual will be completed. All together now, everyone chant -- "Om Namah Sivaya."
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<br />Very often asserting the power of intention for someone's benefit doesn't bring to that person what he/she thinks he/she wants. What it usually brings is the wherewithall to help that person get what he/she needs. So it seems it is with <a href="http://pagecount.blogspot.com/2002_06_01_pagecount_archive.html#85185124">Mike Golby</a>; so, I suppose it is with <a href="http://www.rageboy.com/blogger.html">Chris Locke.</a> Or maybe not. And so, I imagine, it will be with<a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/21/0153.html"> b!X</a>. Or maybe not. As with the saving of Tinkerbell, magic only works if you believe.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851746752002-06-16T15:41:00.000-04:002002-06-16T15:41:06.320-04:00<b>My bags are packed</b>
<br />I'm ready to go. Got my trashy novel, my Scrabble game, my flip-flops, the ritual object I'm working on, and enough assorted clothes for any kind of weather. I shaved my legs and painted my toenails. Tomorrow I'm off to York Beach, Maine but will be back for the Solstice, when I am doing my last ritual for a while. This one's for b!X (and he knows why). But most of the time for the next five days, I'm going to be somewhere on <a href="http://www.gatewaytomaine.org/images/ybeach.jpg">that beach </a>communing with the sea and the sun (what there will be of it). I need to re-create.
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<br />I've set my mom up with food and emergency numbers. She's also going to feed my cat (I hope, I hope!) so I made little baggies of cat food and posted the feeding schedule all the hell over the place so that she doesn't forget. My brother says that he'll be up on Tuesday and stay overnight. That’s better than nothing.
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<br />So, please don't blog anything important until I get back. I hate it when I miss out on something big. Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851742152002-06-16T10:20:00.000-04:002002-06-16T10:20:11.563-04:00<b>From Father to Son</b>
<br /><a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com">b!X </a>is in a posting frenzy, and I hope that those of you who might have given up on him are rediscovering his way of hitting the mark with clarity and brevity. If you're interested in the ongoing discussions about journalism vs blogging, read <a href="http://www.theonetruebix.com/2002/06/15/1325.html">his take here.</a>Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3226349.post-851734142002-06-15T22:18:00.000-04:002002-06-15T22:21:21.000-04:00<b>A Father's Day Synchronicity</b>
<br />My Dad died 18 years ago. Each year since then, I have ignored Father's Day. It's irrelevant to me.
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<br />Today I was contacted by a writer from my home town of Yonkers, NY -- a woman who writes for a Polish weekly newspaper. She wants to do a feature on my Dad, who, during his lifetime, was well known in that city, not only for his work among the Polish community, but also for a range of political activities behind the scenes that put him in contact with some of the major players in New York State.
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<br />So, I spent this afternoon-before-Father's Day looking through the folders where my mother has stashed dozens of newspaper clippings, award certificates, photos, and other documentation of my father's life as an active citizen. There are notes from Nelson Rockefeller and photos of my Dad with Thomas Dewey. There's another photograph of him with Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York back in the '50s.
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<br />What really got to me, however, was a copy of an op-ed piece I wrote that the Yonkers newspaper published on January 31, 1985, a little over a month after my Dad died from pancreatic cancer. In email conversations I had with <a href="http://halleyscomment.blogspot.com/2002_06_02_halleyscomment_archive.html#85143170">Halley Suitt </a>while she was struggling with her father's dying, I mentioned the article, and she asked me to share it with her if I ever came across my copy.
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<br />So, here it is now, edited for length and relevance. This is for you, Dad. I am thinking about you this Father's Day after many years of not wanting to feel your loss all over again.
<br />_____________________
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<br />My youth in Yonkers was bordered by death. My father was an undertaker, and I grew up with death as a matter of everyday, emotionally distant, fact.
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<br />When my father received his own death sentence last October on his 71st bithday, however, death abruptly closed that distance. For the first time, I looked death in the face, and it was my father's face.
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<br />My father was well-known in Yonkers. In his prime -- which it seemed extended throughout his lifetime -- he was well-respected by colleagues and adversaries alike for his compassion, pragmatism, and humor; for his ability to see all sides fairly; for his willingness to seek and accept advice and cooperation. These were the virtues that brought meaning to his life. These were the virtues that brought dignity and courage to his death.
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<br />Four days before Chrismas, having become progressively weaker, despite the best effort of hopital staff, my father told us that he wanted to die. He had, in his life, virtually worked miracles for the Polish people of Yonkers, but he knew that there would be no miracle for him. The next day, irreversibly weakened by the strain the disease had placed on his system -- but mentally alert and aware -- my father asked to have all tubes removed from his body. The nurse had tears in her eyes when she came out of the room with the doctor after thay had presented their final argument for delaying the invevitable.
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<br />The hospital staff had all liked my father; no matter how weak he was, he would find something to joke about. When one of the doctors had asked him what he did for a living, my father paused for a moment, smiled, and shot back, "I take care of your mistakes."
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<br />We cared for my father at home for four days, massaging the tired flesh hanging looser and looser from his proud bones; struggling to move him, turn him, find ways to ease his bad back, urge liquids into him --first with a straw, then with a spoon, and finally with an eye dropper. We warmed his icy hands in ours, wiped his forehead of the cold sweat that matted his still-thick head of gray hair. We told him jokes and told him we loved him. We assured him, again and again, that we would be all right; he was not to worry about us.
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<br />At one point on the night before he died, I went into the living room where the movie "Gandhi" was playing on the television. That night replays through my mind like scenes from a Coppola movie -- sudden shifts back and forth between two simultaneous occurrences, tension mounting toward some anticipated disaster. I would watch Gandhi building his ashram and then tiptoe in to see my father clutching at his pillow. I would listen to Gandhi speak for peace and freedom and then return to hear my father's raspy breathing. And so it went, until the burning pyre turned the TV screen red, and my father's cough brought my mother out of her light sleep in the other room.
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<br />Finally my mother lay on the bed we had pushed next to my father's, her hands folded around his. He was sleeping, panting rather than breathing; she was watching, murmuring encouragement and prayers. I fell asleep next to her.
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<br />It was the silence that awakened me. The clock said 6:26 a.m. For the first time in days, his hands were warm.Gray Ladyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06917364669841387907noreply@blogger.com0