After a few days of humidity and rain, the sun reappeared today, which meant that we walked down to the garden tonight to see how the vegetables and fruit bushes are doing. Everything looked fine, and there were not a lot of slugs in the garden as we had been led to expect. We've been informed by the garden board that slugs are a real pest. They eat a lot of the vegetables, and since the garden does not permit the use of pesticides, the only way to deal with them is to drop them into a salt solution or to cut them in half. Our garden plot gets a lot of sun, which slugs do not like. If you want to find them at all, they tend to congregate in damper and darker areas, preferably under stones, at least during the daytime.
This past Saturday my husband planted ten more raspberry bushes, and I assembled and installed a garden arch that will serve as the formal entrance to the garden. I had to dig deep into the earth to insert the arch so that it would sit firmly and not blow over during the first major storm. I was pleased with the result. I planted two climbing rose bushes (white), one on either side of the arch. Hopefully they'll take off and start climbing. I've noticed that plants do not like to be uprooted from their original planting pots and replanted; they tend to sag when replanted and it takes a few days for them to recover. But luckily they do.
Today is a national holiday here in Norway. As we do each year, we'll go out to eat at Morten's Kro in Gjelleråsen, about a twenty minute drive from the city of Oslo. And then we'll come home. If the weather is still nice (blue skies and sun right now), we'll go down to the garden for a while. Nice to just relax today........
My last post about our garden was on May 1st, almost two weeks ago. A lot has happened since then. The entire garden has been raked clean of leaves and twigs, filling almost five large garbage bags. I've been doing a fair amount of weeding to get rid of the dandelions that have spread throughout the garden. I've also cleaned up both strawberry patches, removing dead vines and leaves and giving the plants some breathing room. Along the way, I've gotten to know the insects that live in our garden--a lot of earthworms, several kinds of snails, spiders, centipedes, silver-brown beetles, and bees. I'm fine with all of them, although I know I'm going to have to kill some of the snails when they start to devour the vegetable plants, because we're not allowed to use any kind of insecticides in the garden. We'll see how many snails invade the garden when the vegetable plants start to bloom. I've heard from the other gardeners that the snails love pumpkin plants. but that they also go after squash and other vegetables as well.
I've invested a fair amount of money already in the garden and garden accessories--weeding tools, a spade, a claw-like tool, a water pistol with eight different shower functions to water the plants (very useful since it means I won't have to carry heavy watering cans back and forth), pruning shears, and knee pads (I recommend them highly). I've also purchased a parasol and a heavy stone foot to hold it in place; they've found their place in the garden along with the bird bath (the little birds are using it--yay!) and the table and chairs. I also bought a garden arch to demarcate the entrance but that hasn't arrived yet. Today I bought some irregular flat stones to make an entrance path, and placed a few extra stones at other locations so that it is easier to water all parts of the garden without standing in muddy soil.
I've planted corn, pumpkins, spinach, cauliflower, string beans, and beets. My broccoli plants that I grew from seeds did not survive, nor did my pumpkin plants (they grew too quickly and were too spindly). So I had to buy new pumpkin plants. My husband got eight raspberry bushes from his friend, and planted them last weekend. He also planted a rhododendron bush that he rescued from the garbage pile generated by our apartment complex's annual cleanup. Why they decided to throw away a perfectly good bush is beyond us. So we're hoping it survives. The garden already had a cherry tree, two rhubarb plants that are doing well, a black currant bush, a red currant bush, and a gooseberry bush. It will be interesting to see what produces fruit this year and what doesn't. It will also be interesting to see how we manage the harvesting should there be an abundance of vegetables and fruits.
I've also planted three lavender plants (for the bees) and a lot of pansies that are also doing well. This past week has been very warm (close to 80 degrees Fahrenheit), so the plants took off. The warm weather has now given way to cooler temperatures, so it will be interesting to see how the plants tackle the cooler weather during the next week or so. I've read that pansies like cooler weather, so it's mostly the vegetable plants I'll be worrying about. I'm hoping that there won't be any night frosts.
Here are some photos of our garden:
new stone path between the strawberry patches
a view toward our neighbor's garden, with the rhododendron bush in the foreground
This song has been getting a fair amount of airplay here in Oslo. I really like it; it's a bit of a throwback to the music I grew up with. Great guitar playing--a bit psychedelic, as is this video.
It has been a mostly chilly and rainy April; I am hoping for a warm and sunny May so that we can get started planting our garden. My husband and I worked in the garden this past Friday evening; when we arrived and started working, it started to hail, but over the next several hours it cleared up and became a nice evening. We have in fact had hail three or four times this past week, despite having temperatures in the mid-forties. Weird weather; it seems to be chilly both here and in New York as far as I understand from my NY friends on Facebook. Go figure. The garden board had decided to cut down an old tree on our premises, so we spent Friday evening clearing away the cut tree stumps and large twigs that covered a large portion of the garden. The smaller twigs and underbrush went into the compost bin. We also turned the earth in several areas so that it is ready to be planted in a week or two, and discovered that the soil appears to be very good--there are a lot of earthworms in the earth and that's supposed to be a good sign. Today I spent several hours in the semi-sunshine raking the entire plot of land and turning the earth in two additional locations. The tree that was cut down must have been quite a large tree, because its leaves covered a large portion of the garden plot. So I had a fair amount of work in front of me, but it was enjoyable work. I enjoy the physical work; time passes without my being aware of it, and I like being outdoors in the sun and fresh air. My back muscles suffer a bit, but the pain passes and then I'm ready for the next round of work.
The pumpkin plants in our living room are now quite large and will most likely do well when planted. My spinach plants are doing well, as are the beet plants. The broccoli and cauliflower plants are taking their time, but will get there. My husband is looking to buy about ten raspberry bushes and we were at different garden centers yesterday to check out prices; I purchased some corn plants as well when we were at one of the garden centers called Plantation (Plantasjen in Norwegian).
I got a good deal on a table/two matching chairs; paid about fifty US dollars for the set. I've also purchased a birdbath online through Natur og Fritid AS; it's so beautiful and I can't wait to set it out for the birds. You can see it here if you want to see what it looks like: https://www.naturogfritid.no/614151/Hobby_og_hage/Foringsautomater/Fuglebad/Ekko+fuglebad
Lots of photos today, just to keep you updated on what's happening with our garden. I love garden life so far.
ready for planting
the garden entrance, with strawberry patches on either side of the path
My books can be found on Goodreads, of which I became a member a few years ago. Blindsided is my only published book so far that has gotten ratings on Goodreads, and I was pleased to see that it has garnered 4 out of 5 stars (4 = I really like it, and 5 = It was amazing). It still sells, seven years after it was first published.
I have nearly finished writing a new book about modern workplaces, this time with an emphasis on what employees want. I will be publishing it very soon.
But for those of you who haven't read Blindsided, perhaps now is the time to think about doing so.
"Some say a man ain't happy, Unless a man truly dies, Oh why, Time, time".
Rest in peace, Prince.
I remembered yesterday that my brother Ray, who died last year at the age of 54, loved Prince's music. So my heart got ripped open yet again (like after David Bowie died), because these artists remind me of my brother. I realized yesterday that this is how the rest of life will be defined--dealing with loss and letting go. The challenge will be to find joy in the midst of all the sorrow.
"Sign O' The Times"
Oh yeah
In France a skinny man
Died of a big disease with a little name
By chance his girlfriend came across a needle
And soon she did the same
At home there are seventeen-year-old boys
And their idea of fun
Is being in a gang called The Disciples
High on crack, totin' a machine gun
Time, time
Hurricane Annie ripped the ceiling off a church
And killed everyone inside
U turn on the telly and every other story
Is tellin' U somebody died
Sister killed her baby cuz she couldn't afford 2 feed it
And we're sending people 2 the moon
In September my cousin tried reefer 4 for the very first time
Now he's doing horse, it's June
Times, times
It's silly, no?
When a rocket ship explodes
And everybody still wants 2 fly
Some say a man ain't happy
Unless a man truly dies
Oh why
Time, time
Baby make a speech, Star Wars fly
Neighbors just shine it on
But if a night falls and a bomb falls
Will anybody see the dawn
Time, times
It's silly, no?
When a rocket blows
And everybody still wants 2 fly
Some say a man ain't happy, truly
Until a man truly dies
Oh why, oh why, Sign O the Times
Time, time
Sign O the Times mess with your mind
Hurry before it's 2 late
Let's fall in love, get married, have a baby
We'll call him Nate... if it's a boy
I don't even remember what prompted me back in July of 2009 to apply for a garden plot in the community garden down the road from where we live. I suppose I had read about the garden in a magazine or newspaper, and just really liked the idea of having our own plot. Since we live in an apartment in the city, we haven't ever had the possibility to plant a real garden. So here we are at this point in our lives, about to become city gardeners. A new adventure.....
The community garden is called Egebergløkka parsellhage, and was started in 1917 as a community potato garden. One of the men who sits on the garden 'board' gave me the keys to the community garden tonight and gave me a tour of it. The community garden is a nice mix of Norwegians and non-Norwegian gardeners who grow everything from potatoes to raspberries. Two people keep bees, and sell the honey that the bees make at the end of the summer season. There are challenges in the form of garden snails (the Iberia snail being the most common) but it is possible to deal with them.
The seven-year wait was worth it, for several reasons. I took a look at the plot of land we've been allotted, and it's quite large, so we'll be able to really grow a few different kinds of vegetables. There is a lot of work to be done, but I can't wait to get started on clearing the plot and doing what's required so that we can begin to plant in mid-May. I will be planting broccoli, cauliflower, beets, spinach, and pumpkins. One of the nicest surprises was finding out that our plot has some fruit bushes already growing there--black currant (solbær), red currant (ripsbær), and gooseberry (stikkelsbær) bushes--which makes my husband very happy. Other garden plots have apple and plum trees growing there. Getting this garden plot has made me the happiest I've been in a long time. There has been so much stress and sadness this past year, that just knowing that I can be outdoors, in nature, in the sun, working in our garden, has given me back some of the joie de vivre that I seem to have lost. I am grateful for this blessing and privilege--to be near the earth and in touch with what is real and good.
Last year I posted a photo of a blackbird outside my office window (http://paulamdeangelis.blogspot.no/2015/01/a-winter-visitor-outside-my-office.html). I managed to get a few shots of a blackbird this year as well; I wonder if it's the same one? I set out bread crumbs in order to attract the birds; sometimes I get magpies, other times bullfinches, but this time I got a blackbird. He's a plump little bird and very cute.
It's a beautiful sunny day here in Oslo, and the crocuses in the yard are in full bloom, loving the sunshine. The first bumblebee of the season also made its appearance (the first one I've seen at least), in love with the crocuses. It made its way from flower to flower, landing on each of them and then rolling around in the pollen sitting on the top of the filament, quite a happy bee. One cannot take the bees for granted anymore, due to colony collapse disorder and bee deaths. So I was glad to see that this bumblebee was healthy and functioning. A bumblebee watching site on Twitter contacted me to tell me that this is Bombus hypnorum, a tree bumblebee, also called a new garden bumblebee. These bumblebees often live near human settlements, like to build their nests above ground and often inhabit bird boxes. You can read more about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombus_hypnorum.
We finally got word that we will be getting a garden plot in a nearby community garden (in Norwegian called 'parselhage'), and will pick up the keys very soon. We've been on the list to get a garden plot for about seven years; last year we were told that this year would be the year. My plans are to plant vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, beets, and spinach). My husband would like to plant fruit bushes, among them raspberry bushes. We haven't seen the plot of land yet, so we don't know how much space we'll be getting. Plots range in size from 800 to 2000 square feet, fairly large by my estimation. I've already started some plants from seed, and they are growing fairly well so far, especially the pumpkin plants (see the photos below).
Don't ask me why this came to mind--our graduation song from kindergarten, a long long time ago. Perhaps I was thinking about going back to work tomorrow after having been on vacation for over a week, and I got to thinking about school days and the approach of summer vacation and looking forward to that when we were kids. In any case, the song was written by Carolyn Leigh and Cy Coleman, and our teachers 'adapted' the lyrics for a kindergarten scenario. The song has been performed by Louis Armstrong, Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, and Lucille Ball, among others.
Hey look us over
Lend us an ear
School days are over
Vacation time is here
No more painting pictures
No clay in a cup
But when you are in kindergarten
The only way is up
And we'll be up like a rose bud
High on the vine
Don't thumb your nose
But take a tip from mine
We’re a little bit short of the elbow room
But let us stand and shout
Hey look out world
Here we come
-------------------------------
and the original song:
Hey look me over
Lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover
Mortgage up to here
But don't pass the plate folks
Don't pass the cup
I figure whenever you're down and out
The only way is up
And I'll be up like a rose bud
High on the vine
Don't thumb your nose
But take a tip from mine
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room
But let me get me some
And look out world
Here I come
Yes, hey look me over
Lend me an ear
Fresh out of clover
Mortgage up to here
But don't pass the plate folks
Don't pass the cup
I figure whenever you're down and out
The only way is up
And I'll be up like a rose bud
High on the vine
Don't thumb your nose
But take a tip from mine
I'm a little bit short of the elbow room
But let me get me some
And look out, world
Here, I, come...
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.
Sometimes the things we want are defined by the things we do
not want. That’s true for me to some extent, but as I get older, I know pretty
much exactly what I want:
a) Peace and quiet = without these, I cannot relax. I do not
want to be around people the entire day, and that includes my work day. I want
to be able to close my office door and to be by myself. I need peace and quiet
at work and at home, in other words, some hours to myself where I am beholden
to no one. I want alone time that is responsibility-free and guilt-free, and
that is not invaded by pointless conversations or people wanting me to feel
guilty for not paying attention to them.
b) Real communication = without it, nothing works. If I
cannot have real honest communication, then I’d rather not waste my time and
other people’s time talking. I don’t want to fake conversations or interest in
things I have no interest in, nor do I want to compete with others for
listening time. If I am in conversation with you and all you want to do is to
talk about yourself and how lousy your life is or how important your life is compared
to others, then I don’t want to be your conversation partner. In other words,
don’t waste my valuable precious time complaining to me about how miserable
your life is or how important you are, because you have no idea what others
might be dealing with on a daily basis. And they don’t burden the world with
their problems or their inflated ego.
c) Simplicity = without it, life becomes a meaningless
drudgery. The trend these days is to complicate everything. Workplaces are
exercises in frustration and lack of effectiveness because administrative routines
and rules have become too complicated. We worship on the altar of triviality. At
home, the same can be true. I’d rather cook simple hearty meals from scratch,
with fresh vegetables and foodstuffs, than load us up with excess salt and
sugar from processed foods, pre-packaged foods, or foods that have been suffocated
in plastic to ‘protect’ them (plastic wrapped so tightly around vegetables that
it cannot be healthy for them). Why can’t vegetables and fruit be free and
uncovered? Why must we waste time, money and energy on packing each individual vegetable
into its own plastic housing? Why can’t we keep it simple? Grow some of our own
vegetables, or support local farmers who do. Buy unpackaged vegetables or those
that will be tossed away because they don’t ‘look’ appealing. Cut down on the
amount of food purchased. You don’t need pantries stocked full of food, unless
you believe the apocalypse is coming.
d) Farewell to competition and to expectations = I’ve
reached that point. I no longer want to compete. I don’t see the point of
competition anymore. I no longer want expectations of greatness placed upon my
shoulders by others who mean that I should aim high and have grandiose
ambitions. Those days are gone; they belong to a past time when I was much younger.
I’ve seen the light and accepted it, why can’t my leaders at work also see it?
My super-productive days are over. I want an ordinary life, with ordinary cares
and small worries each day. I want to putter, to garden, to hang out at home,
to pursue my hobbies, to not have to measure up to specific metrics imposed on
me at work, and to not have to worry about how I look or what I wear. If I want
to walk around in jogging pants and sneakers, so be it. I want to walk in the
sunshine, to be free to do so, to not have time constraints on me, to not have
to have homework anymore in the form of articles to write or articles to read
or review. I want to be free of grant applications and progress reports. I want
peace, quiet, real communication, simplicity, and an unencumbered life.
Sometimes there are dry spells when it comes to creativity,
energy, and motivation, and I’ve had some dry spells recently, when it seems
that writing, photography and all of the other creative things that nourish the
soul, are not worth pursuing. A spiritual malaise sets in, and sometimes spills
over into the physical realm. The darkness and grayness of winter can sap a
person for strength, ditto for soulless workplaces that do nothing to nourish
the soul. They rather destroy it slowly.
What I don’t want at this point in my life: I don’t want to
work anymore, at least not in the traditional sense. My soul derives nothing
from the daily 9 to 5 grind that I used to love so much. It gets zero
nourishment from a public sector workplace that is dominated by a bureaucracy
that kills all motivation, by numerous leaders who are completely ineffective
and who could care less about their employees, and by a level of inefficiency
that in and of itself could drive a normal person to drink. Albert Einstein
wrote that “Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work”. He wrote that line
during the early part of the 20th century and was completely spot on!
The saving grace of any workplace is of course your co-workers, many of whom
feel the same way as I do, so there is some amount of shared commiseration while
we all plod onward in the muck. But some of them are younger and haven’t
experienced soul-sucking environments for years on end, so they are not as
weary of the whole thing as I am. I still have several years to go before I can
retire, and I honestly wonder at times how I’m going to survive those years
without burning out.
I also do not want to work all day in an office the size of
a tiny kitchen that I share with another person, with windows that open a
crack, with fluorescent lighting that can never in a million years take the
place of sunlight, for the prescribed number of hours. I find all sorts of excuses
now to be out of my office, to be outdoors, or to leave early. Modern workplace
buildings, for all their so-called environmentally-friendly architecture and
technology, are completely divorced from nature, from wildness, from the
outdoors. There is nothing like fresh air, a gentle breeze, sunshine on your
skin, a walk along a river, or just being outdoors, to restore the soul. I want
to be outdoors any chance I get. My body makes those decisions for me, and I am
learning to just follow what it wants, because it wants healthy things for me.
I don’t want to listen to or to watch endless news stories
about all of the horrible things going on in the world for which there are no
solutions. All those stories do is create despair. Newspapers and television
have become like the Dementors in the Harry Potter books—soul-sucking creatures.
They bring up a problem again and again, propose few to no solutions, and suck the energy from those who try by bombarding them nonstop with stupid questions. If
you are going to have an opinion about the problem, then for God’s sake have an
opinion about the solution to that problem. I know the world is in deep
trouble; tell me something else. Tell me about the people working to change
things, trying to solve problems, trying to help, and tell me about all that in
an intelligent, respectful, and decent way. Stop being belligerent, aggressive,
nonstop pandering machines. Stop pandering to the lowest common denominator in
listeners--to the basest instincts in people, every chance you get. Don’t
encourage bigotry, hatred, and violence by talking about it ad nauseam. Stop
making the rest of the world think that America is filled with pro-Trump and
pro-Palin idiots. There are over 315 million people in the USA; the news media
in Europe would have us think that all Americans support Trump; the American
media are doing very little to dispel that notion. All of the Americans I know
that are family and close friends, do not support Trump or the other GOP
idiots. So there. My appeal to the media here and in the USA—please shut up
unless you have something positive to say or some solution for how to get rid
of Trump before November.
And while we’re at it—could we please end the reality TV
culture and celebrity worship? I don’t want to see another Kardashian (any of
them) on my TV screen or in any newspapers for as long as I live. I don’t watch
these shows, never have and never will, but it seems as if whatever so-called 'celebrities' do is news-worthy. Here's a quick tip--NOT. Is
this what money does to people’s brains? Can heads of the media no longer see what
quality is and what crap is?
I no longer read the newspaper at breakfast. I read the
comics page (since it is actually more intelligent than much of what passes for news--you need only to read Bloom County to know that)
and then put the paper aside until later in the day. I refuse to discuss the
grotesque goings-on in the world when I first get up. There are many things to
be thankful for--the life we have been given, the chance to live another day,
the chance to wake up to sunshine, the chance to love those in our lives
(humans and pets), to chance to choose healthy, and the chance to appreciate
the world we live in and to take care of it. That's how I want to start my day, and live my day.
The best prayer of all---so much wisdom contained in one little prayer. If we followed its advice, we would save ourselves so much pain, complaining and irritation.
I found this short article, Yoga Eases Symptoms of Chronic Low Back Pain, at http://www.ahealthblog.com/yoga-eases-symptoms-of-chronic-low-back-pain.html. It's quite interesting, as I just started doing yoga exercises in January. I am not practicing yoga, only doing the exercises, and I am only doing the simple exercises, but have already discovered that I feel more relaxed and have less lower back pain after doing them. I will keep on doing them to see if these effects are long-lasting. Many of the yoga exercises remind me of the types of stretching exercises I used to do for my modern dance classes years ago. The fact that I can still do many of these exercises makes me feel quite good, after many years of not doing them.
Every now and then I wish I really could change the world in a big way--make it less brutal, less bigoted, less cold, less money-oriented, just simpler and kinder....All those things at once. Not sure where we're headed anymore; it all seems so chaotic and out of control--climate change, the overwhelming refugee/migrant situation in Europe, the utter brutality of terrorism, and the looming possibility of a loud-mouth bigot as president of the USA. The latter bothers me immensely, that my fellow countrymen believe in this man, who is clearly a sham. If people think that he has even the faintest idea of what it's like to be poor or lower middle class, think again. He has NO idea what it's like. He's never been poor. Daddy gave him his cushy start in life, and that's ok, but he could have used it for the betterment of mankind, and he hasn't. He just says the things he thinks bigots, whiners and the failures in society want to hear. What surprises me is how many people I know who actually support this man. I find it sad. Listening to Eric Clapton sing 'Change the World' is what I want to do right now--because it reminds me to keep believing in the good. But also, that if we don't do something soon, it will be too late to change the world.
We’re now well into season 6 of The Walking Dead; episode 10, entitled The Next World, aired on Monday evening here in Norway. Fear the Walking Dead starts up again in
April, and tomorrow night the sixth (and final so far) episode of The X-Files airs. I’ve been watching
them all and loving them. The return of The
X-Files after so many years (it went off the air in 2002) made me very happy;
I looked forward to getting involved with Mulder and Scully’s cases and their
relationship all over again. And these episodes didn’t disappoint; despite
mixed reviews (as always), they managed to hold my attention and left me
wanting more. It’s not just that all these shows are sci-fi, horror, apocalyptic,
or fantasy shows that appeal to me because I find those genres interesting. It’s
that we get involved with the characters at the same time, characters that are
dealing with life and death situations, survival, family matters, sickness and
death. The zombies have to be dealt with and/or dispatched on The Walking Dead; likewise the mutants
and monsters on The X-Files. No matter
how fantastic it all becomes, no matter that the survival of the main
characters is sometimes very surprising or even unthinkable, I am rooting for
all of them to make it. This is television at its best—series that I enjoy
following, that give me something to think about and look forward to each week;
that entertain me, surprise me, shock me, and involve me. There are other good
series too; Sleepy Hollow,Game of Thrones, Wayward Pines, and
American Horror Story are just a few
that come to mind. I’ve watched them too, but The Walking Dead and The
X-Files remain my favorites. I’m just thankful that they exist at all,
because most of what is available to watch is reality TV. I wish
someone would take a hatchet to anything that even remotely smacks of reality
TV, and put all these shows out of their misery forever. They include The Kardashians, all the cooking competition
shows, all the lip-syncing competition shows, all the ‘how to survive on a
desert island or on a mountain-top’ shows, all the shows about bratty children
who fall in line when a nanny appears, all the shows about spoiled adults whose
credit cards are maxed-out and who suddenly need professional help to get them
out of debt, all the shows about presumably fashionable (not) women telling
other women how to dress, all the shows about pawn shop users or those who go
scrounging through other people’s garage possessions, and rich men’s wives. The
list goes on ad nauseum.
I don’t know what I’d do without the TCM channel that serves
up films from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, that even at their worst, are one
hundred times better than anything offered me by reality TV shows. Most of the
old films had real substance; a few were fluff, but the majority were not.
These were films made about characters you wanted to get to know, involved in
life dramas that mattered. Not so for reality TV shows. I wonder how our Western
culture became so obsessed with the latter, and with one family in particular;
that family’s every move is reported in the media. How did that happen, and
why? Or is it just a matter of watching them because there is nothing else on? Why
do I not care what happens to a single one of them? Why do I wish they would
all crash and burn? All I know is that I am glad I grew up when watching
television was an enjoyable experience, when shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, Leave it to Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, The
Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maya, Bonanza, Kojak, Sanford and Son, Bewitched, The
Bionic Woman, The Bob Newhart Show, The Partridge Family, The Waltons, The
Brady Bunch, Hogan’s Heroes, Dallas, Knot’s Landing, All in the Family, MASH, The
Twilight Zone, Dark Shadows, Night Gallery, The Night Stalker, Columbo, Cheers, Miami Vice, Magnum PI,Married With
Children, Murder She Wrote, St. Elsewhere, Moonlighting, and Remington Steele, among many others, were
popular. I watched them all and followed them all. They made an impression on
me that has lasted. They were funny, sad, moving, provocative, entertaining,
scary, intelligent, but above all, memorable. That cannot be said for reality
TV programs. I feel sorry for this generation that has grown up with these
shows; they have no real idea of what good television is, except perhaps when
they sit down to watch the TV series that we grew up with. It is no wonder that
streaming has become so popular; I can watch the shows I’m interested in and ignore
the junk. That’s progress.
Mary Oliver intrigues me with her simple wisdom that goes right to the heart of things. She writes about the things that matter in life. There is no way that you can read her words without being affected by them, without some part of you knowing that you've been touched by the truth. And having been touched by the truth, that you know that you must abide by it. Here are some of her words of wisdom in the form of quotes and poems........
·Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious
life?
·Someone I loved once gave me a box full of
darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.
·Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
·Listen--are you breathing just a little, and
calling it a life?
•To pay attention, this is our endless and proper
work.
·Keep some room in your heart for the
unimaginable.
·The most regretful people on earth are those who
felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and
uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.
·You can have the other words-chance, luck,
coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace. I don't know what it is exactly, but
I'll take it.
·Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of
facts
and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
·to live in this world
you must be able
to do three things
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let
it go,
to let it go
·When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to
amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking
the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want
to wonder
if I have made of my life
something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself
sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply
having visited this world.
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice – - -
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
‘Mend my life!’
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations – - -
though their melancholy
was terrible.It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do – - – determined to save
the only life you could save.
This song is catchy and I have a feeling it's going to be a pretty big song...........
"All My Friends" by Snakehips
(feat. Tinashe & Chance The Rapper)
[Tinashe:]
We open with the vultures, kissing the cannibals
Sure I get lonely, when I'm the only
Only human in the heaving heat of the animals
Bitter brown salt, stinging on my tongue and I
I will not waiver, I will not wait its turn
It will beat, it will burn, burn, burn your love into the ground
With the lips of another
'Til you get lonely, sure I get lonely, sometimes
[All:]
All my friends are wasted
And I hate this club
Man I drink too much
Another Friday night I wasted
My eyes are black and red
I'm crawling back to you babe
[Chance The Rapper:]
I hate the bar
Pharmacy addict hit a Wall Street traffic, took the car
We reinvent the wheel just to fall asleep at it, skrrr
Crash on the floor, catch the zzz's
Popping the polar opposite to the NZT
Hip hop and the propaganda say they name brand
But I done seen how the xan did my main man
The nights we won't remember
Are the nights we won't remember
I'll be gone 'till November
All my city calls me Simba
Dreams are made for cages, nigga
Lions are for real, nigga
Dying is for real, niggas dying off of pills, nigga
Friday's are for chill and I escaped the treachery
I just had to rest in peace the recipe
The rest of us are praying that the sand will leave a tan
If you're up right now, hope you hear what I'm saying (Hope you hear what I'm...)
[All:]
All my friends are wasted
And I hate this club
Man I drink too much
Another Friday night I wasted
My eyes are black and red
I'm crawling back to you babe
[Tinashe:]
Do you get lonely?
Sure I get lonely some nights
When the angels on my shoulder
Slump my head
I'm stuck here with the vultures
Hissing and circling
You didn't call me, call me, call me, call me
I'm crawling, crawling, crawling back to you
[All x2:]
All my friends are wasted
And I hate this club
Man I drink too much
Another Friday night I wasted
My eyes are black and red
I'm crawling back to you babe
A good friend sent me this poem recently because he had been watching the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and this is the poem that is recited during the funeral service in that film. He also knows that I like Auden's poetry, as did my father. There have been so many artists and musicians who have died recently, but today is also the one-year anniversary of my brother's death. I know there are others reading this who will understand the feelings expressed in this poem.
Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message 'He is Dead'. Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.
You'll have to forgive me, but I am not letting go of Bowie just yet. I haven't been able to shake whatever it is that has come over me since he died. I need to hear his music, and have been going down memory lane listening to some of his older songs. Like this one from 1999.......It made quite an impact on me when I first heard it and saw the video. The man was a master at making videos that reach in and grab your heart, or that wake up your mind, or both.
(I agree with him when he says that this is perhaps the way the song should always have been done. The original version is good, but this version is just perfect--moving, serious, and memorable).
"Loving The Alien"
Watching them come and go
The Templars and the Saracens
They're travelling the holy land
Opening telegrams
Torture comes and torture goes
Knights who'd give you anything
They bear the cross of Coeur de Leon
Salvation for the mirror blind
But if you pray
all your sins are hooked upon the sky
Pray and the heathen lie will disappear
Prayers they hide
the saddest view
(Believing the strangest things,
loving the alien)
And your prayers they break the sky in two
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
You pray til the break of dawn
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
And you'll believe you're loving the alien
(Believing the strangest things, loving the alien)
Thinking of a different time
Palestine a modern problem
Bounty and your wealth in land
Terror in a best laid plan
Watching them come and go
Tomorrows and the yesterdays
Christians and the unbelievers
Hanging by the cross and nail
So much has been and will be written about David Bowie now
that he has died. I’m reading it all in the hope that I will get
to know even more about the man who sang back in 2013 about “the moment you
know, you know, you know” in the song Where
Are We Now. I have pondered that line over and over, and each time I hear
it, my feeling is that he was talking about that moment when you know that you
are mortal; that moment when every fiber of your being knows that you are aware
of that knowledge—that one day your life will end. That is how I interpreted
the song, as an elegy for the fragility, the transience, the unfathomable ending of life,
and for the knowledge that time cannot be stopped and that there is nothing we
can do to prevent death. It comes to us all. It could have been that he was
growing older, as we all are, and that he had regrets. Thoughts of our own
mortality are not unnatural. We go on living all the same, in our paradoxical lives
where we discuss in earnest what type of couch we may buy tomorrow at the same
time that we realize that it does not really matter in the long run what type of couch we buy. But we do it anyway. Living each day to its fullest requires that we understand that mortality
is our ultimate outcome. What makes Bowie exceptional is that he pursued those
thoughts as far as he was able. He explored the idea of mortality and of dying.
He visualized death. You cannot hear and watch Blackstar and not be totally undone by it, by its bravery,
feelings, anxiety, fear, imagery, and darkness. He was afraid, he was vulnerable, and he
shared that. He did not shy away from a difficult, almost taboo subject. But he
did it his way, through his art, and it was genuine and heartfelt.
I could not then, and cannot now, listen to Where Are We Now without crying. Because
even then, it seems to me that Bowie was exploring the juxtaposition of life
and death in daily life.
‘As long as there's sun
As long as there's sun
As long as there's rain
As long as there's rain
As long as there's fire
As long as there's fire
As long as there's me
As long as there's you’.
Life was worth living because the sun shone, the rain
fell, the fire burned, and loved ones were in his life. As long as there was a
spark of life in him, and love between him and others, there was a reason to go
on, to fight (illness perhaps), to create, to be. He did not want to die. I
want to think that if anyone will be able to tell us what the afterlife will be
like, it will be him. After all, he told us what it was like to know that he
was dying through his music and his lyrics. I am not sure how he will manage to
let us know about the new world he has come to, just that I think he will.
David Bowie was my first meeting with the strange, the
exceptional, the out-of-the ordinary, and the other-worldly. There was a
seriousness about every piece of art he created. He believed in his art and in
his ability to communicate his visions to us. Hearing him for the first time
when I was a teenager made me feel less alone, less alienated, and less strange
than I normally felt at that time. I felt like I ‘fit’ when I heard his music.
I am thankful that I met his world when I did, because I got to experience some
strange and wonderful rides through that world—Space Oddity, Ashes to Ashes, Heroes, TVC15, Changes, and Rebel Rebel, to name just a few of my
favorites songs. Who else could write a song (Space Oddity) about a spaceman trapped in outer space with no hope
of return, and get you to feel for that character? It did not matter whether
that character was literal or figurative; you felt for him all the same. Bowie was
the perfect choice for the main character in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell to Earth, a film that drew me in and would not let
me go for a long time afterward. I dragged my sister and a few of my friends to
that film, and ended up being the only one who liked it and who wanted to
discuss it afterward. I wanted to share the sorrow I felt about his alien
character not being able to return to his home where his family waits for him,
a dying planet without water. As a young adult starting out on the long journey
that is life, it was a terrible feeling to contemplate that he would never
return to them. That thought was hard to bear. David Bowie seemed to understand the dualities of human existence, love and lack of love (isolation/alienation), joining the party and standing outside looking in, joy and sorrow, strength and frailty, health and sickness, and in that sense he was very much like
his character in The Man Who Fell to
Earth. But unlike Mr. Newton in that film, I believe that
he has now returned home.
It has been quite cold here in Oslo for the past few days, after very mild Christmas weather. The temperatures since Monday have been creeping lower and lower, and are around 14 degrees Fahrenheit at present. It is supposed to continue this way through the weekend, after which it will warm up again. But the cold weather helped to create a very infrequent optical illusion last night--columns of light in the sky called light pillars. They appear to extend from the ground all the way into the sky. These are essentially atmospheric phenomena seen for the most part in cold arctic regions. They are created when natural light (sun or moon) or artificial light reflects off of flat ice crystals (in ice clouds, ice fogs, blowing snow) that are close to the Earth's surface. The result is a pillar of light that extends into the sky. They are absolutely beautiful to see!
I took a few photos from my kitchen window. The photos would have been better had I not lived in a city where there is a lot of artificial light that dilutes the illusion, but nevertheless, I did manage to get some photos that show the beauty of these atmospheric phenomena. Enjoy!
I just published my third short story on WriteOn by Kindle, entitled Before My Eyes. This is a short description of what it is about:
Mike and Miriam have been married for forty years. Miriam,
who has resigned herself to the reality that her marriage is mediocre at best,
has resolved to live her life in a positive way and to carry on with the things
she enjoys. Mike for his part has never really had the time to reflect on his
life together with Miriam. One autumn day, he finds that he has the time, and
he promises himself that he will spend the rest of his days making his wife
happy. But life is unpredictable at best.
Image via: 
