February 28, 2005
Shockheaded Peter
I was horrified to learn that a major source of my childhood terror has been set to music. "Shockheaded Peter" , the musical, is currently unnerving audiences in New York, after a long and successful London run.
I have written about this subject before, because it is so near and dear to my psyche, but in honor of it's resurrection on Broadway, I will risk repeating myself.
I always knew the collection of German rhymes on which this romp is based, as "Struwwelpeter" . I thought it meant Sloppy Peter, but that was my mother's judgement about his hygiene overlaying the facts. Shockheaded Peter is both the correct and more descriptive translation.
This little book was created to convince children to obey adults, through the graphic depiction of the consequences of disobedience. It is a very convincing document.
"Struwwelpeter" scores a 10 of 10 on the Dakota Fear-Factor Scale. I am trying to understand why it had a much more profound impact on me as a child than did the usual tales of cruelty and misforture that are abundant in the classics of children's literature - to which I was lavishly exposed.
When I was little, the very sight of "Struwwelpeter" was enough to cause a wave of dread to course through my tiny viscera.
Don't get me wrong, Struwwelpeter himself was not a threatening entity, like a cruel stepmother or a troll, even though his long hair and dragon nails were initially startling. No, he was just a young fellow who let himself go - relaxed , didn't shower and groom as often as he might have. He wasn't much of a perfectionist, and just look what happened to him. Now THAT was terrifiying.
What makes this collection of cautionary tales uniquely horrifying is that the child is bad. Therefore the child is properly, rather than wrongfully, punished. In contrast, something like Lemony Snicket fearures quite an evil uncle, under whose guardianship the children suffer, but the children themselves are good. The small reader can identify with their pure little hearts .
The children in Struwwelpeter, on the other hand, just brim with inherent badness. They do not pay attention , they play with matches , they suck their thumbs, they are unworthy of their parent's trust, and as a result, they get their just desserts.
These poems are meant to control children with fear, fear about childlike behaviors, curiosity, inattention, poor hygiene - you know, the naturally occurring sins of most children (and we're not even talking about masterbation). I am here to report they work like a charm.
Childrearing practices that involve scaring and shaming children into compliance have negative results. They kill the spirit, create obedient followers, cause children to model their behavior after the cruelty of the adults around them, identify with the aggressor, become bullies. The Swiss psychologist, Alice Miller would argue that childrearing practices of this ilk lead to even more ominous cultural phenonmena like Hitler's rise to power and religious fundamentalism - Christian and otherwise.
I was lucky. I just had my spirit squashed by a little book (and a few adults). I also grew up in a, peaceful, middle class environment where repair services were available for squashed spirits with financial means. There are far too many children in the world who are terrorized by the violence and cruelty around them, corporal punishment (oft practiced by the religious right), war, poverty, urban violence, natural disaster who will never have the opportunity be lifted from their trauma.
When we start a war, or humiliate a child we need to understand the damage
that we do for generations to come.
As a simple first step, I urge the theater going public to leave their children at home when they go to see "Shockheaded Peter", and to hide the program when they get home.
See how badly you have been affected by fear and trauma, take the morality test. I am of the upper left quadrant.
Photo note: Jagged, cold and ominious seemed to fit the bill. If you really look you can spot a few triangles, just to keep your finger in sacred geometry .
On Obsessing
Adrift
in the ocean
of google images
scanning for
perfect
expression
I neglect
my own
offering
to the sea
of possibily
Photo note: A bearded Back Bay buiilding near Brooks Brothers. I only took twenty shots of these icicles because I was being hustled along.
February 25, 2005
Nets and layers
Oh god, here we go again. More Self stuff. Just look at the picture, if you can't stand this anymore.
Why, some might ask, (if anyone read this material, that is), do I dwell on all this neurotic fol de rol here at Dakota? The purpose of so dwelling is to document the process of embodying the higher self, leaving a trail just in case anyone else might be interested in following it, like Karl Rove, for example.
Richard Schwartz, developer of the theraputic model known as Internal Family Systems , likes to think of the self as a head of garlic , with lots of parts; a compendium of cloves, each clove whole unto itself. The more cloves in the head, the fuller and more succulent the self (I don't think he means to include the olfactory in his metaphor, but you get the idea)
In order to embody the higher self, one must chase around dissociated parts of self (cloves, to continue the analogy) that have popped off here and there in most unpleasant ways, shepherd them in and reattach them to the conscious self. This usually involves chatting them up, empathizing with them , hearing their story, experiencing their feelings and then inviting them to join the whole rather than moping around on the outside, spoiling experience. Easier said than done, since most of these parts are hidden and hurting , and closely guarded by a cadre of other ferocious split off parts generated to protect their vulnerablitiy. The protective parts carrying large signs saying STAY AWAY, and tote viscious weapons of mass destruction just in case the signs don't work.
Aside: when people who have not embodied their higher selves come into power and allow their dissociated, unconscious, childlike vulnerabilities to run the show, much damage can be done. You know who you are - or maybe you don't.
Yesterday, after a bit of a shamanic shove , I went to my Internal Family Systems supervision group. We discussed the way shameful experiences are stored in dissociated parts of ourselves, and remain buried, only to influence life from under the table.
Synchronicity was operating, since the shamanic shove involved the confrontation of my resistance to feeling feelings that I never, ever want to feel again, under any circumstances, ever, throughout time and space, even in the interest of healing. One of these would definitely be shame.
Shame, according to my shaman, is stuck in my solar plexus, and has been a regular cause of heartburn over the past week, as it bubbled up to semiconsciousness . That's the trouble with somatizing feelings, they hurt.
Handily, I actually experienced a little shame in the IFS meeting last night, since I could not remember alot of the protocol for doing this work, and had fallen asleep two nights in a row watching the brush-up video, which I had been so kindly loaned by our supervisor.
The group, all of whom are taking a year long training, except me, talked about how shame usually is held in different ways by different parts of ourselves. For example, in this instance, there is the part of me that feels ashamed of postponing watching the video for two months, doing it at the last minute, and then falling asleep without assimilating the material. There is another part of me that takes it upon itself to shame such cavalier and irresponsible behavior. And still another, the fraud, who really doesn't want anyone to know that I forgot so much, who covers up and comports herself as if she actually knows something. And yet another part that makes sure that she doesn't ask any questions, or even think of any questions, so that she will not publically humiliate herself.
Quite an impressive number of parts revealed by experiencing minor shame in a trustworthy group of dear friends. I think it's safe to conclude that some of these parts were already there, generated by shaming in childhood, and now operate in my life unconsciously. I am completely avoidant of any experience that may cause me to feel shame. A sniff of shame in the present triggers old feelings that I automatically avoid. Most restricting , but I delude myself into thinking it really doesn't matter. I hardly allow it into awareness.
My shaman recommended imploring the universe to assist me in opening to the feelings of past shame, so that I can feel them fully (YUCK) and heal from them. I am ashamed to say that I forgot to set that conscious intention until this very moment. I'll give it a more sincere shot off keyboard, and begin to prepare myself for the dreaded emotional tsumami.
Photo note: Squashed together soccer nets on a bleak day at Tufts, awaiting their spring unfurling. Me too.
Mexican restaurant
before
snow
blankets
my world
again
metaphorophotos
for my
mother's death
muffled
cold and white
within me
This wasn't really about a Mexican restaurant, but, judging from my statistics, no one reads what I write anyway.
View larger image
February 23, 2005
Snow on vine
Recently my humble blog has been the target of perver/adverspammers. Yesterday I had 189 doody deposits to various nooks and crannies on the subject of penis enlargement . My despamming program proved impotent in the face of the assault. I am taking the irritation well, and understanding the cosmic message that I need to take back my power, develop my Yang , leave subjugation behind.
A young woman, of internet connection, of course, has begun something called "the man project", which consists of ingesting 100 mg of testosterone daily, and documenting her experience for us. Although I haven't read her dairy in full, it begins to sound like she has a dread disease, which has convinced me to manage my emergence from subservience without biochemical assistance .
I still have all that spam with which to contend. I scored 19 (out of 100) on the Nerd Test , which places me in the Not Nerd (but probably not that cool either) category. This is the reason I am making the best of the plethora of penis enlargement comments on my turf, should you bump into one. If I had a better nerd score, I would undoubtedly know how to take care of it.
Photo note: I thought this photo was sweetly phallic. It really should be shown vertically, but I found it more aesthetically pleasing on it's side. Notice that there is still snow on the ground, even if it is the pretty, defining kind. More to come this evening too - up to ten inches.
February 22, 2005
Blonde again
the spiritual depth
of recent
entries
arises from
the restoration
of platinum
streaks
to my
crowning glory
the Big Baby
rests
content
at last
the Good
Enough
Self
says
there is
a fine line
between
the appearance of
enlightenment
and looking cheap
Photo note: It snowed again, allowing me the opportunity to shoot my favorite tree with platinum streaks.
February 21, 2005
House Thangka
Ah, the same damn subject - hope you aren't getting tired of this.
Here we see an excellent example of the newly identified category, metamorphophoto, in which the thangka or Buddha with snake/ wisdom overlays a house and slowly vaporizes into the winter sky. I suppose it could also be a metaphorophoto, but someone else will have to suggest the metaphor, since it is not coming easily to me.
A dear old friend who just visited my blog for the first time, commented to me on email, "You have a real gift for giving inanimate compositions a life and a voice. It is as though you learned early to invest life in objects around you in the absence of an emotional connection to the adults in your life."
Although I never thought about my childhood exactly in those terms, there does seem to be a real absence of mammals in my photos. Perhaps that's because my camera has delayed shutter action, which makes it hard to capture moving targets, but I doubt that.
Photo note: See above
February 20, 2005
Thangka with Triangles
While attending to a radiator, look what I missed, or rather, look what 's out there that I simply wasn't seeing. This is both a metaphorophoto, and a metamorphophoto, particular categories in photosymbolism (that I just made up).
I spent some time trying to identify the thangka. I think it's Tibetan Buddha with a snake around his neck. Ostensibly, the snake, an incarnation of one of the the Buddha's enemies, attacked him by wrapping itself around him seven times. Because of the Buddha's inner strength, the snake could not kill him, and, instead. became his friend.
This painting depicts the more harmonious stage of Buddha's relationship with the snake. The snake is the symbol of clear thinking and wisdom, that is, if you are not Christian, in which case, the snake is quite a threat . Look what happened to Adam and Eve , for god's sake.
From the Jovial Atheist:
"We do know one of the symbols of Clear Thought, wisdom and learning has been, and is, the SNAKE. The SNAKE has from very early times, symbolized human wisdom, knowledge and the scientific approach to life. The SNAKE, as an Oriental symbol of wisdom, seems to have been the antithesis (opposite) of all the western religions. The SNAKE opposed what the western religions stood for. That is, western religions stood for belief, faith and obedience, while the Oriental SNAKE stood for the veneration of honest doubt, scientific knowledge and wisdom.
In the Bible, the SNAKE is the bringer of knowledge and wisdom. That is, the SNAKE introduced Adam and Eve to the partaking from the Tree of Knowledge. The western gods, on the other hand, wanted man to remain ignorant of the philosophies and beliefs of other peoples. The priest of the western gods forbade man from learning at the Tree of Knowledge. Could this story be inspired by the "Bo Tree" under which Buddha also founded his eight fold path to wisdom? I have been told that the word translated "Bo" means in one of the ancient Chinese languages, "Smart, wise or Wisdom".
Buddha was not the first to sit under the Tree of Knowledge and receive enlightenment. Many other ancient and earlier Oriental philosophers are also pictured as sitting under a tree with a snake showing in its branches. In some ancient Sanskrit writings four thousand years ago, this tree with the snake in it is even called, "THE TREE OF WISDOM, or THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE". The Garden of Eden story simply mirrors the age-old conflict between Honest Thinking and Dishonest Belief. "
Notice the Buddha's hand position is open, in a gesture of charity, meaning the fulfillment of all wishes. And we love all those triangles , not to mention the tree of life , or maybe it's just a maple.
February 19, 2005
The Radiator
I took this picture on route to my ladies group, where we are all earnestly intent on healing in the fourth dimension (and, according to our leader, also the fifth - but what do we know). Having tried to wrap my mind around the concept of other dimensions recently, I have a little more understanding of what we're up to, I think.
Mathematician Thomas Banchoff says that we are "slaves to the prejudices of our own dimension". So suppose a three dimensional being, with an unrecognized fourth dimension, has a problem in that fourth dimension. The problem will manifest in the third dimension, like a three dimensional cube moving through a two dimensional surface. Said problem, flattened out, will look very different than it might, were it to be dimensionally fleshed out. Therefore, it seems solutions to fourth dimensional problems are best addressed in the dimension from which they originate. It's a dirty job , but someone's got to do it.
We have a new group member who is going on a vision quest of sorts in Baja with teacher/ ecologist. John P. Milton . He has twelve lovely principles, which are wise and supremely comforting. Sounds like a wonderful retreat, but not for mydelicate tootsies , which currently ache in a few dimensions. I shall have to stick with the more indoorsy Esther Hicks channeling Abraham for the time being.
Our Newest is also going to see Christo's "Gates" in Central Park, this weekend, which gives me an opportunity to mention the spectacle. Click through the posters to see some breathtaking photos of the Gates Project. Today in the New York Times Sunday Styles Section, there is a photo essay entitled "Saffronistas" by Bill Cunningham, documenting saffron regalia in which New Yorkers have turned up for the glorious occasion. Looks like the costumes are more than half the fun. I didn't do a clickie because you'll soon have to pay to see this.
But I digress - terribly - and I haven't done that in ages. Perhaps my attention span is improving. As I was rushing upstairs to my group, my eye caught this beautiful window. I was particularly drawn to the radiator, to give you an idea of the dimension in which I was operating.
Photo note: This is the first of a series about widening attention and changing meaning, I think.
February 15, 2005
Belated valentine
This morning, my friend told me about a conference she attended Saturday entitled "The Neurobiology of Love". In honor of Valentine's Day, for which I was in a black hole , (and not the dismal kind) I will pass along a few tidbits.
Aside: Although I despise Mother's Day, Father's Day and National Secretary's Day for their blatant commercial intent, I do love a good Valentine. Valentine's Day seems homemade and sweetly Victorian.
Tidbits as promised.
Evidently research shows that women use an average of 9000 words per day, versus an average of 3000 for men. This is why Valentine's Day comes in handy. It provides a structure for the laconic in which to articulate certain sentiments that might otherwise be left out in the word-rationing process. The presenter at this conference also felt that women abuse men for their biologically based lip button, and should stop doing so. Why? Criticism, contempt , defensiveness and withdrawal are behaviors that fatally erode relationships according to John Gottman , a marriage researcher at the University of Washington. Anyone who is interested in sustaining enduring love should consider eliminating such behaviors from their fighting repetoire.
Moving right along, recent research using brain scans reveals that falling in love (limerence ) and cocaine addiction are remarkably similar in the brain activity department. No wonder the entire population is mooning about "love". As we know, that limerence stuff, as much fun as it is, usually peters out (pardon the expression) after all too brief a time.
So how do we get those who came together in passion to stick around for the rapture ? Voles have helped us understand the biochemistry involved. It seems that the hormone, oxytocin is responsble for enduring love. Your will be delighted to hear that you can improve your personal oxytocin production by engaging in such activities as cuddling , gazing , stroking, helping , verbally expressing sweet nothings, or practicing tantric sex. If or when you don't have a partner, you can probably pump out quite a bit of oxytocin while petting your cat .
The biochemically savy will include alot of oxytocin-producing activities along with passionate sex the next time they are smitten , thus upping the probability of enduring love.
The presenter thought that someone could make a mint by opening a heartbreak hotel where people could recover (biochemically of course) from having their hearts broken.
Addendum;; If you ever want to see a great movie about the effects of love interrupted in limerence, and healing through deidealization, rent"Truly Madly Deeply" One never knows when one might have such an impulse, so I just thought I'd throw that in .
Photo note: Chasing rainbows - can you see the hearts?
Black box
Little black Boxes
at Princeton
are trying
to tell us
something
Photo note: Black driveway revisited. I liked my "contact" sheet, so I tried to reproduce it here.
February 12, 2005
Black driveway
A dear and close personal friend encouraged me to take the hemispheric dominance test . In true Libran fashion, my brain is evenly balanced 9 to 9 right/left. I once had to lecture on the psychology of creativity, and, in doing the preparation, discovered that it is important for the artist to have a little something going on in both sides of the brain, since it is important to be able to organize and complete projects once one has conceived of them. I eagerly related this factoid to a completely disinterested group of the colored and pierced , who obviously had no difficulty organizing their personal decoration.
I had some visceral reactions a few questions on the test. For example, I HATED geometry. I had to memorize every single theorem word for word, and not one ever made a bit of sense to me. Recently I have warmed to the subject due to my belated discovery of Sacred Geometry, as it pops into my camera.
And then there is Thomas Banchoff, Brown mathematician and fourth dimension explorer. He is doing for the fourth dimension, what Edwin Abbott did for the third in Flatland, helping us to conceptualize what might be going on all around us in the fourth dimension as we perceive in three. Take a peek at the animations of a three dimensional cube moving through a two dimensions, and you will get an idea of just what you might perceive about a third dimension if you happened to be flat.
Now extrapolate to what might be happening around you in the fourth dimension as you kick around in the third. As Banchoff says in his introduction to the Princeton University Press edition of "Flatland", "All of us are slaves to the prejudices of our own dimension".
Then allow me to take a flying leap , way over my head, to dark energy, black holes , white and wormholes and make the assumption that they are all fourth dimensional phenomena, and thus quite elusive to those of us who find ourselves embedded right here in good ole 3-D.
Banchoff has a whole page of beautiful computer animations to illustrate fourth dimension goings on. He was a friend of Salvador Dali's , who was not the only artist to be inspired by the dimension four.
"[In Flatland] Abbott challenged his readers to imagine trying to understand the nature of phenomena in higher dimensions if all they could see directly were lower-dimensional slices. That is precisely the situation that radiologists face today as they analyze the slices produced by CAT scans or magnetic resonance imaging."
"The slicing technique from Flatland still remains one of the most powerful tools for dealing with aggregates in higher dimensions."
- Thomas Banchoff, from the Introduction to the Princeton University Press edition of Flatland.
Photo note: Here we are back on my new black driveway, a personal flatland.
February 10, 2005
We Are Spared
The forecast said
another twelve to sixteen
inches
plopped atop
existing
head high mounds
of blackened snow
should be pretty
pretty inconvenient
cancellations
preparations
long lines
at the market
at the pumps
but our savior
global warming
blesses us
with clammy rain
and spring
waddles
one day
closer
Photo note: not much to say about this one
February 08, 2005
On Coveting The Lampshade
years ago
I would have
spied
this fancy shade
and whipped up
one
for myself
Later
I would
have spent
a hundred bucks
for one
of my own
Now I've lost
the impetus
to sew
and the room
to collect
instead I have
electrons
in virtual reality
with which to furnish
my cyberspace
Photo note: Taken in an antique store of sorts, last summer. Quite white.
February 06, 2005
The Subjugation Schema Examined
Getting back to Schema Theory, after perusing "Reinventing Your LIfe", I decided that the most prominent schema in my childhood image, and one that lurks in the shadow of my present is the Schema, Subjugation.
Let's go through some of the steps Jeffrey Young outlines, in order to get an idea of how one might use the schemas to create change, should one chose to take a project such as this upon oneself.
Some origins of my subjugation (selected from a more complete list) are:
. My parent(s) tried to dominate or control almost every aspect of my life.
. My parent(s) punished threatened or got angry at me when I did not do things their way.
. My parent(s)did not allow me to make my own choices as a child.
. I did not feel that my rights, needs or opinions were respected when I was a child.
. I had to be very careful about what I did or said as a child because I worried about about parent's tendency to become worried or depressed.
. I often felt angry at my parents for not giving me the freedom other children had ( Would that I would have gotten that far)
Then there is a list of danger signals I might note when selecting potential partners - you can guess, controlling , dependent , easily hurt, those that become angry when you disagree with them. I feel that I have mostly avoided these pitfalls, but I do project mightily about the sensitivity of others. An additional note on partner selection, we are warned about "Schema Chemistry" - that moth-to-the-flame phenomenon which causes us to fall madly in love with the person who will help us repeatedly reinact our most maladaptive schema.
Here are selections from the list where subjugators get into trouble-- subjugators like myself.
. You do not like to disagree openly with other people's opinions (you'd never know it from my blog would you?)
. You do not know what you want or prefer in many situations.
. You cannot stand to do anything that hurts other peoples feelings.
. You often stay in situations where you feel trapped or where your needs are not met.
.You do not want others to see you as selfish, so you go to the other extreme.
. You often sacrifice yourself for the sake of other people.
. When other people are in trouble or in pain you stand up for their rights. (Ironically, that used to drive my mother crazy.)
. You have trouble being strong in negotiations.
. You cannot ask for promotions or raises at work (This would definitely apply to me, but I am self employed and thus avoid that uncomfortable situation altogether)
. You play down your accomplishments. (Oh, I don't know)
And a few suggestions that I can try in order to change my subjugation schema.
. Understand my childhood subjugation.
. List everyday situations at home and work in which I subjugate or sacrifice my own needs to others.
. Stop behaving passive aggressively.
. Push myself systematically to assert myself - express what I need or want. Start with easy requests first.
. Practice asking other people to take care of me. Ask for help. Discuss my problems. Try to achieve a balance between what I give and what I get.
. Pull back in relationships with people who are too self centered or selfish to take my needs into account. Avoid one-sided relationships. Change or get out of relationships where I feel trapped.
. Practice confronting people instead of accomodating so much. Express my anger appropriately, as soon as I feel it.
. Learn to feel more comfortable when someone is upset hurt or angry at me.
. Do not rationalize my tendency to please others so much. Stop telling myself that it doesn't really matter.
. Be more agressive at work. Take credit for what I do. Do not let other people take advantage of me. Ask for any promotions or raises I might be entitled to get . Delegate responsiblity to other people. (Too bad I'm self employed)
I have a little work to do.
Here's a subjugation flashcard that I can make to carry with me. "I have the right to say 'no' when other people ask me to do unreasonable things. If I say 'yes' I will only get angry at the other person and at myself. I can live with the guilt of saying"no". Even if I cause the other person a little pain, it will only be temporary. People will respect me if I say 'no' to them. And I will respect myself."
OH GAWD THIS IS BOOOORING, even to me and I'm a subjugator. You get the general idea. Buy the book
Here's my new, unsubjugated role model Yulia Timoshenko Isn't her hair much better than Condis?
Photo note: I was getting sick of winter pictures. The lilies seem both prickly and authoritarian to me. I could call this "Subjugation in Springtime."
Born into Brothels
I went to see a documentary film last night about how taking photographs can be transformative. Zana Briski , a New York photographer with a British accent, went to the red light district of Calcutta to document the lives of its prostitutes. People there do not fancy having their pictures taken, given that they are thoroughly engaged in criminal activity, so Zana moved in and became part of the community. The children, and there are many, befriend her. Ultimately, she supplies several with cameras, teaches them photography, and sends them out into the bordello to shoot. And do they ever.
The kids have a richly colorful and shocking environment within which to work. Zana conducts classes where they learn from critiques about composition, interest, light and beauty by examining their own work. She takes them to places where they have never been, and they carry their cameras with them.
The children are astonishing. Matured early by the chaos of their lives, yet almost completely unspoiled by its sordidness. They are not the tough little sociopaths that one might expect, even though many of them will be forced into lives of prostitution and crime. Their wisdom, ambitions, philosophical stances and brilliance shine through every moment of this film.
Zana tries to rescue them from grim futures. With incredible effort, she arranges for most of them to go to boarding schools, and they do, and they don't - but they will always have their art .
The film is a compendium of still photography and movies taken by Zana's partner at the time, Ross Kauffman. It's visually beautiful and spiritually moving. Don't miss it.
Photo note: Oh well, I just wanted to get a little flavor of the color and complexity of Calcutta. This is the best I could do in my archives - it's Mexico. I thought the hooka looked vaguely Indian.
February 03, 2005
The State of the Union
I am posting, sans purple finger , a mildly amusing, out of season picture, to remind me of kind, wise men, and that life is just a bowl of cherries.
You will be proud of me for avoiding the use of terms like arrogant prick, out of control narcissist, liar and delusional when referring to W.'s triumphal oration. (he still says "aay" for the article "uh", and newcular, which, to my mind lacks imperiousness) I turned off the TV midoratory, to avoid raising my blood pressure, just before the touching scene of the implanted Iraqi shill rushing around the audience to passionately embrace the mother of a dead Marine. W. has brought meaningless, needless devastation into the lives of both of these women, for which they are showing their gratitude - otherwise it would mean that their unspeakable sacrifices are for naught.
I must confess, instead of listening to the uplifting Esther Hicks, channeling Abraham, last week in my car, I got glued to Richard Clark's edifying analysis of the history of the war on terror Against All Enemies". It's amazing what a simple minded, arrogant leader without a smidgeon of intellectual curiosity can do to screw up a nation in a jiffy Perhaps it is more malevolent and intentional than that.
Now, you see, I have my gizzard in an uproar again. I must remember that my gizzard is my responsibility. If I want a gay gizzard, I will have to stay away from subjects like this. Period.
February 02, 2005
pillars
I had this plan to follow along the unraveling of one of my own schemas schema, for everyone's edification, especially my own. Unfortunately, that has involved rereading most of "Reinventing Your Life". Two pieces of good news. I did manage to read the book. In doing so, I found that many of the old schemas in my image do not seem to resonate with my adult life. By the time I did settle on Subjugation, I had run out of time to review the list of activities that will lead to unsubjugation, liberty, whatever.
I'm sure "Imagine yourself as a goddess rather than a servant", wasn't on the list, but it will have to suffice for now.
In the meantime, Natalie has directions on how to write your name in heiroglyphics, you can play with the color image finder , (click around the shape in the center and watch the images change), generate a walking bug or make your own beautiful designs at KaleidoDraw.
Photo note: Sturdy pillars emerging from mounds of blanketing white snow. The photosymbolism is yours to imagine.