PeaceBang

Wednesday Cat Blogging

This is going to be one of those things that I turn to for solace when there’s a State of the Union Address on TV:

I still haven’t spotted either of the cats but I have hope.

Wouldn’t it be cruel if these people didn’t even have a cat and they were just messing with my head?

But you know they do. You can tell because they have cat-themed art on the wall. Only real cat people would have cat art on the wall, hung just about at cat eye-level. This reminds me of my friends L. and M. who tape postcards and other artwork down by their cat’s food dishes. I love that kind of crazy.

By the way (I know it’s not Friday yet and I’m cat blogging anyway), I did share a special bonding experience with none other than the infamous Poochinette, the cranky cat of La Maison Doyon in St. Ane-des-Lacs, Quebec. Miz Pooch, much to the surprise of her owner, took a shine to me and insisted that we spend at least one night in the same bed.

Her human, in most amazed tones (you have to supply the heavy French accent), said, “I can’t believe it. She usually ignores everyone! She is really very sauvage.”

But Poochinette knows a cat girl when she sees one. She had the most hilarious growly meow that I made a recording of her talking.

Baby Got Spam

Oh my god, I got my first SPAM COMMENTERS!!

http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9873156&postID=112368590163241822

Remember when Dominique Dunne (may she rest in peace) showed up in “Poltergeist” as her house was exploding with corpses and as she stepped out of the car into the diabolical whirlwind she screamed, “WHAT’S HAPPENING!!?”

That’s how I feel.

Am I gonna have to do some big techno thing to filter them now?
:::rubbing eyes, looking very cranky::::

"I Just Want To Be a Mother Now"

Just about a year ago, Entertainment Weekly ran a piece by Karen Valby that was such a throw-back to the era of “the little woman” you’d have sworn you were reading an issue of Ladies Home Journal, circa 1954.

It was called “The Lady Vanishes” and the headline read:

“Gwyneth: mom or movie star? — Just as she draws attention for two upcoming films, Gwyneth Paltrow is stepping out of the spotlight to focus on a different sort of drama: motherhood.”

The accompanying photos featured an incredibly ethereal-looking Paltrow (who isn’t the earthiest of creatures in the first place) looking as though she hadn’t had a baby, but a lobotomy.

In the article, Gwynny claimed that she was so madly in love with her daughter and her new maternal status that she was going to leave movie-making behind — leave it! Leave it, I tell you! Leave the mad hustle of Hollywood and just be a mother to Apple.

Paltrow went back to work ten months after her daughter’s birth. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Julia Roberts did the same exact thing after the birth of her twins, Phinneus and Alligator, or whatever their names are. She gave quotes to the press within which she “vowed” to take five years off to raise her twins. One article read:

“Her trainer, Kathy Kaehler, added at the time: ‘Julia says she’s taking at least five years off from movie-making to raise her twins. ‘She’s waited so long to be a mother, and fought so hard to be one, that she wants to devote all her time to her babies.’”

The babies in question were born in November of 2004. Mother Julia appeared at the Oscars about 16 weeks later (arguably just a nice night out for a tired new mama) and returned to work soon thereafter. She is starting rehearsals for a major Broadway bow in March, 2006, and has even put a film or two in the can in the meanwhile.

You know what, girls?

It’s okay if you want to work.

It’s okay if you find interesting work with the best in the business and great roles more rewarding than spending all day changing diapers and wiping up spittle from your shoulder. It’s okay if you enjoy being super famous, glamorous and sought-after in one of the most competitive industries in the world.

But at least have the good grace to publicly retract your earlier statements and speak frankly to the millions of mothers who don’t have the choices you have; many of whom greatly admired you for stepping away from the spotlight in order to devote your energies to those little people you claim to be so “in love” with.

Have the good grace to speak to the millions of women who understand why you love work so much, because they love it too, and they are often taken to task for leaving their children in the care of others… or for not having children at all.

Meanwhile, when Apple and Alligator are old enough to become mothers, hopefully we’ll have worked some of this stuff out so that they’ll be able to frankly say, “I’m blown away by how much I love this baby, and I’m so grateful I have the means to have both family and a rewarding work life.”

You can madly love your babies and still want to work. And plenty of women HAVE to.

This Can’t Be Happening

Pentagon plans to observe Sept. 11 anniversary with march, concert

BY MICHAEL MCAULIFF
New York Daily News
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The Pentagon will hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of Sept. 11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing Tuesday.
“This year the Department of Defense will initiate an America Supports Your Freedom Walk,” Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of “the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation.”
The march will start at the Pentagon, where nearly 200 people died on Sept. 11, and end at the National Mall with a show by country star Clint Black.

Word of the event startled some observers. “I’ve never heard of such a thing,” said John Pike, who has been a defense analyst in Washington for 25 years and runs GlobalSecurity.org.

The news also reignited debate and anger over linking Sept. 11 with the war in Iraq.
“That piece of it is disturbing since we all know now there was no connection,” said Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq veteran who heads Operation Truth, an anti-administration military booster.

Rieckhoff suggested the event was an ill-conceived publicity stunt. “I think it’s clear that their public opinion polls are in the toilet,” he said.

Rumsfeld’s walk had some relatives of Sept. 11 victims fuming.

“How about telling Mr. Rumsfeld to leave the memories of Sept. 11 victims to the families?” said Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband in the attacks.
Administration supporters insisted Rumsfeld was right to link Iraq and Sept. 11, and hold the rally.
“We are at war,” said Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. “It’s essential that we support our troops.”
He also said attacking Iraq was necessary after Sept. 11. “You do not defeat al-Qaida until you stabilize the Middle East, and that’s not possible as long as Saddam Hussein is in power.”
—

This is despicable on so many levels I don’t know where to start.

Maybe you do, PeaceBangers.

One of my first lucid thoughts, after the first thought about picking up and just moving to Canada immediately (seriously: when I got back to the U.S. after a week away and saw again how unhappy, obnoxious, aggressive, pathologically competitive and generally caddish Americans are, I never wanted to leave the house) is to think about George Lakoff and his “frames” concept.

Doesn’t this event strike you as a conscious effort to steal a time-honored, popular form of progressive, liberal activism (broad, non-violent community presence + artistic performance= world peace) and co-opt it for perverse reasons?

Julia Ormond, Activist for Refugee Issues

Julia Ormond, Activist for Refugee Issues
Originally uploaded by Peacebang.

Remember Julia Ormond, that beautiful actress who was so the “It” girl of the 1990’s and starred with Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall” and with Sean Connery in “First Knight?” And after a few big hits she had flop after flop and then disappeared?

Turns out she was working on refugee issues. Lookie here:

http://integralnaked.org/talk.aspx?id=275

So I’m thinking, wow, if every actor and actress whose career hits the skids after making a pile of dough in a few hit flicks makes similar choices, we could actually have a much better world.

Maybe.
But Julia, I’m sorry I said anything mean about you when you disappeared. Like I’m sorry I said anything like, “That chick was the WORST actress! I’m so glad she’s not in everything anymore!” Or “That Julia Ormond is so EXPRESSIONless! She’s like Garbo but without the soul!”

I take it all back. Also, you were in that super bizarre medieval Peter Greenaway film, “The Baby of Macon” and that sort of redeems you as an artist in my book.

Willoughby Lake

Willoughby Lake
Originally uploaded by Peacebang.

Talk about breath-taking. This was the view as I drove down Route 5A in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Northeast Kingdom. Does that kill you, or what?

How’s this for Biblical? Willoughby Lake is flanked by Mount Moriah and Mount Pisgah. I wish the photo began to do it justice.

Stories from the Montreal Gazette

[There are some very disturbing and graphic images contained in this post. If you’re having your morning muffin, or whatever, you may want to move on to something else. — P.B.]

Aside from the wonderful food, fresh breezy air, laughs with pals, friendly people and clean-as-a-whistle Metro system, I really liked the English-language paper, the Montreal Gazette.

They had a series of articles on the Israeli pull-out from the Gaza strip, which Sharon calls the “disengagement:”

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=e72d8078-7cae-4b4a-855b-c89dea401c89

If you can search for the other articles on the subject, do take the time to read them. I read three or four over the weekend and I found them very helpful and good journalism. God knows it’s a complicated subject.

Also appreciated, a powerful interview with Setsuko Thurlow, a woman who was eight years old and living in the center of the mushroom cloud in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. It’s in the subscriber-only part of the paper, but well worth buying if you have any interest in the subject matter. Hers is a perspective we don’t often get in the U.S. She describes the immediate aftermath of the bombing as an eerily slow, quiet procession of death, with people moaning for water while their flesh dropped off of their bones. She saw a woman carrying her own eyeballs in her hands after they dropped out of the sockets. (I know it’s not pleasant, people. It just happens to be the reality of the thing, and living in a nation whose president can’t even pronounce “nuclear,” it’s all too easy to keep the concept of nuclear arms at a polite distance). Her schoolmates joined in a circle with their teacher and sang until, one by one, they died.

I don’t know why or how she survived.

When little Setsuko finally broke down crying and lamenting all the suffering of her people in September 1945 (after Hiroshima had been hit by a typhoon) her father admonished her by saying, “What right have we to complain? We have life. We have this house over our heads.”

In the U.S., we would think this kind of response totally insensitive and abusive. Thurlow took strength from it, and says that it gave her the courage later in life to work for nuclear disarmament.

I’m preaching on the subject of resilience on September 11, 2005. What stories of resiliency inspire you?

Another Pious Plastic Surgery Denier

You know, I truly don’t care if Jessica Lange wants to have her face lifted until her eyebrows meet her hairline, but I do mind that she’s apparently a blatant liar and hypocrite:

“She looks tired climbing into the U.N. plane one last time. The fine lines on her face are more visible than normal. ‘I hope I have the European approach toward age,’ she muses. ‘As a woman ages, every line and wrinkle on her face and body should tell a story. It’s why I’ve never considered cosmetic surgery. The idea that beauty can only be synonymous with youth is an obsession that has been forced on American women.’”

Jessie gave this quote to the AARP in their spring 2004 issue. And the evidence shows:

http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/archives/004908.html

I applaud her humanitarian works in the Congo and all, but Ms. Lange, is it necessary to treat the folks at home like blithering idiots who think you jes’ woke up one mornin’ and your eyes was all slanty-like?

SHEESH

The Essence of Religious Maturity

I’m home and catching up on blog-reading and came across two posts that I think show Unitarian Universalist musing at its most lovely and loveable:

http://transientandpermanent.blogspot.com/2005/08/impossibilty-of-believing-whatever-you.html

http://chalicechick.blogspot.com/2005/08/vegas-option.html#comments

What Unitarian Universalists often totally fail to acknowledge and to take responsibility for, is that they belong to a religious group that generally defines religion in a way that radically differs from the way every other human society defines religion. Astonishingly enough, they nevertheless complain and moan and thrash around when they and their views aren’t warmly embraced by others (especially when those others are other Unitarian Universalists).

We (UUs) often define “religion” as that which binds together, (religare), conveniently dismissing the fact that for the rest of the world, “religion” is a system of beliefs and doctrines shared by a professing people (What’s wrong with all of them? Poor, misguided suckers). We define “worship” as the act of “considering those things that are worthy,” conveniently ignoring or blowing off the Greek and Hebrew derivations that explicitly refer to the act of prostrating oneself before a deity, or the old English origins of the term in reference to a wealthy nobleman (”your worth-ship”).

We do this because we’re groovy, free people and we feel entitled to do so. We’re heretics.

Meanwhile, there’s a tiny thimble-ful of us floating around in the great, huge ocean of religious people and religious systems, and we actually waste our time fighting amongst ourselves about who gets incuded, who don’t get no respect, etc.

In the wider world, no one (relatively speaking) knows — or cares — about us.
We’re so far beyond the Pale, even our horses are dots on the map.

So why do I point you to Jeff [oops, I had you mixed up with other UU bloggers named James, Jeff, sorry! — P.B.] and ChaliceChick’s posts as Good Things among us?

Because I think they represent the sincerity, careful thought, emotional engagement and personal reflection leading to personal responsibility that keeps me in love with this little, tiny community of heretics (a word whose roots mean “to question,” after all).
These are the kind of posts that model a struggle to stay lovingly engaged with the community of the religious; not the usual justifications for why one is superior and should disengage (or to reform the rest of the aforementioned “poor suckers”) from it.

These are not obnoxiously intellectual show-offy types, just masturbatorily displaying their great knowledge to validate their superiority. These are not victim types, who write to justify their great sense of persecution, and to blame and vilify those whom they believe persecute them. These are wonderers — worriers who make an art form of fretting — who display the maturity and wisdom of acknowledging that perhaps there’s something worth worrying about in the topics they have chosen for their reflection.

To enter into questions of ultimate meaning bare-foot because you might be walking on someone else’s holy ground is the essence of religious maturity. It is the essence of graciousness, and it is the essence of hospitality.

Unitarian Univeralists have too often defined hospitality as the quality of welcoming the stranger and immediately inviting him or her in to rearrange the living room furniture, sleep with our daughters and sons, and paint personally meaningful graffiti over older, sacred images.

What Jeff and ChaliceChick show us is a UU hospitality that invites the stranger to take off his or her shoes, quietly and respectfully enter the sanctuary of consideration together, and there — guarded and guided by the wisdom of intellectual inquiry and tradition — make decisions about how to best be a good and ethical person in their respective communities.

A bit of true refreshment on a hot and humid day.

Musing in Montreal

Writing from an internet cafe in Montreal, I was just catching up with Boy in the Bands (sorry if my syntax is scrambled, I’ve been speaking a combination of Spanish and French for the past three days) and found this set of comments tres interesant:

http://www.universalistchurch.net/boyinthebands/archives/christianity-for-non-christian-clergy-part-one/#comments

This conversation reminded me that I always wonder what people mean when they say that Unitarian Universalism is an “inter-faith” religion.

How so?

Doesn’t “inter-faith” mean a community of people of different world religions?
How are we that? The vast majority of us have, at best, a passing acquaintance with non-Judeo-Christian traditions.

I think Unitarian Universalism is a Humanist religious tradition that uses readings and teachings from various world religions, and which respects and remains enthusiastic about the diversity of wisdom sources available to us. We’re not inter-faith, IMHO, unless we actually are congregations of Muslims, Jews, Christians, pagans, etc.

Does anyone belong to that kind of congregation?

I spent two nights in Vermont on the way up here, and it turns out that the little lodge was run by some serious Christers (pronounced “Christ-ers,” a mild bit of snark I got courtesy of my friend Steve). They invited me to a campfire the first night and as soon as I figured out it was going to be all church songs and sharing stories of salvation and such, I quietly bid my goodnight.

Interesting how a little brush with the part of the family I’d like to disown clarifies a girl’s loyalties. I wasn’t happy with myself, but there you are.

Tolerance is WAY overrated.