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...and they lived happily ever after. Smith & Lady: poets, artists, photographers & adventurers.
Our relationship was forged to the soundtrack of Yoko Ono's magic,
frenetic, love-laden song, "Walking On Thin Ice." ( play song )
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Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
It’s very strange to me that lately there’s been all this stuff to raise awareness of human trafficking. It hadn’t really hit my consciousness until a couple months ago when I came across a project. People are knitting scarves that look like chains and selling them to raise funds to benefit a human trafficking prevention program. Apparently, trafficking’s been happening not only in third world countries, but right here in the U.S.
Being ever of a diagnostic mindset, I have ideas about the underlying reasons. I think that primarily the cause has been the idealization of youthful partners for sex, that some who suffer from immaturity have been going after kids because of mental and societal illness.
I wonder if we stop having so much sexually-laced context in our media that will help? And/or at least show sexiness as something that can include wrinkles and gray hair and stop characterizing it as something primarily youthful? And stop having sex as a primary goal for human beings, but rather, the full smörgåsbord of relationships?
I used to think it was OK to have strip clubs & pornography. Really am not sure now. I can’t condemn someone for stripping & doing porn. But I am not sure that it is a healthy thing in general. Nude statues are OK and certainly sex education is desired, and certainly art that explores the human form and burlesque are very valid and desirable. But I don’t think the prevalence of less artistically redeemable forms of pornography is mentally healthy for us.
Some of us have abused men in this culture, not only women, and this could be a root of the problem. Many have seen the whole sex as an oppressor class, and perhaps some men have therefore felt that it has been expected of them to have immature desires. What if we focus more often on the capacity of men to be nurturers, sensitive, and mature? What if we raise up good role models in the media more frequently? Let’s let men have drum circles and gatherings, and women have drum circles and gatherings, and men and women have drum circles and gatherings. Let’s drum this good stuff up.
The use of the words “mature” and “adult” is interesting to me as well, considering that in contemporary shorthand context, it tends to refer to content that contains pornography. I would like for us to see these words employed more in the traditional context, where these words mean something quite different in an asexual way–they mean “responsible,” “aged,” and “experienced.”
Unicef project to end human trafficking…
~ Lady
Tags: stopping human trafficking
Posted in activism, Events, Lady, Letters to the Universe, Philosophy, Relationships, spirituality | No Comments »
Monday, January 28th, 2013
I’ve been working on these little animal dolls from a book my mom gave me for Christmas. I use some old, meaningful clothing. Not only is it a way of revering nature by adoring the animal form, but it’s a means of processing my past and reformulating it for the future. The first animal I made used material from my grandma’s pants, a little bunny.
Grandma was very particular about her clothing. She would hem it up, give it customizations. She made little splits on the backsides of those pants so that she could easily put boots on underneath. When she died, I got boxes of her clothes.
Grandma and I were close. I’d think of her and the phone would ring and it would be her, lots of times. I do this with lots of people, but particularly her. Mom says Grandma’s fashion sense changed in her last years here-in-the-flesh and the reason was because I came back to the country.
We inspired each other. When I got back, everyone wanted to give me clothes, beautiful clothes. So lots of flowing, colorful skirts, typically matched with a t-shirt or round necked black shirt. And grandma dressed like a little elf with cheerful too-short-for-her-age skorts, skirts, pastel striped shirts and flower patterns.
I am making these little animal dolls with the thought that they will bring good luck to whoever has them, or if the person already has good luck, it will just be a little heap of additional good luck. And it’s also about revering what I’ve been through, revering time, making use of my hands for something. I went to a poetry reading with a doll I was working on and whenever someone had soothing words, words that weren’t upsetting, I stitched the words into the doll. So I’m hoping that it helps secure those good words into the fabric of Reality as well, and secures the caring types of actions that Grandma did (she was such a lovely, loving, appreciative person) into reality as well.
~ Lady
Posted in Art, Being, Events, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, life, Poetry, Relationships, spirituality | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 22nd, 2012
At Thanksgiving I think about the abundance that will be on the table, interacting with family members and the bustle of preparation. I think about pleasing people and pleasing my stomach. I think about symbolism and pleasing tradition while making progress.
I remember Thanksgivings past, the huge table and commotion at Grandma and Grandpa Ireland’s house. I imagine my Grandparents looking in on these words and looking in on us and helping when they can. I’m looking at a photo of them as young adults and I wonder what it was like for them–they must have been almost as responsible as they were when I knew them. I imagine them being much like my brother Jonathan and new sister Dedra setting up business. My grandparents were industrious.
And the holiday’s about giving thanks for the harvest. We have so very much abundance here that it’s a concern that we do not overeat. How fortunate we are. Even very poor people here quite often have enough to eat, although there is much to do to make sure that healthy food is affordable and accessible to everyone.
How can we work our harvest better? By making the healthy stuff more prevalent, by being more ethical in how we grow it and what we consume. By being kinder to Mother Earth so she can provide harvests for us in good health.
Reaching into the gist of the moment, putting my hand into the gist of the moment, what I’d like to do is really make stronger connections. Not to be poignant for poignancy’s sake, but to make progress.
Progress in our relationships–fulfilling the promise of how we thought we were going to be as capable adults now that we are older. Progress in my relationships. So Thanksgiving is not just a time to give thanks, but to show action concerning our thanks. To work on relationships. To use the dividends of our continuing maturity. To be what we can be.
I remember a family meal Smith & I were invited to in Mexico by a serious young man who practiced English with us. He addressed everyone around the table individually and thanked them for how they contributed to his life. This was during a dinner he put together because he was leaving Mexico to be a student in Canada.
I would like to do this at our gatherings, foster this kind of serious joy in recognizing each other’s importance. Perhaps some formality or format helps, even a game? We can foster this.
At Thanksgivings at my Aunt Jan’s and Uncle Jim’s, we have gone around the table and individually articulated what we are thankful for… can we take this opportunity today?
~ Lady
Tags: Thanksgiving
Posted in activism, Being, Conversations, couples, dreams, Environment, ethics, Events, Family, Food, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, life, Mexico, On Writing, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, smith & Lady, spirituality | No Comments »
Monday, October 29th, 2012
I have this theory that Hurricane Sandy is a manifestation of Goddess on Gaia. Gaia is upset because people in power haven’t been heeding her warnings enough. First she sent an earthquake to Christ Church, New Zealand. She chose Christ Church not because She has particularly ill feelings towards the people who live there, Christ, and church, but because maybe She was thinking, “OK, how do I make it obvious to people that I’m pissed off and want them to stop polluting so much, degrading the environment so much, eating animals so much? I’ll go for something to get their attention. Christ Church.”
Well, that didn’t work. Most people were somehow oblivious. So maybe Gaia got even more pissed off, and conveniently found a city named “Fukushima,” which reminded her of the phrase “Fuck you.” Not that She was angry specifically at the people of Japan or the people of Fukushima (except for proponents of nuclear power, perhaps). It was just a way to say, “Look here, I’m communicating with you. You didn’t get ‘Christ Church’ and wrote that off to coincidence. But Christ Church followed by ‘Fuku’ shima? That I don’t think you’ll write off.”
And maybe She’s not even angry, but just concerned about people and animals and has decided to appear angry to get our attention, but now we’ve got a megastorm right before election day, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence. This is the planet saying, “See, here I am, and I have this stuff I could do that might make things a *tad* uncomfortable to you. So please heed. Do not break into my skin and fracture my rock. Do not blow the tops off my mountains. Do not kill so many of my creatures. Do not irradiate the environment. Do not drill for gas and oil so much.”
Here’s what She commands our elected people to do: help wild creatures thrive in the wild again. Tap into gentle energy from wind and solar and wave and maybe even geothermal. Develop smart energy grids. Help us stop having so many human babies–let’s value the present and future for all children. Eat more organically farmed, non-monoculture-crop non-GMO food. Live more according to the environment’s needs.
Elected people and wealthy people have reason to heed this. It is worthwhile to have as much environment as possible left unspoilt, given over to wild animals. The pleasures of this life are found by eating healthy food, seeing that people are happy and seeing the beauty of nature and making worthwhile accomplishments in art, poetry, literature, film, engineering, teaching, etc., and all according to best practices… and surely wealthy and elected people are interested in the pleasures of this life.
~ Lady
Posted in Environment, ethics, Events, Family, Lady, ladymemoir, Letters to the Universe, Relationships, spirituality, weather | No Comments »
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