Paradigms...where shift happens!

Nothing to do with relationships but...

let me put my personal cards on the table, Martha Stewart-wise: I’ve never much cared for her TV cooking program or her near manic addiction to style and detail. On the other hand, if Martha Stewart had been Muriel Frobisher she would have gotten a “not guilty” verdict at best and 15 minutes of community service at the worst. So I guess that means I’m “Martha neutral.” That being said, the question pops into mind, why did the powers that be decide that she should do her 150 odd days in the pokey in West Virginia? Oh sure the slammer in her home state may be a little crowded but is that any reason to send America’s Style Czarina to the hinterlands of West “By God” Virginia? The facility is nicknamed Camp Cupcake for crying out loud. CNN has pictures of a sample cell there. They looked fairly tidy but might need a doily or two…. Send her where she’s needed! Also noticed that her company’s stock dropped by one percent when the Alderson, West Virginia prison was announced, implying that 1% of her company’s value depends on WHERE she’s going to jail. Furrowed brow of puzzlement at my keyboard… Also on the radar now is the prospect of a Martha Stewart reality show after she gets out. And I thought “Miami Slice” was over the edge. If that's not enough, think of the potential for the Learning Channel shows..."Trading Cells", "While You Were Incarcerated"...boggles the mind does it not? The other news story of note today is that the President changed his plans and has left for Florida a day early for the debate. The story from the spin factory is that he wants to observe the hurricane damage again. I’m not sure I’m buying that; more likely he’s not sure he can count on the Florida Supreme Court to cover his “six” again in 2004. If I sound cynical, wonder why… That's my story and I'm stickin' to it...

Sea Flakes

Retreating ripples shift one and all,
Sunlight and wrinkled water
Shine each in turn as they tumble
Back beneath the swirling foam.

And in the scramble of tumbling gems
A teasing sparkle flirts with the sun
And settles for a moment,
Watching the wonder in my peering eye.

September 2004

Moments of Resonance

I was talking with someone the other night about this on line matching thing I am on. She asked me what I was looking for on there and I was kind of stumped for a moment. Someone to do things with, to share life days with? Was it as simple as that?

Then a phrase came to mind and I told her that I thought that what I was looking for was a person with whom I could experience “moments of resonance”…those times when everything that needs to come together for a perfect and probably unique slice of life does so. Athletes and performance artists sometimes call it being in the zone. I once heard k.d. lange sing an old Roy Orbison song, “Cryin” and even with just the sound of the radio I could tell that she had gone somewhere else and had become one with that song.

Sara Hughes, the 2002 Olympic figure skating gold medalist had that moment of resonsnce when she landed her first triple axle or whatever it was in her final routine. The instant her skates touched down on the ice, she knew she was there, knew that at that split second in time everything that followed was going to be flawless and I’ll bet money she also knew that no matter what the judging outcome, she would never be better than she was right then. You could see it in her face like the first light of sunrise…”I’m there…this moment is mine and I am going to wring every last ounce of energy and life out of it that I can.”

It can be so quiet you barely know it has happened…you feel it and don’t know it until later. As gentle perhaps as a butterfly on the windowsill or as complex as an orgasm that drains the body and subsumes the soul leaving only enough of you to lay there with your lover and breathe together .

That is the core…to find a person with whom I can experience a series of all sorts of moments of resonance….a coming together of spirits that happens perhaps without warning or preparation  but yields the improbable equation, 1+1=3 against a backdrop of a breaking wave, a shooting star, a dripping icicle…resonance…yep…resonance.

Anyway, that’s my story and I am, by God stickin’ to it….

The day after...

Well, surgery day has come and gone for my oldest daughter and all went well. She is now the proud owner of a brand spanking new fresh off the showroom floor mechanical aortic valve. All went as planned with the surgery and the long term prognosis is excellent.

I had said here that the valve would not be replaced. On further reflection and discussion with the Doctor Ruth decided to go ahead with the mechanical valve rather than face yet another surgery at some point when the aortic valve demanded replacement. That was not really a matter of ‘if’ but of ‘when’ so she decided that there was no point in putting it off.

An interesting twist was that as we left her room after seeing her for a few minutes we ran into her pediatric cardiologist whom we had not seen in 15 years or more. Dr. Carpenter had found out that Ruth was going to have the operation there and wanted to check in on her. That’s what I call service after the sale.

Feel as if I should have some deep and insightful commentary on the whole experience but all that’s there at the moment is a deep deep sense of relief that this is now behind her. This little girl, born to be a mother, now will be able to continue doing what she does so well.

The tension level as we sat in the waiting room for those six hours it took for them to do the operation was replaced by giddiness as the pressure lifted after just a few minutes of conversation with the surgeon, who by the way looked to be about Ruth’s age.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it….