O' the day - 3.29.07

Dreamt of sharks last night, and water -- always the water. Not sure what either meant -- to a Pisces, watery scenes should be comforting, part of the psyche, the core of the being, but too often the dream-water seems there to frighten me, to overtake and wash away. Could this figuratively mean I'm drowning in my own thoughts and ideas, much less in my dreams?

O' the day - 3.28.07

(Happy 37th anniversary to my parents - may you have 37 more!)

I'm not sure one could, in reality, live a life full of constant action and danger, such as characters from so many books and movies, with every day fraught with a new mission to accomplish or mind-boggling puzzle to solve. I think that perhaps we need those times of solitude and boredom, to reset our internal excitement meter, lest our hearts and souls explode with too much living.

O' the day - 3.27.07

I've never understood why classical music has the poorly earned reputation of being stuffy and highbrow and only for the white-haired crowd. In its day, classical was pop and rock and easy listening, depending on the composer and his mood. Classical music even has words, for many pieces, and though they may be in Latin, they're lyrics.

O' the day - 3.26.07

(Don't read this post today if you're not up for a whine.)

As the song so succinctly said, "I'm too young to be this damn old." Found out Friday I have full-blown osteoporosis -- a disease I shouldn't have for 20 years, at least. I'm tired of being old at my not-so-advanced age of 36 -- not that my body hasn't been older than my actual age for years, but I'd like to feel a bit young for at least a short while before I succumb to all the later-in-life diseases.

O' the day - 3.22.07

(Happy 37th, Ric!)

For sheer beauty and strength of emotion in music, it's hard to match Barber's "Adagio for Strings." Listening to the slow build, drawing inexorably to the climax, is to be drawn along irresistibly to the edge of what strings will allow, and then to fall blissfully over that edge.

O' the day - 3.21.07

Politicians must be the most exceedingly hypocritical creatures alive. The moment any news seen to be a possible benefit to their party surfaces, they're out like sharks snapping and elbowing (yes, I know sharks don't have elbows) for the best tidbits, the juiciest morsels to swallow, lumping all party members together in iniquity. Then, when a member of their own flounders, they're quick to deny any association, leaving the black sheep to fend for himself.

O' the day - 3.20.07

Genetics is such a funny study -- exactly how some escape the vagaries and pains of aging while some succumb too early may be guessed at, but probably never truly known. Scientists may be able to pick out the persons who will fall prey to disease and disorder, but as far as answering the age-old "why me?," I don't know that any resolution will ever be located.

O' the day - 3.19.07

Universal health care is another of those issues on which I'm not quite sure where I stand. Having battled insurance providers for years, and having paid out many tens of thousands of dollars, both for premiums and out-of-pocket costs, I see the huge need for reform, but I'm not at all convinced that the government needs to take on the care and maintenance of health insurance. Not having proved to met yet they can handle their existing programs well, why should I entrust this one to them?

O' the day - 3.16.07

Heard a story this morning that I have a completely divided mind on --

The piece was about the efficacy of educating prisoners, and the victims' rights groups that oppose the idea. I'm impressed by the statistics that show greatly reduced rates of recidivism tied to prison education, and agree with the thought of making time served useful to the community, but at the same time I sympathize with victims' families who scream at the idea of free education and opportunity for those who choose to break the law, while the victims had no say or choice in the crime perpetrated upon them or any subsequent consequences.

O' the day - 3.15.07

Listening to a story about presidential candidates using myspace to get the word out reminds me forcibly of being a teenager and hearing my dad use the word "rad" to describe something he found particularly interesting. I remember cringing at the anachronism, the same way I foresee young adults today eschewing the attempt by a 70-something to utilize the lingo and communication style of the young.

O' the day - 3.14.07

War and basketball, bombing and bracketology -- is it so wrong to wish one could write solely on the lighter side of life? True, many authors never delve into the depths of the sorrow and horror in the world; but for others, to be true to one's thoughts and urges, the darker issues must be uncovered, splayed out and dissected, explored with the knowledge that no answer may be forthcoming, but the questions are necessarily asked.

O' the day - 3.13.07

Love is a funny, variable emotion -- at times bursting with its adopted global importance; at times small and secret and hidden within the holder's deepest soul. It can expand to fill the world with sound and light and brilliant color, and collapse into a long-harbored seed that lives a a tiny hard hope, waiting to reach out and blossom into the shadow of its former self.

O' the day - 3.9.07

The talk of war and whether or when to pull out makes me wonder how similar our global situation is now as compared to the Vietnam era, not having lived through the first. Are we simply making the same arguments of 40-odd years ago, or has the psyche of the nation undergone a sea change, so that this war is not the same at all? Or are the wheels of life revolving once again?

O' the day - 3.8.07

(Happy birthday to me!)

What truly becomes of strong emotion subverted -- passionate love, heated anger, boundless sorrow? Does it die away slowly, transformed bit by bit into lesser feeling, or is it replaced immediately by a stronger desire to rid oneself of that emotion, to return the mind and soul to equilibrium? Does the heart have a limit to the depth and width it can feel, and anything gauged as exceeding that become transfixed into a safer format?

O' the day - 3.7.07

How much of a chronic illness becomes almost a friend, held tightly to oneself, in great fear of losing that integral part? If we removed that condition, how lost would we be in an almost grief, reminded of that part of us that defined who we were, how we lived our daily lives? And how many of us would choose to retain that illness if given the choice, if only to keep our identity whole and safe and protected in pain?

O' the day - 3.5.07

I wonder sometimes if the creative juices are not stirred up, enhanced, spiced by the presence of mental illness. In an artistic mind, the impulses to explore and experience and create are turned inward, if that same mind cannot tolerate the close presence of others. The urge to spill over your guts and your heart into humanity, thwarted by the fear of that same humanity, becomes tightly controlled prose, music, poetry -- judged only by the inner ear and expanding into the limitless imagination.

O' the day - 3.2.07

The horror of a lingering dream memory is almost indescribable. You wake with the momentary sense that it was all real, the terrors you underwent really happened, your life has changed forever and you have had no control over the outcome. Then comes the realization that it was all pretend -- no one is dead, the earth hasn't collapsed. The awful feeling of dread remains, though; "there but for the grace of God" premonitions run through the mind, and the shadow of that terrible dream still darkens.

O' the day - 3.1.07

(It's March - yikes!)

Happy birthday tomorrow, Dr. Seuss, and may your eternal rest be filled with the somber Lorax and laughing cats and doomsday goldfish.