This Just In...

This might be old hat to many of you, but today, the sudden realization hit me - there is almost no greater pleasure than having something at hand when you need it.

It's a difficult satisfaction to notice and enjoy, because:

• if you have the item when you need it, your gratification is immediately met, with no "gap time" in which to grasp the difficulty you might face NOT having it.
• if you do not have the item at hand, it is like the Prodigal Son - you're so swept up in other emotions - frustration, exasperation, anger, impatience - that when you get your desired item, the emotions are over-blown in the other direction, and you only notice the circumstances under which you were able to retrieve or attain this needed item. Or you're full of self-congratulation for having attained it.

But if it takes you a minute to retrieve what you desire - from a store you already have, the satisfaction is immense.

I figure if everyone was given the simple pleasure of knowing something would be there when he/she needed it, fear and panic and outrage and most wars in general could be diminished, because I feel evil - other than pyschopathic evil - comes from not knowing if there'll be enough for you, so you'll working unethically to tip the scales in your favor. Knowledge that "you'll be okay" could be a great pacifier.

Time spent in Africa really hones this sense of satisfaction - when it is experienced, because it is there that foresight can make the difference between a thirsty night and a comfortable one, or pain or the absence thereof. It takes experience to gain enough foresight to avert the simplest of discomforts in Africa - so listen to those who've gone before you! According to Mary Kingsley - Always, always boil/filter your water.

I Did It!

BookJools is now an official "sole proprietor" business!! I filed for a Federal Tax ID Number, I submitted a "Doing Business As" form and I am in two craft shows this fall: These beautiful objects are now on sale to the public! I'm donating some for charity fund-raisers, and I'm thinking of donating a portion of every bookmark sale to the charity of the purchaser's choice. That'll take a little organization on my part, but I think I can do it. Right now the glass-and-charm bookmarks are $3.00 each, and the bookmarks with sterling silver charms on them are $8.00- $10.00 depending on how much the original charm cost me. Please e-mail me at bookjools@hotmail.com to order -and you can request the number, color, length and theme you'd like! Wish me luck!

There's No Cloak of Invisibility Over Congress

The saga of representative William Jefferson (R- Louisiana) is showing us how many Congressmen are (incorrectly) assuming that their offices are sacrosanct and above the law. Separation of powers? In fact, the Constitution notes that a member of a Congress is priviledged from arrest except in cases of treason, felony and breach of the peace while Congress is in session. But :

1. Rep. Jefferson had been subpoenaed for certain documents in September, after he had been caught on videotape in July accepting $100,000 in marked bills from an FBI informant for "help in securing business deals in Africa." He failed to turn over those documents.
2. An 83-page affidavit, justifying the search and identifying the items sought was in place for the judge to review before granting the warrant.
3. A special "filter team" was put in place to review each document for sensitive issues of confidentiality, and if such were noted, those documents would NOT be handed over to law enforcement. This is certainly due care to avoid catching too much in a "sweep".

As stated on the radio the other day, "The people of America are more concerned with maintaining Law and Order than with nuances of the doctrine of "Separation of Powers". The fact that evidence is stored in a Congressional office, as opposed, say, to a home freezer, should not render it immune from seizure as evidence. When many people point out "there has been no precedent set for a warranted search of a Congressional office", it just means that we've been letting some likely criminals get away with too much in the last 219 years.

As for William Jefferson's assertion that he is not guilty, after $90,000 worth of the marked $100 bills were found wrapped in alumium foil in his home freezer - well, that man just gives lying a bad name.

A Life Much Less Than Merely Ordinary

Paul Rusesabagina , the Hotel Rwanda hotel manager, who saved 1300 people from the 1994 massacre in Rwanda, was in town the other day, and he had many incredible things to say. One obsevation was more amazing than the others, though. This man, who many might rightfully say has seen the worst of what humanity has to offer, still holds that:

"The individual's most potent weapon is the stubborn belief in the triumph of common decency. It is a simple belief, but not at all naive. It is, in fact, the shrewdest attitude possible. It is the best way to sabotage evil."

This tells me that our efforts to bring peace and stability to Iraq will come to fruition and be successful in the long run. It's kind of like playing blackjak against the house - the house usually wins because it can outlast you. In the analogous situation with Iraq, we have to recognize WHO is the "House" - innate decency or malicious evil. Paul Rusesabagina has seen both, and still encourages us that innate decency is the "House". Which means our efforts to sabotage evil are not in vain.

Currently Reading...

I was recently reading Yarn Harlot's speculations about "monogamous" versus " promiscuous" knitting , i.e. keeping steadfastly to one project versus dilly-dallying with several entertaining projects simultaneously.

I am definitely a promiscuous reader then. Here's what I'm currently enjoying:

1. Original Sin - a big, thick paperback by P.D. James

2. Pearl Cove- a pastel hardback by Elizabeth Lowell

3. Reap the Wind - thick paperback with a mysterious picture of the White House on the cover. I'm already about 1/3 of the way through, and the plot has not even touched upon the White House. It's mostly about one woman's drive to create a perfume and get it marketed.

And I'm thinking about reading:

1. 11th Hour by Catherine Coulter
2. The Prince of Torts by John Grisham

I've just finished:
1. Still Life with Crows by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

A Little Light Obituary Reading

Amazing! An author with my perspective on obituaries has written a book! I love the anecdotes that would never come to light without the final elegy on the obits page - it also takes a special writer to write such observations with finesse and respect.

• Like the Army nurse Grace G. Orr, who helped liberate the Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz, Austria. She was never promoted because she refused a direct order to take the hair ribbons out of her hair - the joy of seeing the delight her young wartime patients took in them, exceeded her desire for higher rank. To her, making patients feel a little better was more important than wearing captain's bars.
• Or my favorite, August T. Stern a man with the Army's 6th Ranger Battalion who helped rescue 511 POWs from a Japanese war camp-- many of them survivors of the Bataan Death March. It was virtually a suicide mission to volunteer to extricate those men from Cabanatuan Camp in Luson, which was armed by 3000 Japanese regulars. Most of the emaciated POWs had to be carried out on the backs of their rescuers. Stern was carrying a man, Hugh Kennedy, who turned out to be a Roman Catholic priest when he began to cross what he thought was a shallow stream, and realized too late that he had stepped into a sewage ditch instead. He cussed before he could stop himself. He apologized for using the Lord's name in vain, and priest absolved him by saying - " Son you are forgiven because there is a time and place for everything, and this is the time, and this is certainly the place!"

The book, which I saw reviewed today is : The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson. She notes "We're living in the Golden Age of the Obituary, when the craft of obit-writing has reached its apex." Americans tend to reveal the extra-ordinary in the ordinary person, like the two entries I've cited above, while the British, Johnson notes, delight in producing vivid, historically rich, gossipy and sometimes downright nasty obits about the famous or high-born. Example: From the London Daily Telegraph: Jeaneet Schmid, the professional whistler who has died in Vienna, aged 80, performed with Frank Sinatra, Edith Piaf, and Marlene Dietrich; she had been born a man and had fought in Hitler's Wehrmacht before undergoing a sex change in Cairo.

Anyone read any good obits lately? What would yours say?

What's A BookJool?

A BookJool is more than just a bookmark featuring whimsical charms and rich colorful beads on an elastic cord - it's jewelry for your books! They come in lengths and patterns limited only by your (and my) imaginings! They're easy on bookpages (but I don't recommend them for older books with brittle pages) they can be made to match the theme of the book, and they look JUST GREAT dangling out of the bookshelves. I have also started making them with colored cord - which makes them easier to find on the carpets!

Think of your friends' hobbies, fascinations, desires - think of things they've accomplished - and you can acknowledge these interests with a BookJool - write me at bookjools@hotmail.com, and we'll see what gifts we can dream up together. Very reasonable prices - but prices are dependent upon stones (gemstone, glass) and charms (pewter, silvertone, silver) used.

Now ...that's a BookJool!

Accu-Pressure

For days I've been walking around with little band-aids all over both ears - multiple piercings? People ask - Nope - I'm trying a Korean method of accu-pressure to relieve my sinus headaches. Taped to strategic points on my ears are little black seeds, the size of mustard grains, and I am to squeeze those points three times a day.

All good things are promised - cleared skin (works great!) better sleep (works great!) better flow of hormones (can't tell!), reduces headaches (works most days.)
I only have to field the "ear" questions for another two weeks and then my session is over. I do hope the vaunted results continue - I really hate those hadaches.

When Life Hands You Lemons

My younger daughter coined a new phrase:

"When life hands you lemons...
throw them back at it, and make IT have a bad day."


How's this for an observation:

"Self-discipline is the art of telling yourself that you really have NO alternative."

Now if I can only think of a pithy saying to characterize self-control. That's much harder.

That Dubai Ports Contract Debate

I have been hearing so many versions of what's going on with the sale of US ports administration to a UAE (Dubai) company that I want to point out to people one confusing point. The ports themselves will not be sold to Dubai - this is no reverse Louisiana Purchase, here. The stevedoreing, scheduling, and other administrative arrangements of the ports in question are currently being run by a British firm. The British firm has arranged to sell its contract to a Dubai, UAE firm. Security will still be performed as it is currently by the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs office. We will still own the land, and the same entities who know the ports and the routines will still be protecting us. I am not troubled by who will monitor and administer the contracts - I would like it to be done by a well-experienced group, which this Dubai firm is. So next time you hear someone protesting that "We've gone and SOLD our ports to Dubai", you'll know better. Even if we could control a private British company sale (which I don't know that we have the authority to do so) it's just the paperwork burden that is being sold, not the land rights nor the responsibility to implement security measures. There. I feel better now.

Birthday Party Haiku

Saturday was my eldest's 11th birthday so we got 2 rooms at a nearby hotel (how decadent of us!) - one for 6 girls and 1 adjoining room for the parents -- it's a great arrangement, enabling us to monitor the excitement and not get in the way (until circumstances might warrant). However, the plan of swimming until 11:00 and carrying the sleepy, wet girls off to bed did not materialize because there was something wrong with the pool heating system - it might as well have been outside, it was so cold. But a few girls and I braved it, even so.

After the pizza and cake, the girls were bored in the unscheduled non-swimming time so I had them write Haiku - three girls independently think of 5 syllables, 7 syllables and then another 5 syllables -- now this part is important - without consulting each other. Then they recite the Haiku in its proper order. The resulting poetry from chaos is amazing! I had them write about the time we spent swimming:

Dipping tiny toes
Fun games at the swimming pool
They said the heat worked

The Cartoons That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Since everyone else is commenting about (and protesting and defending) these offensive cartoons, I thought I'd put in my two pence: This event (with its regretful aftermath of the loss of several people's lives) illustrates that the flip side of the freedomsTO DO something is the freedom NOT TO DO IT. The presence of the first freedom gives meaning to the second as a conscious, deliberate act.

In Mark Twain's short story "The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg" - the kind of goodness that exists in vacuum and is untested, is only a veneer of goodness, suitable only for bean-counters. When wrong is actually done in such a vacuum, there is no route to sorrow and forgiveness - it is a hell of sorts.

It can now be recognized that restraint in political cartooning is a conscious demonstration of respect, and has not (and was not) avoided in the past because it was verboten. It is perhaps more clear that people can be defined by what they do not do, as well as by their actions. British Muslims held a peaceful protest march - we should commend that for the thoughtful act that it was.

"Patience protects agains Error, as Clothes Protect against the Cold" - Da Vinci

My 6 year-old daughter's interpretation of the Da Vinci quotation: "If you think about it first, you might not get it wrong."

Well, I've started. I can't wait to tell you all of my e-bay finds and successes (and failures!) and show off my lovely creations!

Stay tuned...