North, Truly

hi everyone! i'll be back in a bit with some thoughts..it's just been really busy here at work/home

let's see:

I certainly don't idolize or idealize Marilyn.

or anybody. especially myself.

I think Marilyn had a many flaws and plenty of problems. Her appeal was largely physical and somewhat psychological since she chose to and knew how to use it to her "advantage" we could get into myriad discussions as to how much of an advantage that actually was, but well....she was doing what she thought made the most sense to her at the time..as we all do, right or wrong..effective or pointless.

James I enjoyed your interpretation, the one place i differed was the last line. For me this is a poem about illusion, about how human it is to fall prey to them. No doubt Marilyn was a human as we all are, as human as his wife, yet illusions can be so powerful that they fool us into thinking they're real. I saw this last line as illustrating this...his wife seeming ordinary..possibly not as special or idyllic..in comparison to the perceived gossamer of Marilyn. That's how I read it, anyway. A comment on how hard it can be to let go of illusion despite it's rampant stupidity.

perhaps the "death" referred to here, was a death of illusion in the minds of these men. and yes, perhaps he comes to appreciate his wife more as a consequence. yes.

Martin, her poems are all like that..very honest, in your face..but yet causing a deeper shift. Are your poems mostly in French? I'd love to read some...but i'd better not put them through the Tower of Babel


Isabel>> it is a sad poem in one sense.. but that depends if you interpret the human condition as inherently "sad" I personally find the way in which we're ridiculous sometimes quite interesting to watch

Rhona> yes the "death" aspect is very strong here..but yet it's so linked to her life...that they can't be separated..i found that interesting too.

qlue> she'd have been 80 or so now? she still does influence the entertainment business, art, literature...yes that indefinable "something". located largely in our own minds.

Dillon> there is nothing more life affirming than holes in the blow-up doll! if you choose to use it that way

Sonam! Long time no see. How are you?

yeah i agree in a sense, but also she wanted the fame-she was there by "choice" playing the fame game. she wanted the jobs, the deals, the contracts(from what i've read. i wasn't there..

but of course "choice" is a misnomer sometimes since it's sometimes so colored by our backgound, childhood etc..sometimes we're making choices that seem fitting and are really dysfunctional and we're not aware....it might have all looked like the "love" she felt she lacked...

that sort of thing can be deadly...if we don't wise up sooner rather than later...

Such a great poem huh?

here is is for everybody else to also share:

True Love
by Sharon Olds


In the middle of the night, when we get up
after making love, we look at each other in
complete friendship, we know so fully
what the other has been doing. Bound to each other
like mountaineers coming down from a mountain,
bound with the tie of the delivery room,
we wander down the hall to the bathroom, I can
hardly walk, I wobble through the granular
shadowless air, I know where you are
with my eyes closed, we are bound to each other
with huge invisible threads, our sexes
muted, exhausted, crushed, the whole
body a sex—surely this
is the most blessed time of my life,
our children asleep in their beds, each fate
like a vein of abiding mineral
not discovered yet. I sit
on the toilet in the night, you are somewhere in the room,
I open the window and snow has fallen in a
steep drift, against the pane, I
look up, into it,
a wall of cold crystals, silent
and glistening, I quietly call to you
and you come and hold my hand and I say
I cannot see beyond it. I cannot see beyond.

hi Sonam, I worked today, and now i'm going to do some yoga how about you?

rhona..when i read that poem i see somehow the road they walked to get there...a bumpy road that kept hoping and believing, even during dark times

http://www.intuitionps.com/Pictures/Holding%20Hands.jpg -

well we can't hope alone either. love is a two-way street.

somewhere on this blog is a quote by Jewel:

"Innocence can't be lost, it just needs to be maintained"

i believe this with my whole heart. hard as it is.

i have a mantra:

the things that others do to you do not define you.
the things that you have done do not define you.
YOU define you.
what you do from now on defines you, how you respond to your history, creates a new history. so respond with love and kindness.
*and treat yourself like a princess*
PUMA!!!!

wow. i'm so sexy.

i mean sexist.

you may be a prince then, or a king or even a sheik

absolutely. part of what we're doing is what we're NOT doing, also. damn tootin', honey.

who doesn't create history?? it may not be famous history, but it's still history. my grandmother will be remembered forever, for example...because we remember her and pass that on....

i think we all make history and that's why we should be conscious of what we're doing. even the homeless guy found dead in the nature reserve on monday. our potential for what sort is often rooted in childhood and past experiences. but can evolve based on our adult responses. there is always change but not everybody grabs hold of that or knows how...i wondered about this man. who was he? what was he like? what brought him to this sad end? was he, in fact, sad? we can't know...but yes some strive less hard to create something positive. sometimes they just don't ask the right questions..

i understood what you meant Sonam i just don't have the same definition of "history" as you. and i don't differentiate between famous and less notable people. sure there are people who have changed the world, but that does not mean that they are the only ones who are remembered forever or worth remembering.

"only those who create history are remembered forever"

some we don't want to remember. Adolf Hitler?

i don't completely disagree with you btw. i just think that life is more complex than that. and the inclusion of the word "only" as though some are not creating history. we all are.

i also believe that we are all "changing the world" every day with everything we do and everything we say and are..for better or worse...if you look at it in a global context...and there is no other way IMHO.

i think the consequences may not be easily noticed, but they aren't necessarily "small".

how nicely and gently you expressed it James yes very yinyang.

oh. "in my humble opinion" Rhona! i never love to have opinion vs. opinion discussions too much anymore, you know. opinions aren't right or wrong are they? they're opinions. facts i might have a discussion about. things we can actually know are true or false, but this is an interesting area: That's blue! No it's not it's turquoise. Turquoise is a shade of blue, not it's not it's a different color all together, that's why it's called turquoise! ha ha! oh well that's being human, huh?

hell no. say I! adult games are for adults. (or for adults who are still children)

there are many other skill bulding games that could be used instead. there is even the possibility of real weapons handling later on if you feel the need. the kind that are controlled and responsible. that sort of training is quite positive i believe if handled correctly since it helps teach responsibility as well as autonomy and mental control..self-confidence...but each to their own....every child is different, too.

personally i'd say these games make people emotionally trigger happy and lead kids to think there is instant gratification at all times in the world-but that's just me. we all know how addictive computers can be and how they can distort reality. how much harder for a child?

however i wouldn't want to raise my son/daughter to be "soft" in the world either, but there's other ways to make a child self-sufficient, like camping i'd go for real world experiences as skill building activities any day over computers!

i know many men who regularly handle weapons,etc, and they're very responsible men, so exposure to violence or its channels are not the only defining factor when it comes to general dysfunction. that can be quite layered. he'd probably be more impacted by an argument over it, than by the game itself (not saying you're arguing destructively-just an example)

it's your child-so you both have a say of course.

btw i have no problem sharing opinions, just not doing battle with them so chat away everybody..just don't fight on muh blog!