CONTACT: Marijuana Policy Project Mike Meno, MPP assistant director of communications 202-905-2030 or mmeno@mpp.org
Marijuana Policy Project’s 15th Anniversary Gala to Celebrate ‘15 States in 15 Years’ Celebrity guests and other prominent figures will help celebrate MPP’s remarkable passage of improved marijuana laws in 15 states in 15 years WASHINGTON - November 19 - The Marijuana Policy Project, America's largest marijuana policy reform organization, will look back on 15 productive years of improving marijuana laws at a January 13 gala that will feature guest speakers such as talk show host Montel Williams. The star-studded host committee includes Melissa Etheridge, Tom Robbins, Bill Maher, Ben Taylor, Steve Buscemi, Susan Sarandon, Lewis Black, Nicole Atkins, Margaret Cho, Mark Leno, Hal Sparks, Ani DiFranco, Garry Trudeau, and Medeski, Martin and Wood, along with many other prominent supporters.
When MPP was founded in 1995, medical marijuana was illegal in all 50 states. Since then, 13 states have passed medical marijuana laws, with Michigan becoming the 13th state in November 2008, when Michigan voters passed MPP's ballot initiative by a 63% to 37% margin. By the end of 2010, MPP is hopeful that medical marijuana will be legal in 15 states (with passage in New York and New Jersey).
At the same time, marijuana possession is now decriminalized in 13 states, with Massachusetts becoming the 13th state in November 2008, when Massachusetts voters passed MPP's ballot initiative by a 65% to 35% margin. In 2010, MPP is hopeful that marijuana will be decriminalized in 15 states (with Rhode Island and Vermont becoming the 14th and 15th states).
WHAT: The Marijuana Policy Project's 15th Anniversary Celebration
WHEN: January 13, 2010. Press Availability from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Reception from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. Dinner from 7:30 to 11:00 p.m
WHERE: Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW, 20001
Tickets cost $250 each, or $2,000 for a table.
### With more than 26,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.
Well we've finished reading Jitterbug Perfume--one page per day, about the same pace that Tom wrote it. Aptly it ended right after 9/11 because it is a story of hope and peace and love.
Tomorrow, Sept 13, 2009, we'll start Skinny Legs and All.
Big happenings in today's page. Alobar is going to dematerialize. They all are apportioned their shares of the profit for K23 perfume. All is forgiven.
In one of the little coincidences which I've grown accustomed to with Robbins, i just yesterday learned the French word, blague. And today Tom mentions that all this happens on the rue Quelle Blague. The word means 'joke' and the phrase means 'fiddlesticks'. :-)
Aubrey Winkler, the Literature columnist for the San Diego Examiner newspaper has written a column about B is for Beer. She invites readers to give their opinion about Tom's latest book. I rated it wonderful. Her past columns are interesting as well.
The New York times reports that "A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine." They're sensitive, but perhaps they'd not like to stay that way. "Researchers believe redheads are more sensitive to pain because of a mutation in a gene that affects hair color." I guess the doctors don't read Tom Robbins, else they'd know that red-heads are from alien seed.
It is over 45 minutes long, so get yerself comfortable before firing this baby up. Includes the interview I was lucky to conduct with Tom after his reading. But it does not, at Tom's insistence, including the actual "B is for Beer" reading -- he wants to keep that special to the live readings. Still, I think y'all will appreciate this -- leave a comment if you do!
Mike shared a delightful story with the aftrlife mailing list:
A close friend of mine drives a bus for the community transit in the Skagit. His route takes him by Tom's place. One particular windy afternoon, or as he puts it, "Must have been blowin' 50 60 miles per hour. The trees were bending over and the leaves swirled about everywhere but on the ground. There was Tom and his wife. Running around with rakes, laughing so loud I could hear them on the bus." Just a little story I thought everyone would like."
Mike If you want to be a part of the conversation just go over to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aftrlife/ and Join the Yahoo Group.
"Reality is subjective, and there's an unenlightened tendency in this culture to regard something as 'important' only if 'tis sober and severe. Sure and still you're right about your Cheerful Dumb, only they're not so much happy as lobotomized. But your Gloomy Smart are just as ridiculous. When you're unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. And you get to take yourself oh so very seriously. Your truly happy people, which is to say, your people who truly like themselves, they don't think about themselves very much. Your unhappy person resents it when you try to cheer him up, because that means he has to stop dwellin' on himself and start payin' attention to the universe. Unhappiness is the ultimate form o' self-indulgence. "
I read recently that popular opinion has it that Wiggs Dannyboy was fashioned after Terence McKenna. I had always assumed Dannyboy was based on Timothy Leary, after reading lines like..."left his native Dublin to teach at Harvard, where he experimented with mind-altering chemicals beyond the call of academic duty...." and "Since it was hardly in the best national interest to relieve citizens of their violence, greed, fear, or repression, the government acted to silence Dr. Dannyboy by arresting him on a phony marijuana charge and checking him into the steel hotel. Escaped, only to be nabbed two years later...and imprisoned again." I know it needn't be an either/or situation, but surely there is some Tim in with Terence.
"Did a man's wives all blend into a single entity after their deaths? Would he blend with Navin the Ropemaker if and when he died? Was it wife soup and husband soup on the Other Side? Or was it simply soup?"
Oooh, I hope it's not husband soup...the three I've had would make one bizarre concoction!"
Whatever else his long, unprecedented life might have been, it had been fun. Fun! If others should find that appraisal shallow, frivolous, so be it. To him, it seemed now to largely have been some form of play. And he vowed that in the future he would strive to keep that sense of play more in mind, for he'd grown convinced that play--more than piety, more than charity or vigilance--was what allowed human beings to transcend evil."
More fun for everyone!
"Our individuality is all, all, that we have. There are those who barter it for security, those who repress it for what they believe is the betterment of the whole society, but blessed in the twinkle of the morning star is the one who nurtures it and rides it, in grace and love and wit, from peculiar station to peculiar station along life's bittersweet route."
Sand Grains Gallery: "Sand grains under the microscope microscopic sand photography art photo microscopy artwork"
William Blake had it right. There is infinity, at least an infinity of beauty, in grains of sand. They're as unique as snowflakes. Visit this site and be amazed.
The Blakes often read poetry to each naked in the garden. Explaining that they didn't bathe much, she offered the explanation that, "Mr. Blake don't dirt." If dirt is as beautiful under a microscope as sand is then perhaps he should have.
"Our little couple, however, our Alobar and Kudra, remained intact and indigestible, like the hard octopus beaks that sicken the stomachs of whales, causing them to vomit the ambergris that bonds the bouquet in great perfumes. Like octopus beaks, our couple. Or maraschino cherries."
Hilarious sentences, alive with alliteration! I must plunk the radioactive red orbs into drinks several times a shift, and I would rather coat my fingers in the slippery slime of a bleu cheese stuffed olive than paint my fingers with the devilish dye of the red #4 variety! Anybody know if the report of those four maraschino cherries found in Lenin's colon is based on fact? TR wouldn't embellish, would he?
"But what if," asked Kudra, shooting Alobar a meaningful glance, "but what if we decided now to choose life?" "Then choose it," said Pan. Again, Kudra and Alobar exchanged glances. "But would not that anger the gods?" Kudra asked. "Ha ha ha!" The laughter burst out of Pan like the barking of some obscene dog. "Anger the gods? The gods, those that art still around, wouldst congratulate thee for finally catching on." "You mean...?" "I mean that gods do not limit men, men limit men." I felt compelled to type out those lines. I read in a biography that Hunter Thompson would type over entire books of Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, to get the feel of typing good writing. It does feel wonderful. Gem
[Note I couldn’t find the exact page with this quote, so went by the Daffy Yum page/date of the email. MW]
"It was encouraging that he would mention a contemporary female, for Pan had begun to live in his memories, an unhealthy symptom in anyone, suggesting as it does that life has peaked. Every daydream that involves the past sports in its hatband a ticket to the grave." Ouch, this hurts a bit. I'm not as old as Pan (having turned 53 years young last October), but old enough to find myself telling the 20-somethings at the restaurant where I work (I wouldn't call myself a genius waitress, but I am a waitress with a Master's degree!) stories from my younger, crazier days. TR's words are a good reminder to stay in the NOW and enjoy creating new stories! Gem
*************************************************************** If it's never too late to have a happy childhood, let's get started regenerating our 20-somethings. Dale _______________________________________________________________
Page 138
Renga ding dingThe mortals grow suspiciousYou can live foreverBut not in one place.Kudra and Alobar flee Constantinople. This sort of reminds me of Tom's idea for a tv show about Helen Keller as a detective. Tagline: She's blind, dumb and mute, but she can smell a rat from a mile away.Tom 1Google 0I'm pretty good with Google but I couldn't track down a reference to Basil II breaking cedar boxes over his head. Anybody else know where that anecdote comes from?Bits like Basil II are rabbit holes hidden in Tom's fiction. You can explore them into equally, shall we say, byzantine story tunnels. http://www.nationma ster.com/ encyclopedia/ Image:Basil- II.jpgDale ****************************************************************\
"They are always in good humor and health...They bathe together. They smile too much...They are often at the act of love..." so obviously they are "Agents of the Evil One"!Alobar and Kudra obviously need this new "depressant drug" (Sorry, don't know how to post a link, but copy and paste works!)http://www.theonion .com/content/ video/fda_ approves_ depressant_ drug_forGem **************************************************************** Thanks for the hilarious link, Gem. And in reality which Onion often mirrors "A depressant drug reportedly taken by such dignitaries as the Princess of Wales, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles and Donald Trump has been found to cause social upheaval in a colony of laboratory rats. Scientists investigating how the popular drug affects mood and behavior in humans found that it causes subordinate rats to rise up and challenge the authority of the dominant "top rat.""Sounds like some good old chemical-induced outlawism, Robbins style. Dale ________________________________________________________________
.......would a whale mask be suitable to me.......?
"Actually, there are two kinds of people in this world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in this world and those who are smart enough to know better" SLWW
This is the first sentence of my thoughts about page 114. This is the second sentence. This is the third sentence which tries to really express my ideas about page 114 but fails. Finally this sentence succeeds in expressing the thought that Priscilla takes a spill on her bicycle whilechecking out the Last Laugh Foundation where i assume Alobar will soon show and another connection is made with New Orleans and her parfumier Stepmom. This sentence sighs with relief. This is the next to last sentence. This is the last sentence. Nope. Now.
Well said, Dale! I am excited to be pulling in to New Orleans...knowing that however many of us are reading JP at present, that many consciousnesses will be reveling in pan-sensory descriptions of that still recovering city, we'll be grooving with the denizens, all that focused, positive energy has got to help in some small way to revivifying New Orleans! May it be so!
I really liked the opening of this page, "When we accept small wonders we qualify ourselves to imagine great wonders."But I have to admit that I hate dialect in a novel. I especially find a white southern writer doing black dialect to be icky no matter how good the intentions. "Mouf" for "mouth" and "libber" for "liver" just sounds bad to me. Am I missing something?Creating studio apartments out of your own secretions sounds interesting though. I'd tell you how to do it but it's "TOP SECRETE".
Dale **************************************************************** Ha! Dale, your secrete slays me!
I understand your distaste for ethnic dialect in general; however, it does go a long way in making a character come alive--regardless of ethnicity of either the writer or the character. When I read dialect spoken by rich white hipster techno speak geeks (regardless of the writer), a vivid picture comes to mind. Or worse--the dialect of corporate lawyers, whose inflated nonsense lingo is spoken to identify and separate themselves not by ethnicity, but by class. That said, when we read dialect spoken by a character in a novel, it helps them come alive. You can hear V'lu speak and the aural image of her is completely different than if she spoke without the dialect, e.g.: "I eat liver with you, made from goose livers, but I won't eat any slime." TR in no way allows her to be condescended or demeaned, and in fact, the reader identifies more with V'lu than Madame Duvalier. (At least I do--especially when it comes to eating slime. ) Iguess my point is, that I see written dialect as an identifier and expression of the character's personal and cultural style. It is a credit to the author who does not cringe or succumb to flatlining the language into one "correct" way of speaking. (I'm not saying one word about "shrooms," because I know that if a character said "shrooms" TR would tell it like it is. I just know it.)
Mary ****************************************************************
It emphasizes the two extremes of V'lu...and that she's laying it on real thick so her true intellect and sophistication is guarded by her cloak of the general public's underestimation of her...gives her plenty of wiggle room to fly under the radar...
Messy Kat ****************************************************************
You make some good points, Mary as usual. I personally find thick dialect to be distracting. A few words to suggest the dialect is sufficient for me. This particular dialect makes V'lu seem simple-minded to me, which may be Tom's purpose as messy kat suggests.(Is Tom putting us on, by having V'lu put us on?) Southerners are usually kinda sensitive to people "doing" Southern accents anyway. Anyway as hot as V'lu sounds from Tom's descriptions I wouldn't be attracted to her because of the way she talks. Oral non-sex I guess. Now I will "Shut my mouf." :-)
Ah, that's interesting. I have totally forgotten the details of this novel. I keep expecting them to rush back into my brain at any moment but they don't. I expect the details to get back, messykat. It makes it like I'm reading it for the first time (now I know how Ronald Reagan felt on entering the bedroom with Nancy each evening). I'll watch for V'lu's secrete agent personality to emerge.
Hey Dale....for me, the dialect draws a distinct picture, one I wouldn't necessarily have without dat moufpiece.....i mean, she could have had a bloody Br-ish accent...but no, our gal was Southern...and she musthave smelled good too, to pass the Bunny’s nose.Remember...."Don't trust anybody who'd rather be grammatically correct than have a good time."
Michael ________________________________________________________________
This page really expresses the "stone remains, water goes" line. Even water stays if it freezes or gets stagnant. It shows how desire trumps detachment as well. Alobar and Kudra become fierce invalids as they fight the blizzard to get to the Bandaloop and safety. Alobar's desire for life in general and Kudra's in particular inspires him to heroic action to save her.I can understand that. When desire gets ahold of me, its pain and pleasure are irresistible, much like a passionate beauty with very long fingernails.Alobar laughs as his ridiculous life passes before him. What kind of laugh would you laugh at your life? Mine would be rueful and amused I think. How about you?
Dale **************************************************************** Mine would contain 2/3 what was I thinking?? and 1/3 yippee! finally found the right track, with a dusting of cinnamon on top.
Gem **************************************************************** My laugh would probably be somewhat hysterical and, whilst not exactly bitter, there would certainly be tears.
Deena **************************************************************** I think my laugh would be exactly like the laugh Jim Carrey gave as Andy Kaufman at the end of Man on the Moon. Kind of an "Aw, shit--the joke was on ME!" I haven't participated in Daffy Yum yet. I might try to catch up with you all.
pk (popartmonkey) **************************************************************** It would vary from a snort of acknowledgment that something amusing had occurred to uproarious in reaction to the sheer genius of it all. If graphed in terms of volume over time, it would appear to be a sinc function convoluted with your average everyday transcandenent function.
BoB - whoohoo, math! (Bob Nesheim) **************************************************************** :-) There must always be tears--an integral part of the endarkenment.
Dale **************************************************************** LOL (my current laughter at life) BoB. Science in spite of it all.
I think Tom sort of uses Kudra to fuss at himself. He quotes her interior monologue that Alobar is always prattling about the meaning of things--which is a pretty shorthand way of describing what Tom's novels do, but that I never find tiresome.The Bandaloop have flown the coop. The caves are bare, but Alo-Kud take it all with Taoist calm. Sweep floor. Make love.
So does anyone know what TV movie Tom is talking about at the beginning of the Seattle section? The Transcosmic Pigout?
I guess Tom Robbins has written so much and about so many things that synchronicity is inevitable. I'm always running into things that remind me of his novels in some way. I'm reading Twenty-Eight Artists and Two Saints, a book of bio-essays by Joan Acocella. The first artist is Lucia Joyce, the troubled daughter of the author of Finnegan’s Wake. Not only is Finnegan’s Wake a big deal in Fierce Invalids, there is a bonus little Robbinsesque vignette of Lucia, the slightly mad daughter, dancing silently in the background while Joyce worked on Finnegan’s. One biographer cast her as a co-writer of the book, saying that her dancing was his inspiration.
And, of course, the fabric of the ordinary world always crinkles in interesting ways. Weird graffiti has been much with me recently. On a sidewalk, I encountered a reminder of Magritte the painter who under an illustration of a smoking pipe wrote the words, (in French) "This is not a pipe." I ran across a word painted on the sidewalk that said, "Image".
Marijuana leaves are popular for engraving in wet cement around here. And on one wall someone had written, "I am a pussyboy." WTF, I asked myself. Does that mean he is like Switters and knows 100 words for vagina? Or is he like Larry Diamond who describes sexual organs with culinary names like "Pussy Fricassee"? Or is it a pre-op transgender who hasn't quite made up his/her mind? (Who knew that the efforts of Feminists to de-genderize the language would come in so handy for talking about third-sexers.) The world is strange once your brain gets Robbinsized. (Or Robbins sized.)
And that's not even mentioning the smells, odors, scents and bouquets.
Dale **************************************************************** Who-boy...that’s some "bouncy" world over there, Dale if I had to guess at a title for that movie...it might be a re-make of "The Blob" by Monte Python.
The AFTRLife (an acronym for alt.fan.tom-robbins) is a website -- consider it an hom(ep)age -- dedicated to Tom Robbins, the cosmic/comic American author. Tom's nine books embrace a Crazy Wisdom worldview and are written in a complex metaphorical style that is grounded in transcendent nitty-gritty reality. As Tom has pointed out; his novels have plot but don't depend on plot. All in all (is there any other way?) his novels are a real good read.
Come on in and play on the mood swings, do a dervish on the tilt-a-whirl and practice Zen acrobatics on the monkey bars. All suggestions for links or info to include are welcome, and, of course, credit will be given where credit is due. Enjoy!
Snail mail to Tom Robbins, PO Box 338, LaConner, WA 98257
B Is for Beer came out April 21, 2009. It is described as ""hallucinogenic hymn to beer, children, and the cosmic mysteries that sustain us all." Details here. Here's a preview from when it was called Gracie Goes to Schooner School.
You are unique, because you are visitor number You're nothing like visitor number 9992 or even visitor number 23. (Even if you were visitor 9992 or 23, if you know what I mean.) You're just...well... special!
"Always remember, you're unique. Just like everyone else. "--Unk.
Curious reader seeks confirmation from whisker-growing types re: the following. "It is said that when a man is anticipating sexual activity, his whiskers grow at an accelerated rate."Querent will check own moustache in future for corresponding condition among females.- Carol
Mary, that is so interesting, because the first Tom Robbins book I read was also given to me by a stranger. It was 1979, and I was working in New York City, commuting by bus to my home in New Jersey. One day, I was sitting on the bus on the way home, reading one of Castaneda's Don Juan books, when I heard a deep, soft voice beside me say "Do you believe in Don Juan?" The next morning, the attractive, bearded stranger handed me a copy of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (which I still have). On the inside cover, he had written "Here's a book that's a friend of mine --having enjoyed the few moments that now have brought forth pen and rhyme...Hoping that you'll enjoy this tale of a cowgirl and her thumbs and the prospects they entail...don' t wear sneakers, if you won't dance a polka... After that morning, my commuting companion was no longer a stranger, and neither was Tom Robbins. Back to Jitterbug Perfume, I was taken by the paragraph starting with "Kudra had awakened him from a long sleep." Ending with "If the earth needs night as well as day wouldn't it follow that the soul requires endarkenment to balance enlightenment? " What a fascinating observation! I agree that there are times we must root around in the muck if we want to enjoy a beautiful lotus.
Yes, this 'kizz', as you call it is unknown in the west. A rather odd sensation, but one I would not object to repeating. I have an open mind."You need only open your mouth not your mind, she thought. But she said, "Then why do you spurn me?"This is one of several instances to follow where TR shows us in italics what the character is thinking, before telling us what the character actually says. This is so true and so funny...like in Woody Allen's Annie Hall, when he and Diane Keaton are on the balcony, having one conversation while subtitles show us what they're really thinking. Humans can be so silly.Gem _______________________________________________________________
Page 104
I loved hearing Kudra's internal dialogue too, Gem, especially the tone of it in reaction to this very macho man. It reminded me a little of Amanda's attitude toward Marx Marvelous-- loving but amused.As Gauguiin wrote at the end of his life, "I wish I had been born a pig. Only man can be ridiculous." I'm assuming he wasn't talking about male chauvinist pigs. On page 104, Robbins talks about the effect of the kizz on Alobar's "unpracticed Western lips". I remember a girl talked about a guy who wasn't a skilled kisser as "he dove at my face with his lips." But I think she taught him better as Kudra is doing for Alobar. Kizz me baby!Dale, silly human
Page 105 Kudra is inspired by Alobar's stories. Alobar is inspired to pursue her by her vagina dialogues. Kinda sexist in a way, but realistic in a way that only fantasy can portray.I believe it was ARA and Jitterbug Perfume that cured me of any monastic desires. They did teach me a lot about the important difference between detachment and indifference.I liked Ken Keyes' (of Handbook of Higher Consciousness fame) idea that it helps if one reframes "needs" as "preferences" It helps a little with detachment and, I think, the skillful attainment of desires. Dale *************************************************************** Yes! "I always remember that I have everything I need to enjoy my here and now--unless I am letting my consciousness be dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past or imagined future."-Ken Keyes. The 12 Pathways never go out of style! As Kudra says, "To eliminate the agitation and disappointment of desire, we need but awaken to the fact that we have everything we want and need right now." Great minds think alike! Gem
**************************************************************** Good quotation juxtaposition, Gem! Ah, the 12 pathways. I once had them memorized and repeated them often like some long-assed mantra. Lot of wisdom in those, I think. Are you a Living Love student?There's a good page on the pathways at http://mindprod. com/livinglove/ methods/pathways .htmlKeyes also wrote a book called Enjoy Your Life in Spite of it All. I wonder if he and Robbins influenced each other.Dale *************************************************************** Thanks for the link, Dale! I read Handbook to Higher Consciousness in the late 70's, and the 12 Pathways have been part of my life ever since. The Conscious Person's Guide to Relationships also continues to be invaluable. Although I never took any courses per se, I definitely adopted the Living Love way into my life. It certainly sounds like Robbins was influenced by Keyes work, doesn't it? Gem ***************************************************************
From the very begiinning, Tom Robbins's books have been promoted by readers' word of mouth and passed from hand to hand, even as mainstream literary pundits and critics sniffed and snipped. We the readers changed all that and knew Tom Robbins is not only a creator of happenings--he IS a happening! Readers recognized treasure when they saw it and passed it on. I recieved my own first dog-eared copy of his first book, Another Roadside Attraction from a bearded and bandana'd stranger in Seattle's Blue Moon Tavern over 35 years ago. My life has never been the same, and I know I'm not alone. His books are published, read and loved around the globe in many languages.
This is an opportunity for readers to put into action our gratitude for the delicious delights and profound crazy wisdom Tom Robbins has given us over the years. Let's plaster every nook and cranny, blog to high heaven and spread the word as a gesture of homage to this most esteemed author and his latest romp. If you'd like to join in this grassroots joyride, contact Ecco publishing (who also published Charles Bukowski and Leonard Cohen—a rich tradition) at ecco@harpercollins.com for stickers, greeting cards and coasters to help spread the word, Tom Robbins style. Take pictures, too. We'll post your pictures of creative stickering (they're removable) on the aftrlife and on the flickr group All Things Tom Robbins. ~MW
Bandaloop doctors are in the house, er, in the caves. Alobar tells Kudra of his first meeting with them and his trial by rudeness. Although they heard him without their ears, they did provide him with some roasting ears.
So I’m assuming Alobar is referring to Pan as the god he met, but who is the shaman he is talking about having met?
New words:
WantwitWant" wit`\, n. One destitute of wit or sense; a blockhead; a fool.
Jackanapes: an impertinent, presumptuous person, esp. a young man; whippersnapper.
No wisdom for these folks.
Dale **************************************************************** Pssst..we met the shaman of Alfreic 'round pg. 40....he hosted Alobar’s flight from becoming the King of the Bean with some perspective-altering mushroom tea and some magic:)
Michael **************************************************************** Thanks Michael. How soon I forget!
I've always wanted to be King of the Beanies w/propeller.
Dale **************************************************************** Greetings, one and all! After many years living a life sans digital technology, I have recently surrendered, and jumped into this crazy new world like a bird who has found a lovely birdbath. Splash!! So tickled to have found this group. My 20-year-old paperback copy of Jitterbug Perfume is looking mighty tattered...I have read everything Robbins has published, and JP perfume more times than any of them. (Fierce Invalids comes in second.)
Anyhoo, I'd love to join the Daffy Yum, although my paging is ahead of the groups. But I'm in the general area. Something fun for me to find was pink parentheses around these lines, made by a 20-year-younger me...
"If desire causes suffering, it may be because we do not desire wisely, or that we are inexpert at obtaining what we desire."
The older me reads that and thinks, hmm, the real suffering comes from being taken out of the moment, having the attention drawn away from being mindful of what is, now. Can one desire wisely without thinking of the future? I have all I desire in this moment--and when the tickle comes for that late night snack, presto! it will appear!
These pages are synchronicity- izing nicely with my other reading, The Soul's Code by James Hillman. Kudra's yearning to transcend (read escape) her societally ordained fate (a pretty shitty one in most religious societies) leads to one of Tom's greatest quotes:
"You may protest that it is too much to ask of an uneducated fifteen-year- old girl that she defy her family, her society, her weighty cultural and religious heritage in order to pursue a dream she doesn't really understand. Of course, it is asking too much. The price of self-destiny is never cheap and in certain situations, it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable which must be thought." Robbins
And she does gradually develop her escape routes. This is why when multi-culturalism accommodates too much to repressive religious and cultural practices it angers me, because the very idea of freedom is an escape route for many repressed women and to dangle Western values in front of young people and then tell them they have to obey their religion is a cruel thing. It's like "Welcome to the west, you still have to get your clit scraped off with a rusty tool, you still have to be stoned to death for getting raped, your father and brothers can still murder you for not marrying whom they say. But enjoy freedom!" I really hate repressive religions and societies and their enablers.
Ranting aside, Kudra is following her nose to her destiny. And god love the Kama Sutra.
Some relevant quotes from the Preface of The Soul's Code:
"In the final analysis we count for something only because of the essential we embody and if we do not embody that, life is wasted," Carl Jung
"One always learns one's mystery at the price of one's innocence." Robertson Davies
"There is neither beginning or ending to the imagination, but it delights in its own seasons reversing the usual order at will." William Carlos Williams
"Adolescents sense a secret, unique greatness in themselves that seeks expression. They gesture toward the heart when trying to express any of this, a significant clue to the whole affair." Joseph Chilton Pearce
Reluctantly, he dropped the satin coconut." What an evocative term. It gives me new appreciation for Hawaiian hula girls and the meat inside their rough coconuts. "So round, so firm, so fully packed," oh wait that's a cigarette commercial.
Booties. Bootes. It seems to be a theme today. First, we find Alobar's fumbling attempt at the seduction of Kudra on page 93 of Jitterbug Perfume. Booty's on his mind, Kudra's not so sure, though things are heating up and... sparks ignite.
Maybe...maybe tonight?
The stars are aligned, and celestial Bootes are poised for action. Tonight the Quadranids meteor shower pays a visit to constellation Bootes.
Typically, 40 or so bright, blue and fast (25.5 miles per second!) meteors will radiate from the constellation Bootes, some blazing more than halfway across the sky. A small percentage of them leave persistent dust trains. This shower usually has a very sharp peak, usually lasting only about an hour. ( http://www.theskyscrapers.org/meteors/ )
Here's where to look from the northern hemisphere (for those down under, check your local skymaps):
Locate the Big Dipper and follow the handle to Bootes. The Big Dipper is always visible if you live in the northern latitudes. It is to the north and looks like a giant ladle, with a handle and a bowl. Follow the handle in an arcing curve until you come to the first bright star. This is the key component of Bootes, Arcturus. [Latin for Alobar?]
Gaze at Arcturus. This is the fourth brightest star of the night sky and is just 36 light years away from Earth. Arcturus means “bear watcher,” which is a reference to Ursa Major and Minor. There is no star visible from Earth north of the celestial equator that is brighter. Twenty-five times larger in size than our own sun, Arcturus is located at what would be the waist of Bootes.
Look up from Arcturus and see the shape of a kite. If Bootes were being named today, it would surely be called “the kite.” A large diamond-shaped assembly of stars forms the upper torso and head of Bootes and is easily identified. Below Arcturus are the legs of Bootes: much dimmer stars that make the herdsman appear bowlegged.
Watch for the meteor shower in Bootes that occurs each year. The Quadranids seem to be coming out of the upper part of Bootes every December into January. This meteor shower is always worth a look as there can be dozens of meteors each hour. Bootes will be visible in winter, just not in the same spot you saw it in the spring. In the early morning hours, you will be able to find it using the Big Dipper, and then watch for the meteors. The best time for you to observe this meteor shower is during the nights of January 3rd and 4th, as these dates always have had the peak meteors per hour. http://www.answerbag.com/articles/How-to-Find-and-Identify-the-Constellation-Bootes/ae04781f-2aa6-086d-ad0c-6466b2dff60d
If you see the Quadranids tonight, remember to tip your hat to our hero, Alobar. That man sure knows how to impress a girl.
Love and celestial blessings of the universe~
Mary ________________________________________________________________
