A Choice Turtle

Handsome. That’s the only word that came to me. And upright, solid, kind. How can a glass turtle be kind? It doesn’t seem right to…..what’s that word?…..anthropomorphize a glass turtle? But his personality is what attracted me to him. And how do I know it’s a him or her? Just always seemed like a him so that when I speak or think of the brown, glass turtle, I think of ‘him’.  I had not had any notion that I would come away from the Butterfly Gardens with anything other than a lovely walk through foliage and butterflies. When I went out there last November on my birthday, I was not expecting to have a gift shop confront me on the way out with tempting trinkets. It’s quite convenient at all the tourist places to have a gift shop conveniently placed at the exit from the exhibit. The enthusiasm of the experience seems to make one wish to part with a few, or several, dollars in one’s pocket. I was careful though. I didn’t want a pen that I could only count on for a day or two, or another book mark or a pad of notepaper when I have scrap paper stuffed in all sorts of corners and cubbies in my office-cum-second bedroom. But this little fellow stood quietly and solidly among all the bright butterflies, cards, dragon flies and wiggly rubber worms. He had been placed slightly aside, closer to the teacups painted with butterflies on them. After wandering for a good twenty minutes, I chose this lovely glass turtle for my November 2014 birthday present. 

“Try to be like the turtle~ at ease in your own shell.”

~ Bill Copeland

Christmas Existentialism in Brown

They were brown. They were cotton. They were utilitarian. Let’s face it ~ they were ugly. Held up by garters dangling from a garter belt, they were the brown stockings girls wore in winter time in my pre-teen and teenage years. The stockings were usually misshapen and stretched because of different leg lengths of growing sisters sharing the stockings.

They did have one redeeming quality at Christmas time. It was their ability to stretch and be a vessel for things besides young girls’ legs. The boys had socks as well but they were much shorter and didn’t stretch as easily. Being quite magnanimous, and probably with parental encouragement, we allowed the boys to borrow a stocking or two at Christmas time. Any image of boys wearing garter belts and brown stockings would be laughable, but wrong. It was for this very much needed Christmas utility that even the little ones borrowed our stockings.

Very carefully on Christmas Eve, at least six clean stockings were draped across the back of sofa and chair ~ or were they hung by the chimney with care? And the number of stockings varied with which kids had grown out of such myth and magic. Each stocking was labeled just in case Santa couldn’t tell which stocking was for which kid. Cookies and milk set out for Santa Claus completed the magic show scene. 

Christmas morning the ugly brown stockings had been transformed. They were absolutely filled with candy and nuts - a Mandarin orange in the toe and a candy cane sprouting from the top. The flat and unassuming stockings were treasure chests of goodness, even better than Hallowe’en hauls of candy. Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning was a sight to behold. Each stocking and a Santa Claus present awaited the child giddy with expectation. The stockings were unceremoniously emptied and tossed aside. They would be laundered and worn in the winter prairie days to the skating rink or just a walk downtown. 

That ugly and utilitarian could be transformed into beautiful and exciting by the magical perception of a child has not been lost on me as an adult. It exists still in my heart and memory, returning to me each Christmas with the feeling of home, family and magic.

“Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.”

~ Joan Mills

Percival's Perception

Percival's Perception 

Percival had his own ideas about the way life should go. 

Every time he heard Mr. Isaac, his English teacher, rave about ‘the wit and wisdom’ of Chaucer, and Mrs Sanderingham, the Home Ec teacher whining about how women’s work should be men and women’s work, he cringed.
Really?!
Characters like those two teachers spoke against everything he had been taught by his dad and, for that matter, some of the other teachers!
Enthusiasm for these strange ways of looking at things was just not something he could work up.
Perhaps if he could write an editorial for the school paper about the correct ways of living, the teachers would sit up, take notice and correct the error of their ways.
Taking out his laptop, Percival sat down at his desk and wrote out his opinions in what he thought was a pretty eloquent manner.

“It is impossible to understand Chaucer, therefore his wit and wisdom are not understandable. 
Operating machinery, definitely only a strong person’s task, should be done by men, who are strong, and definitely not by women as everyone knows that women are the weaker sex.”

Now that he had written it down, he grinned, puffed out his chest and pulled out the vacuum cleaner to get the rug vacuumed before his mother got home from a hard day on the tractor in the family orchard.

“There is always one moment in childhood 

when the door opens and lets the future in.”

~ Graham Greene

Inbetween

Possibility
Ethics
Reason
Choice
Essentials
Potential
Thoughtful
Initiative
Opportunity
Nuance

“There are things that are known and there are things unknown, 

and inbetween are the doors of perception.”

~ Aldous Huxley

Movie Review: Room directed by Lenny Abrahamson

Room, a fascinating story adapted for film from the novel by the same name, is a Canadian-Irish drama-thriller film directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Written by Emma Donoghue, it is a story of a woman and her five year old son held captive in a garden shed. Brie Larsen, in the role of Ma, was kidnapped at age 19. Old Nick, played by Sean Bridgers, her captor, came to her each night. A child was born after two years. Jack, who only knew Room as his home, had no contact with the reality of the outside world. His only visual contact was a sky light and a television. Ma, relying on her memory and whatever Old Nick would bring them, raised Jack as normally as possible, while keeping him away from Old Nick. Jack was put to bed in a closet before Old Nick entered the locked garden shed at night.

I have also read the novel, Room and was concerned that the movie would be too dreadfully painful. My perception from the novel was that Ma and Jack’s time in Room took up most of the story. I wasn’t looking forward to that possibility. The movie, however, showed Room from many cinematic and claustrophobic angles which made it unnecessary to extend the time. The personal dynamics between the three characters, Ma and Jack, and Old Nick, took up less time than I remembered. Is that accurate? I don’t know as I haven't access to the book as I write this review.

I was pleased to see the dynamics that shifted after Jack’s escape and the resultant rescue of Ma. In the novel, I felt that it was not dealt with sufficiently. In the movie, it was played out beautifully. Jack learning about the real world - touch, light, grandparents, and toys designed as toys. Ma, returning to a world that had become foreign to her, spiralled down into the room of her own mind, with the sudden release of responsibility and vigilance for her safety and Jack’s safety and growth.

For those that enjoy drama-thriller's, I definitely recommend this movie.

“Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.”

~ Room by Emma Donoghue

Partial Cast of Room, the movie
Brie Larson - Ma
Jacob Tremblay - Jack
Sean Bridgers - Old Nick
William H. Macy - Grandpa
Joan Allen - Grandma
Tom McCamus - Leo (Grandma’s partner)

Turnaround Monday

Turnaround Monday
My day job the day before
My writing practice the day after ~
never stop thinking about them in loops and spins.

Turnaround Monday
Stepping from one joy to the next
Bright spots of visiting, exercise, visiting and rest ~
a vision of calm from morn til night

“The turnaround is when you have 

a solo in betwixt the verses. 

You stoppin’ to have a solo.”

~  David Edwards

Just Breathe

gentle momentum 
while standing still slowly
softly breathes life into a languishing vision.

“When you want wisdom and insight as badly 

as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.”

~ Socrates