Wordcrafting

Bold

Responsible

Alive

Vulnerable

Enduring

Resolute

Yogi

“It is not the strength of the body that counts, 

but the strength of the spirit.”

~ J.R.R.Tolkein

Movie Review: The Danish Girl directed by Tom Hooper

Heart breaking. Tender. A love story so very different and yet with the same deep emotion. A young and very happily married couple, Einar and Gerda Wegener, played a game they didn’t know would change their lives. Change would come from the inside to the outside, at a time when sexuality, especially transgender sexuality, was forbidden and covered in shame and secrecy. Since childhood, Einar Wegenar had struggled with the deep belief that she was a woman in a man’s body but could not describe it or tell anyone.

The setting was 1926 Denmark through the next few years to 1933.  This movie was developed from the diaries of Lili Elbe who transistioned from male to female, her relationship with her wife Gerda Wegener, and the struggles they shared. Both Gerda and Einar were artists. Lili gave up her life as a painter, while Gerda developed her painting. Lili’s mood swings and depression deepened as she tried to find solutions. It seemed fruitless and took her to the edge of suicide. 

Eddie Redmayne in the role of Einar Wegener, transitioned to Lili Elbe in a phenomenal characterization of this brave individual. He showed the absolute confusion and pain, emotionally and socially, when realizing and confronting this deep change, and then acceptance, to herself. Not just sexually but a complete self. And this in a time when the terms transgender and sexual reassignment surgery were foreign and strange sounding, and to some blasphemous and signs of deep mental illness.

Alicia Vikander, in the role of Gerda Wegener, also a painter, played the part of Einar Wegener’s wife very sensitively and respectfully. Despite her own confusion, loss of her marriage and husband, Gerda was a constant support to Lili and the life changes that Lili chose, with tears, anger and ultimately great love.

This movie is a fictionalized story based on real life couple bravely searching for solutions to this seemingly insoluble situation. They learned of Dr. Warnokos, a pioneering surgeon. The first transgender reassignment surgery offered and done by Dr. Warnokros, played by Sebastian Koch, was not only controversial but negated by his colleagues.

“It doesn’t matter what I wear, it’s what I dream.”

~ Lili Elbe from The Danish Girl

Directed by: Tom Hooper

Based on 2000 novel by the same name by David Ebershoff 

Partial Cast:
Eddie Redmayne:  Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe
Alicia Vikandaer:  Gerda Wegener
Amber Heard:   Oola Paulson, Gerda’s friend
Matthias Schoenaerts:  Hans Axgil, Einar’s childhood friend
Ben Winshaw:  Henrik, Lili’s friend
Sebastian Koch:  Dr. Warnokros

Where Did It Go?

Time
Slips past
Perception of speed
Changes 
From beginning to end

“even as each minute seems to take an hour, 

each hour seems to fly by in a minute.”

~ Lauren Oliver, Delirium

Preparedness

Earth quakes
Tremors deep underground
Shaking foundations of homes, buildings and belief
Perceptions that our buildings are safe havens
And that our lives are forever solid
Yet when the shaking has passed
When buildings settle
belief solidifies with caution
Kits rebuilt, safety classes fill up once more
Our lives move forward once tremors become still.

“You can’t prepare for the details of every single possible thing 

that might come your way in the future, because the future is uncertain.”

~  Auliq Ice

Reappearance

There a perception of magic when

from the sky, the ceiling or just thin air, this leather pouch with keys lost one dark night three months ago

is suddenly lying on the carpet at my feet!

Everything in the room had been moved - not once, not twice but many times in the past three months…

What had vanished in the night

outside, or so I thought, reappeared without ceremony.

Now I’m not saying I am pure of heart but

my heart is purely happy and really, really surprised.

“Magic will find those with pure hearts, even when all seems lost.”

~ Morgan Rhodes, Failing Kingdoms

Lubbock Memories

I lived in Lubbock, Texas for eleven years. This rather fuzzy picture was taken from my front porch on Christmas Day of 1996. I could be off on the year but, I do remember that my sister Betty visited that year. I also remember that there was enough snow later on for the kids across the street to make a really good snow man, which did last about a week. I returned to Canada with many wonderful perceptions of Texas - except for the brown, brown winters. It seemed that there was only a smattering of evergreen trees throughout the city, although I am certain there must have been many more. Texas Tech campus in the spring and summer with it's amazing willow trees refreshed me when winter was done.

I have many friends in Lubbock still and I’m thinking of you all now. I can only imagine that the streets are all but impassable in many places - this blizzard is amazing, frightening and different. Texting tonight with a friend in Shallowater, a small town outside of Lubbock, I learned that the roads are too bad for regular travel.

Take care down there! I miss each and every one of you. Stay warm and safe!

“Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.”

~ Sara Raasch,  Snow Like Ashes

Changing Messages

A perception: to defend oneself
coming all the way from the gut
Swooshing past heart and soul
Pushing “The Old Message” buttons in my head
And before I know it
I cannot hear today’s message
Today’s message quietly sits in the front of my head until I have settled “The Old Message” down.
Only then will “To-day’s Message” be given a chance to be heard.

“But I think that your entire life is a process of 

sorting out some of those early messages that you got.”

~ Bruce Springsteen