Sheherazade

What do you suppose a room full of 40 and 50-something year old nurses and doctors look like when they're belly-dancing? Shimmying and shaking, hip thrusting, veil-wearing, tassels jangling, good old belly-dancing. I've always been told that it's much more challenging than it looks. And, if you're trying really hard not to look like a washing machine on overdrive, or like you have a severe movement disorder, it is. I've also been told that it doesn't matter how old you are, or what body shape you have, you can still look damn sexy doing it. Which is also true.

German Patient

Adultery count is at nine... at least this guy had the decency to marry the woman first before taking her beauty and her womanliness from her. On the other hand, he then left her with two kids, when he decided he was no longer 'called' to be with her, and was 'called' to pursue someone else...

Baywatch Beauty

How does one move from being an umpire to becoming a lifeguard? Moving from facemask, cleats and whatever that thing they wear to the freedom of a tank top and some swimming trunks? I think there's quite an allegory in there that I have to work on; blessings to CEMC for that.
Speaking of Beauties, I've had the privilege of meeting an amazing woman in the last few weeks: working on the Big Picture, moving on down the Narrow Road, following the Great Commander into the unreached places. Wow! I think I've been blessed by that too... it's been a bit complicated, as there are some mitigating factors that have been mentioned several times before in this blog in various enigmatic (or maybe not so enigmatic) ways... I think maybe because I see myself, what I would have been, what I -am-, what I have been, what I continue to actually be at the heart of things, what I could have been, what I should have been, had my road been a little bit different than it has been over the past few years... which is bittersweet: I have been humbled and amazed by a passionate Beauty, but in that mirroring, I see my pale reflection from the past that is ?lost ?unrecoverable ?stolen by a thief who has no interest in giving it back?

ATLS need not apply

I watched someone die today. It's been a while since someone has died in front of me for non-traumatic reasons. Usually, I get called in after the fact in order to register their death with the government. However, today, they just happened to die while I was there. And I stood there, and did nothing. Nothing, while her daughter held her hand and said goodbye; nothing, while the nurse stroked her head and told her to stop fighting and let go; nothing at all. Gasping and grasping at her last breaths over the course of about twenty minutes, we all stood there, watching her die. Slowly, inevitably, crawling towards death.
And, I must confess, I felt very little. What is it about the medical machine that removes emotionality? Is it I, or the system, or something other, that has carefully dissected away my heart from my head?

Zap! Bang! Kaboom! Splat!

So, in conclusion to the conversation earlier this week: Lois Lane is the DUMBEST of all the romantic-interests-of-superheroes-who-have-secret-identities.
Cases in point: I don't know if The Hulk has a romantic interest or not, but if he did, she could not be blamed if, seeing him in Hulk form, she couldn't figure out who he was, being all huge and green and and angry and all. Spiderman, of course, is the smartest by completely covering his face in that spandexy material, so Mary Jane can't figure out his other identity. Batman really only has a half mask, thus still exposing jaw, mouth and stubble. You'd think Vicky Vale might be able to figure it out after a while, but, I guess having his entire scalp and his upper face covered, she could be excused... maybe...
However, Lois Lane somehow gets entirely mystified when Clark Kent takes off his glasses and puts a little cowlick in his hair. Now if a girl can't figure -that- one out, then she really is a post... on the other hand, non-fictional men have gone for equally dumb women...

FFT

"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not.
You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area.
There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague..."

True statement, that. Guess who said it?
Sadly, Agent Smith, The Matrix

FFT

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD, be strong and let your heart take courage; wait on the LORD.
Psalm 27:13-14

Mona Lisa

Isn't it funny how there are some faces that you see that will trigger memories? Just people passing you on the subway or on the street, who just cause your heart to lurch right out of your chest, or make you want to weep? Who remind you of children long dead, tragically lost friends, haunted pasts, broken hearts or those you had tried to save? I know that parents in their grief, despair when they believe that they see their little ones in someone else's buggy. Isn't it amazing how a face: a nose, two eyes and ears and a mouth (and, sometimes, not even that), can do that to the human heart? How a few features can bring to the surface guts, knives and tears? That long-lost memory quickly runs through synapses to bring back in full Technicolour things that had been buried and mourned in ages past?
We are fearfully and wonderfully made; and even though memory is an attribute of the Divine, we, in our imperfection, have marred the gift of memory such that, many a time, it is a curse....

Fraternite, egalite, liberte

I'd like to believe that I fundamentally believe in the equality of all under the law. No, not in the Christian sense that we're all sinners yadda yadda, and not in the sense that we completely ignore the individual differences in people, but that, irrespective of gender, race, age, ethnicity, disability/ability etc, being all equally -human-, that there are certain niceties and privileges belonging to all who belong to the human club. That perhaps, though stereotypes or previous experiences may play a role in how I may perceive, or interact, with people, that ultimately, I would proffer respect to all.
But sometimes, I'm not sure if I'm as respectable as that. Sometimes, I'm not sure that we, living in possibly the best democracy in the world (which, I know, is a fairly saaaaad statement to make), are truly as egalitarian as we think we are....
I had some examples as to why I started thinking about this, but I don't think I'll write about them here, today...

Unfinished piece

Faith, fear, grief, obedience, hope, despair... I think perhaps maybe I mull too much on archetypes... Maybe I should concentrate on vacuous things, as other people do...