A necessity of the human spirit

I was supposed to be away for a few days.  My HH's grandson is receiving his Ph.D. In chemistry from Berkeley and I was going with my HH to help him celebrate but I'm sick and called off my flight. Thankfully, Southwest Airlines lets you change/cancel without charge - what a concept! - unlike American, where I also had to cancel a trip but got charged $200 to do it. Thieves.

My entire understanding of Patrick's dissertation is that it is about water. That's it. Sometimes I feel pretty smart but then something like a dissertation about water comes along and I realize my knowledge about anything is just a drop in the bucket. Forgive me; I couldn't resist. 

I'm tossing some Grand Canyon pics up for your perusal. I narrowed the landscape shots down to 41 but am not going to test your patience with anywhere near that number. I hope you enjoy.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. - John Muir

Look deep into nature and then you will understand everything better. - Albert Einstein

Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive. - anon.

Whatever's good for your soul - DO THAT! - anon.

Always take the scenic route. - my sister Margaret always took the scenic route, whether she planned to or not

Stay curious. - anon.

Leave nothing but footprints. Take nothing but pictures. Kill nothing but time. - anon

We all live downstream. - David Suzuki, geneticist

Nature does not hurry you, yet everything is accomplished. - Lao Tzu

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous. - da Vinci

We need the tonic of wilderness. - Thoreau

Come forth into the light of things. Let nature be your teacher. - Wordsworth

Do not feel lonely. The entire universe is inside you. - Rumi

I love places that make you realize how tiny you and your problems are. - anon.

A world without open country would be universal jail. - Edward Abbey

We do not see things as they are, we see things as WE are. - Anäis Nin

This is the most beautiful place on earth. There are many such places. Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. - Edward Abbey

The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth. - anon.

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. - Edward Abbey

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily. "And freezing." "However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders. - Edward Abbey

Keep close to Nature's heart. - Muir

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in tune once again. - John Burroughs

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. - E.B. White

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. - Joseph Campbell

Our job is to record, each in his own way, this world of light and shadow and time that will never come again exactly as it is today. - Edward Abbey

In wildness lies the hope of the world. - Muir

When it comes time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived. - Thoreau

When we tug on a single thing in nature we find it attached to everything else. - Muir

In every walk with nature, one receives far more than [s]he seeks. - Muir

I didn't feel well enough to sit at the computer and vet the quotes and so will gratefully accept corrections.

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Thought of the day:
Come into the mountains, dear friend.
Leave society and take no one with you 
 but your true self,
Get close to nature.
Your everyday games will be insignificant.
Notice the clouds spontaneously form
 and try to do that with your life. - unknown

Mother's Day, albeit late

A big, rousing, happy (late) Mother's Day to all moms out there!

From my own experience, I know what a hard job it is, sometimes unrelenting, where all you do is clean and cook, rock babies screaming with colic, cut food into tiny, unchoke-able pieces, and say a little prayer every time the kids head out in the car, whether they're the pilot or passenger. All of this and more, as you know very well, and then maybe add a paying job on top of it. If someone pampered you, took you to breakfast, went off with the kids for the day, or even just thanked you for all you do, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks are often missing and if it takes this one day to make someone aware of all the hats you wear, be grateful for it.

But for myself, I've long hated this day. Motherhood wasn't something I was successful at, not part of my skill set - go ahead, ask my kids, they'll cite you chapter and verse - and Mother's Day was ignored by their father, my husband. The first couple or few years went by with no acknowledgement, which puzzled and hurt me. Finally I asked him why it was just another day to him. It wasn't because of forgetfulness. Not ignored as a comment on my mothering qualities (and let me digress here: the first time he cheated on me that I know of, in 1987, he said he wanted a divorce and the reason was I was not a good mother. I will never forget it but really couldn't argue with it. However, he prepared for a move from Texas to Washington and was leaving the kids with me. If someone understands this, please clue me in.) Nor was it ignored out of meanness. It was ignored because I was not his mother. Honest to pete. I've since heard from other women that they are also treated this way, notwithstanding we are the mothers of their children or stepchildren, or rock star stepmoms who take on an entirely different and difficult role. This has never made sense to me and it always, always, every year, hurt. But guess who gradually stopped doing anything special for the father of my boys on Father's Day? This was just another layer of cinders added to the disastrous road that was our marriage.

I guess the lesson here is even if some ritual, tradition, or event carries no significance to you but does for someone else, honor that. You don't know how it feels to them to have its importance dismissed or even belittled. Holy cow, life is so short and so many things take so little effort and reap such a bounty of reward, so why not show that kindness?

I thought of that this weekend. It was my HH's birthday and we celebrated at the Grand Canyon, taking the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams and spending a night in the park, which was awesome!! The Park Service has free shuttles that run all over the park and do a very good job of keeping traffic down; the drivers are excellent with scads of patience. If they say, "Exit from both doors, enter at the front door only." one time a day they must say it 300 times. They're just good at their jobs, and yet most passengers exit the bus without saying a word. My mother taught me to say thank you (thanks, Mom, and thanks for teaching me how to drive a stick!), but my HH taught me to call someone by name when I do. Each driver has his or her name posted at the front of the bus so when I got off I thanked them and called them by name. "Thank you, Marshall." "Thank you, Dorothy." It is sometimes amazing to see the change on someone's face just to be recognized as someone. It costs nothing but a breath and can make a big difference in someone's day.

We got home kind of late Sunday night but I still had to take the time to look at my photos, all 398 of them, now culled by about 50. I'm blown away by what I got. Wow. Wow! Maybe I can take pictures after all. Coming as soon as I can get them done. Thanks in advance for my shameless self-promotion on this forum.

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Thought of the day:

Adopt an attitude of gratitude. - anonymous, I think



P.S.

A big shout out to Bill Parker, paleontologist extraordinaire, for being awarded his Ph.D. in geology from UT-Austin a couple of weeks ago. Congratulations, Bill!


photo credit: Dave Velk

Keep the circus going

The weekend gave us just about perfect weather. Sunny and warm, it was irresistible, and I went for a hike both Friday and Saturday, Friday to check out the corrections to the Red Basin GPS coordinates that I whined about because I nearly died, and Saturday to a new wilderness area called the Devil's Playground. Neither, however, is what I'm showing today.

My HH told me about an accident at a Ringling Brothers show, where half a dozen performers fell about thirty feet with no net. Not to diminish the terrible accident, it nonetheless reminded me that I never finished processing the photos I took at the Ringling Mansion, called Cà d'Zan, in Sarasota in January.

The estate includes the mansion, an art museum, and a circus museum. Admission was $25 and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't ask if they're a member museum with the Detroit Institute of Arts because it would have gotten us in free. I've had a membership at the DIA for many years, my little way of supporting that wonderful place that I have fond memories of visiting over the years. Anyway, I did not ask, and that's another thing I will never make the same mistake about again.

The art and circus museums' photos aren't processed yet but I just finished the ones from the mansion, so on with the show. Isn't that slick, how I slid that right in?

The house sits at the back of the property, on Sarasota Bay. The day we went was very cold and windy. We had layered up on the clothes but it was not nearly enough with the temp in the 30s. (Well, I'm sorry, but it was Florida and not supposed to be below 70.) The gray sky persisted all day and I could only imagine how gorgeous this place would be under blazing blue.

This is the West Ballroom which common sense tells you that there then has to/should be an East Ballroom, but we didn't see it. I struggle along with none, so two seems over the top.

The gilded ceiling features twenty-two dancing couples from different countries. The canvases were painted by illustrator Willy Pogany in his studio and applied to the ceiling in 1926. He also painted the ceiling in the third floor Playroom but it wasn't included on the tour. Small world - in my prior life I collected children's books and had at least one that was illustrated by this artist.

They're really lovely and bright, still.

The Ringlings and the architect referred to the central living space as "the Court." It was the focal point for entertaining. The crystal chandelier was purchased from the old Waldorf Astoria, which was to be destroyed to make way for the Empire State Building.

It is said the enormous room was made intimate by the choice of upholstery and arrangement of the furniture, but this does not feel intimate to me.

This exquisite beaded dress and handbag were on exhibit in the Court. I have done lots of beading in my time which gives me an appreciation for how much work this was, in the sense that it took a lot of time, not that it was tiresome. At least, I hope the seamstress enjoyed working on it. I would have loved doing it. My guess is the dress weighed thirty pounds, but it sure was beautiful.

I'll skip the photos of the kitchen. Cool old appliances and all that, but the architecture is what's really impressive.

The western exposure, which faces the bay. It was modeled after the Doge's Palace in Venice.

The colorful details were everywhere, from the tiles to the graceful stonework. The style is called Venetian Gothic. I thought it looked Moorish.

There was not a plain façade to be seen.

To the left in this photo is a sliver of what I would call the patio but it must have a fancier name. It seemed to be acres in size and had steps down to water level for those guests yachting in.

Here is the detail from the top of the window bars, what I call the coat of arms.

All of this is on the western side of the house, what a visitor arriving by water would see.

This is a close up of the marble (?) circular steps on the north side of the house.What a gorgeous pattern.

Here I'm circling around to the front again. The detail everywhere is just amazing.

 A closer view of the top of the tower, a very classy widow's walk.

Under-window ornamentation, times two.

Tucked away where most people would never see it was this fairy door. Full size, but still a fairy door. From where it was placed I think it was a service entrance.

All the way around the house to the south side entrance to the "patio," a miniature version of a guard station, topped with Nefertiti.

As pretty as it is, it still isn't a place I'd want to live. To me it's a showplace, not a home, not where you could schlepp around with bedhead, in stretchy pants and ratty slippers. It's fun to see how the top 1% of the 1% live, but made me appreciate my comfortable home, my little 30-foot trailer, and the good guy I share it with.

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Thought of the day:

Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going, don't take anything too seriously, it'll all work out in the end. - David Niven