The Second Time Around

I finished watching “The Uninvited”, and now that I know what it’s all about, I’m watching it again. I thought the first time through was a little predictable and the film would follow through as such till the end. I never expected the explanation, the meaning that was coming. So now that I know what it’s all about, I’m watching it again.

Only in the movies can we replay what we missed or what we may have misinterpreted. Too bad Life’s little scenarios can’t be replayed for comprehension or awareness to detail. Too bad we can’t see ourselves upon the screen and observe our role, our behavior, the dialogue we chose. Would we be pleased and validated? Or would we be shocked and aghast? Maybe a little of both.

The first time through the events of our lives (and the only time through) may seem like our occasions are a little predictable, formulaic. It can seem so at times. But I think, if we could see them through again, we might pick up on the clues…. see the patterns that cause our circumstances. SPOILER ALERT: Whatever we think is happening to us or within us may be a matter of perception, so if at all possible, choose to accept that it all means something much more expansive, much more significant than that which can be gleaned on the surface.

Scary, ain’t it? That all the moments of our life may be linked to the significance of our own development. That everything we say and do may be replayed for us some day and in some place as a Soul enrichment class. Yikes! Now I really need some popcorn….. with extra butter!

 

Best Wishes, Whisel*   …….   …….   so, have you seen any good movies lately?

 

Open Thread, Readers please post

(Update: I added a ratings ability to the site, check it out, it’s for the articles as well as comments.)

I’ve noticed recently from looking at the stats for this site that quite a lot of you out there are coming to this site and staying for longish periods of time.  I would like to invite you to join in our conversations.  Those of us who post here and author material did not know each other till we met on one blog or another, some here and through our conversations have come to know a bit about each other.  We would like to know a bit about you the gentle reader as well and we would like to hear whatever thoughts  or stories you may have to share.

You know we all had a first day and a first post on a blog.  so start here, pop in and tell us about you.

So what’s going on with your day or life?

Observations on Aging From an Unpredictable Mind

It’s so strange: it seems like just yesterday I was racing around in  my 1966 Pontiac GTO body, a  sleek, powerful, Burgundy/ Black Hard Top,  zero to sixty in a minute flat, take anything on the road like it was standing still!

I woke up this morning  in a  freakin’ JALOPY!!

(Pictures added by Diane, sorry could not find a wrecked jalopy pic)

Two flat tires,  only half the cylinders firing,  cracked windshield,  transmission shot,  reverse totally kaput, side panels rusted clear through,  hole in the floor boards,  doors ductaped shut!.  DAMN! What happened?!

And so it feels on  some mornings.

Old Ladies Blogging

Wise women sharing.

I never thought I would be an “Old Lady.”  In as much as I have always viewed age or our societal concept of age as a state of mind rather than a state of reality, it just was never anything I thought would have any relationship to me.  In many ways it does not.

Old ladies blogging?  I find it of interest that many of those in my “years accumulated” status have been afraid, reluctant and generally not willing to try out the “new” technology of computers and all they afford.

I got my first computer in 1992, when I was 52.  I had no idea how to use it and it was the time of moving out of dos and into windows.  Being adventurous I figured I would somehow learn to use the darn thing.  I had years of writing that I wanted to put on that 70 mb harddrive  with 2 mb  RAM machine.    What a great leap forward from my IBM Selectric typewriter!  I was pretty excited about the whole idea of it.  It seemed the possibilities were endless and I had that great new printer with it I could print all of my words out on good quality paper and hold them in my hands.

I knew nothing about computers.  When I brought the equipment home I followed all the instructions even though there were a lot of techie words I wasn’t sure I understood.  I connected computer to printer; I plugged them in and suddenly realized I had no idea how to turn it on.  I literally went looking all over the equipment looking for anything that might be an “ON” switch.  I was laughing at myself for thinking I could just set this up and be off and running when I didn’t even know how to turn it on.   Really!

The on/off switch was very cleverly hidden somewhere at the bottom back of the machine and didn’t even have the words “on/off” on it, just some foreign symbols that apparently any computer person would have recognized as obvious.

Once I had the power switch on, I began my adventure into dos codes.  Huh?  fortunately there were some phone numbers I could call if I couldn’t figure this out on my own.  I couldn’t figure this out on my own.  A few phone calls and I finally was in the thick of it.

The History of the Village

Welcome to Village blue.

I decided today to write the history and the provenance of this site.

First let me tell you a bit about myself.  I have always felt myself to be a writer, started in early childhood and really blossomed in my 40’s , (I am 66) and actually spent 10 years of my life writing full time and over time, in fact all the time.  I wrote about 5 books, 100’s of pages of poetry and many and various other types of writing, including plays, and short stories.

I never tried to publish anything, although I always wanted to have something published.  Be that as it may, in 97′ our house burned down and I lost most of my writings, except for one box that had been stored in another place.  This is when I stopped writing.  I had been going at it for years, had amassed a great volume of work and pffft it was all gone.  Of course that was before I got a computer and years before I was even able to publish on the internet.  But at that time I thought, what is the point if it could all be lost in minutes.

Fast forward to 2003, 2004, when under George Bush this country was going to hell in that old handbasket, and I started to go to political websites and eventually got very involved in two sites, Booman Tribune and Daily Kos, the giant of all blogs.  During that time I wrote countless articles for posting and  thousands of comments.  Halaluya I was back into the writing game again and how.

Those years were great fun, we were all fired up, writing like crazy, sharing our points of view and sometimes there were fights.  The fights amongst the foks at those site could go on for days and weeks and sometimes months and they left most of us mentally if not physically drained.  At one point after a pretty intense discussion with another blogger I said I have to get away from this and start a site where we can talk about anything but politics, a place where we can cleanse our souls.  There are other things in life said I to myself and I have to have a place to spend my time where I can be restored and refilled.

The Pizza Party

It was an impromptu get-together that I planned last week and immediately forgot about unti the day of, which was yesterday. Ooops! But it worked.

Oh it took a bit of mental shuffling to get myself psyched up for a gathering, rather than stay obsessing about incomplete or unstarted home projects. I was in a spin about the lack of progress in projects I’ve undertaken or wish to start. Altho I know much is due to natural causes like lack of energy or lack of sleep. But, in my magical mind, I am still 37 and able to leap tall dressers in a single bound. Unfortunately, INTJs don’t age gracefully. They just become more goat-like in their dogged determination to accomplish and achieve.

For those of you still in your younger years ~ under the age of 60, be glad to know ~ as you grow older, your mind will retain its superb imagination, altho much to the chagrin of your declining body which commands a whole different reality. I juggle illusions these days, opting for the experience of self ability and self implementation. Sometimes, and more often than I wish,  I do have to negotiate a cooperative medium, but first I have to struggle against the decreasing reserves. This part of the journey can be exhausting because, again and again, it’s about the aspect of letting-go. The body is willing, but the mind is still gung-ho and tally-ho. hohoho 

Soooooo, it was a very good thing to have this jolt in agenda. I had to push my mind out of the weary vehicle it was driving and let the pizza get behind the wheel.  And what a delight that was! Instead of being dragged up a steep mountain, I took a gentle turn toward an easy mesa where I could move slowly and happily into a social context with conversation and laughter and and company of friends. Topics of discussion included physiology, culture and philosophy. Wow!  I was excited that my brain still retained some reference points of understanding concepts beyond domestic project management and cat care! I needed that.

So my advice (to myself) is that when the struggle gets too hard, too serious, too engrossing, and you really don’t get enough sleep to differentiate one pseudo-priority from another, order a pizza. Invite others to share. Go mindless. Go friendly and open. Enjoy the crackle of laughter, the gooey mess of a sloshy, Italian pie. Everything seems less earth-shattering after a good pizza party.

Best wishes, Whisel*

Hello fellow villagers

Hi, yes it’s me and I finally found a reason to write again.  It’s a long story and I will try to make it short.

Recently I was delighted to discover a web site for a high school I went to in the 50’s and one which is very dear to my heart.   Also delighted to discover my sister was involved in the website unbeknown to me.  So time churned on and I received the following email from the site:

Starting today we are going to feature links to “member” web sites/pages. This is a trial feature. We will look at, and approve links submitted by members to their personal, or business sites/pages for inclusion in our listing.

So great I thought, I will have them include a link to this site and sent off email, it was subsequently posted.  Then2 days ago I received an email from my sister saying, the administrators of the HS  site said mine was not connected to the school and was therefore removed.  Keep in mind that other links on the site were for a tarp sales company, a novelist and a glass artist.  None of which were connected to the HS in any way, other than they had been members of the same school.

First Snow

The weather rocks. The weather rules. At least in the Upper Midwest. Snow on the ground. Snow falling. Just a couple inches. A wet, unblemished white. By tomorrow it will be gone. But for today, we must bundle, glove, and boot. Watching the kids trudge to school, across the playground they wobble like newly introduced padded-penguins, knocking into each other as they sway, not having their winter-wonderland legs under them yet.

The outing has been canceled for today. The parking lots will be glazed over, not welcoming to unstable, retired, summer folks headed to Target to buy muffin tins and decaf coffee. By tomorrow the low-lying 40s will rise again. The snow will melt away. Tires will touch the road and aging Autumn will hold for another week or so. Best to get out there before the intensity of winter settles in.

Soon every day will be a good day for soup. Football weather. Hot tea, hoodies and holidays.

Best wishes, Whisel*

Knocturnal Knees

Tis the season to be churning in the blankets. Weather ups and downs. Pressure changes. Knees knocking and rocking. Not too much sleep, but at least the tossing and turning cranks out some interesting dreams. Although this one has a bit of a dark side, due to the aching joints, I imagine. Roll film…..

I was enrolled at a college somewhere, seemd like Virginia or around there. It was Open Tour week and we had booths on the inner triangle. People were visiting. One dorm was turned into a shopping mall.

My daughter and I were in charge of baby animals. We set up one viewing station for the puppies. Another one contained kittens. We created the spaces like playscapes for the animals, so they were always curious and active when people came to see them. Our biggest problem was keeping the ants out of the boxes. We were constantly spraying them with vinegar and wiping them away. At one point we had so many dead ants, I had to use a pushbroom to clear them out of the area.

There was a Medical Emergency booth set up on the quadrangle. They named it: Whisel*, because I was the one who used it most often. A siren went off. Everybody moved slowly toward the cafeteria, thinking it was the announcement for a meal. But I looked up into the sky and a terrible, dark, wide tornado was bearing down on the campus. The noise and the air pressure was awful.

 We had to head into the nearest building for shelter. The tornado went right through our campus. It stayed on us for at least 20 minutes. We were terrified, window glass shattered, our bodies were vibrating. We had no choice but to stay low, hang on to the built-in bookshelves and hope to survive.

Then I remembered my friend, Candace had just moved into one of the dorms as a new student. I waited until the worst was over and then ran to the building where she was staying. She was unharmed, unpacking her suitcase, organizing her dresser drawers. She had the most beautiful collection of silk, pastel slips. I watched her fold them and put them away.

I said: Didn’t you see the tornado?? She said: Oh I haven’t officially enrolled yet, so that wasn’t my experience. She added: Altho I DID find a kitten in my bottom drawer. Yep, there was a kitten from my animal exhibit! Oh dear, what happened to the rest of them??

I dashed down to the field and found the two exhibits destroyed. There was no sign of the puppies. Although later I read in the Campus Newsletter that they found their bodies in the trees. The kittens fared better. Each and every one of them turned up in a student’s bottom drawer.

 We had a great memorial for the puppies with bagpipes and guns. I spent the rest of my dream clearing away debris for the rebuilding of the campus.

Tonight I’m wrapping my knees in leg warmers. I love dreaming, but please! no more tornadoes.

Best wishes, Whisel*

Walking Home From Russia

I had one of my weird, epic dreams last night. It went like this:

I worked in a department store like Macy’s as a Floor Supervisor. There was a murder committed. Someone used the branches from a floor display to beat a clerk to death. We found the body behind the tie counter. Egads! 

Altho I didn’t see who did it, I confiscated the branches that held the forensic clues. They rounded up three suspects, one of whom was Russian. So we had to go to Russia for the court trial. It was snowy and bitter cold. My secretary, who worked for me in my last job, came with me cuz she was a cultural witness. She swore that the vile people who committed this act were: Russian, Hungarian and Yugoslavian.

After the trial, we had to come back to the USA to try the other two. They were European immigrants hiding out in Texas. For some reason, I did not have any transportation to the airport in Moscow. So I decided to walk.

I was dragging my clothes in a laundry cart and the branches in a shopping bag. I was walking down the highway in a storm bundled up in a long fleece coat, babushka and a pair of brown, rubber galoshes.

 

 

 

Finally I made it to Calton Road in South Texas. I sat down to rest.  Right behind me came a raggedy-jiggidy tall guy with a fake orange, curly wig on.  It was Hugh Laurie from House. (He kind of bounced around like a cross between the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz and the character, Stuart, on MAD TV.)

He had an engagement ring for me. He had followed me to Russia and back, hoping for an opportunity to declare his love. He asked me to marry him. I told him I was on a mission and couldn’t be interrupted. Besides, said… I didn’t think we were fated to be together.

He said: No, no….. look into the ring. I looked into the ring and saw a portrait of a young, beautiful Russian Princess… all decked out in scarlet winter dress with black fur.

I said: Is that me?

He said: Yes, yes… That’s you!

So I said: Ok, let’s get married.

We had our ceremony and reception at the Time/Life Building in Chicago. The cafeteria staff provided a delicious luncheon of hamhocks, greens and cornbread.

We had a live polka band from Germany wearing Tyrolean mountain outfits.

When the dream ended everyone was still having a great time…. dancing, laughing, enjoying each others company.

Then I woke up, ever so grateful that it was just Abby-Cat and not Hugh Laurie in my bed. haha

 

Best wishes, Whisel*