Author Archives: lydias

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, reviews, paintings, poems, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

My Proposal for a Bill Banning Male Masturbation. A satirical look at what might happen if men in the U.S. were treated the way certain states (Texas, Ohio) are treating women right now. Possibly NSFW.

Bigotry. The world is changing rapidly. I wonder what it will look like in 50 years?

It’s All About One’s Mood. Take a good look at this painting before scrolling down to read the artist’s comments. What emotions do you read in the subject’s body language?

You Just Broke Your Child. Congratulations via Danoah. This blog post is about parenting, but I’d argue that something similar could be said about our relationships with everyone in our lives. Emotionally destroying people is never ok. We all have bad days, of course. It’s part of being human. I completely understand feeling frustrated, but if (general) you are this mean-spirited and callous in public I can only assume your behaviour is a thousand times worse behind closed doors.

From Night Owl via SufiJohn:

Andrew, even as a young man,

leaves on his bedroom light;

brightly artificial

with an open door.

What About the “B” in “LGBT”? So I have a theory about the folks who say the ridiculous things this blogger is talking about: they do it to everyone because they think their way is the only one.

• Are you single? You better find someone fast before all the good ones are taken.
• Are you gay or lesbian? You came out too early/late/quietly/proudly.
• Are you married?  Hasn’t anyone ever told you that interracial/interfaith/May-December/binational relationships never work out? Not to mention the fact that you got married too young/old/soon/late in a ceremony that wast too big/small/secular/religious.
• Do you have a kid? You’re conceiving/birthing/feeding/educating/disciplining them incorrectly.

Yes, it’s incredibly annoying and hurtful…but I strongly suspect that this is a case of a vocal minority making the rest of us feel weird for not doing things the “right” way. Most people don’t agree with them, though.

From In Which I Real-Time Review ‘Katy Perry: Part of Me” via VampireNomad:

The background of Katy’s life growing up immersed in Christianity is both strange and understandable.  I can identify with the total immersion though she had a much more intense time of it than I did.  Her parents, traveling evangelical preachers, come off as theatrical.  With that charlatan edge that gives so many preachers a bad name.  And perhaps they are charlatans.  Or perhaps they aren’t.  But any upbringing with any sort of strict boundaries or full religious flavor will seem highly unorthodox alongside the pastel boobs-and-froth hype of Katy’s public persona.  She has voluntarily made overexposure, coy revelations, and sugary teasing a normal way of life so the juxtaposition will be striking.  She is very like many pastor’s kids I have known: talented and shackled with moral restrictions that they wriggle free of with wild acting out.  The everyday rigors of growing up are both exacerbated and ignored by the religion so the rebellion is exaggerated when it happens.  Katy is exactly a product of her upbringing.

As anyone who has ever made Tear Soup knows, grieving is hard, lonely work.

This book describes how it’s done and what friends and family members can do to help. I loved the authors’ playful use of metaphor to get their message across. While god is mentioned, religion is not the focus of the healing process in this fable. You can be part of any faith (or none at all) and still put the principles of this book into place when you or someone you know is grieving.

What have you been reading?

Edit: I just realized this video uses Flash and can only be viewed on a Mac or PC. Apologies to those of you who weren’t able to watch it. Use this link if the video above doesn’t work.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, mysteries, poems, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

Judgmental People via NoQuivering.It takes time to settle into your skin and learn how to be true to yourself even when you’re around people who can’t handle it.

I Believe I Will. How four little words spontaneously uttered in the 1880s are still affecting people’s lives today.

She’ll Forgive the Stars via dlboonstra. What is your interpretation of this poem? I’ve been mulling over it all week.

The Mystery of the Spinning Statuette. It’s entertaining to wonder if there’s a supernatural explanation for this spinning statuette, but I actually find the scientific explanation more compelling. I never would have guessed that slight vibrations could have such a big impact in this situation.

All Honest Mistakes Are Forgivable. I have mixed feelings about the specific example of forgiving mistakes that is mentioned in this link, but I deeply admire the author’s compassion.

Benham’s Disc. The lines turned green for me when I stared directly at it. They were red and blue when I looked at it from an angle.

From Why I’m Not Particularly Worried About Being Nice via Virtusetveritas:

But, I’m not the one making the rules, sadly. I spend a lot of time– most of my time, actually– talking about deeply entrenched ideas and patterns held by powerful, privileged people. I speak out against the abuse these systems perpetuate and the people who perpetuate them. However, as a woman, as a feminist, as a person who in the view of those I critique do not have the right to be listened to and heard, there’s no way for me to be nice enough.

How do you become a doctor when no medical college will accept you as a student because of your gender? In My Name is Mary Sutter, a midwife solves this question by convincing a surgeon to teach her everything he knows while they take care of soldiers during the Civil War.

I loved the vivid descriptions of illnesses and medical procedures in this book. Imagine coaching a pregnant woman through a life-threatening delivery, amputating a limb, or treating dysentery without anesthesia, antibiotics, intravenous rehydration, blood donors, or any understanding of germ theory.

What have you been reading?

Just tuning in? Catch up with parts one, two, three, four,  five,  six,  seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve of this story.

Rachel was relieved to see the rest of her family members slowly recovering, but she hated the restless stage of the healing process. The dangerous days and nights were behind them, and her youngest daughter and her husband were even well enough now to help Rachel with a few light chores. Now all she had to do was harvest enough food to keep everyone alive through the long, hot summer. They could butcher the sheep if it was absolutely necessary, but Rachel was beginning to figure out how her husband could so easily afford to replace them. It wasn’t something she wanted to think about, much less encourage.

With five grandchildren under the age of six and the hope of another one to come, it was amazing that the Everson clan had only lost one member. Naomi hadn’t exactly been welcomed into the family with open arms when McArthur’s punishment was publicized, but over the years the two women had unexpectedly forged a quiet friendship. Few people knew what it was like to live with MacArthur. It was hard to be alone  now.

Her grief would have to wait until the garden was harvested and the cheese delivered, though. MacArthur’s flock had been especially fertile last year and hopefully  the Everson family would have more than enough cheese to get them through the summer even with Daphne’s allotment. Rachel thought it would be better to deliver the summer wheel early than to feel tempted to shirk her duty if food stores ran low in July. It was shameful enough to be court-ordered to support her husband’s other children in the first place.

Lemon barked hello as Rachel walked up the path to Daphne’s house. She gave him a friendly pat on the head as he sniffed the well-wrapped bundle in her arms and followed her to the front yard. Daphne was sitting in the shade slicing vegetables. Her swollen knee was propped up on a small rock one of her sons had dragged over to the shade for her.

“I thought I’d drop this off a little early,” Rachel said. “Would you like me to put this in your larder?” Daphne nodded and smiled. Rachel came back outside bearing a fresh pitcher of water and two cups.

“You looked thirsty,” she said as she sat down. It wouldn’t hurt to sit down for a few minutes before going back to her noisy home. The women had just begun to hesitantly chat about the weather and the sorry state of Daphne’s knee when Ephraim, Isaac, and Felix walked up the path. Lemon raced ahead to greet them as Daphne and Rachel exchanged puzzled glances.

“We didn’t know what else to do,” Ephraim said, “but we couldn’t leave the boy alone and we didn’t have enough manpower to bring everyone with us.” He described the the poor condition of the rest of the Davenport household and told his mother about Lucio’s death. Isaac took the boy inside for a second breakfast while the other adults talked.

“Aren’t you worried about making the gods angry?” Rachel asked as she abruptly stood up. Her mind had replaced Lucio and the baby with the blanched faces of her own children and grandchildren while Ephraim described the burial. “There must be a reason half of his family is at death’s door when we only lost Naomi.”

“The gods aren’t always clear about what they want,” Isaac said as she hurried down the path to her own ill family.

“I don’t know how to help them,” Daphne said in a quiet voice. She couldn’t imagine how the three of them could do work that was intended for twice as many people or what the benefit would be of risking their own lives by breathing in that tainted air all day.

“You’re really going to leave them to die?” Isaac asked. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“No, we can spare food and water, but we can’t send anyone to stay with them for more than a few minutes.” Even that concession was dangerous. Just because the disease had avoided the Lewis home for now doesn’t mean they would stay healthy.

“They can barely move, mom,” Isaac said. “They can’t remember to drink enough water, much less keep the fire stoked or send for help if someone else dies.”

“We have to take care of ourselves first. What good will we be to the boy if every adult near him is too sick to work?”

*****

Isaac waited until everyone was sleeping that night before silently standing up and gathering a few possessions. He’d sliced a few extra pieces of cheese off of the new wheel at suppertime, and when Lemon whined Isaac fed him a small snack to keep the dog quiet as he snuck out.

He had never seen such a large, bright moon hanging in the sky before. Before the Mingus Mountain community school closed for good Isaac and Ephraim briefly attended it. One of the few lessons Isaac remembered from his time there was about something called a super moon. It was said to amplify both good and bad luck, and he hoped this was a sign the Davenports didn’t need nighttime visits after all.

Had Isaac paid less attention to the moon he might have noticed the soldier lying perfectly still  next to the abandoned house a few feet away from him. As Isaac walked down the path the soldier silently followed him.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, poems, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.  For the record, I’d be thrilled to include reader-suggested links in future Suggestion Saturday posts! Many of my favourite sites are taking summer hiatuses, and until yesterday evening my list of links for today’s post was fairly small.

From Does Our Culture Confuse “Healthy” People With “Good” People?

All of us are called to “take charge” of our health, as if health were a wild animal and we, out of sheer smarts and willpower, might tame it. “In a recent study,” we read, this or that berry fights cancer, this blend of fish oils helps the heart pump more efficiently, this pill will make you breathe better if you’re struggling, this other pill will make you feel better if you’re sad, this set of exercises will build bone density, don’t forget to take your calcium, practice yoga to release stress (which causes cancer and heartache, both of which can lead to premature death), and remember to break a sweat at least once a day or do some type of moderate to vigorous exercise a few times a week to help fight heart disease, high blood pressure, and any number of diseases waiting in your body that might kill you.

Doubt via AltThadeaux.Scroll down and click on index for all of his musings. Some of the pictures Alt uses to illustrate his thoughts are remarkably beautiful.

Why Don’t We Have More Productive Conversations Online? I wonder if this is why such a small percentage of readers comment on the blog posts and articles they visit each day?

What’s Wrong With via Sagecohen. My answer: absolutely nothing!

Setting Good Personal Boundaries via DaphnePurpus. One of the bravest blog posts I’ve ever read. I love how honest Daphne is about what triggers her and how committed she is to protecting herself. It can be tough to stick up for yourself when other people don’t understand why something bothers you, and I’m so glad to have her as a role model.

Adding Monsters to Thrift Store Paintings. Now this is a great way to add an eye-catching twist to what is otherwise fairly mundane art. I just hope none of the original artists are offended by other people changing their work.

In Born Weird a well-meaning grandmother gives each of her five grandchildren a special blessing at birth. Unfortunately, her blessings end up giving her grandkids powers that cause much more harm than good as they grow up.

The magical realism in this story is a great metaphor for the messiness of family life. It’s impossible to avoid the occasional misunderstanding or disagreement, and no one can raise a child without eventually regretting something.

What have you been reading?