Pretty Things

Christmas has become the most tiresome time of the year. I feel physically, emotionally, and psychically drained from the over commercialized holiday and the overt expectation from almost everyone that it's going to be the best Christmas yet. I never have the money for gifts and rarely have any idea of what to buy, so I've resorted to the very impersonal gift card, like cash but non refundable. I suppose there's a little bit of a manipulation there too. You don't expect someone to say, "oh wow, what were you thinking, I hate it." Actually, I taught my family years ago that I would say just such a thing and the better gift should always be the impersonal gift card or preferably cold hard cash. The only place I felt able to gather a little creative energy together was in the wrapping of my meager gifts. Originally, I wasn't going to wrap gifts at all but then decided to do some minimal wrapping, like tissue with a rubber band holding it together. Then I got the inspired idea, I thought, of inserting parts of plants into the wrapping. No blooms were used but leaves and berries. Needless to say it was completely overlooked and probably not understood by my clan but it was a good thing. Just wait, next year it'll be all the rage.

My Little Tree

Le Vrai Holidays

I can't believe it is Christmas time already! I'm really not prepared for the holiday season or any of its trappings. I think I've about had it with the over Christianizing of the season and the sappy Santa who may be always cheery but will still deliver coal to a bad child. The season is actually owned by the retail industry and is there chance to bring up profit margins that have been lagging over the year. It's a time to increase personal debt trying to keep up with the Jones's and please everyone around oneself. I don't object to someone wishing me a "Merry Christmas," because most people are not thinking about the birth of Christ anyway (Christ's Mass). What I object to is Christians trying to convince others that the holiday season is really about their spiritual practice and we should all remind ourselves of this and act accordingly. The birth of Christ, most scholars believe took place earlier in the year and only came to be celebrated in December to upset the winter solstice/Yule celebrations. In other words, by throwing the blanket of the birth of Christ over the winter solstice and Yule, the Christians have attempted to wipe out the earlier Pagan celebrations. They nearly succeeded. However, traditions as old as Pagan born are not so easily subverted. Suppressed, perhaps, but not gone. Many Pagan groups across the globe will be celebrating both the coming winter solstice and/or lighting of the Yule Log. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you celebrate as a Pagan, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Native American, a Christian, or otherwise. The point is not to suppress all other spiritual paths under one but to celebrate now and at other times the creative spirit that has found so many paths leading to the same goal. Call it what you will... enlightenment, rebirth, saved... it's essentially the same concept.

Enjoy the holiday season whatever holiday you choose!

Children of Men

Last night I watched the film Children of Men and was mildly astonished. I had held off going to see the film when it was in the cinema, mostly due to the poor representation from the preview. Sometimes (Often) I wonder just what movie studios have in mind when putting a trailer together. Either the trailers reveal too much or they totally confuse the viewer as to what the story is actually about. In Children of Men, I thought the film was simply about infertility and the race to save the last pregnant woman alive, but it's much more than that. The film encapsulates so much of the angst and unsettled political climate in the world today, such as rampant terrorism, governments out of control, mass hysteria, and complete chaos. The lives of westerners today, especially here in the U.S., is very sheltered from the reality of life in most other countries and what a day to day existence is like in the presence of constant war. Westerners see it in the media and attempt to empathize with those suffering around the world, but the reality escapes most. For me, this film made that reality present and felt even though it is set in the future. The base story is that humans have lost their ability to propagate, but as the society ages and closes in on extinction, it becomes increasingly more violent. The entire educational system becomes unnecessary and all the people in that industry are out of work. Families disintegrate. Infrastructure begins to crumble as more people die off and there's no one left to replace them. When the pregnant woman is discovered, there are factions who see her as a savior and those who want to crucify her because they are afraid the hope she brings will destroy the chaos they've become accustomed too. Sounds familiar.

I'm no film critic but I highly recommend this film to anyone who is concerned about the world today and the impact of governments fighting for supremacy. I guess what I want to convey is that there's much more to Children of Men than just the base story. Also, there's a terrific documentary in the Special Features that is made up of various established philosophers and cultural critics giving their take on the world today, where it is going, what is affecting it, etc. over images of the decay taking place across the globe. It's really as fascinating on its own merits as the film is.

Thankful for Long-Term Friends

Every year on this day, people the world over (or at least those who celebrate Thanksgiving the world over) think about what they are thankful for. For many it is family, while for others it is jobs and security. For me it's my friends. I don't mean the people I see day to day or have an occasional outing with. I also don't mean the ones who gave up when conflict came down the road, those are the worst. I mean the ones who remain your friends because it's important for them to do so. It's a two-way street of course. I work at remaining friends with those who work at keeping our friendship alive too. Although, I do think about the ones who've gone away for whatever their reasons were and there are some that I consciously separated myself from as well. We all have enough stress and conflict in our lives without placing ourselves in caustic relationships just because we had been there already. Bad friendships do offer some comfort but aren't ultimately worth the aggravation. Anyway, I want to talk about the friends that have stayed with me over the years and how important their friendships are to me.

Christina:

I've known Christina longer than anyone else. We originally me in college as freshmen at Columbia. She was a theatre major and I was liberal arts. We've known each other for almost twenty years. She's always been a strong supporter of any of my various endeavors. She's always been there for emotional support. And she has always been completely accepting of my views and personality. It's not to say we don't have our differences. Her world view and mine are very different. Her politics and mine are worlds apart. Really her spiritual beliefs are antithetical to mine. We shouldn't be as good of friends as we are, but that's what lasting friendships are built upon, vast differences. Today, Christina is a single mother of a very bright nine year old. She manages to keep a comfortable home for her and her daughter, keep her child in private school, and avail a little time for herself, while constantly keeping in touch with me. Did I mention we live on opposite ends of the U.S.?

Tamara:

I met Tamara while in a fiction writing class at Columbia. She already held a master's in English Lit but wanted to take a class to help with her personal writing. I was just fulfilling credits toward my Liberal Arts degree. The class was so absurd! There was a separation at Columbia between those who wrote/studied poetry and those who studied all other forms of creative writing. It came from a division in the ranks essentially because the director of the Creative Writing program insisted on their method for achieving results. The faculty who taught poetry and predominantly came from English backgrounds could work within the rather strict confines of the Creative Writing department. We had to sit in a perfect semi-circle. The instructor would not begin until this was achieved. We had to ONLY use descriptive language in the present tense (there is, I see, I want, etc.) and we had to perform these word games meant to infuse creativity but would often fall into sneering criticism if the word given was not considered (what?) "proper" by the instructor. I would offer up words like succubus and malignancy, but was regularly asked to come up with another word. This would cause Tamara and I to fall into hysterics, well giggles anyway. As it happened, Tamara was the only person from the class I stayed in touch with and we've remained friends to this day. We were in that class about fifteen years ago and since then, Tamara has been divorced, received another master's degree, and managed to start a profitable antique jewelry business while teaching English Comp on the side. I relish our conversations which are filled with big life questions, literature, politics, and reams of intimate details and trials within our own lives.

Heather:

Heather and I met while working together at Zambrana's Food Emporium. It was one of those gourmet grocery, bakery, and flowers kind of places that should be still around except for the unscrupulous business practices of its namesake and subsequent owners. Heather is a fantastic, but under recognized visual artist (link to the right) and resides in Germany with her husband Boris. I originally approached Heather because she reminded me of another girl I once knew in college and I'm very glad I did because our friendship has grown ever since. I took my first trip to Europe to visit her in Cologne and she has since sought me out during trips to the states to see her family. Here's a friendship that could easily have gone by the wayside, her on another continent, but once again, we work at keeping it going because it's important.

Ruthann:

Ruthann is a pagan, a witch, a high priestess, and a great friend. I met Ruthann during one of my many breaks from academic study. I was disillusioned with my studies and life in general and I began seeking a more spiritual path than the Christian one I had been raised under. At that time in Chicago, there were quite a few actively open Wiccan groups practicing throughout the Chicago area. There were New Age and occult bookstores, as well as multiple pagan publications. I found Ruthann and her circle, Akasha, in one such zine. After attending a couple of Esbats, I knew I had found what I was looking for and in Ruthann I found another life long friend. Over the years, I fell away from the pagan community and my study of the Craft but Ruthann only grew in her own. She would eventually become associated with the largest online school of witchcraft in the world. Today she works on a smaller scale with more personal goals in mind but has remained a constant presence in my life and helped renew my own interest in Craft studies.

Lisa:

I haven't known Lisa quite as long but value her friendship all the same. Lisa I were neighbors. I lived above her and we would spend many mornings, afternoons, or evenings on the porch drinking coffee or tea and just talking about our lives. I miss having her as a neighbor and the easy camaraderie between the two of us. She was the kind of neighbor I could get a cup of sugar from, not that I ever needed to, but I did borrow albums from her excellent collection. We were both temporarily active in the local CAPS meetings due to nefarious activities going on in the building next to us. We would ride our bikes together (she rides hers as a main form of transport) and go to park festivals. I spent one very enjoyable Thanksgiving with her family. Now that I no longer live in Chicago, we're reduced to occasional emails, but we are both putting in the effort to remain in touch, and sometimes, that's enough.

Yes, all women. I can't begin to explain that fact. Women simply make great friends, I guess. There are others that I'm not as in touch with but value our friendships too like Jamie, Jacque, and Cathie. There are, however, no men. Hm.

American Life

follow the grain of natural being, the white existential
model looks exhaustive into the demonic art and unhappy
prophetic social vision powers unconscious American streets

hysterically excessive and frantically active in a constant
cumulative threat dependent on parallelism and repetition of sound
soaring and plunging from one line to the next, insisting

for spirit in the face of a materialistic culture, burning the present
awareness of regenerative possibilities novel about turbulence
jumping off ecstatic copulations by the propelling torrential quality

forbidden, impulses and primitive energies form a repressive
sheer nightmarish momentum of purgatorial subway rides
always aware of growing older and saddened by this spontaneity

unshaped lives free of preimposed horrors of ideological stasis
misread as a remarkable fusion makes a mockery of security
through the figure of the imperfect man, an exuberant anarchism

the refrain is a reminder of the effects of disorder uncontained
a function of speed saliently tapped the distinguishing strain
reflected in an extraordinary hyperactivity that determines values

conflict between demands of Self and union with nature begins
to seek escape from the spiritually corrupting materialism rooted
isolating a more profound sense than hitchhiking ever provided

shamanistic implications howl like too much money collapsing
the overflowing ebullient doom in Western culture dominating
the virtue of poverty and fiction encourage shared attitudes

essentially distrustful of industry and its mechanical aristocracy
optimistically proclaiming with egalitarian gusto the newness
an era of ominous malaise vigorously sustained by war

Samhain altar

Samhain Again

The Celtic new year fell on a Wednesday this year as all the pagans out there know. As for the rest of you it was Halloween. Of course, there aren't really any Celts out there who celebrate the new year anymore but there are tons of pagans. I've been a practicing something or other for the better part of twenty-five years. I say "something or other" because what I do has never really fell into anything specifically recognizable. Although, I always feel rather witchy in the fall and so my Samhain was a return to my witchy ways. It had been a while since I last participated in a Samhain eve celebration and I wasn't sure I had what I needed to bring it together. However, as with any spiritual practice, you don't really need anything but a desire. As it happened, I found everything I needed right around the house. I guess once you've aligned yourself with mystical energies, whatever you may need to express that alignment is always close at hand even if it's been a while. You can see in the picture of the altar I constructed. I used candles of course and I used my Tarot deck for many representations of deities and universal energies. There were also recognizable symbols for each of the four elements like birds for air, incense for fire (could be air too), water, and a stone for earth. The point is to do what feels right for the practitioner. I could never respond to any spiritual practice that held too stringently to anything specific. I used my time within the circle and between the worlds to meditate on my spiritual guides and those who have gone on, since All Hallows Eve is the best time to be in touch with the dead. I'm normally very introspective, but the fall draws me even more into myself and I become aware of the movement of the Earth until New Year's, then I begin to focus on goals for the coming year.

Blessed Be!