November schmovember

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Yes, I know certain people live in warmer climes and will be golfing right through ’til next spring, but up here in the shadow of the arctic circle we sometimes have nice days this time of year, too.

Yesterday was one. Glad we Mortensens were smart enough to take advantage of it — met my parents’ at their place and golfed at the Canasawacta Country Club.

Here’s looking out toward the club house. Told you it was nice!

golf course

Here’s me, on the women’s tee next to one of those same pear trees. (I believe I’m saying “slice AGAIN!?!?!”)

me golfing

Long live bacteria

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Here’s a tribute [UPDATE: link no longer good, ah, the fickle Interwebs] (by Lynn Margulis and Emily Case, in Orion) to the little critters.

Some of the language of the piece is a bit much — you just can’t use “xenophobia” to characterize anyone’s attitude toward germs. LOL

But if you cut the authors some slack, the piece makes some good points. We do have to stop categorically demonizing bacteria — and touting sterilization as the magic bullet of disease prevention:

Bacteria also sustain us on a very local, intimate scale. They produce necessary vitamins inside our guts. Babies rely on milk, food, and finger-sucking to populate their intestines with bacteria essential for healthy digestion. And microbial communities thrive in the external orifices (mouth, ears, anus, vagina) of mammals, in ways that enhance metabolism, block opportunistic infection, ensure stable digestive patterns, maintain healthy immune systems, and accelerate healing after injury. When these communities are depleted, as might occur from the use of antibacterial soap, mouthwash, or douching, certain potentially pathogenic fungi—like Candida or vaginal yeast disorders—can begin to grow profusely on our dead and dying cells. Self-centered antiseptic paranoia, not the bacteria, is our enemy here.

Yeah, “self-centered.” LOL

Well. If we eschew blaming laypeople for fearing germs, it’s clear that we consumers are not the real culprit. We do the best we can with what scientists and the media tell us.

Laypeople can’t be expected to challenge something as seemingly self-evident as “E coli-tainted food can kill ya.” Particularly when scary stories about poison spinach and undercooked burgers and raw milk are shoved down our throats with grim regularity.

The real culprit is medical research: researchers who’ve spent the last 100+ years playing the whodunnit game that guys like Pasteur got started — and, as a result, haven’t bothered asking broader questions about microbial ecology.

But one of these days, we’re going to wake up and realize that one of our most powerful tools for fighting disease is to colonize our bodies with certain strains of bacteria (and other organisms too, probably). Like what we whole foodies do with yogurt and kefir only taken to a whole new level.

That will be a healthy development ;-)

Lyrical lines

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Talking to a friend a couple of weeks ago about pop music. It was after I’d cited a Little Feat song in this post and he’d looked at a YouTube clip of Fat Man in the Bathtub.

He remarked on Lowell George’s genius in lengthening the musical line.

And I got to thinking, lengthening the musical line had implications for the lyrical line, too.

I’d picked up a couple of Dave Matthews CDs some time ago, after my ex left (he was the one with the music collection) but hadn’t listened to them much — I was aware of the songs peripherally, enough to hum along, but hadn’t paid that close attention to them. Then idly, one day, I played Under the Table and Dreaming and found myself for the first time paying real attention to it.

Matthews has been criticized for writing songs that are too monotone, something I’d found a bit off-putting too. But suddenly I was what’s going on: these pieces are actually poetry — set to music — set to jam band music.

If you transcribe the lyrics to a song like The Best of What’s Around, you can see it, as long as you don’t artificially try to insert line breaks:

Hey my friend, it seems your eyes are troubled — care to share your time with me?
Would you say you’re feeling low? And so

A good idea would be to get it off your mind.

See you and me have a better time than most can dream — have it better than the best, so we can pull on through.
Whatever tears at us, whatever holds us down — and if nothing can be done we’ll make the best of what’s around.

Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters — that really matters.
And hurts — not much when you’re around.

And if you hold on tight to what you think is your thing, you may find you’re missing all the rest.

Well she ran up into the light surprised; her arms are open, her mind’s eye is seeing things from a better side than most can dream, on a clearer road — I feel —
Oh — you could say “she’s safe.” Whatever tears at her. Whatever holds her down — and if nothing can be done she’ll make the best of what’s around.

Turns out not where but what you think that really matters.

See you and me have a better time than most can dream — have it better than the best, so we can pull on through.
Whatever tears at us, whatever holds us down — and if nothing can be done we’ll make the best of what’s around.

Turns out not where but who you’re with that really matters — that really matters.
It hurts — not much when you’re around.

What’s amazing is that lines like this can be made to come across as so pop.

NaNoWriMo Day 5

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Well. I switched novels. Had to. I had a premise with idea #1 but I couldn’t come up with a grabby plot. Premise #2 is one I’d kicked around a couple of years ago and remembered it the other night. There’s a bit more meat to this idea so hopefully will be easier get some traction.

But I’m behind and the troubles in my personal life haven’t helped matters much — 400 words is all I’ve managed so far. On the other hand, given my schedule & the fact that I also have a lot of writing to do for my day job I have to cut myself some slack. And truthfully, I’d be pleased even if I came up with only half the 50K NaNoWriMo quota by Nov. 30. Not that I’ve given up yet!!! Grrrrr. We’ll see what happens.

[tags] writing, National Novel Writing Month [/tags]

Firebird

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firebird

Sometimes we don’t know what it is that we’ve captured. We know it’s magical. And the most beautiful thing we’ve ever held in our hands.

We can’t believe that we’ve been asked to let it go. And that’s the mystery of it — not that the Firebird is (we’ve accepted that, it’s there in our grasp!) but the letting go — because we can’t yet know the blessings that will follow. Or even if they’ll follow.

Firebird myth here.

Not writing

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Can’t. Feeling low. Browsing through The Portable Romantic Poets (blogged before about the book here) looking for something mournful enough to match my mood. This can’t be healthy.

“I am the self-consumer of my woes.”

I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shades in love and death’s oblivion lost;
And yet I am, and live – like vapors tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams . . .

That’s from I Am by John Clare, which would be a bit much here, copied over in full, even in my mood. A fragment’s enough.

Tomorrow’s a new day. I wish it were spring, though, instead of November.

I wish, I wish, I wish.