Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Blogging From My Bed....

Last night I couldn't fall asleep, I was so wired. My mind was a Tilt-a-Wheel, with Debate, Blog, BlogHer, and D, all careening madly around, crashing into each other. I finally gave up and came into my office. Maybe I could purge myself on line, I thought. It sort of worked, but really, I'm thinking I should get a cow. That way when I get up in the wee small hours, I can go milk her.

The clashes from the crashing Tilt-a-Wheel yielded the following sparks (with apologies to the late Marlene Marks, who used to keep my metaphors in line. But Marlene's gone so now there is no one to squelch my urge to, as she once put it, "put the bow on the box.")

1. The Debate: I Twittered it, and you can read my comments, such as they were, there. I've avoided reading any commentary today; isn't my own opinion enough, for god's sake! Which is:
  • Hillary--looks good. She's witty, warm, strong, smart and there's no doubt she could conquer the world.
  • Obama--eh! He is long on slogans and short on substance. I don't get what the fever about him is.
  • Edwards-- I like him too, and he's got passion in the right places, but I think he's stronger on domestic, than foreign policy--and god knows we need a savior out there in the world.
  • Biden--can't keep his foot out of his mouth. I'm sure the NRA guy appreciated being called nuts, which maybe he is, but still, Joe, not nice, not nice.
  • Dodd--he comes across as mad, rather than impassioned, which I found somewhat threatening.
  • Richardson--another one who comes across as mad
  • Gravel--really furious, really scary
  • Kucinich--I just want to bat this guy. He's like Howdy Doody--yap yap yap.
  • Cooper, Youtube & the debate: loved it. Not just for the clever videos, but for the ones that put the metal to the pedal (is that right? or is it the other way around? and what does it mean, really?). I thought it really gave the candidates a chance to do more than sloganeer and some of them took it. Not Obama, though, Or Kucinich. I have loved (in the most filial way) Anderson Cooper since he was hosting The Mole. He is my kinda journalist: a human being reporting what he sees and feels and thinks.
2. The way I am getting through the whole D situation is by sticking my toe in Zen, meditation, sitting--whatever you want to call it. That I don't know what to call it speaks to my pre-newby state. I'm thinking about starting a new feature/regular post here to chart my entry into the world of mindfulness.

3. BlogHer ought to put me on as a Contributing Editor to write about life at the far end of the baby boom. They have superb coverage of most other aspects of any woman's life, but there's no one talking about those of us who are war babies. We're not Elders and we're not, even if we are, Mommy's. Our issues are unique, and I don't see anyone covering them. So Jory, Elisa and Lisa--how about it?

7 comments:

  1. Good thing you only love Anderson Cooper in a filial way, because you'd only get your heart broken. He's gay.

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  2. Jane, sweets, have you read "Inner Revolution" by Robert Thurman?

    It's excellent. I HIGHLY recommend it. I mention it because of your venture into "mindfulness".

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  3. ratphooey: which is why mon amour is filial only

    kevin: I'll get it--hey, that's Una's dad, isn't it?

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  4. I resort to Zen when the going gets rough.

    When our minds are anything but quiet we have to quiet them down PURPOSELY (aka forcibly)

    Zen is the muzzle for the mind.

    Feel free to expand on the whole muzzle/dog/Zen metaphor.

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  5. Anonymous8:35 AM

    Thurman's a really interesting guy (though technically I think he's a Tibetan monk rather than a zen guy). I'd recommend Robert Aitken's Taking the Path of Zen or John Daido Loori's The Still Point.

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  6. love monkey: already I'm meditating on that metaphor.

    simon: see, I don't really know the difference between a monk guy and a zen guy. They're all just a grand moosh in my mind.

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  7. Anonymous5:23 AM

    Hmm. Well you might try Jack Maguire' "Essential Buddhism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs and Practices." It lays out in pretty easy ways a lot of the stuff you need to know about what's what and who's what. I found it very useful. Have fun at BlogHer!

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So--whaddaya think?