Life Truths

Now is the time of year that a lot of my friends pray and contemplate great ideas. I want to send them my wishes for a happy New Year and also list some of the ideas that I contemplate.

15 LIFE TRUTHS

1 You cannot make someone love you.

2 The greatest irony is that no two people are at the same place in their lives at the same time.

3 The time, energy, expense and love of raising children is a completely selfless act. It will never be repaid to you by them as adults…so know that going in.

4 Surviving your childhood and figuring out who your parents are will take half of your life, but it is a journey each of us must take.

5 Without asking ourselves the difficult questions and trying to answer them we have missed the point of our journey as human beings.

6 All knowledge is self knowledge and as long as we live we must keep learning.

7 We don’t know what we know until we know it and then we can never overlook or forget it.

8 Love is the answer…not the question. Love is a verb.

9 Take note of what and who comes into, stays or goes out of your life because everything happens for a reason and it is our task to figure out what the reason is.

10 Time is precious, use it well and find the balance between working, playing, loving and observation.

11 Learn to feed the body, the soul, the mind and the spirit and be with people who will share this habit.

12 Sleep, comfort, nurturing and companionship will sustain and lengthen your life.

13 Chasing money or trying to control others will sap your strength and not bring you the happiness or power you envisioned it would.

14 Happy memories are the basis of a good old age.

15 Creating something with your hands is one of the most satisfying things you can do.

Please enjoy inspirational photography by Amanda Manfredi at her blog www.amandamanfredi.com

The Story of Sweet-P

The Story of Sweet-P

Since the only two pictures I have posted on this blog so far are of me and my kitten I thought I should tell you the story of how this cat came into my life.
I am fond of the idea that the Universe brings into my life what I need either to make me happy or to learn a lesson. Thus, this is the story of how this tiny kitten came into my life.
While my daughters were growing up we had many cats, several of which were memorable parts of our lives. One cat in particular, was named Saffron. She lived to be twenty-two years old and was referred to as my ancient pussy…cat. She had many adventures and was allowed to roam freely outside. Saffron will remain always the animal I loved the most.
In recent years, I have resisted the temptation to get involved with another animal because of the expense and the inability to then just walk out of my house, responsibility free, when the opportunity presented itself.
About three months ago I awoke, showered and dressed in my usual fashion and went into the kitchen to make breakfast. My kitchen window is very large and near my front door, in the nook where I eat the majority of my meals. As I sat munching my cereal and watching the news on television I kept hearing something cry. So I did a little detective work only to find a tiny kitten hovering in the shade of my portico where there is a bench next to my front door. Of course I opened the door and in came kitty! I checked her for a collar or any marks of identification, but there were none. So now the kitten is purring and who is not a sucker for that sweet sound. She was well kempt and did not look like a cat born in the wild. I spread out some newspaper in the guest bathroom and placed her in there until I could think of the next thing to do.
With so many houses in Arizona in foreclosure or just plain being abandoned, it did not surprise me that someone with a new litter of kittens had just let them out of their car in a good neighborhood hoping some softhearted person like me would adopt one of them. Nevertheless, I walked down to the community mailbox and posted a sign: FOUND: STRIPPED KITTEN, with my phone number. Then I went to the pet shop and bought a litter box, litter and some cat food…a thirty dollar investment.
After a day of keeping the food and litter box in the bathroom I observed that the proper amounts were being ingested and deposited from both directions, then I called my sister and she came over. My sister used to raise white Persian cats and show them. She investigated the kitty and said it was a boy. Well, any man that comes into my life must adore me and be a great lover, so we named him Romeo! I gave him the run of the house. About four days later I got a call from a man who had seen my note on the mailbox. He claimed he lived in my development, but would not give me his name or address. He said the kitten had gotten out by mistake. I replied that I did not believe that and unless there was some child crying for its kitten, that I planned on keeping it. We had bonded and beside, possession is 9/10ths of the law! I think he was the one with the litter of kittens and he was looking for some money for them. I assured him that this might be the luckiest cat in Arizona, if not the world. I take very good care of the things and people I come to love.
Soon after that I remembered that my daughter and her nine months son were shortly coming to visit so I made an appointment with the nice, clean Veterinarian whose office I often pass in the shopping center closest to my house. I found a cardboard box with handles and bundled the kitten inside for her first visit. There I found out Romeo was really Juliet and she got her first set of shots and had her ears cleaned and claws clipped. Since that time she has been back to the Vet three times and now she has been spayed, declawed and has gotten all her shots.
Interestingly a kitten of some three months and my new grandchild of nine months are at about the same developmental stage and they got along famously. I think the common factor was that they were both so low to the ground. I have some great pictures of the two of them engaged in serious play!
On the home front, I have given the kitten a more appropriate name. Juliet would be far too sedate for this cat, as she runs through my house several times a day like a banshee, or what I refer to as the "kitten crazy time". I must confess she is a great lover and follows me from room to room as I do my work or relax. I renamed her Sweet-P, short for sweet pussycat. She has turned my life somewhat upside down, as I may be too old for the crazy antics of a kitten. But we have bonded and share kitten kisses as well as a portion of any meal I am eating that she must have a taste of. One morning she went insane for cantaloupe and one evening she stole an entire asparagus spear right off my plate, so we are still experimenting with new tastes, none of which seem to be kitten recommended.
To date, Sweet-P is valued at about on hundred dollars an inch and she is still growing….This is definitely love!

New Movies: “Elegy”

On Bill Maher’s weekly program he has a segment entitled “New Rules”. It is one of my favorite segments and always makes me think. Since I am a movie buff, I will often include a segment titled “new movies” which will be a combination of movie review, plot line and my personal interpretation.
Last weekend I saw “Elegy” which stars Ben Kingsley. The story was adapted to screen from a novella by Phillip Roth, titled, “Dying Animal.” The subject matter is about a man coming to terms with his age and his life. While Ben Kingsley is a very good actor, I have a little trouble with him as the romantic lead. Actually he plays a character over sixty and I think he is truly that age at least, but his austere physical appearance coupled with the fact that his character is insensitive and totally lacking any self-knowledge is almost too abrasive. There are numerous scenes of him in bed and I don’t find a skinny, gray, overly hairy man very appealing. I like my men with some girth and eyes that twinkle …those bare bones hurt.
His character is a professor, a critic, and a renowned arbiter of good taste. He sees himself as others see him…formidable, respected, and impervious. Having, early on in his life and career, left a marriage and a son that he found too confining, he now seduces a new student, after final exams, every year. This how we are introduced to Consuela, played by Penelope Cruz, she is his newest student and soon to be his conquest. She is older, twenty seven or thirty, she is more reticent, he has to work harder, and this is always more fascinating. In the process of the seduction he falls in love with her but cannot believe that she really cares for him. He even follows her out on a date with a younger man and watches from the sidelines. Yet he invests as little as possible in actually loving her. I think he is incapable of any real love which is revealed as the movie continues.
After seeing each other for several intimate months, which include his hobby of photographing her, she begs him to come and meet her parents at the graduation party they are having for her. He promises he will be at the party, but cannot allow himself to be possibly judged by her parents because of the age difference and his own insecurities…his ego, so he calls with some manufactured and thin excuse about car trouble, during the party and disappoints her. She tells him she never wants to see him again.
His friend, played by Dennis Hopper is like the Greek chorus, spouting the truth and he exudes more warmth and has a twinkle in his eye that we never see in Ben Kingsley. His memorable quote is “we never see pretty women because they are invisible”…meaning to my interpretation, that men never go beyond a pretty woman’s looks because that is enough to satisfy them. There is also his grown son who often reminds our main character David, that he was never there for him while he was growing up and is still unavailable for any father and son bonding.
Toward the end of the movie, Cruz’s character calls him at midnight after two years of silence, comes over and confesses that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and wants him to take some nude pictures of her before she possibly loses her breast. He does. She also confesses that she loves him and asks if he could love her with only one breast. He does not answer….that is the place I wanted to kill him and wished it was he who had the cancer instead.

It ends, of course with Kingsley trying hard to become a real human being, but for me it is too late. This movie is a good definition of the word elegy, which is defined as a work of art that is a sad, lament.
A better, more subtle movie with a similar theme is the one written and acted in by Steve Martin called “The Shopgirl”.

Summer Olympics 2008

Before the experience of the Olympics is lost forever in my memory and history, I want to say a few words. I always look forward to the Olympics, especially the summer ones, though figure skating is by far my favorite event and that keeps me happy in-between. Nevertheless, there are a greater number of interesting events in the summer games.
For the past two Olympics it was the gymnasts that held my attention and even after Nadia, the drama of the Romanians was very real. I remember eight years ago during the games, we were taken, via television to almost prehistoric Romania and a tiny, primitive church where babushka grandmothers were seen praying for their gymnasts. I was moved to tears…not so much by the thought of winning the gold as by the primitiveness of these women so removed from the modern world. Their lives looked austere, unchanged in the villages of Romania. Fortunately, they did win the gold, perhaps all those candlelit, church prayers did the trick; certainly combined, I think, with the impetus of these young women who saw the chance not to go back to that same world we glimpsed at in Romania.
This year the whole idea of the Olympics looked different to me. Of course as the world grows smaller and countries like China challenge the world with their new found economy the games are more political. I still want to believe that the athletes are naïve and free of politics, challenging only the perfection of their bodies in their chosen skill. But if truth be told, how can countries snatching three and four year olds away from their families to be trained by experts possibly compare with a family that gives up so much personally for their child’s training in a given sport and a chance to fulfill a dream? Even though our country offers endorsements, it is different than the fear of failure I saw on the faces of the Chinese athletes.
I was very disappointed in the runners. More interested in outrunning their teammates than disciplining themselves to pass off the baton correctly in the relay races…where were their coaches!
This year it was the swimming that held my attention. Not so much for the gold medals themselves, but for the individual stories. The oldest woman swimmer, the last swimmer to win the race in the relays…it was so exciting! Of course I was caught up with Michael Phelps, but more because of his story and his mother. She was a single mother with no male figure for her son so she went out and found him a mentor. Interestingly enough, people only have to succeed at one thing to achieve self-esteem. For Michael Phelps, it was swimming and that led him to believe in himself, fine hone his skills and achieve greatness. He did the work, he won the prize. What a thrill for his mother to see and a good portion of that achievement is due to her diligence in finding support for him.
What a story, as important for the mother as for the child. With so many women raising children on their own, I hope they too will take the measures needed to bring the proper role models into their children’s lives and also observe their children closely to find where they might excel and in so doing find self esteem.
Lesson: Once you are good at one thing you are more likely to take the next risk and life is about risking!

Meet Marla

It is hard to know where to begin a story so let me start with right now. If you were someone who knew me you would say I am the most unlikely person to begin her own blog, mainly because I don't really like computers. You would also say I was one of the most interesting and opinionated people you know, who loves to write and talk. With the help of a very creative young woman, named Amanda, who has recently come into my life, I am slowly overcoming the first hurdle. If you like provocative commentary, stay tuned as my subject matter will review my history, include original quotes and poetry, pictures of my work which is art, my cat, nature, and the things that fascinate me will all be posted and explored on this site.
I am of an age and experience to border on wisdom. "Wisdom comes a beat before senility…so pay attention." This is a personal quote to which I add to this next one, "If you live long enough, you will spend more time being old than young." I am just about at that stage, preparing for what is considered old in the society we live in, therefore, I am taking careful notice of my life, past, present and future and I will comment on each phase of it, but not necessarily in sequence. You may even have to overlook some grammar or misspelling, but I will do my best to be perfect and keep my spell check turned on. I will however reward you with the promise that I will not be boring! Please stay tuned and I will speak of jewelry, (which I design and create as my work) love, nature and the experiences that make my life interesting.