Remember 1984? You know, that novel we mean old English teachers made you read (or pretend to have read)? Well, it's been on my mind quite a bit lately--especially the issue of doublethink, which, for those who have forgotten, is "the power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accept both of them." Now, 1984 is a very political novel, and I'm recoiling from the smell of anything remotely political these days--so don't worry, that's not where this is going. No, I'm just fascinated with the degree to which we have all mastered the skill of doublethink.
Here's an example: I am very happy to have several home grown tomatoes in my kitchen right now. I generally don't buy tomatoes at the store--the ones produced by large-scale growers are barely recognizable as tomatoes, to me. However, I also think that all the labor it took to create tomatoes in my garden is bordering on crazy. Hauling water to the greenhouse everday, weeding those suckers, spreading the manure, looking at all those bugs and worms (cause I won't touch em), the electric fence (ok, I did't put it up so I can't complain)...yet we'll probably do it again next year, even though our tomatoes are invariably substandard, and my father in law grows much better and more plentiful ones. That's doublethink.
A more visceral example of doublethink, for me, has to do with Ginny going to school. I'm so excited already by the many things that she's learning, and I know kindergarten is going to be fun for her. And yet the little backpacks and the shelves of notesbooks and pens that are already on display in Walmart are making me want to puke. Moms I know tell me that it doesn't get better, so I guess I'd just better learn to deal with it. Advice on this from some fellow doublethinkers? I'm getting jittery, and there are only 2 months left....
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Adventures of Brother and Sister Mouse
So Ginny recently entered the PBS Kids Writers' Contest. She didn't win (boo! hiss!), but she had a good time writing and illustrating her story, and I thought it deserved to be read by a wider audience. So here it is! Enjoy!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Night Terror Lives Again
Our future punk band, Night Terror, is fronted by LilMamma, and is ably backed by DaddyO, SisterG, and BrotherD. Actually the front(wo)man changes nightly. These are some of our newest tracks:
1. Get your finger out of your nose (14:21)
2. Can't touch this (see, I told you) (:17)
3. It's hot, it's hot (12:07)
4. Don't have to wear shoes (:43)
5. The stick is stuck in my foot (7:07)
6. Lightening McQueen is lost (1:14)
7. No he's in my pants (:57)
8. Gimme (2:23)
9. She stole the scissors (:14)
10. Blood on the carpet! (2:21)
11. I told you so (9:54)
The band in action:
1. Get your finger out of your nose (14:21)
2. Can't touch this (see, I told you) (:17)
3. It's hot, it's hot (12:07)
4. Don't have to wear shoes (:43)
5. The stick is stuck in my foot (7:07)
6. Lightening McQueen is lost (1:14)
7. No he's in my pants (:57)
8. Gimme (2:23)
9. She stole the scissors (:14)
10. Blood on the carpet! (2:21)
11. I told you so (9:54)
The band in action:
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Queen City Dancing Queen
So I realized a few weeks ago that a steady diet of Cheese Puffs was not going to take my body in a direction I’d like it to go. (As Margaret Cho once explained, I’m one of these people who can eat whatever I want—I’ll just get really fat.) I decided, therefore, to try an exercise group, as I can’t be trusted to exercise on my own, having neither willpower, stamina, nor actual athletic ability. I’d seen an ad in a local paper about this exercise group, the Queen City Dancing Queens (QCDQ for short), and thought I’d give it a shot.
I didn’t know what to expect—based on the picture of the owner featured in the paper, I was kind of thinking that the class would be full of smoking hot, very coordinated women. As I learned at my first week, when I slinked through the door and took up my position at the very very back of the class, the QCDQ were indeed smoking hot coordinated women, although the peak years of their smoking hotness ranged from 1965 to the present. Probably half of the women are older than me, and half are my age or a little (or, ok a lot) younger.
But whatever their age, these are mostly women with a fair amount of life experience and--I’m going out on a limb here, but I think I’m right—childbearing experience under their spanx. None of us would have passed Stacy and Ken’s What Not To Wear test, as most of us had on outfits that maximized every bulge. A lot of us had on pants with tassels on the bum, and pockets on the thighs. But that was totally ok. As I learned very quickly, these women were not here to judge each other—maybe it has to do with selection bias, but the Mean Girls don’t hold sway here. These ladies eat the Mean Girls for lunch, and wipe their hands on their tasseled Zumba pants.
After my initial reaction of dismay when Ester Dean’s “Drop it Low, Girl” blared out over the speaker, I realized that—hey—my girls can DANCE! And those of us who were new were waaay too busy trying to keep up to have any energy left for being snarky. It’s all about shakin’ what your Mama gave you—which is something new for me. Most of those ladies were probably taught, as I was, that our bodies don’t matter—that in fact bodies are corrupt, impermanent time bombs. They exist as the vehicle for the spirit; the body is to the spirit like Fred Flinstone’s car is to his feet, or a bowling bag is to the ball. Maybe that’s true, or maybe it’s not. But I know that what I saw at the QCDQ Dance Out was a group of women who might not be seen on the street as beautiful, but in this context were inspirational. A whole rec center full of Upper Paleolithic Aphrodites, as it were.
So now I have a new goal: I want the tasseled pants. And the chops—and panache—to wear them.
Check it out (scroll down for the video)
http://www.queencitydancingqueen.com/
I didn’t know what to expect—based on the picture of the owner featured in the paper, I was kind of thinking that the class would be full of smoking hot, very coordinated women. As I learned at my first week, when I slinked through the door and took up my position at the very very back of the class, the QCDQ were indeed smoking hot coordinated women, although the peak years of their smoking hotness ranged from 1965 to the present. Probably half of the women are older than me, and half are my age or a little (or, ok a lot) younger.
But whatever their age, these are mostly women with a fair amount of life experience and--I’m going out on a limb here, but I think I’m right—childbearing experience under their spanx. None of us would have passed Stacy and Ken’s What Not To Wear test, as most of us had on outfits that maximized every bulge. A lot of us had on pants with tassels on the bum, and pockets on the thighs. But that was totally ok. As I learned very quickly, these women were not here to judge each other—maybe it has to do with selection bias, but the Mean Girls don’t hold sway here. These ladies eat the Mean Girls for lunch, and wipe their hands on their tasseled Zumba pants.
After my initial reaction of dismay when Ester Dean’s “Drop it Low, Girl” blared out over the speaker, I realized that—hey—my girls can DANCE! And those of us who were new were waaay too busy trying to keep up to have any energy left for being snarky. It’s all about shakin’ what your Mama gave you—which is something new for me. Most of those ladies were probably taught, as I was, that our bodies don’t matter—that in fact bodies are corrupt, impermanent time bombs. They exist as the vehicle for the spirit; the body is to the spirit like Fred Flinstone’s car is to his feet, or a bowling bag is to the ball. Maybe that’s true, or maybe it’s not. But I know that what I saw at the QCDQ Dance Out was a group of women who might not be seen on the street as beautiful, but in this context were inspirational. A whole rec center full of Upper Paleolithic Aphrodites, as it were.
So now I have a new goal: I want the tasseled pants. And the chops—and panache—to wear them.
Check it out (scroll down for the video)
http://www.queencitydancingqueen.com/
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