Having known both friends and relatives under 40 who have or have fought breast cancer:
Idiots, enough said.
Having known both friends and relatives under 40 who have or have fought breast cancer:
The day is wet and cold. I've read through my normal news feeds and really can't find much to write, rave or rant about. And then Maya Angelou pops in my head and I thought of this poem:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wings in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with fearful trill
of the things unknown but longed for still
and is tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.
Meir Cat Question: What will you sing about today / tomorrow? Will the song you sing bemoan what is missing from your life or what there is to celebrate? Everyone has their down moments, but let the song that comes from you not cling to pain or fear but rather praise the moment of what is good. This being the season for Thankfulness, let us carry this spirit throughout our lives everyday.
Sometimes the greater the pain, the more fiercely someone will cling to it. Deepak Chopra on Addiction
I feel the itch. That tingling sensation, the killer anticipation of obtaining my desires, my addiction, my yarn. I’ve been a good girl. Just look at that clock; 85 days of denial. So proud. But it has happened again, another Friday the 13th. A 13th day and a Friday have come again and that means it is here: a sale at A Tangled Skein. Who could blame me for giving in to the pain. I want to say I won’t buy much, I’ll try not to. But the staff; Cheryl, Jennifer, Rivka, they can be so nice, so…convincing. While being fueled with cake, cookies and cider, participants are given a warm sense of camaraderie and appreciation for their participation and presence by the staff at TS. Everyone’s happy. Everyone is browsing the stacks of fiber. And then…and then the staff goes in for the kill; 20% off everything in the store. The more you buy, the bigger the savings. Diabolically evil…evil. But I want it, I need it. My dark passenger driving me to the shop…( no, that’s too much like Dexter)…the need for the smooth and warm fiber driving me closer and closer to Hyattsville. I can still fight it, but I don’t want to… C-U-There…
On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businessesClick to enlarge and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets.
The pretext for this violence was the November 7 assassination of a German diplomat in Paris, Ernst vom Rath, by Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish teenager whose parents, along with 17,000 other Polish Jews, had been recently expelled from the Reich. Though portrayed as spontaneous outbursts of popular outrage, these pogroms were calculated acts of retaliation carried out by the SA, SS, and local Nazi party organizations.
Stormtroopers killed at least 91 Jews and injured many others. For the first time, Jews were arrested on a massive scale Click to enlargeand transported to Nazi concentration camps. About 30,000 Jews were sent to Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen, where hundreds died within weeks of arrival. Release came only after the prisoners arranged to emigrate and agreed to transfer their property to "Aryans."
Kristallnacht culminated the escalating violence against Jews that began during the incorporation of Austria into the Reich in March 1938. It also signaled the fateful transfer of responsibility for "solving" the "Jewish Question" to the SS.