How 'bout we take a little break from all the smarmy stuff and get down to business, boyhowdy?.....

My friend Lilly asked a very interesting question on another board I happen to "own," regarding the subject of feeling sorry for a particular lady whose husband has been caught cheating, contributing to the baby bastard population (which probably sets him apart from Tiger Woods)and then lying about it, right smack-gob in front of America....Do I feel sorry for that wife? You bet. But not only because of what her cheating husband has been getting himself up to, but because she got mixed up with him in the first place. I wonder how long it took for her to figure out that he was not all he cracked himself up to be. This possibly isn't the first time she's had to deal with this matter, but chances are, it will be the last. Really, it's hard to know how sick she must feel, considering what she's already forced to endure in managing her life and the journey before her. Good grief. She's kept her dignity and dealt with it gracefully, and she should be admired. And what should become of her cheating husband? I'm going to be just a tad bit more than mildly interested to see him get what's coming to him. And, FWIW, I'd feel the same way if it was somebody's wife doing that to her husband. I believe in the sanctity of a committed relationship, whether it be within or without the so-called confines of marriage. Just in case anybody's wondering....

Cheaters never win. Pretty boys never quite seem to age well, ya know?

Shawn
****

photo courtesy of redhotbulldogs.com

For the love of gods....

The tale of Cupid and Psyche has been retold many times over. As a student, I loved Greek mythology and pretty much devoured any literature that fell into my hands about the gods and their dealings with mankind. "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis is a favorite of mine, and it gives the story of Psyche from her older, less attractive sister's point of view.

It's funny how I actually started out thinking about that book and did some research, delving into the meaning of C.S. Lewis' tale and all about that. Which, of course, led me to looking into more about Psyche and Cupid. Before I knew it, I was thinking about the upcoming Valentine's Day....

SGTex has said we should "do something romantic." Well, that shouldn't be too difficult, since romance comes easy for us. I'm one of those few,lucky women who just happened to land a man who doesn't mind being romantic--in fact, it comes naturally for him, thank the gods.... ;+) I don't mind confessing to being utterly and completely spoiled that way. It's been nearly five years since the first of many, many dozen red roses...Lately it's been mistletoe, the Buddhist embracing his Pagan, hmmmm....

Anyway, it's very late and we're here together in the office doing our thing, back to back. Before too long we'll turn out the light and spend what's left of this night doing our thing, side by side... He just asked me if there's any reason we shouldn't sleep in for awhile, come morning. I told him I couldn't think of any reason why not, so he jumps up, comes over and kisses me....

G'nite.

Shawn
****

picture: Cupid & Psyche, Canova 1796 The Louvre Museum, Paris

On Haiti....

I was searching for a picture to go with some thoughts here about Haiti, and couldn't find anything that actually showed what I felt I had to say. Was it Anderson Cooper the other night who said something about the camera lens being too small? I think maybe it was. I thought this was a beautiful work of art and wanted to share it here.

Anyway, we've been watching CNN and like everyone else, we're greatly moved and saddened by the misery and devastation. We truly wish we had the resources of time and energy and finances to give, and offer our prayers for those dear people with such a great need. Those who survive have much to endure. Their lives have been forever changed....


Shawn
****
Picture courtesy of: The Haiti Art Cooperative, a network of non-profit projects with programs in Haiti serving Haiti's poor, including persons deported, streetchildren, orphans, students, persons in need of medical care and families.

I didn't know we had Stellar's jays in Texas.....

We went out to lunch today and on our way home I spotted a pair of Stellar's jays in a nearby tree. I hadn't seen any of those since living in the Pacific Northwest, and admit I was really surprised and impressed by their high-color beauty. I had to come home and google to see if it was even possible they'd come here, but sure enough, some had been recently sighted in San Antonio. Well, I don't know why I'm going on about birds, except that they were awfully pretty and it was fun to see them.

Right now I'm waiting on the really neat plant stand SGTex has painted for the top of my etagere here in the office. It looks rather oriental and exotic, so I'm very impressed! We found it back in September at an antique shop when we were on vacation. Speaking of painting, he picked up a couple of books on furniture painting at the library today. It's about time I got re-inspired. That's something I really love to do. In fact, there are times when I could be persuaded to do just about nothing *but* that sort of thing...Maybe that's what SGTex had in mind....

The Christmas outdoor lights came down this evening and we finally took the wreath off the door. I was reluctant about that- it was so cute and festive out there. This house is just made for cozy holidays. Don't ask if we've taken down the tree yet....I said, don't ask....Maybe if we're lucky we'll get another snowfall before spring. I really was happy to see a white Christmas, all romantic and pretty.

I guess that's about it for now...Guess I'll go put some potatoes on to cook. He's got the steaks smothered in garlic, and has plans for some lovely fried green tomatoes.

Is your mouth watering? ;+P

Shawn
****

photo courtesy of: http://www.birdfinders.co.uk/images/stellers-jay-helen-california-2007

A wonderful find...

We appreciate crystals as repositories of order. Experiments in origin-of-life chemistry have shown that an inaugural phase of evolution likely entailed the arraying of amino acids on the lattice of crystal faces. Molecular players fit just so along such scaffolding, establishing the sequences and rudimentary code for ongoing increase of order = beauty = gain and goodness...

No wonder folks imagine (or maybe they simply discern) that crystals influence/direct an "energy" (chi) to mystic efficacious effect. Such is our intuition on handling a nice, heavy mineral crystal from the Earth. It's like the wonderful law, profound and fundamental.

Shawn was looking for something Texas for her Facebook avatar and recalled that blue topaz is the state gemstone, whereupon she found this picture. It's just like her to creatively discover striking and meaningful images for this blog, but she really blew me away this time, for...

This is the very specimen my uncle Dick romanced from the granite and sand on a lease out on the Seaquist Ranch near Mason, back in 1969. I'll never forget the way he tumbled the humongous thing out onto a cup towel on my parents' dining table, along with a couple of other large chunks to make a rockhound/treasure hunter's eyes bug out. A spectacular find, and famous.

It's just like my Shawn to acquire for us this significance, considering our plan/dream of topaz hunting one of these days. Goes to show you, she will divine us a fabulous cache, pointing a magick finger where I'm to dig. Thus it is I who have found a gem extraordinaire.

SGTex
****
Photo from utexas.edu