“To the Keep” and “What Time Is It?...Showtime!!”

“To the Keep” — Wednesday morning, and we hit the ground running!
We met my childhood friend, Deb, without a hitch pretty much in Heathrow airport. She graciously took our luggage and sent us off to the big city. We headed there via train, got the Original Tour Hop on/Hop Off bus to see some sights and get our bearings ‘round the city (kind of), and stopped at the Tower. As in The Tower of London. Made our way to see the fortress it is, the “keep” that is the White Tower, and the crown jewel of all—the Crown Jewels. Those are some gems! It was a gorgeous day, enjoyed lunch there, too, then traveled more on the tour bus. But by afternoon, jet lag was catching us, and we headed out SE of city to Esher, where we’d be staying with our friends.
What a lovely little town, and our hosts have a lovely, really beautiful, home! With a whole third floor for our use. Kids were asleep before 8 p.m.! And we weren’t far behind. Early London impressions: Clark—a lot of young(ish) people in city and the men dress well (for work, we think). Eli—it’s peaceful (we all kind of agreed, less loud, busy, and hectic than NYC, for example). All of us—everyone is super nice/helpful.

Thursday morning we awoke well-rested and ready for new day - first up, British Museum. WOW! It’s impressive! Art, fine art, history, science, natural history, politics, all in one really!! The Rosetta Stone, two-headed serpent, Easter Island statue, cuneiform fragment from Ur, Parthenon and Halicarnassus pieces....splendid artifacts. And the building/setting itself! We were bowled over. Loved it!! Then, we took a cab to the Westend for what we knew would be a highlight of this adventure for us. Our taxi driver, John, was super—fun, informative, sharing info about sights on the way—really cool. And got us to....
“What Time Is It?...Showtime!” —Indeed!! “Hamilton” at Victoria Palace Theater. It was sensational!! Best musical I’ve ever seen. Truly! And King George—the guy who played him—seeing him/his interpretation of the role was worth the ticket price. It was such a treat for us as a family! And on July 4th. Pretty ironic. Too wonderful really!!
Then, huge bonus: we were outside, figuring out what was next, and ended up in a line of people without knowing/realizing we were in such a line. It was where the cast came out to greet audience members, shake hands, take pics, sign programs!! OMDL! So, Clark got photo of kids with “Hamilton” himself 😀!! Wild and fun.

As if all that wasn’t enough, then we went to the Thames, and we enjoyed an early evening river cruise. Lovely way to see city, especially bridges, particularly Tower Bridge. And finished with dinner at an English Pub—Hung Drawn and Quartered. Great name and traditional pub atmosphere. With good ale and pretty decent food!

That’s some way to do Day 2, if you ask us!! Headed South to Brighton (the Coast) tomorrow for a couple days. ~

Planes, Trains, Automobiles...

Day 1: Travel Tuesday! And in our case, planes, trains, automobiles, and buses! Eli said only thing missing was a boat!! After full day driving, being driven, shuttling, and waiting, we were in-flight for 6+ hours that went quite smoothly. In the midst, we caught the USA va  England in women’s World Cup—yay! U.S.A. won! —and the kids were troopers!
Eli took cool plane photos:

 Coming into Heathrow

 Sunrise in the sky

Wednesday morning our London adventures begin!!
~ Donna

A Return - Chronicles of Our July Adventure

Hi, Friends and Family!

I have not written for 5 years. Can't believe it's been that long. I think this blogging thing just has not turned-out to be for me so much. But, as many of you know, we are about to embark on an adventure of the grandest design...our family is traveling to the U.K. and Europe for a month! Clark is calling it the trip of a lifetime and a real odyssey, like nothing we've ever done.

I thought I might try my hand at a post a day (maybe?!) - we'll see if I am able to do so - to chronicle our adventures. If you're inclined to see what we're up to, what we see and enjoy, have a look.

Hope your July is as FUN as ours surely will prove to be! We head-out Tuesday (7/2). First stop, London. So, here's to strawberries and cream, tea and biscuits, the crown jewels, and perhaps cooler weather than here. Time to pack now, and be prepared for last Sunday before we leave, so that's it for now.

Au revoir, Auf wiedersehen, and Cheerio ~
Donna

Domestic Violence Awareness Month - Our Absurd World

Does it strike anyone else that we've most certainly breached the absurd here in our world?
I mean, ESPN has suspended Simmons because he called NFL Commissioner, Goodell, a liar.  He dared them to do it, so they kind of had to, admittedly, but certainly he's most likely not wrong.  And Goodell is on the hot-seat for how he's handled, or mishandled, as the case may be, the "Ray Rice incident" and by extension, the issue of domestic violence more generally, in the NFL. Good grief.  It makes my stomach turn just to refer to "it" that way - the incident, "the issue of..." ....it's about power and violence. It's about our legal system and its laws and how it protects men first, over/against women and children.  Period.  And no one is talking about that.  No one.

Yes, some are talking about systemic problems.  Or want to.  Some want the league and the nation and communities and coaches and players to talk about power and systems and agencies and services to talk about gender and roles and jokes and what zero tolerance means.  Kudos to Hannah Storm.  And Keith Olbermann.  And Bill Simmons.  But where is the conversation about how the law does not protect women and children.  Where is the conversation about an assault that was recorded on video, resulting in an arrest and a charge, ended in a plea of  not guilty and no conviction.  How do our laws result in that?  And how does that happen even with an uncooperative victim?  Even if the victim does not want to press charges (and there are all kinds of reasons why she might not want to, and I do not begrudge her that or blame her or question her - she has rights and reasons for how her life moves forward that are hers to choose - I wish for her the strength and respect and space she deserves, and I wish for her every access to support that victims of domestic violence ought have.), THERE IS A VIDEO TAPE OF THE ASSAULT!  That should be enough for a District Attorney to press charges and find the assaulting party guilty of something more than anger management or behavioral correction classes.  Mr. Rice, himself, admits remorse for his actions, though he pleads not guilty - how absurd!

And that brings us to the NFL and the continued absurdity.  After it happened, the coach of the Ravens says you have to look to Ray Rice's character...what?! He hit her and knocked her unconscious.  If he has "good" character, he admits what he has done and takes responsibility for his actions.  And the Commissioner and the league...the only reason they backpedaled this summer is because of the outcry after TMZ released the actual recording of the hit.  Good grief.  Again.  You have to see the video of the actual assault.  You can't just know it occurred.  And the fans, too, for that matter.  They were okay until they saw the actual assault.  The video makes the difference.  Not the transcript and reports of the assault.  What's the message here - pictures make the difference. They do say, "a picture's  worth a thousand words." All of this returns to the point - our legal system and laws do not protect women and children.  They are written and enforced to protect men.  And until we as a society acknowledge this truth, domestic violence will continue to occur at the rates it does, to the extent it does, as viciously as it does, and women and children, in particular will suffer.

I could end by saying - "and so the absurdity abounds" and that's the end of it.  And while I don't exactly feel so optimistic about the situation - I mean, the NFL is a billion-dollar industry-run by white men and so is the broadcasting industry (both rather disheartening truths with a capital T, really!!) and it's ultimately about the bottomline, right?!, I'm the parent of three children, and I can't accept that we just accept such absurdity.  I can't accept that we abandon the safety and livelihood and esteem of my sisters and our children in this world.  I can't accept that we abandon victims of domestic violence to those exercising power over them just because they think they can and think they can get away with it.  We have to work harder.  We have to be serious about changing our laws to protect everyone more and better.  We have to. I hope that those who have called out all the perpetrators and Commissioner Goodell and the NFL as a whole, includes addressing our politicians, too, in an effort to work to change our laws.  That's the only way we really start to change our culture that so allows the absurd world in which we're living where domestic violence just goes on and on and on, and people suffer so horribly.  If it's not the world we want, together we have to do something about it.

U.S. T.V. "News" - A Study in Entertainment

Last Monday morning (a week ago), I happened to do something I almost never do...I turned on the T.V. after the kids had left for school and before I had to get myself ready for work.  I was just flipping around, but I thought I'd try to find some coverage on the situation in Kenya (terrorist attack by extremist group at an upscale mall that had started on Sat.) and at least some report on the church in Pakistan that had been bombed on Sunday.  I spent 20 minutes changing channels from the major networks and cable news outlets - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, MSNBC - and in that time not one of them covered either story.  Shoot, forget covering it, none of them even mentioned them!  In that 20 minutes, the ONLY news story discussed on any of them (and it was on just one) was the terrible flooding in Colorado.  The "news" in the time I was watching...

·       Oprah’s admission of a near nervous breakdown

·       Cher was coming up on the show in just under an hour

·       Baby pictures of the staff on the Today Show displayed on the screen for us - the audience to view

·       A recap of the Emmy Awards coverage and how funny bits of it was

·       How hackers only needed two days to figure out how to hack the new iPhone 5c

Where has all the good news gone?  The real news??  What do these supposed journalists really think of what they're being asked to broadcast?  Maybe they like it...I don't know.  I can't imagine that a highly educated journalist, one who spent years learning how to hone their interviewing skills, how to get the scoop, what dealing with difficult personalities and persons with power would be like, can like the fact that they've been reduced to mere purveyors of entertainment, fluff-piece, sound-bite nuggets that don't connect with the reality of world events that are occurring everyday around the globe, and yes, right here in our communities, too.  For example, I'm astounded that as a nation in the time President Obama has been in office 5, count 'em, 5!!, mass shootings have occurred in our country, and yet, our news outlets can't be bothered to discuss issues connected to such even for a few days let alone months afterward.  We wouldn't want our news outlets to lend credence to the idea that gun control and the lack thereof might be a problem, I guess.  But I don't mean to bring a controversial topic into this blog bit ...I just use it as an example of how far from real news we have gotten.  Instead, what we see are stories that seem so trivial and superficial, while real newsworthy events are actually happening in various parts of the world, but they aren't on our radar.  The owners and producers of our news outlets - the ones who control programming - do not see it in their interest (that is, good for the bottom line!) to air these admittedly gritty, difficult, and all too real stories. 

I do wonder how others must view us as a nation, when they go to watch our "morning news" shows.  What message does that send?  I can tell you, I won't be watching, just flippin' around before getting ready for work, again anytime soon.

I close with two things...years ago, Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country (based on a survey of the American people). Certainly don't hear that about any of the current news women or men these days - and why would we?  They're seemingly entertainment figures more than anything else, peddling puff and cream far more than real news of consequence and substance for the world.  It's embarrassing.  Finally, it's pretty telling when a household's main source of T.V. news is "The Daily Show" right?! 

That's what I'm thinkin' about today, this week later, as life spins around the schoolyard...hope to be back, really back to blog more regularly.  No promises. (Tried holding myself to that as being resolved....hasn't worked, but I'm not giving up.  Come back soon - hopefully I will have written again.)

'Til then...May your days be filled with laughter for it buoys the soul - and who doesn't need that!

The Problem with Angelina Jolie's Op-Ed

Okay, so before you start throwing your daggers, the truth is there is nothing wrong with Angelina Jolie's op-ed piece or her news.  I only entitled this piece the way I did in the hope that it might prompt some readership.  Shameless, yes, but perhaps effective.  And if not, well, oh well.  I tried.  Why am I okay with being shameless in this way? Because I think this issue is THIS important.  What exactly am I talking about?  Well, I'll get there.  Give me a second.  I need to say a few things first...

First, there is actually no problem with Ms. Jolie's op-ed at all.  In and of itself, that is.  First, Ms. Jolie's 

op-ed is lovely.  She's a decent writer.  Direct and to-the-point.  And as to its content - well, she's brave, courageous, and poignant even.  She chose to share something personal and intimate that frankly, is her own private family news.  And she chose to share it with the world because she thinks it can make a difference for many, many, many, perhaps tens of thousands of people - women and men - together, and that should be applauded.  So, hats off to Ms. Jolie.  She recognizes that breast and ovarian cancers are insidious, and they affect thousands upon thousands of folks, and they affect many, many through genetics, and there are tests that can be done and then preventive treatments/surgeries that are options if people would like/choose that lessen chances...all of those things are made known through the op-ed she wrote about her own decisions and story.  So, again, hats off to her.  If she touched one person, if she informed one person, then her op-ed has done good.  And doing good is what we all ought to shoot for in this life.

But here's the thing...what her piece also reveals is the "elephant in the room" (if you will) about healthcare in our great nation...that it is an issue of entitlement based on economy and "having versus not having"....the stark reality about healthcare that our political leaders, all of Congress and the administration, simply do not want to acknowledge and talk about, that they skirted over and over and over again as the healthcare reform was passed, that pharmaceutical companies and insurance corporations and lobbies deny and ignore repeatedly and follow as "modus operandi" because it cuts against the "bottom line" (profits profits profits!!!).  Now, I'm not trying to get into a political debate, and I know emotions run high regarding this matter generally, so to stick to the subject specifically, Ms. Jolie said that the tests to show if someone has the gene that will likely lead to breast cancer costs $3000.  And insurance does NOT cover it.  Now, Ms. Jolie has the luxury of spending that $3000.  I'm pretty sure she wouldn't deny that.  In fact she doesn't deny it in the piece.  And she says that she hopes in the future more and more folks will have the opportunity to have the tests.  But what do you think the odds of that are?  What are the chances that insurance companies are going to allow such charges at 100% coverage?  Really?  And where exactly are middle-class folks, let alone lower-class folks, going to find a spare $3000 for tests just to see if they have the gene?  And that's just to see if they have it?  Forget choosing the surgeries/treatments, which would be "elective" and therefore, also NOT covered.  

And that's the problem I'm pointing out...we've become a nation where healthcare is a commodity.  It's not a "right" fundamentally.  And while in a crisis situation, healthcare is dispensed (hospitals can't turn someone away - that is true); the fact remains that in the situation Ms. Jolie describes, only folks in a position of "privilege" (i.e., with money and means) need line up, because for anyone else, what she describes is only a pipe dream.  And surely, as so many want to invoke our founders, that is not what they envisioned, is it?  I mean, really?  Is it?  If I'm honest, I can't really say (none of us truly knows what Mr. Washington or Mr. Adams or any of them would do or say or think!).  But I do wonder.  Did Mr. Jefferson really mean when he wrote that people had the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that only those with means should be able to trust reasonable access to healthcare? I don't think so, but maybe I am wrong.  

Okay, so perhaps my thoughts today are my form of a blog rant.  I don't know.  It's just what I was thinking after I read Ms. Jolie's op-ed the other day.  I do applaud her.  I'm impressed with her choices.  I'm impressed that she'd share it with the world.  I'm impressed with her writing prowess.  She's a public figure who young women and girls especially can look up to, I think.  Not knowing her personally it's hard to say for certain, but at least these things suggest a positive image, so kudos, Ms. Jolie.  But at the same time, her op-ed exposes quite plainly the travesty of healthcare as a nationwide issue and how our nation's leaders have not done enough, have allowed the insurance industry (and it is an industry!!) to rule the day, to hijack healthcare based on the bottom line and profits and lining the pockets of CEO's, rather than being guided by medical innovation, science, and health decisions, is well, deplorable and ought to be criminal.  

I'll end with this...recently, my husband and I watched the film, "Lincoln" with Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones. So good. It was fascinating to watch the debates in the House, depicting what surely was close to historical debates.  We were talking later about how the rhetoric was so charged and how courageous some of those men really were.  How hate-filled some of the speech was to our ears, and how then some of that was really what people said and thought and felt.  But how prophetic some of them were, to speak against slavery and to feel so differently from the ideas of the times, especially in the South.  It was interesting.  And both of us were struck, thinking aloud that it sure would be nice if we had some folks it Congress today who were that courageous because lately, it sure seems like we don't.  We need some political leaders who are courageous like some of them.  On healthcare.  On background checks for guns.  On civil liberties.  On a whole bunch of stuff.  Folks who can see the truth and aren't afraid to speak it and act on it.  In this particular case, who won't be afraid to say that insurance companies should not dictate healthcare policy.  Perhaps Ms. Jolie can assert some influence.  I don't know about that.  But perhaps.  Sure would be nice if someone could.

Just Keep Writing, Just Keep Writing...

Okay, so this [title] is going to be my new mantra.  Remember when I started this blog it was
"Wabi Sabi":
nothing's perfect.
nothing lasts.
nothing's finished.

That still applies for sure.  Pretty much every day, even every hour of every day, in my life.  And I'm pretty good with that.  Maybe that comes with middle age...it's actually quite freeing to live with that philosophy of sorts grounding all that goes on in the routine of everyday life.

Anyhow, a year and half later, only a few blog posts for the New Year, after my declared Resolution to write more and more often...I'm going with this now: "Just Keep Writing, Just Keep Writing..."
It's fun to say if you use a "Dory" voice like Ellen did in "Nemo" (that version was "just keep swimming").
Here's what I'm learning more and more...writing is hard.  It's really that simple.  It's hard.  But to get better at it, you have to do it.  Even if what you write initially is total crap.  Even if you have to edit and edit and edit and edit and edit (...you get the idea).  Someone famous said, if you ask me to write something and give me a week, it'll be 4 pages.  Give me another week, it'll be 2.  Another week, 1.  Another week, 2 solid, tightly-constructed paragraphs.  (I really think someone famous said this or something very much like it...if they didn't, someone should because it is soooo true!)  That's the nature of writing.  So if I'm going to try to write.  And write better.  And more.  And then even better.  Etc.  I have to just write.  Right?!  So, this blog ought to be a way to do that.  But what I think I'm coming around to realize is that in addition to writing being hard, just as simple as that is, it's even more so because those who do it, or try it, have to deal with that space between the ears that screams doubts and guffaws and ridicule over and over again.  That's what keeps one from writing.  That it isn't good enough, clever enough, smart enough, witty enough, relevant enough...and on and on.  And when you're stuck in and with all of that, you just stop.  Stop writing.  And then you're back where you started.  Can't make something better if there's nothing to critique...it's a vicious circle of the worst and most pernicious kind.
So, here I go again, acknowledging that writing is hard.  Nothing super revelatory about that.  But also re-committing to the plan to write.  And I'm going to goad myself forward with "just keep writing, just keep writing!"  Hope you'll come along for the ride!

I should say, this is part of what's interesting about this writing thing too...it's not that I haven't had some things to say.  I started a piece back when all the news broke about Lance Armstrong and the Notre Dame football player (Manti Te'o...not even sure I'm spelling that right now) and abandoned it.  Another about some personal news and what it is to have your life's balance knocked askew...Another about gun control (probably better I let that go!!)...why didn't they make it in this little corner of the blogosphere?  I think because I didn't think any of them were good, or fully coherent, or ever, ever finished.  And by the time I'd gone back several times on each, the issues seemed past...maybe that was more of that space between my ears holding me back...

So, I'm resolved to write more.  More and more regularly.  Here's to hoping!  And who knows, maybe I'll take up those lapsed topics just as much as newer ones.  Regardless of what might find its way here, I'm re-resolved.  (Can you be re-resolved?!)  We'll see...

Until next time (hopefully sooner than later), Blessings and Light ~