Serenity… refocus – seek joy – thrive

I think by now that just about everyone who might be connected to any electronic device or back-fence communication knows that Osama bin Laden is dead. The news was announced yesterday after first hurtling around the world on Twitter and other social networks, then the media. Too many reports to choose from for my obligatory link, so here is just one from the New York Times: Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says.

I’m trying to figure out what I think of the news. I saw the photo up above on the BBC site when I went there to search for news, and my first thought was — they are all so young. I’m sure there were probably older people there, caught in other photographs, but this one is just filled with people who were, probably, between seven and ten when NY was attacked on September 11, 2001. And unlike some other major events that occur with children being largely unaware of it, the media and trauma around 9/11 was almost inescapable. No matter where in the United States you lived.

So many of these young people probably grew up with the shadows of the Twin Towers and bin Laden looming over them — and they’ve known little else but the “U.S. at War” since. Half their lives, probably. But it’s a far away war, unless they are enlisted in the armed forces.

Their counterparts in Afghanistan, Iraq and, to a slightly lesser extent, Pakistan have also grown up in the shadow of these events. Only the violence of the aftermath of 9/11 surrounds them and permeates their daily lives (and sometimes ends them) in a way that the young people in the photo will likely never know. I don’t think this will change any time soon.

So, I don’t know. I don’t rejoice in anyone’s death, but I guess I am glad there is closure of a sort to … a chapter of 9/11. But the fallout from the actions of those who flew the planes on that September day — and of the wholly unnecessary and unjustified decision to invade Afghanistan to “retaliate”– will likely continue and be felt for a long time to come.

Mostly I guess I wish that things could have been different. But congratulations to President Obama and his team, and those who carried off this operation. Not with bombs dropped from 30,000 feet in the air, but with investigation, preparation, and targeted action. The way things should have been done in the first place.

a Ministry of Silly Hats? If not, I know the perfect person to establish one:

Princess Beatrice in The Hat

Princess Beatrice (who is she, anyway?) appears to be a serial silly hat wearer:

So, I vote for her to establish, and perhaps endow, the Ministry of Silly Hats. Whoever she is (perhaps Fergie’s daughter? She has that look. I can’t be bothered looking her up though) I hope she never loses her penchant for strange headgear.

[photos from here and here]

So, I think I’ve come to an agreement with myself on time. I wake up before the dawn on most mornings, get my coffee, feed the obnoxious cat, and almost immediately start dithering about which to do first while everything is quiet. My stuff, or stuff for work. Well, no more. Dawn, I have decided, is my time.

This is not, of course, a very momentous decision, likely to change the world or anything. But it might change my world a little bit. I have dither issues, and when I can’t decide which of a few things to do, I’m very likely to do something else entirely.

The most competition is for the morning hours because it’s then I can think and plan, with only the noise of the birds for company. For some time I have given these hours to various “jobs”, but that was a mistake, for a few reasons. One, I find it depresses my entire day to begin it by doing something I dislike. My energy is depleted, and my will to do much else as well, especially creative type work. I don’t work on my book, I don’t write for my sites, and I find it a struggle to do something as simple as making a graphic for a project.

So, I’m going to turn it around. The morning, the quiet hours — those are for me. To create, to write, or simply to sit quietly and ponder. I need that time and I have to reject the thought that just because I work out of my home, that it is selfish or dumb to take it. That’s silly. Nine AM or so is time enough to begin on the other work; all the hours before then, whether I wake up at four in the morning or seven, are mine to do with what I will. So there.

Of course I need an end time, too, otherwise not only will I sluff off and do everything else but work, I’ll also wind up attempting to make up that work later in the day. Or, yes, in the early morning. So, why not follow tradition and just do terrible things — or, rather, “the job” between the hours of 9 and 5? Period. Whatever I get done during those hours (and it could be quite a lot, if I’d actually do it) I get done. And after that, I don’t worry about it until the next day. I think that will work.

Sure, you’d think I would have figured this out ages ago, but I seem to often try things the hard way first, sigh.

(The photo at the top is from what looks like an interesting site, Wanderlust and Lipstick. The tagline is “Your Destination for Women’s Travel.” I haven’t really looked though the site yet, as I was just looking for a photograph, but it appears they have all sorts of information on women traveling alone. And stories of women about their travels — the photo I used is from a woman’s account of her time in South Africa.)

I wanted to write about something today. But, as usual when I’ve neglected writing too long, the habit of silence is strong and I can think of nothing to say.

Birds are singing outside my window. I mostly hear the fast-paced, high-pitched twittering of what sounds like the morning gossip of the little birds. Occasionally a deeper hoot overrides that, a little resonant and yodeling sounding – perhaps pigeons? Now the ravens, who sound like they have a perpetual complaint, add their discordant caw to the symphony.

Daylight, it would appear, has arrived.

It’s the last day of April, this day. I don’t know that that has any significance to anything at all, but it seemed like something to note. Or something to fill the page with, anyway.

I have a piece I am working on–mostly in my head–for my Black history site, on Mammy. I’m a little hesitant because I’ve read a few posts/articles that others have done on the topic, and they are so good its intimidating. But I’m going to write it anyway, building a little off of theirs but also adding my own thoughts and impressions.

I absolutely hate doing my little content writing gig and I find myself avoiding it at all costs. Only, the cost of avoiding it could be living without lights, or living in the street for that matter, so I need to think of it as a job. One I go to everyday whether I want to or not. I think if I set a time period — I work at my job between this and that time — it might be better. This way, I’ll know it has an end and whatever is not completed during this period of time can just wait til the morrow. Might encourage me to stop getting distracted by every little thing, too.

I have to remember that it’s only for a relatively short time, too, that I need to do this. Hopefully.

He didn’t start off that way, of course. In fact, the character didn’t start off being anything but a quick blip in the pan in the first place. But then he kept inserting himself more into the story, so I had to figure out his name, and give him a personality and stuff… and that’s where the blogger came in.

Actually, before the blogger came a picture. I saw a pen and ink drawing of a somewhat serious looking young black man with a goatee, and I thought… oh, that’s him. I don’t know *why* I thought that, because the look doesn’t fit the original of the character at all, I mean his personality and all that for the brief time he was supposed to be on the scene. But then I realized… the first time meet see him he is acting a part, of sorts. As we meet him more, we realize that. I tossed this around for a bit, and it felt right, and fit with the story. But I needed more, still, he was too flat and conventional.

So, now, enter the blogger. I don’t know him. I have heard his name around the black blogs, but if I visited his site I didn’t stay or go back. Not that anything he wrote was bad — quite the opposite, in fact. I just never put it on my rotation. This time, though, I went to his site through a link, read the recommended material, and realized that I had my character. Well, partially, anyway.

I still don’t know the blogger, but now not only am I following the blog, I’ve been clicking through the back links, trying to get a handle on not so much who he is, but how he thinks. And why he thinks the things he does, in the way he does. Why is his world, and his view of it, the way it is? So far I’ve gathered a few things, but not nearly enough. He’s very intelligent, a little intense, and not at all perfect, but of course I need more, and I need to combine it with what I already know of the character. Should be fun.

I don’t know if my character himself will be a blogger — it’s an interesting idea and if I can fit it in smoothly, I might. But I do know that he will be this guy, or at least the impression of this guy that I glean.

Blogs are good for so many fun things, no?

And I was, really, when I wrote this title last night. But I’ve been “politically involved” for approximately one day and already I am tired of it. Sigh.

I think, possibly, it’s because it seems to me that to get to the Teabag Republicans we have to go through all the perpetually disappointed Democrats first. And that’s the discouraging part. And, also, of course, the false part. And, I think, the wrong way to go about it.

When I hear the word “progressive” now, it sounds as one near-incessant whine in my ears and I get annoyed and want to slap at it, like a mosquito. But, I think, a better idea would be to engage them and talk about what they are planning to do in their local political races, if they are going to get people out to vote, and so on. It doesn’t matter if, as some say, they are not going to vote for Obama as the top of the ticket, as long as 1: they vote for the down ticket politicians, and 2: they are promoting Democratic policies in their own cities and towns.

The rest will take care of itself. The important thing is to keep the right wing out of the White House and any more of the House or Senate seats. However that is best accomplished, for each individual, is fine with me. Mind, the ones longing for a Republican victory so “things can get worse so they can get better” are still fair game.

I have a new post up at The Book of Louis, talking about the New York Times Disunion article, How Slavery Really Ended in America. The Disunion series itself is fascinating to me, because I know only the basics of Civil War history.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, when he was in his U.S. Civil War phase (he appears to have moved on to Jane Austen and King Lear now) mention that he thought it was important for Black people to study Civil War history. I’m sure many do, but I was never one of them. And even now I don’t have much interest in studying the battles and such, though of course they were important. Not to say that is what Ta-Nehisi concentrated on — he also studied the people, and in a way that made you want to read about them.

I am not sure that I am ready yet to completely focus on this part of history — I still have more to go on the pre-Civil War stuff — but when I do, I’m pretty sure that my focus will be a bit different. For one thing, I am more interested in the women of the times, and what happened with them. Can’t study the women without studying the men, of course, but not on the same way.

Anyway, I need to structure my time better so that I have more time to do what I like to do, and what I need to do.

Well, one of my other sites, anyway. The family history one. I was kind of ignoring it for a while, but then a history teacher and researcher visited to talk about some of my ancestral family members. He lives in the area where they were born and raised and he knows quite a bit more about them than I do, I think.

Plus, I’ve been meaning to put various things I’ve come across in doing research for my book on there, so I’m trying to get that together, too.

I have BuddyPress installed, and have upgraded the site itself to the 3.1, but have not enabled multisite yet. I think I will, though, because on another project I am working with both of those things — BuddyPress and multisite — so I may as well get as familiar with them as I can.

All this means, of course, that once again this place might begin to feel a little neglected — but maybe not. I don’t feel any obligation to write anything special here, or couch it any particular way, or even use correct grammar — it’s just for writing whatever is in my head at the moment, so that works.

One thing I’ve always found annoying is how so much information and knowledge is just walled off. I can understand, of course, publications need to be paid for their work, but unless you belong to an academic institution or have access to a library, it’s sometimes very difficult to access years, decades, even centuries worth of information. How limiting that is, if you are just an everyday person who wants to research something.

The Free Library is changing all that. Perhaps other places are too, but this is the one I’ve come across. The Free Library is a major resource whether you are researching one thing, or are just interested in everything. Wow! When I last looked at the site they mainly had classic book texts and such but they’ve apparently been expanding because now they have just about everything. Here’s what they say:

Since 2003, The Free Library has offered free, full-text versions of classic literary works from hundreds of celebrated authors, whose biographies, images, and famous quotations can also be found on the site. Recently, The Free Library has been expanded to include a massive collection of periodicals from hundreds of leading publications covering Business and Industry, Communications, Entertainment, Health, Humanities, Law, Government, Politics, Recreation and Leisure, Science and Technology, and Social Sciences. This collection includes millions of articles dating back to 1984 as well as newly-published articles that are added to the site daily.

I could spend hours wandering around this site. It’s so much easier, too, than doing EBSCOhost or whatever searches – all you do is click on the category you want, and there you are. Of course, you can also do a keyword search if you are looking for something specific. I’ve already found a few things I can use both in my work and book writing and such.

I love it and I’ve only just begun to scratch the surface. Keep this wherever you keep your research materials and sources.

Also, I’ve never heard of some of these publications and it occurred to me that some others may not have a well. So, I was just going to leave it at a link but I think I will, when I come across something really interesting (subjective, of course — interesting to me, anyway) I will do a post on that. None of the material there is from the current year, but for this sort of thing that’s perfectly okay I think.

I used to have the sweetest cat. Really! Very polite, never jumped up on the counters, ate only off of her own plate, would sit by my pillow and wait patiently until I woke up in the mornings, was always so soft and cuddly, good with kids, all of that.

And then she got old and turned into a raging old bat. Oh wait, no, that was me. But the cat has still had a bit of a personality change. You know how when some humans age, they stop bothering about stuff? No longer worried about “convention” and opinion and all that?

Well, that’s Cat. She jumps on the counters and the tables and if you leave a plate around, and she’s hungry, she’ll help herself. She’s also decided that she wants to eat when she wants to eat, and who cares if it’s 4 AM? She’ll yowl, and yowl until either someone (me) gets her some food, or someone (me) gets up and throws her out of the room. And even then, out of the room, she’ll yowl at the door.

It wouldn’t be so bad if she had a soft, cat-like “meow.” But she doesn’t. She can, mind you, sound very sweet and kitty-like. But not when she is demanding food. No other word for that noise but a yowl. It’s dreadful.

So, I’m trying to get her back on some sort of normal being hungry/eating schedule, but to do that I have to ignore the noise. Far easier said than done, especially if I am trying to concentrate on something. I sometimes fail at this regulating business and just feed her just to shut her up. Which, of course, makes her even more demanding the next time.

I’ve only been keeping her temporarily the past 18 or 19 years until I find her a good home. I have now stepped up my search.