Sunday, August 19, 2007
Don't Do Us Any Favors
Here's some of this year's garden. We are drunk with bee balm, zinnias, sunflowers, black-eyed susans, marigolds, and salvia. I find bees passed out in the cosmos, and I find myself wondering just what sort of cosmos I have planted. Hummingbirds are sipping from flowers,vegetables, and vines, and we are flavor- and color-crazed with the bounty of the season.
I'd rather pull weeds than listen to the candidates right now.
It isn't that I don't want a shiny new president for 2009... but I'd rather not have them dive-bombing me like so many mosquitoes in the summer of 2007.
It's a lovely Sunday here, and we've biked a rail trail and taken our Maddie-dog over to hike the local wildlife refuge. We did intone the Gospel According to Frank Rich and an extremely well-written piece, also in the NY Times by a group of sergeants serving in Iraq, but I'd otherwise prefer not to think about all those presidential wanna-bes wearing out their shoe leather and welcomes.
It never fails to amaze me that people so want to rub elbows with the person(s) who may be the next president of the United States as to shove up their primaries to unimaginable dates. Do they, really? I guess the magic is still there for some people. It sure isn't for me. It's been sad to watch Obama sink to the snarky level of his peers, to read that Dennis Kucinich won't take any vacation from his campaign, to read that Hillary has fixed Obama with a cold stare since he declared for the office. I don't want to hear Hillary referred to as Bush Lite. I don't want Dennis to campaign himself into pulp. I want Hillary to smile at, not smite, her fellow Dems. We and they don't owe her, or any of them, the nomination. I understand that in order to run for the presidency you have to have an ego the size of several Great Plains states, but still... I just don't need their company all that much. Not now.
I have always found that taking time off (not the 400-plus days that Junior has spent in Crawford) can freshen the perspective. Doing not-teaching activities had the common effect of bringing me new insights for the classroom. Sometimes we have to get out of what we are doing in order to get more out of what we are doing.
Summer is much too fine to waste on other people's state fairs, and barbecue is too good to be pissed away merely on political fund raisers.
How lovely the garden is this time of year. The roar of the crowds deafens the ear to the beauty of the cricket songs that remind us that too soon this season will come to an end.
The garden is sacred. Campaigns are profane.
When I read that Obama took his family to the Iowa State Fair, that Dennis K. won't take a few days off, that Mitt is taking a few days at his vacation place to work on strategy after purchasing the Iowa caucuses, I think, for God's sake, smell the goddam flowers. I don't have anything in common with Sam Brownbeck other than the conviction that a few days out on a hiking trail is a good place to be.
We will endure the messages of all these folks in advertising blitzes that will make us wish that they would all go away, during the holidays, no less, thanks to all these shoved-up primaries. Perhaps if they did go away for a few days of sun and very fresh air, they might choose better words and ideas with which to regale us when winter winds howl and we are ready to listen.
I'd rather pull weeds than listen to the candidates right now.
It isn't that I don't want a shiny new president for 2009... but I'd rather not have them dive-bombing me like so many mosquitoes in the summer of 2007.
It's a lovely Sunday here, and we've biked a rail trail and taken our Maddie-dog over to hike the local wildlife refuge. We did intone the Gospel According to Frank Rich and an extremely well-written piece, also in the NY Times by a group of sergeants serving in Iraq, but I'd otherwise prefer not to think about all those presidential wanna-bes wearing out their shoe leather and welcomes.
It never fails to amaze me that people so want to rub elbows with the person(s) who may be the next president of the United States as to shove up their primaries to unimaginable dates. Do they, really? I guess the magic is still there for some people. It sure isn't for me. It's been sad to watch Obama sink to the snarky level of his peers, to read that Dennis Kucinich won't take any vacation from his campaign, to read that Hillary has fixed Obama with a cold stare since he declared for the office. I don't want to hear Hillary referred to as Bush Lite. I don't want Dennis to campaign himself into pulp. I want Hillary to smile at, not smite, her fellow Dems. We and they don't owe her, or any of them, the nomination. I understand that in order to run for the presidency you have to have an ego the size of several Great Plains states, but still... I just don't need their company all that much. Not now.
I have always found that taking time off (not the 400-plus days that Junior has spent in Crawford) can freshen the perspective. Doing not-teaching activities had the common effect of bringing me new insights for the classroom. Sometimes we have to get out of what we are doing in order to get more out of what we are doing.
Summer is much too fine to waste on other people's state fairs, and barbecue is too good to be pissed away merely on political fund raisers.
How lovely the garden is this time of year. The roar of the crowds deafens the ear to the beauty of the cricket songs that remind us that too soon this season will come to an end.
The garden is sacred. Campaigns are profane.
When I read that Obama took his family to the Iowa State Fair, that Dennis K. won't take a few days off, that Mitt is taking a few days at his vacation place to work on strategy after purchasing the Iowa caucuses, I think, for God's sake, smell the goddam flowers. I don't have anything in common with Sam Brownbeck other than the conviction that a few days out on a hiking trail is a good place to be.
We will endure the messages of all these folks in advertising blitzes that will make us wish that they would all go away, during the holidays, no less, thanks to all these shoved-up primaries. Perhaps if they did go away for a few days of sun and very fresh air, they might choose better words and ideas with which to regale us when winter winds howl and we are ready to listen.
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Nice - and humorous, which is always a good thing - Blog. I was directed here by a post on Watergate Summer. Oh, and welcome to my Blogroll!
I share your thoughts. It has become nothing but theatre and posturing. It offers no beauty or hope or joy except for Mike Gravel, who speaks of love. "the beauty of the cricket songs that remind us that too soon this season will come to an end." That statement reminds me of the Stanley Kunitz poem, Touch Me.
Hey Donnie McDaniel- if you really are a Marine, please stay safe and we're sorry you have to serve under such an idiot C in C. We are working to keep you and your comrades out of unnecessary wars, ok? God bless you.
Hey Lulu, these pics remind me of the Laguna Beach home landscaping you did. Those itty bitty sweet strawberries you used to grow--remember we used to eat them right off the plant?
How vivid those memories have stayed, along with seeing the sunlight in your blonde hair and the twinkle in your blue, blue eyes.
Wow- I think I just had a little estrogen bump.
Hey Lulu, these pics remind me of the Laguna Beach home landscaping you did. Those itty bitty sweet strawberries you used to grow--remember we used to eat them right off the plant?
How vivid those memories have stayed, along with seeing the sunlight in your blonde hair and the twinkle in your blue, blue eyes.
Wow- I think I just had a little estrogen bump.
I miss those alpine strawberries. Park's doesn't sell 'em anymore.
How kind your memories are, Zippie... 'cept'n my eyes are green!
How kind your memories are, Zippie... 'cept'n my eyes are green!
Ooops. Typical schmoozer--getting the damn eye color wrong.
I promise I would've remembered had we actually done the deed.
Besides, your green, green eyes are so light they pick up the color of the sky and it turns them kinda blue.
:)
I promise I would've remembered had we actually done the deed.
Besides, your green, green eyes are so light they pick up the color of the sky and it turns them kinda blue.
:)
Lulu that cosmos is breathtaking - just magnificent.
It lifts my spirit thanks for posting them. Gardening here in the high desert is a challenge to this bi coastal transplant. Who once knew the joys of putting a seedling in loamy soil and viola !
The content is also spot on. These images will come back to me as the profane campaigns drone on. Truly a thoughtful and beautiful work of art, your cosmos.
It lifts my spirit thanks for posting them. Gardening here in the high desert is a challenge to this bi coastal transplant. Who once knew the joys of putting a seedling in loamy soil and viola !
The content is also spot on. These images will come back to me as the profane campaigns drone on. Truly a thoughtful and beautiful work of art, your cosmos.
Dear P.P.--You can get some portulaca seeds next year and sow 'em right into the ground. They love sandy, alkaline soil, hot and dry weather, and come in a zillion bright colors! Put them where you'd like a ground cover effect. They'll re-seed for years, and they knock my socks off.
I adore potulacas and ty for being able to dicifer my writing..(gaak) I am not sure though how they would take to red baked clay...However flowers and gardens feed the soul. I will find a way. You have re inpired me. Raised beds , something, I will find a way. It truly is a challenge out here. Most folks do fail at it - I tried for four yrs , retreated - so I could live to plant another time. We also have live stock which free range and munch..got a long list of challenges..Real long.
BUT these images...well they knocked my socks off too ! So much so that a few days after the post , they came back to me..and I wanted to tell you.
BUT these images...well they knocked my socks off too ! So much so that a few days after the post , they came back to me..and I wanted to tell you.
I love your garden...and yes, the Election stuff has turned into theater..that is a good way to put it...for sure...wonderful post..
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