Drawing inspiration, seeking clarity

My dear friend, Frank, performed this poem at a poetry reading in a small, quasi-seedy club in Cambridge that we frequented together. I've been drawing inspiration from it lately, though I'm still trudging through the "wild night" at this point. I wish you could hear him perform it, but posting the text will have to do until he gets back to Boston and I can get him to recite it on camera.

The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

I Want to Win! Do You?

I am shameless. I will admit it freely. I am posting this entirely so I can comment on Jana's blog and win something that she has made (she is outrageously creative and talented, you know). However, I will make good on the promise to follow. Here goes:

I am unlucky when it comes to winning contests...How lucky are you? I double dare you to accept this challenge.This game involves a few of my favorite things: handmade goods, creativity, and gift-giving.

Here are the tagging instructions: The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch?

Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Sound good? Good.

On Tom Hanks

Perhaps you have heard about Tom Hanks' recent remark about his perception that Mormons' support of Proposition 8 was un-American. Perhaps you have not. Much ado was NOT made about Mr. Hanks' statement or eventual "apology," and that is wrong.

Had he offended any other religion or race, we would have had an international event on our hands. Regardless of how I feel about the Mormon faith, homosexuality or Proposition 8, I'm pretty bugged.

It is interesting to me how people justify themselves. I’m irritated that Mr. Hanks finds it reprehensible to discriminate against homosexuals, yet feels fine about discriminating against Mormons. If one is truly against discrimination, one should be against discrimination of ALL peoples -- else would one not be, in fact, discriminating?

I appreciate his clarification, yet he is not apologizing for and reconsidering his generalization of and negative feelings toward Mormons, as is what one should do when he realizes he has judged an entire people and ventured into hypocrisy. His statement seemed calculated to take the offensive edge off his heartfelt remark and nip any residual chatter in the bud.

If one shouldn't say something about people of a specific race or religious affiliation or sexual persuasion lest it cause offense, one should not say it about Mormons either. The Mormons' right to be treated and spoken to and about with respect is as sacred and Constitutional as any other group's.

(I will not go into the vast amounts of Catholic, Methodist, Evangelical, and minority cash and votes which assisted those of California's Mormons who truly voted for Prop 8, in passing it. Alternately, I know many Mormons who voted against it. Mormons make up less than two percent of California's population, yet they alone -- minus a large chunk of their ranks -- got a law passed? That would be a feat indeed!)