Julie Hanson of The New Hampshire Union-Leader has written a great article on this. How wonderful that Marvel heard about someone in trouble, and did something about it.
Artwork by Manny Mederos
Susan
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Blue Ear
Four-year-old Anthony Smith didn't want to wear his hearing aid anymore. He said superheroes don't wear blue ears. His mother emailed Marvel Comics, and in short order received this back.
Julie Hanson of The New Hampshire Union-Leader has written a great article on this. How wonderful that Marvel heard about someone in trouble, and did something about it.
Artwork by Manny Mederos
Susan
Julie Hanson of The New Hampshire Union-Leader has written a great article on this. How wonderful that Marvel heard about someone in trouble, and did something about it.
Artwork by Manny Mederos
Susan
Brian Banks and the NFL
Brian Banks will be trying out for the NFL Seattle Seahawks next week, Sports Illustrated reported today. While he was in high school, Banks made a verbal commitment to USC when Pete Carroll was the coach. Carroll now coaches the Seahawks. My original post on Banks is here.
Nice!
Susan
Nice!
Susan
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Change
"Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are for what you could become." Mahatma Gandhi
Susan
No Woman No Cry
No Woman No Cry
by Chris Ofili
Chris Ofili is an artist from the United Kingdom. He was unknown to me, then I drew his name at random for an oral presentation in my Art class. The professor told me I would love him, and I do. He acknowledges his Nigerian heritage by using elephant dung in his work. He doesn't splatter it on, as his critics claim. It is an ancient art form in Africa, and it is built up and dried and used as the base for the work. His work "The Holy Virgin Mary" caused a ruckus when it was on display in New York City. Americans thought it pornographic, and while I understand there is a legal definition for porn, I tend to think pornography is in the eye of the beholder. Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor of the city at the time, said that freedom of speech doesn't cover things that are "disgusting." I guess disgusting is in the eye of the beholder as well.
The Holy Virgin Mary
by Chris Ofili
Ofili said he was shocked and unprepared for what he called "American rage" over his work, because being from the UK, he wasn't accustomed to that. Ofili lives and works in Trinidad. He has done a poster for the upcoming Olympic games this summer in London.
Susan
"No Woman No Cry" written by Vincent Ford
Monday, May 28, 2012
Touch
A customer walked up to my cash register, and all of a sudden I had time traveled back to when I was sixteen. This man smelled just like my first love; apparently he was wearing the same scent that young man used to wear. It was interesting that I immediately recognized that smell. The olfactory bulb that gives us our sense of smell is part of the limbic system of the brain, associated with memory and emotion. That's the scientific reason why smells evoke such strong emotions. My boyfriend and I really didn't have what it took for a long term relationship, and I broke up with him and it didn't end well. But more than thirty years later, I smell his cologne and it brings back a flood of everything good about who we were back then.
There is nothing like a first love. Do you remember yours? That very first time when we fall madly, passionately, head-over-heels in love and we are absolutely sure no one has ever felt this way before. I can close my eyes and remember what it felt like to rest my head on his shoulder. The way the lightly starched shirts he wore to work felt on my cheek. The way he smelled.
I recently took another online quiz here that told me my love language is physical touch. Twenty years ago Gary Chapman wrote a book, "The Five Love Languages." I've never read it, but Chapman says that there is a primary way we both feel and express love:
words of affirmation
receiving gifts
acts of service
quality time
physical touch
The problems arise when, say, a woman whose love language is acts of service is with a man whose language is words of affirmation. She runs around picking up his prescription at the pharmacy, making him delicious meals and taking his car in for servicing, but while he may appreciate it, he doesn't feel all that loved because he needs to hear the words. And while he tells her he loves her often and praises her verbally, what would really make her feel loved would be if he would get out the vacuum cleaner or help her do her taxes.
For all that we lacked otherwise, this first love and I spoke the same language. I love to touch and be touched, in what might appear to some, to be needy. He never made me feel that way, and only occasionally would shift me around when I sat on his lap. I suppose after a while his one leg would get numb and he'd just need me to move. He was only human, after all.
Physical touch is something that is missing more and more in American life. We are not a hugging kind of culture to begin with, and then there's the fear of touch being thought of as inappropriate or even as sexual harassment. Maybe that's why we are so wild about our pets, furry cats and dogs we can lavish affection on without feeling self-conscious.
I don't know about you, but sometimes my inner two-year-old just wants to run up to all the people she feels affectionate toward, and hug them really, really hard around their legs.
Susan
There is nothing like a first love. Do you remember yours? That very first time when we fall madly, passionately, head-over-heels in love and we are absolutely sure no one has ever felt this way before. I can close my eyes and remember what it felt like to rest my head on his shoulder. The way the lightly starched shirts he wore to work felt on my cheek. The way he smelled.
I recently took another online quiz here that told me my love language is physical touch. Twenty years ago Gary Chapman wrote a book, "The Five Love Languages." I've never read it, but Chapman says that there is a primary way we both feel and express love:
words of affirmation
receiving gifts
acts of service
quality time
physical touch
The problems arise when, say, a woman whose love language is acts of service is with a man whose language is words of affirmation. She runs around picking up his prescription at the pharmacy, making him delicious meals and taking his car in for servicing, but while he may appreciate it, he doesn't feel all that loved because he needs to hear the words. And while he tells her he loves her often and praises her verbally, what would really make her feel loved would be if he would get out the vacuum cleaner or help her do her taxes.
For all that we lacked otherwise, this first love and I spoke the same language. I love to touch and be touched, in what might appear to some, to be needy. He never made me feel that way, and only occasionally would shift me around when I sat on his lap. I suppose after a while his one leg would get numb and he'd just need me to move. He was only human, after all.
Physical touch is something that is missing more and more in American life. We are not a hugging kind of culture to begin with, and then there's the fear of touch being thought of as inappropriate or even as sexual harassment. Maybe that's why we are so wild about our pets, furry cats and dogs we can lavish affection on without feeling self-conscious.
I don't know about you, but sometimes my inner two-year-old just wants to run up to all the people she feels affectionate toward, and hug them really, really hard around their legs.
Susan
Need
"If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Henry Ford
In my post Asking For It, I wrote about my bold new way of asking for what I want and getting more. On the last day of class this semester, a professor for whom I have a great deal of respect, said some very complimentary things to me. It was not until after he was done speaking that I realized I needed to hear that. How about that? A need filled before I even realized I had the need. Very cool.
It dovetails with my post Everything I Need, about how I have everything I need, when I need it. It also causes me to take it a step further. Maybe I have everything I need before I need it.
Susan
In my post Asking For It, I wrote about my bold new way of asking for what I want and getting more. On the last day of class this semester, a professor for whom I have a great deal of respect, said some very complimentary things to me. It was not until after he was done speaking that I realized I needed to hear that. How about that? A need filled before I even realized I had the need. Very cool.
It dovetails with my post Everything I Need, about how I have everything I need, when I need it. It also causes me to take it a step further. Maybe I have everything I need before I need it.
Susan
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Brian Banks
"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury." Marcus Aurelius
Brian Banks and Wanetta Gibson, both minors, had consensual sex. Then Gibson accused Banks of kidnapping and rape. His attorney, an adult woman, told him he was a "big black teenager" and a jury would never believe him. So instead of going to trial, which was his right, he pled no contest and lost precious years of his life in jail. Gibson and her family, adults, won a large judgment in a civil lawsuit against the school district. She recently reached out to Banks on Facebook and has admitted she lied. With the help of the Innocence Project, he has been exonerated and is claiming monetary damages from the state of California, which is his right. This is all a huge failure on the part of the many adults involved.
Every time a woman falsely accuses a man of rape, it is a disservice to the women who truly are raped. I had conversations with both my sons when they were very young teenagers, about their vulnerability as young men. I told them that even if the girl consents, yes even if the encounter appears to be her idea, later she could say she was raped and it could possibly be her word against his. I took no pleasure in having these talks with my sons, but I had to prepare them for reality.
Brian Banks seems ready to get on with his life. At this point, he has chosen not to go after Gibson, although I think she needs to be held accountable in some way. Nina Mandell in The New York Daily News quotes him as saying, "I know it's best for me to try and move forward in a positive manner for the betterment of me. It hurts no one but myself to hang on to the type of negative energy." Wow.
Susan
Brian Banks and Wanetta Gibson, both minors, had consensual sex. Then Gibson accused Banks of kidnapping and rape. His attorney, an adult woman, told him he was a "big black teenager" and a jury would never believe him. So instead of going to trial, which was his right, he pled no contest and lost precious years of his life in jail. Gibson and her family, adults, won a large judgment in a civil lawsuit against the school district. She recently reached out to Banks on Facebook and has admitted she lied. With the help of the Innocence Project, he has been exonerated and is claiming monetary damages from the state of California, which is his right. This is all a huge failure on the part of the many adults involved.
Every time a woman falsely accuses a man of rape, it is a disservice to the women who truly are raped. I had conversations with both my sons when they were very young teenagers, about their vulnerability as young men. I told them that even if the girl consents, yes even if the encounter appears to be her idea, later she could say she was raped and it could possibly be her word against his. I took no pleasure in having these talks with my sons, but I had to prepare them for reality.
Brian Banks seems ready to get on with his life. At this point, he has chosen not to go after Gibson, although I think she needs to be held accountable in some way. Nina Mandell in The New York Daily News quotes him as saying, "I know it's best for me to try and move forward in a positive manner for the betterment of me. It hurts no one but myself to hang on to the type of negative energy." Wow.
Susan
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