26 August 2009

loss...

i'm so sad about ted kennedy's passing today.....whatever your political leanings, it can't be denied that his efforts for our citizens were amazing.

i think he spent the last 40 years perhaps atoning for his own sins ---- and attempting to make things right?

i always get a tightness in my throat when i think about the losses that this family has suffered. for, at the very heart of things, they were A FAMILY. mother, father, children, grandchildren.....they had problems just like we all do. and while they may not have had the financial struggles that many of us face, they certainly have had their own personal suffering and crosses to bear.  i can relate to that. losing a son, father, sister, brother, uncle? how do you recover. and they suffered those losses many times over.....

president kennedy was assassinated before i was born, and robert kennedy was killed when i was a toddler. but the tragedy that has befallen this family is still one i can understand. how hard to lose so many loved ones.

but it truly seemed, when john kennedy, jr. died, that Fate had become a punitive and deliberately cruel member of this family. to lose him in the prime of his life? it must have brought them all to their knees - there certainly was a collective sorrow among us all for this man who would never grow old....a man who forever captured our hearts with that salute as his father's casket passed. it felt as though we had lost someone we knew.

i will never forget an interview ted kennedy gave afterward and the poignant tribute that came to an end because teddy, overcome with emotion, simply could not continue. the loss was simply too much to bear.  he looked like a sorrowful and wounded old man at that point - a man suffering greatly over the loss of his beloved nephew who had "every gift but length of years".

feeling very fortunate today that my family members are all alive and well.  and grateful that there are citizens among us who are willing to fight for those less fortunate, the down-trodden, and those discriminated against.  ted kennedy wasn't a perfect man, but really, who is? i think, since i'm not the Judge and Jury, that it's enough he spent most of the rest of his life trying to make things better for as many as he could.

i remember reading about a letter that jackie kennedy onassis wrote to him, thanking ted for his participation in caroline's wedding in lieu of her father, president kennedy.....jackie was said to feel that his devotion to SEVENTEEN children, in addition to his own, made him a hero. she wrote, "On you, the carefree youngest brother, fell a burden a hero would beg to be spared. Everyone is going to make it because you are always there with your love." she continued on and noted that he never missed a single, significant event for any of those children.

fatherless children, yes, but without a father figure? never.

yes, a hero.

07 August 2009

Dinner Impossible: Placentas

i just read, in a national magazine that will remain nameless (TIME MAGAZINE, TIME MAGAZINE, TIME MAGAZINE, sorry it just slipped out) that there are people out there who will come to your home, after you give birth, and cook the placenta from said birth so that you can eat it.

yep. seriously.

i think some people do lose their minds a bit after going through the whole birthing experience thing, but i had to read it twice before i actually believed it. not only that someone does this for a living, but that there is actually a market for this service? really? people actually want to save their placentas and then eat them? supposedly if you cook it, do other weird things to it and then turn it into capsules, you can take them like vitamins.  the placenta holds the key to eternal life. or something like that.


after i got to the part where i realized actual eating and consumption of the placenta wasn't exactly what they were talking about, i was less revolted.  that these people were, in fact, just seriously into the whole holistic organic whatchamacallit whatever movement in a BIG WAY. but still.

i'm sorry. i think there are some weird things in the world (swim cap fetishes for example), but this has got to be one of the weirdest things i've heard of. at least lately.

childbirth is pretty messy.  and it was totally worth every moment. but the placenta, or "after-birth" (actually one of the most nausea-inducing phrases ever), is probably the grossest part.


i hope they put mine in a hazardous waste receptable and didn't sell it on the PLACENTA BLACK MARKET or something.

05 August 2009

just asking

why do we have clowns. they are creepy and scare the woo-hoo out of me.

for that matter, what's up with mosquitos, cellulite, brussel sprouts, body odor, humidity, traffic, cancer, AIDS, serial killers, pedophiles, rapists, Nazis, slugs, snakes. you get the point. need i go on?

04 August 2009

oy to the vey

A few choice morsels:

"Holy Crapamole"

"Goddammit" (Not so interesting at face value, obviously. But considering the context - said by my not quite 2 year old son at first Thanksgiving with new in-laws? At the dinner table. Wow.)

"Hey Mom, when am I going to get furry like you."

"Your underwear is big."

"I wish I had wrinkles on my stomach like yours."

"Mom, is your penis as big as mine?" (Said at Target, while standing in line. With at least 400 people listening. Snickering and snorting heard as far as the International Space Station.)

All comments from my babies before they were old enough to be embarrassed or to intentionally cause embarrassment. I wonder what they say about me now.

03 August 2009

wistful

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I find myself experiencing a sweet melancholy. An oxymoron you say? Perhaps. Not sadness so much, just a bit of regret about things not done, or things that could have been done better. And memories of tiny things that helped the day to pass positively. Most of the time having to do with the people I interact with in my life.  Was I a good person?  Did I return a smile given, or not even notice?

How many times has the genuine smile and glance of a stranger brightened my day. And made me realize it's the very smallest things that have an impact beyond measure.

A door held, a smile returned, attention paid to girlish daughterly chatter, a wave across the lawn to my elderly neighbor. All things that cost me nothing, but have rewards that linger as the day comes to a soft and dark end.

Maybe my slumber will be peaceful as I recount the goodness received.