Ted Kennedy as Symbol of Redemption

When I grew up the name Ted Kennedy was synonymous with everything that was wrong with America. Even though he was a Catholic, he was shorthand for all of the liberal secular humanists who were trying to turn America away from God and marginalize god-fearing Christians. It was not until I was an adult that I came to admire Sen. Kennedy as an extraordinary human being.

I'm sure we will all get a chance in the coming days to read all about Kennedy's many accomplishments, but what speaks to me the most about his life is the idea of redemption. We all know that Ted Kennedy was a flawed human being; he was capable of fucking up in a truly spectacular manner. What I admire about him were his choices to carry on and fight the good fight anyway.

At least twice in his life, after his brothers' assassinations and after Chappaquiddick, he could have thrown in the towel and no one would be blamed him for doing so. He could have decided not to put his life on the line for another gunman. He could have decided it was not worth salvaging his reputation. He could have lived a life of entitled frivolity, jet-setting and yachting for the rest of his days, but he didn't. Few characters in the American drama have come back from these set-backs and achieved greatness by working tirelessly for other.

This is the Ted Kennedy that I will miss. We are all flawed people, and his life is a example and a testament to continuing on with a noble purpose in spite of all our flaws. We are all capable of moving past our personal grief and addictions to do what we see needs to be done. There are no excuses. There is no one whose life is washed-up, who does not have an opportunity to make something good of themselves. We all can be redeemed. Obviously Kennedy was born with many benefits, but we all have our own gifts even if our backgrounds are not so grand. I wish that when I die, I might have effected so much good and helped as many people as he did.

Here's to Senator Edward Moore Kennedy. He will be missed.

Flash of Personal Revelation

I just realized something and I want to get it down before I forget it. Yes, I realize I should keep a journal, but that is not really the point right now. Pardon me if this sounds dis-jointed, but I haven't really organized the thoughts yet.

I have a very overactive imagination, but I've always struggled with visualization. I can't watch most horror films because I imagine what it would feel like if I were in that totally unrealistic position. I can stay freaked out for weeks over something that wouldn't bother most middle schoolers because I can imagine something similar playing out. Because of my imagination, I am actually pretty good at putting myself in someone else's shoes, at least as much as anyone can know what happens in another person's brain. So why am I so bad at visualization? If I am such a mental person, shouldn't that be the easy part?

I was just reading about trance work and visualization and thinking about why they are so hard when it occured to me like a flash that my imagination tends to work in terms of how something feels, not how it looks. (Bob from Twin Peaks is an exception to this rule.) I may be dense not to have noticed this before, but this was such a shock that I had to put down the book. You see, I am a strongly visual learner and emotions are the part of life where I have the most trouble. Even though I have many of them in my life, people with strong emotions can have me back-pedaling before I even know what happened. Part of the reason I started practicing paganism was to strengthen my emotional, alogical side. It felt like something I needed to do, even though it didn't make logical sense to me.

None of this makes any sense to me right now and I don't know what to make of it, but it is true. Anyone have any advice on what to do with this bit of insight?

Kind of Blue Turns 50

Still celebrating awesomeness, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue turned 50 yesterday. I wanted to commemorate this yesterday, but for some reason it didn't get transferred to my iPod and the physical disk is AWOL. This is truly one of the greatest albums ever, so if you've got it, give it a listen. Seldom do we ever get to see so much talent come together to make such a nearly perfect thing.

If anyone knows where my disk is, let me know.

In Honor of Awesome Day

To honor Chalicechick's holiday of Awesome Day, I would like to celebrate the following fact: yesterday on August 16, 2009 I found my most favorite sleeveless summer weight sweater that has been missing since I moved over a year ago in Tiny Daughter M's closet. I mean, I LOVE this sweater.

I am wearing said sweater today and I feel awesome in it. Yay for getting rid of her too small clothes.

In other yesterday news, we played Rock Band with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend who are visiting and much fun was had. We haven't seen her in a long time and we miss her. The boyfriend got to see a moose which blew his mind and our good friend The Comic Book Guy sings a version of "Master Exploder" more awesome than we deserve.

Gay Rights Ordinance Passes in Anchorage

Finally some good political news. I've been pretty discouraged lately every time I read the news, but here is a tiny little ray of sunshine here in our very red state of Alaska. The Anchorage Assembly has passed an ordinance protection gays, lesbians, and transgenders from discrimination. Article here if you are interested.

This victory was hard fought and the battle was ugly. I've written previously about the opposition to passing this ordinance. I'm honestly surprised it passed. Our new mayor has seven days to decide whether or not to veto and he claims he still is not sure what he will do. Mayor Sullivan is both a Catholic and a political conservative so the odds are likely he will choose to veto. To give you a hint, Sarah Palin stated that nothing would make her happier than to be able to work with Dan Sullivan as Mayor of Anchorage. Any of you living in Anchorage, please call or e-mail Mayor Sullivan and ask him politely to respect the rights of all his constituents and allow the ordinance to become law.

With all the negativity and craziness that is the current American political forum, here's one for the good guys!

Julie and Julia

I went to see Julie and Julia this weekend with my mother and Daughter E. I love Meryl Streep, I'm kind of a foodie and I enjoyed Julie Powell's book so I looked forward to the film. What I forgot was that a lot of Nora Ephron's work is crap.

Everything you have heard and read about Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci is true so I won't go into it here. The modern day side of the story really gets short-changed though. Contrary to what other reviewers have said, this isn't Amy Adams's fault. The screenplay spends so much time on Jula Child that it omits much of the flavor (pardon the pun) of Powell's book. Structurally I understand what Ephron is going for here, but she has stripped away everything that makes Powell an interesting or sympathetic person. We get to see her as a wife and see the role of writing in her life, but we miss out on her wit and her relationship to the food.

As a woman and a film snob, I'm glad to see studios taking chances on films that feature women and those that are created by women. I mean, I loves me some Mamma Mia! in spite of its flaws. This is a good step both for women and for art. I just hope that they will open the doors a little wider to welcome women other than Ephron and a few others.

Condolences

I didn't know Tim Jensen. I had only been reading his blog a short time. Still, my condolences go out to all of his family and friend who miss him.

Chaotic Lughnasadh

Our local CUUPS group hosted a strange Lammas/Lughnasadh ritual last night. Members of the group take turns as High Priest and Priestess and this ritual was led by our local Discordians.

Now, it's not that I don't appreciate some of the points made. Even though it started (and often continues) as a joke, the Discordians have an interesting message. I like the emphasis on those un-looked-for blessings, the life changing moments that come out of nowhere. It is good to notice and appreciate those once in a while. It is good to remember that while harmony in a worthy goal, disorder always lurks beneath the suface of order and that is not always a bad thing. I believe there really is a time and place for last night's ritual.

I don't think Lughnasadh is it. Maybe it is just because the lessons of Lughnasadh have been speaking to me the last few days. Lugh is believed to be an analog of Hermes and I have always had tremendous affection for Hermes. It felt like I needed to hear the lessons about reaping the works of your labors and being multi-skilled. I was hoping for a ritual experience that would embed the ideas swirling in my head. Instead I got a quick thank you to Lugh, mixed for some reason with Gaia, but now let's really talk about Eris all night.

Since our CUUPS group only gathers on the Sabbats, I'm not sure when the right occasion would be to repeat something like last night. Maybe the disruption of the scheduled holiday is part of the point, but when people started quoting Monty Python as part of the ritual I knew my spiritual needs were not going to be met. I went home unsatisfied. The rest of the group seemed to really enjoy the frivolity so then I felt like I was being negative and worst of all, conservative. I guess part of celebrating with an eclectic pagan group is that sometimes you might not like the flavor of the month.