Taming the Hillside This week I am coming to the end of a progression of man versus nature. I don’t like to think that I have triumphed over nature because that would be a foolish perspective. Nature always wins in the end. It would also be foolish because this effort is all about finding ways to embrace nature and revel in it. But I cannot completely avoid feeling like I have wrestled some aspects of…
Fear of Flying In 1973, in the middle of my college years, Erica Jong wrote a groundbreaking novel about a professional woman who wanted to not be pigeonholed by male-dominated standards and especially wanted to be free to explore and express her own version of female sexuality. All I really remember about the book from the reading Fear of Flying as I did when we were all reading that sort of thing, was something she…
The Burden of Expectations You have often heard people describe how they are too hard on people because they demand a lot of themselves and find that they should do likewise for others. That is a smallish dilemma when it comes to managerial oversight because one can set objective standards and allow people to perform against them such that you can always define the parameters of success based on how the universe you are trying…
The Kindness of Strangers Tennessee Williams wrote A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947 and after a successful Broadway run with Jessica Tandy, Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter, it was turned into a critically acclaimed film in 1951. While the film retained Brando and Hunter as Stanley and Stella Kowalski, it replaced the Toni-winning Tandy with Vivien Leigh. Leigh had won an Oscar for best actress for Gone With the Wind in 1939, and sure enough,…
It Takes a Virus I have read an interesting piece of writing from Heather Cox Richardson in the last few days and it has gotten me thinking. I have spent the weekend with some in-laws from Georgia and Texas. We have steadfastly avoided political discussions though there have been a few anecdotes that remind me that we come from very different ends of the political spectrum. It is not so much about things said as…
A Confederacy of Southerners This is a party weekend at Casa Moonstruck. Kim’s nephew Will is marrying Ashley in early October. They got engaged on our family trip to Ireland two years ago on a lonely beach on the Ring of Kerry. It was cause for celebration since Will is a sweet guy and Ashley is someone the whole family likes and feels is a fine match for Will. WIll is 42 and Ashley is…
Air in the New Normal Thirty years ago when I used to travel to Mexico City on business, I can remember the difference between the normal days and the days when the air miraculously cleared and you would see the lovely distant mountains that surround the D.F. (As it is called). I don’t know the percentages of normal smoggy days and crisp, clear, high-visibility days, but I bet there were not more than one in…
It is August After All Today is August 26th. I rarely get so specific with my story timing because in a perfect world (for me), I get 3-4 stories out ahead of myself and can coast for a few days with blog stories filed and set up for timed release. Since you will read this story tomorrow, August 27th, you now know that I am only just one day ahead of the maw of the…
Best of Friends Today is a funny day for me. It’s funny for several reasons and business-as-usual for other reasons. The day was scheduled to be about waking up to breakfast with our friends Gary & Oswaldo, who came down for a visit from L.A. yesterday and stayed overnight, followed by attending an orientation event at University of San Diego for new teaching faculty and then heading up the coast to Dana Point for an…
Juggling Being a Baby Boomer, I generally have a confusion (not so much a barrier as true confusion) over gender fluidity. I identify as him/he if I must declare, but I have yet to include that on any proper titling or letterhead the way it is becoming standard for people in the groove of modernity. My youngest son is producing a short play that is entirely about a very gender fluid situation with a gender-bimodal…