Patricia in the Garden 2 My Dear Neighbours: It's time for me to take a short holiday from blogging. I want to spend a few weeks catching up with everyone in my neighbourhood whose blogs I haven't had time to read in the past few months, as I've been so busy with writing. I feel as though I've lost touch with many of my friends,and am missing very important things in their lives, not only here on VOX, but at home, too. Also, my garden is full of weeds and needs tending. I will be back in August. Before I go I want to thank all my neighbours who tagged me for the "Eight Things You Don't Know About Me" game. I didn't want to respond to only one person, so I decided this would be a good … [Read more...]
Anahata
Black tail deer fawn by fuzuoko on Flickr Sleepy Hollow, Northern California. “What a perfect place for a writer to live,” I thought, when I moved here almost five years ago. And I did get a lot of writing done, when I wasn’t in my garden, that is. Our house is surrounded by woods and high hills, with a seasonal creek dancing along the right edge of our property, lined by a sentinel of three giant rocks. “We’re butt up against nature here,” is what my husband likes to say. When I saw it, apart from thinking about the quaint name of the area and of its street names, like “Van Winkle Drive,” and “Ichabod Lane,” I also imagined that I could, at long last, have a garden. Having lived … [Read more...]
I am Ann Coulter
Today would have been the day I posted the last in my series on men, titled, “In Danger From The Outside World.” But, I’ve had to postpone because several events have occurred in the last two weeks that have prompted me to make this announcement: I am Ann Coulter. That’s right. She and I are the same person. Look - this chart (Chart I) will prove it: Patricia V. Davis Ann Coulter age 51 47 height 5 ft. 3 inches 6 ft. weight 124 unknown Hair colour dark brown blonde Eye colour black blue Education Teaching Degree Law Degree Residence California New York Self-defence Can leg press 270 pounds Owns guns, has body guards Though this chart does not show much … [Read more...]
In Danger From the Outside World* Part II
In Memory of Gregory Randall Davis May 9, 1983 - January 29, 2002 Greg What does it mean to go from being boy to man? As a former high school teacher and a mother of five sons and stepsons combined, I’ve witnessed many boys struggle with that question. Some figure it out, others never do and remain in a limbo - an ‘adult boy,’ stuck in a time warp of adolescence, where ethically, spiritually and intellectually, the centre of his universe will remain forever anthropocentric; where he will never figure out how to look beyond himself, what his role in society is and how he can make the world a better place just by his existence in it. In The United States of America, where I … [Read more...]
In Danger From the Outside World*
Part I of Three Parts on Boys and Men Our sons. When they’re born, we hold them in our arms, stroke them, soothe them and take them to our breasts. It’s the only time in their entire lives that they are permitted to be openly content in their helplessness, universally approved of in their total reliance on another human being and a female, at that. By the time they’re two, they’ve heard it at least once, even if it’s not their parents who say it: “Boys don’t cry.” GI Joe 1964 Little soldier by thats_verynice on Flickr Little soldiers If they haven’t absorbed that message by the time they’re seven, even the most nurturing, liberated parent … [Read more...]
A Walk Through My Neighbourhood
Winter Wonderland by shatterabstracts,com.ru This is what was great about POSTING and READING on Vox. (Sigh...) I. The Politically Wise “I wear (Captain Walter R. Schmidt Jr.’s) MIA bracelet all day, everyday. He was a Marine pilot who went down 09Jun68 in South Vietnam. I wear this bracelet until the day he or his remains come home. Happy Veteran's Day Capt. Schmidt.” http://jennifer0214.vox.com “…the U.S. - politicians and people - would do well to remember Jefferson's "wall of separation…” - http://paikea066.vox.com “…If you legislate morality, moral choices lose their value…” http://shushnow.vox.com II. The Politically Witty “Reality TV Idea Number … [Read more...]
Look Harder
First day of school foversouls on flickr[1] “Look harder.” Gee…did I just hear you say that again? You’re an English teacher. Surely you must know that one can’t look “harder” at written words on a page. One can look “longer,” delve more deeply into the meaning of those words, if one can read them, that is, but one can’t look “harder.” Yet, at least once a week, with distaste and fury layered through your voice, you say it to one of your first-year (seventh grade) pupils. A girl today, I see. A twelve-year old girl, whose life is already a misery. On the edge of puberty, her breasts feel sore all the time and, much to her constant mortification, one is growing faster than … [Read more...]
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Potatoes I'm a first-generation Italian-American. That slash says it all. It means that though I was born in the United States, walk American and, for the most part, talk American, my blood corpuscles are suffused with foreign tendencies for which science has yet to find an antidote. One of these predilections is this: if I invite guests to my home and discover that I didn’t make sufficient quantities of every food to feed them all, I’ll drop down dead of mortification, right then. I mean that. Since I don’t want to die yet, I’m always on my guard against this happening, wanting to make very sure I have “enough.” The problem is my view and my husband’s view of “enough” are … [Read more...]