Splendor in the Grass...

Birthday Boy!

Gotta look spiffy when turning four!

The End of the Rainbow

We spent a lovely afternoon and evening at Alexander's Crown with all the cousins, and this rainbow graced the scene until the sun went down...

In Vino Veritas

Pliny was right, there's truth in wine. I love all the little truths in this Thanksgiving photo by Chloe's French boyfriend, who celebrated his first real American Turkey Day with us. There's my buttery thumbprint right in the middle, the stop motion of the wine being poured, the reflection of my emptied plate, the flash on the lip... I'm just thankful I didn't spill any on our newly cleaned carpets, and that's the truth!

(photo by Emilien Hiraclides)

Blink...

...and another year is gone!

Occam's Taser

Occam's Razor, plainly put, is the belief that when all things are considered in this crazy world, the simplest answer is usually the right one. I would submit, then, that Occam's Taser is, theoretically, whatever can be defined as the simplest thing for disrupting voluntary control. In our household, that simple thing is the television set.

Put anyone, anyone at our house in front of the TV, and suddenly chaos comes to a screeching halt. An eerie quiet reigns. Police use tasers to subdue fleeing, belligerent, or potentially dangerous subjects, and the television serves essentially the same purpose here at home. You'll see nary a movement nor hear a sound as subjects sit stunned, eyes glazed over, in front of reruns of Glee, or the Sarah Connor Chronicles, or the football game, or America's Next Top Model. I won't tell you who watches what, and you wouldn't believe me anyway.

Sadly, this is my own doing; in a weak, weary moment just after the birth of Claire, I said, "I guess it would be nice to watch something mindless once in awhile." Just a few days later, a 51-inch plasma HDTV on an elevator (seen above from the back, much more elegant from that side...) appeared at the foot of the bed. "Just a temporary situation" said the AV guy to his wife, who had only briefly ever owned a television and never, ever really wanted one. At least we don't have cable.

Unlike believers in Platonic or Aristotelian ideals, William of Ockam believed that concrete things (both animate and inanimate) exist in and of themselves. Any importance that humans assign them comes solely from the human mind. In his nominalist view of the world, I wonder what he would have thought of the sudden appearance of Tyra Banks in his bedchamber? I don't know, but surely there is a simple answer...

Plato's Play-Doh

What is it with humanity's predilection for a fogbound existence, the softer and easier way, the don't-rock-the-boat mentality? Why are people afraid to think for themselves?

Plato's allegory of The Cave illustrates the problem perfectly: a bunch of poor shackled souls who live in a cave and never see anything but their own shadows on the wall. Most of them are apathetic and accept this reality without speculation. Some inquiring minds observe the patterns and try to understand their world, but Truth eludes them. One prisoner finally breaks free and escapes the cave only to be blinded by the light, but eventually he adjusts and sees things more clearly: the earth, the sky, the sun.

When this newly enlightened soul goes back into the cave and tries to describe the outer world, his news is rejected, perceived as a threat to the status quo. The cave dwellers are afraid to take that arduous but rewarding journey out of darkness and into the light. They'd rather kill the prophet. So the question is: Are you a seeker of truth? Or do you want to stay in the cave?

Plato's Play-Doh, the malleable stuff of our minds, resides in imagination, dreams, and our perceptions of the outside world. How we mold our perceptions dictates how enlightened we are to the immutable truths. Real knowledge. True reality. Some of Plato's ideas seem outmoded to today's modern thinkers, but there's no refuting this: if you don't work with what you've got and strive to get out of the cave, you will never see the light...

Heart of Glass?

Who can pretend to know the capacity of the human heart? There are rooms inside, secret chambers, of which you know nothing. Doors whose existence you've denied will fly open when you least expect it. Windows you've held open forever will close of their own accord. In that vast space there is a wide, dry plain of loneliness and a deep well of forgiveness.

When you feel your heart will burst, it fiercely holds itself together.

How can you ever say you know another's heart? Have you fully explored all the dark, far flung corners of your own? One thing I feel to be true is so beautifully expressed in the words of Casey Haymes: "I believe in everything the heart can stand." Do you?

My Heart Belongs to Daddy...

Love you, Dad!

Backlogging the Blog...

It's disconcerting how easily one can be distracted, how quickly time falls away. The last couple of months evaporated in a mist of cooking and writing and metalsmithing and cogitating and fundraising and spreading myself too thin. That's the problem with loving life too much: there are never enough hours in the day to conquer all those worlds out there...

My excuse for not blogging is that I haven't been able to get my camera to talk to my computer, but I'm determined to correct that today. Also, I've finally succumbed to the immediacy of Facebook: I can post photos to Facebook directly from my phone, and there's a sense of community there, an ongoing conversation; it's interactive. It's also fleeting. A blog seems more one-sided, but it still has its place: in print form it becomes a lasting legacy of how we've lived in the day-to-day.

The problem rests in finding that ever-elusive balance; I've prattled on about that before. There's so much I want to do. How can I be good at all of it? As Abraham Lincoln reminded us: "In the end it not the years in your life that count; it's the life in your years." It's a roundabout apology, but I'm back, and I'm determined to fit it all in. And fill it all in. I wouldn't want to miss a thing...

Honest Tea

Stop. Breathe. Inhale. Exhale. Ahhhhh...

There's a Song in Her Heart

Stage presence. Wow.

It's Organic

In the metalsmithing studio, Iv'e been experimenting for the last few months with formfolding: I love the organic shapes that can be rendered with a few well-placed hits of the hammer...

Food Art Fun

I love what Claire does with the leavings of my stew...

Festive Fare

After months of planning, weeks of shopping, days of coooking, and hours of prepping, the food for the Art Angels Festival finally came together! I'm thrilled with the way everything turned out... if you're still hungry, you can see more to eat here.

The Mom is Mightier Than the Pen...

He who writes on the wall will spend a long time washing the wall...

Practice Makes Perfect

After a long hiatus, the kids are headed back into the big blue over the winter holidays. So, everybody into the pool! I joined them in solidarity, and also to make sure a certain someone was paying attention... Feels good to get neutrally buoyant!

Sugar and Spice

Nothing helps with a crummy old earache

like a soothing cup of hot cocoa...