Gaugin and "The Call"

I went to the Cleve Art Museum last weekend - there was one picture that amused Sharon - it was a Gaugin - "The Call" - well, look at it and remember, Gaugin moved to Fiji to basically be a hedonist with the village women, there was nothing "lofty" left about him, lol . . . anyway, on the placard, someone was trying to tell us that the village woman in the picture that Gaugin painted, the one with the "come hither" finger, was calling Destiny. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Sharon laughed and said any woman who is a mother will tell you that this woman is calling her child that you can't see in the illustration of the villagers, probably a boy,who is getting in some sort of trouble, to "GET OVER HERE NOW." I can only figure that the curator who wrote this, this "calling destiny" was a single male with no children. I haven't quite figured out how to make this link live - I know, I'm a sorry case - so you'll have to cut and past in another Tab.
www.abcgallery.com/G/gauguin/gauguin74.html

Window Shopping

From the book I am reading:

". . . in France window-shopping was called leche vitrine, the licking of the window; a wonderful expression that somehow conveyed the longing felt by those who wanted the goods within but could not buy them."

What a great explanation.

Interesting Insights from Weekend Conversation

I was in Cleveland this past weekend for a "Girl's Weekend" with Sharon, Heather and Susan S. I had such a nice, nice time, I felt like I was dreaming - we arrived on Friday afternoon, I was served good wine (there IS something about "You get what you pay for" and wine) and had a massage. Ahh. Somewhere in that evening, in that state of relaxing conversation, Sharon was telling us how she had been wrangling with either staying in the Spanish cong. or going back to an English cong. She and her husband had been in Spanish for 9 years, but he died last year, and she didn't know if she could continue going to Spanish without him, the reminders of him being gone were there every meeting . . .

She talked with a brother about it - I think she said her C.O. - and he said to her, "Would the hole that you would be leaving in the congregation be bigger than the hole you would be filling in the new congregation?" He told her that they needed brothers and sisters with years of history and experience in the truth, and now that her husband was gone, she was the person with the most years of experience in the truth in the congregation. . . that they needed her. She has decided to stay for now.

She says after 9 years it is still hard - she says she has to be very, very diligent in her personal study because there is still so much at the meetings she doesn't get - but that her comprehension of the language continues to get better - she says she'll plateau for a while and will feel like she isn't getting anywhere, and then she will grow with it. I add this comment for the both of you, Shonda and Julie.

Bumper Sticker

Well, this was an interesting bumper sticker:

"Religion is for people afraid of hell; Spirituality is for people who have already been there."

I know what they mean.

Present Circumstances

I heard an interesting speech . . . that we can always be empowered, content and fulfilled no matter what our current circumstances, but most people do not WANT to be empowered, content and fulfilled with their current circumstances because they are afraid then they will always be in their current circumstances . . but the aim is to be empowered, content and fulfilled with your current circumstances while at the same time to remain open to possibility.

Disney on Ice

On Sunday evening I took B to see Disney on Ice. How was it you ask? Well, it was a Disney production, so it was pretty fabulous, of course - they know how to put on a show. They opened with Aladdin pretty much and incorporated all the princess/prince characters in pair figure skating - the other bigger productions were Finding Nemo - yes, with the sharks, Pinocchio with a whale, Mulan - Mulan was pretty spectacular -the ice was colored with red lights - at one point there was an "avalanche" of a huge white curtain that was drawn over the Huns, and Mulan even shot off a cannon with a flare.

The show right next to us was pretty interesting too. B and I were sitting in the last two seats of an entire row of 14. The rest of the seats were taken by several women and children who all knew each other. They had ALL the regalia - each of them wore crowns, including the women. The crowns had either Mickey Mouse ears, or the jewels in the crown lit up and flashed. The kids also all had flashing light wands. They were really having a good time. They also were all eating event food - mammoth cups of pop - I mean, is it possible to drink that much pop without your bladder exploding or going into insulin shock? Also, plastic trays with compartments of "nachos", which were really tortilla chips in one section, salsa in one section, and then Cheez Whiz or whatever in the last section. They were really enjoying that too. During the performance, they had their feet up on the wall in front of us, watched and ate. At the same time I was watching this, I was observing in general that there was not very much applause following each act, and I wondered why. I might be wrong about this, but while watching the group next to me and pondering the applause dilemma, I sort of thought for a lot of people there, it was simply "watching TV", only live. Know what I mean? The TV was just different. Hmm. They weren't really participating, just watching. Interesting.I am not making them "wrong", just thinking how different this was as opposed to an audience that would have seen a production like this even 10 or 20 years ago. And so I am pondering this in a lot of areas . . watching vs. participating . . .