Greed Is Good ... Right?

Do you remember Gordon Gekko's speech in the movie Wall Street?

"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."

We were meant to be shocked by that speech. It was meant to change our way of thinking, but it doesn't seem to have done so. This satellite photograph shows what greed can do. Greedy intelligent executives of British Petroleum (BP) convinced folks that it was safe to drill for offshore oil, in the same vicinity as the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, and the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, and as a result, 42,000 gallons a day of crude oil are spilling into this beautiful area, from an offshore oil well that blew up and sank. When that oil slick lands on those beaches -- and it will -- that area will never be the same.

Mother Nature keeps giving us wake-up calls, and we keep ignoring them. And we'll keep on ignoring them as long as there is greed.

What Really Happened To The Dinosaurs...!

Ever have one of those days...?

Welcome To My New Adirondack Chairs...

A few weeks ago I decided to get some new Adirondack chairs for my little treehouse terrace. I wanted wood, and I wanted something I didn't have to assemble. Well, zero one out of two isn't bad. On Sunday I set out on my quest to find the perfect chairs. Just as I had given up all hope, I stumbled into Home Depot, and collapsed into a display chair -- et voila! there they were -- exactly the chairs I wanted. I asked the clerk how much they were, and the price was fairly reasonable. My next question was, "Do I have to assemble them?"

"Nope," she replied. "You just have to take them out of the box and unfold them..."

What could be more perfect? Sold...!

Why did I believe her? When I opened the boxes, the chairs were in several pieces, with instructions on how to assemble them, and a list of equipment required. By the way, what is a ring spanner?

I called the store and asked if I could return the chairs and have my money refunded. I said I had purchased the chairs specifically on the condition that I was not required to assemble them.

As fast as you can say "Adirondack", two representatives of Home Depot were at my door, offering to pick up the chairs, take them back to Home Depot and assemble them, and deliver them back to me in the finished condition. After much to and fro, and a credit offered to me for my trouble, I am in possession of the assembled chairs, and they're ready to be used. Now, if only we would get some spring weather so I could power wash the deck and landscape my terrace. I guess I'll use my credit at Home Depot to buy some bedding plants. Right now I'm fighting with the squirrels for the last of their peanut stash in my planter boxes. But they'd better not sit on my chairs, the little b*ggers.

Oh, and by the way, the chairs are not wood. You'd never guess, wood would you?

What Is A Photograph...?

Definition of Photography: pho·tog·ra·phy
Pronunciation: \fə-ˈtä-grə-fē\
Function: noun
The art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (as film or a CCD chip).
Etymology: From the Greek words phos ("light"), and graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or graphí, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines", "drawing".

The man in this picture is engaged in a deep conversation with us. He is saying, "You can see me, but I can also see you. I know you are there, you are looking at me, and I'm aware that you're looking at me. I have left an image of myself for you." He is saying to us, "Allow me to introduce myself," and it's almost as if he is ready to offer us a cup of coffee. By almost any definition, this image is a photograph -- except that, it was done 362 years ago, in 1648. The 362 years that separate us do not exist. This picture seems so real, and is so compelling, I can't look at it without being drawn away from the 21st Century and into 1648. All sense of time is suspended.

More than any other work of art this man has produced, I believe this drawing is his immortality. The drawing is not as famous as most of his other works, and perhaps many people might not even recognize him. But he gazes out at the world, possibly for centures to come, and tells us he was here, he lived, and despite his extraordinary talent, he was just a normal, regular, ordinary person like everyone else -- sitting at his kitchen table, sketching. And in case you don't recognize his signature in the bit of lace curtain at the top of the window, this is Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn.

Rembrandt.

To me, this picture is an incredible photograph, an immortal snapshot suspended in time.

Janie

Every once in a while we meet people who are larger-than-life, and they make an immediate and lasting impression upon us. Janie was just such a person. She was the mother of someone who had been a friend of mine, and the first time my friend took me home to meet his parents, I was gobsmacked. I had never been in the presence of such wealth, and I think my jaw dropped. However, Janie wore her wealth comfortably. She had been the product of aristocracy and Swiss finishing schools, and she knew how to make people feel at home. Janie was an interesting person. She once told me she had been one of the original "Bond girls". She had worked for Sir William Stephenson, known as The Man They Call Intrepid, and the person on whom Ian Fleming had based his James Bond stories. According to Ian Fleming, "James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is William Stephenson."

Janie had two sons, and like some mothers, she felt that none of her sons' friends were "good enough" for them, and that included me. It wasn't until years later that I learned Janie had actually liked me, and she was sorry her son and I were no longer friends.

After my mother died, Janie embraced my daughter and me into the family fold. We were invited for Christmas, and on Christmas morning Janie and her husband opened a huge wooden crate full of bottles of Champagne -- a gift from the President of some European country -- I can't remember now which one. Janie's husband was on the Board of Directors of General Electric, and every year Janie received a new top-of-the-line refrigerator and stove, which I always admired. One year there was a knock at my door, and two delivery men were standing there with a stove. Janie had received her brand-new General Electric stove, and she sent me her "last year's" model.

Janie was an amazing cook, and we enjoyed many wonderful dinners in her beautiful dining room, surrounded by gorgeous antique furniture and silverware, and the best wine and port. My friend, who was rough around the edges most of the time, turned into a completely different person whenever he was in his mother's presence. He slipped very smoothly into his private-school "aristocratic" persona, his manners were impeccable, and he always referred to Janie as "Mother Dear" -- never "Mom".

It's strange, I have thought of Janie often over the years, even though I don't have the fondest memories of my friendship with her son. It was definitely not one of the most pleasant times in my life and I try not to remember it, but I was fascinated with Janie. In an odd way, she was one of the anchors in my life -- a touchstone as it were -- and I believe I learned something from her. Even though she had been blessed with beauty and wealth, her life sometimes was in turmoil because of something stupid her sons were doing -- or not doing -- even well into their adulthood. Janie knew how to be the steady center of the disorder and chaos. It was what she had been trained to do, and she was good at it.

I thought about Janie on Tuesday morning and I wondered how she was, and I hoped she was well. In the last couple of years I had thought about visiting her, but I just never got around to doing it. Yesterday I found out that Janie died -- on Tuesday morning. She just decided that it was time to go, and that was it. That's pretty much how Janie would do it -- no fuss, no muss -- just do it. But, what an amazing life she had. I'm glad I knew her.

911: What Is Your Emergency...?

If you haven't seen me around the blogs lately, it's because I have been enjoying my new bed.

(Oh, that doesn't sound very good does it...?)

What I mean is, after months years of procrastinating, I finally bought a new bed. The moment it was delivered, I put on clean sheets, climbed into it and promptly fell asleep. For a long time. This morning I woke up thinking, "Oh my goodness, this is how it feels to have a good night's sleep." I really felt like Goldilocks; the bed was just right.

I was a bit concerned at first because the bed is quite very high off the floor, and I felt like the princess in The Princess and the Pea. I'm not very tall, and I wondered if I would need a ladder to get into this thing? And what about if I hop out of bed in the middle of the night. Are my feet going to find the floor?  Or would I  be stranded up there until someone could rescue me?

"911:  What is your emergency?"

"I'm afraid to get out of my new bed.  Can someone please bring me a ladder?"

Today for the first time in a while, I have tons more energy. What a difference a good night's sleep makes -- on a good bed. I think I'll walk to work.

How Green Was Our Valley...?

This week is Earth Week, and the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and Gordon Campbell, the Premier of our Province, chose yesterday as the day to announce yet another multi-billion $$$$ dam in the Peace River Valley region our province. In addition to that, he flew five plane loads of people up there, just to make his ill-timed announcement. Is he stupid, arrogant, or does he really just not care?
The Sierra Club called the Site C decision "misguided." "Instead of investing billions of dollars in a dam whose need is unproven, we should first spend our time and money developing a full provincial framework for future energy development before making a final decision on Site C," said George Heyman, executive director of the organization's B.C. branch. The loss of a huge tract of forest would leave fewer trees to soak up carbon, while flooded farmland would reduce the province's food security, said Heyman.

That concern was echoed by a David Suzuki Foundation spokesman. "They haven't looked at the costs that this dam is going to incur, in terms of the climate," said the foundation's science director, Faisal Moola. Moola said the project has the potential of destroying forest land that provides "a critical carbon sink," that is "sequestering the greenhouse gases the cause climate change." ... Vancouver Sun

Peace River Valley

Why do we need more electricity? So we can make more stuff so people can buy more stuff and get rid of their old stuff? There was a very interesting program on "American Experience" last night, documenting the rise of automobile-worship and the degradation of cities as a result. Coincidentally, the damage caused by automobiles, their miles of highways and the attendant smog, corresponded with the birth of the environmental movement, when scientists, savvy politicians and activitists realized what was happening to the earth, and how just how far we humans had gone towards poisoning ourselves. We are the only animal on earth capable of our own annihilation just by our very existance. But I don't think we have reached the tipping point -- yet. We still have time to stop and to even reverse the damage. Whether one believes in God or evolution, we have been given a planet of immense beauty on which to live. It truly is a Garden of Eden, and it is irresponsible for us to ruin it.

Celebrate Earth Day -- plant a tree. And leave your car at home...

The Changing Human Face...

The other day as I was riding home from work, two women carrying babies got onto the bus. They sat down on each side of a very elderly, craggy-faced gentleman, and I couldn't help noticing the juxtaposition of the two fresh-faced babies -- with their shiny hair, bright eyes and smooth skin -- next to the very wrinkled, grizzled old man. I thought to myself, "At one time in his life, that old man looked just like those babies."

I am fascinated with the human face; I love studying it and drawing it. Like snowflakes or fingerprints, no two faces are the same, although some faces can be similar. Even with identical twins there is always a dissimilarity -- however small -- to make them distinct. The human face undergoes several transitions as it moves from infancy to old age. In just 80 or so revolutions around the sun -- not very many in the scheme of things -- the human face changes from the picture on the left to the picture on the right. And in their own way, both faces are beautiful. The picture on the right is a painting by Rembrandt, and he certainly recognized the beauty in the old man's face.

A good example of someone whose face has been in the public eye all her life is the Queen. It's interesting in this picture to see how her face has changed from the first photograph to the last, and yet she is still basically the same person. She's fortunate that her face has not changed so much as to make her features unrecognizable. How many people can say that? A few years ago I went to a high school reunion, and I did not recognize many of the people there. Thank goodness for name badges. On the other hand, many of the the folks had not changed at all, and it was as if they had stepped into a time machine.

I sometimes look at Phinnaeus and Marigold and imagine what they will look like as adults. They are starting now to take on some of the characteristics of adult faces. Of course, they both have beautiful faces, but time will make its imprint, just as it does on everyone. I hope the inevitable lines in their faces will be laugh lines and not frown lines, and that their eyes will stay bright with the intellectual curiosity they have now.

As I sat looking at the very old gentleman sitting between the two cherubic babies, it occurred to me that, at another place in time, the old man is a little boy, running through a field on a warm summer afternoon.

On winding lakes and rivers wide,
That ask no aid of sail or oar,
That fear no spite of wind or tide!
Nought cared this body for wind or weather
When Youth and I lived in't together.

... Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Goodness, Gracious ... I'm Amazed...!

I thought I would log on tonight and do a quick little post after my brief hiatus, and then I read all your wonderful comments, and I really am amazed...! You have no idea how much I appreciate your visits, and your fabulously witty, intelligent comments. What a special bunch of people you are. Goodness, I really am quite overwhelmed. Thank you...!

There ... I just broke one of my own rules, and used two exclamation marks in one paragraph.

On a slightly different -- but similar -- note, our friend Eddie Bluelights at Clouds and Silvery Linings is honoring me with The Sunday Roast this weekend, and you can read the post here. Once again, I am quite amazed. "How did that happen?" you ask. Well, I'm not quite sure, but it sure is fun. And I'm in good company, judging from the past blogs who have been featured on the Sunday Roast. Which is a perfect segue into what I would really like to say, which is that I don't believe there are any blogs that should be singled out for any blog post awards.  They're just silly.  Wherever you get groups of people together, you get those who find it necesary to establish a hierarchy. It's human nature, but it ultimately takes the fun out of it for 95% of the other people involved.

All of you have fabulous blogs, and occasionally I stumble upon one that is so good it knocks my socks off. Sometimes for new bloggers, breaking into the blogging world can make folks feel like that kid in grade eight who's new in school and isn't sure if anyone is going to like them. We've all been there. Just remember, it's supposed to be fun so try not to take it too seriously.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

Cheers...!

I'm taking a short hiatus from blogging for a while. It seems my blog is becoming even more boring than usual *y-a-w-n* and I am getting fewer and fewer commenters each day. I love the folks who continue to comment, and I will continue to visit you. But my blog is sort of strange -- it has no category. I don't belong to the über-blogger, POTW crowd, and I don't have wonderful photographs to share with you, and I don't have wonderful recipes and decorating tips. So, I'm not sure I even have anything interesting to say. My observations on life are often not the same as everyone else's. In any case, I'm sure I'll be back soon -- maybe tomorrow -- but for now...

Cheers!