Be amazed, and if you're a fan of a certain movie, be amused too!

 

And so the ISS space station flew over the midwest US!

"Princess Bride" actors gathered for this panorama on some anniversary or another. There are two in picture frames who are no longer among us (or were at that time.)

On September 13, 2020, most of the original cast members of the 1987 film The Princess Bride took part in a virtual live dramatic reading of the film script to support Wisconsin Democrats. The returning cast included Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, and Carol Kane, with additional performances by Rob Reiner as the Grandfather, Josh Gad as Fezzik, Eric Idle as the Impressive Clergyman, Whoopi Goldberg as the Ancient Booer and the Mother, and Jason Reitman as the narrator, among others. Norman Lear joined the Q&A session at the end, which was hosted by Patton Oswalt. Cast members promoted the event beforehand using the hashtags "#PrincessBrideReunion" and "#DumpTrumperdinck." More than 110,000 viewers donated a dollar or more to Wisconsin Democrats to view the livestream, which raised $4.25 million and received widely positive reviews, with special praise for Patinkin's performance.

WIKIPEDIA

Today's quote:

No matter what we do or don't do, things will always change.
Change is constant and inevitable.  We need to trust ourselves
and persevere without despair...- Frank Ostaseski

The Five Invitations

Clouds but no rain that day, and Mrs. Carter's Memorial

 Yesterday a friend texted me to see if I was watching Rosalynn Carter's memorial service. I said no, but then thought I should.

It was touching, and the good old hymns from my Christian upbringing were nice to hear. But I did come away with a phrase she had said when working with President Carter in his term of office in DC. She said (as the reason she sat in on Cabinet Meetings) she wanted to be able to discuss everything, and wouldn't know how if she didn't try everything she knew how to help him succeed. Or maybe that was when she helped him run for Governor of Georgia. 

But to do everything one knows how in order to help someone else succeed...struck a chord for me. It came home to my sense that I can't really get going on things I wish I was doing. So I'm not doing everything I know how to do to even help myself.

Mrs. Trump (first row) Mrs. Obama, Mrs. Bush, Secretary Clinton, President Clinton, Dr. Biden, President Biden (unknown, unknown) President Carter.

Today's Poem:

Rewild Yourself

There are places in you

Where thousands of bright, tiny flowers

Open each morning to the sun

In meadows as vast as the sky.

An ancient alchemy courses through your bones.

It speaks in feathers and stones and

precious metals and the footprints of mandalas

left by the stories we tell with our lives.

Rewild yourself.

Until green tendrils sprout from your fingernails

And lichen swathes your eyebrows.

Rewild yourself.

Until your roots spread and uncoil and

Writhe down through soil and rock.

Rewild yourself.

Rise up into your magnificence and

Take your place among the constellations.

Rewild yourself.

The Earth is her own medicine.

Be yours.

by Caroline Mellor

Signs-2 Tuesday

 

No idea which sad corner these signs are on! And the following are admittedly somewhat hypothetical.

Today's poem:

HOMO SAPIENS: CREATING THEMSELVES
by Pattiann Rogers

I.

Formed in the black-light center of a star-circling
galaxy; formed in whirlpool images of froth
and flume and fulcrum; in the center image of herring
circling like pieces of silver swirling fast, a shoaling
circle of deception; in the whirlpool perfume of sex
in the deepest curve of a lily’s soft corolla. Created
within the images of the creator’s creation.

Born with the same grimacing wrench of a tree-covered
cliff split wide suddenly by lightning and opened
to thundering clouds of hail and rain.

Cured in the summer sun as if in a potter’s oven,
polished like a stone rolled by a river, emboldened
by the image of the expanse beyond earth’s horizon,
inside and outside a circumference in the image
of freedom.

Given the image of starlight clusters steadily silent
above a hillside-silence of fallen snow… let there be sleep.

II.

Inheriting from the earth’s scrambling minions,
images of thorn and bur, fang and claw, stealth,
deceit, poison, camouflage, blade, and blood…
let there be suffering, let there be survival.

Shaped by the image of the onset and unstoppable
devouring eclipse of the sun, the tempestuous, ecliptic
eating of the moon, the volcanic explosions of burning
rocks and fiery hail of ashes to death… let there be
terror and tears. Let there be pity.

Created in the image of fear inside a crawfish
skittering backward through a freshwater stream
with all eight appendages in perfect coordination,
both pincers held high, backing into safety beneath
a fallen leaf refuge… let there be home.

III.

Made in the image of the moon, where else
would the name of ivory rock craters shine
except in our eyes… let there be language.

Displayed in the image of the rotting seed
on the same stem with the swelling blossom…
let there be hope.

Homo sapiens creating themselves after the manner
and image of the creator’s ongoing creation — slowly,
eventual, alert and imagined, composing, dissembling,
until the right chord sounds from one brave strum
of the right strings reverberating, fading away
like evening… let there be pathos, let there be
compassion, forbearance, forgiveness. Let there be
weightless beauty.

Of earth and sky, Homo sapiens creating themselves,
following the mode and model of the creator’s creation,
particle by particle, quest by quest, witness by witness,
even though the unknown far away and the unknown
nearby be seen and not seen… let there be goodwill
and accounting, let there be praise resounding.

Neither Here nor There

  By the time most of you are reading this, I will be at my dental clinic having my teeth cleaned at 7:30 am. Then I'll think about breakfast! I know AC will be up way before me, but he's exceptional.

Roadside Memorial for those lost in Lahaina, Hawaii wildfire in August 2023

Nicolae Grigorescu - Andreescu at Barbizon - 1880.

Wish this motherly woman had come to my house. But I don't have a stove like that anyway.

Me at the dermatologist's - all is well.

Me after accidentally giving myself several skin tears over several days...and getting a nurse to give me first aid. The finger tear is back at the knuckle joint, but she just got crazy wrapping it up! Fortunately they are both healing fine. I still don't wash dishes...wonder how long that will go on. I've got rubber gloves.

Yesterday we had a US map with low temperature averages. This Dymaxion Map by Buckminster Fuller allows us to see appropriate sizes of each continent by cutting the globe in a different way from the often misleading Mercator version. Sorry Canada, you shrink to your real size!

Today's quote:

Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn’t know possible.

TIA WALKER

Wildfire and a map

This just shows the average low temperatures. Sorry, it is calling itself the hardiness zones.

The highway going through the tunnel is I-40 near the Tennessee border - in North Carolina. Hopefully the rain that came through on Tuesday Nov. 21 may have put a damper on this fire. As of the evening of the 23rd it was 1700 acres and 79% contained. Still a smoke problem on the interstate, and the Appalachian Trail is still closed in that area.

Today's quote:

I've also seen that great men are often lonely. This is understandable, because they have built such high standards for themselves that they often feel alone. But that same loneliness is part of their ability to create. -Yousuf Karsh, portrait photographer (1908-2002)

Walking together as a group

 Sepia Saturday November 25 suggests this:

So I want to show groups going down a street...maybe marching even!

The Highland Games held each summer at Grandfather Mountain, NC.

Did anyone say they had to be human, 

or even walking?

A Wild Life for Wildlife, endangered species sculpture by Gillie and Marc, New York, NY,

Three more sculpted figures walking a bronze dog in Asheville, being passed by a real person who may or may not have had any interest in them!

Our family were great at posing for group photos. Here from left are Alex and Dona V Rogers, Ada Rogers (matriarch in front) George Jr. (my father on tip toes in back) Mataley (my mother) and George Sr. (my grandfather.) Here gathered around Christmastime (see the snowman on the stoop?) perhaps the 1938 gathering. This house looks like the cottages on W. Woodlawn, San Antonio TX today.

And let's not forget the Women's Marches of 2017, wearing "Pussy Hats" in reference to Pres. Donald Trumps' statement of "grabbing them by the pussy."

Then there are always parades...

Today's quote:

 "With great power there must also come — great responsibility!"  Stan Lee

His recent passing probably means more to my sons than myself, as they devoured his comics when they were younger.

Stan Lee in 2014 by Gage Skidmore

"Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. 

"He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Comics which would later become Marvel Comics. He was the primary creative leader for two decades, leading its expansion from a small division of a publishing house to a multimedia corporation that dominated the comics and film industries.

"In collaboration with others at Marvel—particularly co-writers/artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko—he co-created iconic characters, including superheroes Spider-Man, the X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp, the Fantastic Four, Black Panther, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, the Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow. These and other characters' introductions in the 1960s pioneered a more naturalistic approach in superhero comics, and in the 1970s Lee challenged the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, indirectly leading to changes in its policies. 

"Lee became a figurehead and public face for Marvel Comics. He made appearances at comic book conventions around America, lecturing at colleges and participating in panel discussions

Wikipedia

Did you watch parades early Thanksgiving?

 I did. Decided that having been asked out for dinner, I didn't have to cook a feast for one. Therefore, a light breakfast and lunch, and could sit and take photos of our local (Asheville) parade, as well as 2 channels of the Macy's Parade.

If you could care less (like I have many years) you can skip to the end. It might be interesting to see the last performer. Talking about the aging population...

Our local news anchorwoman and weatherman. Channel WLOS

There's something more intimate about a man singing and playing a piano on a float right in front of you!

I love closed captions, except when they block off other things. Here's an aerial view of the Santa Claus float as it passes the news cameras at that corner.

Santa and Mrs. Claus, and I don't know about the balloon unicorn!

And to be able to say hi back to the Clauses too!

Then there's the huge crowd in New York City!

A Facebook friend in Tallahassee had a daughter, a band leader in her town in Florida, who played picalo in the Band Leader's Band here.

I haven't seen whatever Baby Yoda was featured in, but I like the idea!

This is as close as the TV and iPhone camera could get to seeing the Radio City Rockettes kicking together!

The Seasame Street float had many of the usual pals.

A really good band from the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, from Florida. They had a shooter incident a few years ago.

You may like Santa at the end of a parade these days, but I'll go for Cher. Speaking of how elders are able to keep on performing! (born May 20, 1946)

Today's quote:

“What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?”

 —

Thomas Merton

Happy Thanksgiving (in the US)

 

I hope this link works...Robin Wall Kimmerer shares "Corn Tastes Better On The Honor System" with Emergence Magazine. HERE.

If you're not familiar with Robin Wall Kimmerer, I would like to introduce you to one of my favorite authors. 

Emergence says this:

As we approach Thanksgiving this year, we are sharing one of our favorite features: “Corn Tastes Better on the Honor System,” by Potawatomi mother, scientist, and professor Robin Wall Kimmerer, with intricate illustrations and stop-motion animations made of hand-folded paper, by Suus Hessling. Taking us through maize’s nine-thousand-year history, Robin reflects on the ancient circle of reciprocity and collaboration that links this plant with humans, and considers what has been severed in this once deeply sacred relationship.

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos.

Today's quote:

 "think how much more interesting the news coverage would be if a liar's pants really did catch on fire!" from Patio Postcards Blog http://patioposts.blogspot.com/