which is always a grand time, we were discussing books, movies, families. Pretty typical stuff. One of us at the table is a computer pro (I'm avoiding words that seem to pigeon hole folk) who handles computer-system stuff at a local animal rescue site. Think big cats. His descriptions and comments about the facility make me want to see for myself and then, possibly, get out the ol' checkbook. I can't provide care to the animals directly, but I could help.
Then on the subject of family, that wonderful crew of people involved with your origins, from whom you get your earliest knowledge of people and the world, from whom many of us have run as far and fast as we can: we are the sum of all we've experienced and learned; yet we can change, get better, work on self-improvement. It's strange how families can be offended by kin who wish to 'rise above their beginnings', meaning from the family perspective get to be better than the clan. I can't see how that's bad unless, I suppose, you want to abandon family and pretend your beginnings were fancier, more comfortable and more socially acceptable to some group you wish to join.
Seems most of us at dinner believe we have improved ourselves and have risen above poor beginnings. Yet, none of us are disengaged, disconnected, distanced from those families or origin. There's something worthwhile in those roots; maybe enough for us to build on as we became better personally and individually.
Movies and books were topics of interest as some of us are left over from a book club that has stumbled along and remains loosely connected. It was always intended to be social and a means of sharing books. Maybe as the summer wanes (please tell me it will someday cool down!) we can try again.
We discussed seeing the film version of The Help, a book we read last year and thoroughly enjoyed. We discussed the new movie Water for Elephants, another book club read that was quite good. I'm game to see both films, curious about how the stories have been retold on screen.
During conversation about books, I mentioned reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves and that it is highly entertaining. I laughed out loud many times reading this book. The author is clever and understates things in marvelous ways, and I had to laugh. How, you may ask, is a book about punctuation, the history and use of same, funny?
Let me share a passage, in which the author is discussing the misuse of the apostrophe and persons offended by this problem are at war with vendors, sign makers, printers and writers who ignore proper use. She admits that these visionaries/warriors are not appreciated and, if they intend to follow through with fixing the problems they'll need certain tools: correction fluid, big pens, stickers cut in a variety of sizes, both plain (for sticking over unwanted apostrophes), and coloured (for inserting where apostrophes are needed), tin of paint with big brush, guerrilla-style clothing, strong medication for personality disorder, loudhailer [i.e., bullhorn], gun.....
As I read this, I could imagine the writer with a straight face, writing all this down. Yes, I know, I need the strong medication.
I'm going to rely more on other methods of managing my personality disorder, yoga being one of them. In class last Friday, I had to fight off laughing during guided relaxation. We do the corpse pose; yes, that's what I said. Picture it: people lying on their backs, flat on the floor, arms at their sides, legs straight out, trying to melt into the floor. Can you see why the pose is so named? I digress. Instructor comes to each of us and places a small bag of beads (think very, very small bean chair) over our eyes. It's meant as a tool to aid relaxation; but the bag kept sliding off my eyes, over my forehead and onto the floor. My thought was the thing couldn't stay on my pointed head. I may never be able to use one of those things.
No matter - the rest of it seems to be fine and I'll just practice keeping my eyes closed. No, really. I don't peek around; doesn't matter what someone else is doing.
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