Oh, now, Mugsy. Mindlessness…as a concept, can take you a long way…if you can grasp it. Every cell in my body seems to know just what’s best for my organism on any given day…even the on the days when I’m out of my mind… I ALWAYS know when I’m thirsty. And lucky me. I have water in the fridge!

It’s okay Dona…I’m glad to see Kahlil Gibrahn getting a little play. I had probably read “The Prophet” three or four times before my first child was born…but before I ever left the hospital they gave me one of those how-to-care-for-your baby pamphlets, and this quote was on the back of it, and it became a kind of North Star for my parenting. Whether or not I was a “bow that is stable” still haunts me. But now that it’s just me and my dog, I think even Henry, even the rose-bush I got for Mother’s Day, even this zesty election, even me…it’s all Life…longing for itself. And that’s precious stuff. Now, I gotta go, or the grammar police’ll get me.

My health!

Wooohoo! Jaki! Congratulations!

Yo!

Yes, eleanor, Frannie, immodestagoddessa…let’s all stick around. wowOwow gives us the debate we can’t have anywhere else. There are know-it-alls and above-it-alls among us, but I’m here to learn. And I’ve come to really value these incredible wowOwow women…the “they” of which you speak. My son just returned from Baghdad. It’s a horrible thing, this war. I don’t understand why two of my sons have felt compelled to participate, it’s not like I didn’t try to help them consider the down side, but two of my three sons became soldiers. And they’ll both have new-borns to think about before the end of the year. I know what you mean about “keeping busy”…but sometimes I feel like I’ve had to shut down a big part of my brain since March of 2003, just to avoid contemplating the unthinkable. They’d come home safe, but the Army just kept sending them back and back and back… I’m the luckiest mom on the planet. Happy Mother’s Day! But there are over 4,000 moms out there who aren’t so fortunate….and millions more whose names I’ll never know how to pronounce.

If we all got everything we deserve, we’d all be in big trouble. immodesta goddessa…love your name…trips right off the toungue… and while I admired your passion in the first paragraph of your post, but you lost me at “butt sucking dirt wad.” Ew! At the risk of sounding like a hall-monitor…shunning each other is hardly the answer. Say what you want about Mugsy, she’s courteous. And when the need arises to voice an alternative view, Renata is my hero. And Suzanne, y’got Frankie singing “The Lady is a Tramp”?

Hillary Clinton’s talents would be utterly wasted in the Vice presidency…and, I believe the power of the Vice-Presidential office is defined by the Constitution. It’s arguable that Cheney trampled these definitions, but one man’s disregard should not provide precedence for further expansion of Vice-presidential powers. I have no doubt that, should Senator Obama become our next President, he’ll find a meaningful position for Senator Clinton within his cabinet.

I know, Lorraine. And to my chagrin, most of the grammar police are women. But still… How ‘bout womben…with a silent “b”…just to keep the boys mindful.

Ach! My glutes! Great link, Suzanne.

Dear Suzanne de Cornelia, Whatever happened to Suzanne Conti? Where’d she go? You were the first two people I met on this site. And then the almighty Mugsy appeared. I just love it here. I wish I could work as hard as the two of you do. My computer skills are minimal…still. So I’m so grateful for this site. Everything seems to play and come through. I tried to post a profile of Henry, but I don’t think it took. I recently replaced my hard drive with a new one, but I think this one gives me more access to video feeds…and to think I was heartbroken when the other one crashed. I feel the same way about Al Gore. Along about now, when I consider what he’s accomplished, the consciousness-raising thing he’s doing, I’m fine he didn’t get stuck in the White House over the past eight years. He elected himself to be a global leader, and I’m just fine with that. Frightening as it all was in 2000, we aren’t all brain-dead. Thank you for posting this presentation by Al Gore. And all the other lovely little pebbles you’ve dropped along my path. The Shostakovich discovery was such a random, unexpected act of kindess…just between you and me…thank you again. I do think his (Shostakovich’s) story is timely. Start with the day Stalin died. Prokofiev died the same day. And where was Shostakovich? And how did he feel, and what did he do that day? Y’know as a kid growing up, his parents were anti-Romanov. His mother hid a printing press in their apartment. He had an uncle who’d escaped from Siberia and visited the family in St. Petersburg. His dad came running into the apartment at the outbreak of the Revolution and yelled, “Children! Freedom!” Anyway, he’d believed in Lenin, but was fairly disillusioned by the time Stalin died. I think there’s a movie there. Maybe Candice will spread the idea around. She might find his wife’s character interesting…who was still alive the day Stalin died. March 15th, 1953…I’m pretty sure. But not for long. It’s a movie I’d love to see…especially with Baryzhnakov as Shostakovich. I saw him on Charlie Rose the other night and thought, “throw a pair of horn-rimmed glasses on that man the deal is done!” But it might help with all this right/left nutso stuff while the planet’s in such trouble. Movies, even TV shows, can wake people up, sometimes. Candice has been part of many. And you, my darling, wake me up everyday!

Well…if their parents can afford it.

But I’ll bet the writers of the honorable posts from this week are feeling pretty special. Mugsy, rouge your knees! Is this a two-fer or a three-fer? Lorraine, Maurine…it’s been a pleasure. Carry on!

Oh, yes. I did love that little MG. It was my dad’s. He knew MG’s. And he trusted me to drive it. And I did feel pretty special behind the wheel.

Very nicely put, Misha