shamash says...

Rome: Prosecco, Espresso, Caffe Greco

We are not Caesar, and we avoided the Forum, so I can say with confidence that The Ides of March was by far our best day in Rome. After days of clouds and rain, the sun and the moon both showed their faces. We couldn’t seem to tear ourselves away from the Piazza de España and by dusk, we were still there, drinking prosecco at a café under moon clouds.

“How do we rearrange our lives to live in this magnificent city?” we ask ourselves. There’s something about Rome at night, especially under a waxing moon, that causes me to think that reinventing my life and steering it against all the plans that drive me forward is the most natural thing in the world to do. Here, in this city of fallen empires and lovers on Vespas, going against the current of one’s well-planned life seems possible, even wise. The words of Keats, once an expatriate in Rome,

Water, Wires, and the Power of a Pen

Charlie, my kitten-turned-cat, is still all legs and all ears; we shall see if her body catches up with her appendages. I have no doubt I will be blamed in her cat therapy sessions for an identity crisis for my recent mistake in thinking she was male. In reality, she’s a dog-cat, drinking water out of the toilet and my bathtub, a sociable licker, and an eager greeter-at-the-doorer.

Read on for surprising, historical photos from this week.

The Class that Ruined My Blog Life

Over the years blogging had taken me away from my spiral, hardbound notebooks, my multi-colored pens, my propensity to glue things (like ticket stubs, favorite articles, and paraphernalia found on bar counters, restaurants floors, and airplane seat pockets) into my journal . So, when I saw the Split Rock Arts Program offering the course called “The Visual Journal: Exploring Urban Landscape" taught by artist by Julie Baugnet (an artist featured in Drawing from Life by Jennifer New), I caught the first plane to the Twin Cities. I wasn’t disappointed.

(all photos by shamash)

Poetry Collections: May Not Have But Certainly Must

  Sherry tagged me with the meme “have or must have collections of poetry”. The exercise inspired me to re-visit my bookshelf. Here are a few.

Julia Spicher Kasdorf

photo by Heidi Lynne Photography

Daiquiris with David Greenberg

One of David T. Greenberg’s published books has sold over a quarter of a million copies. His father, Jack Greenberg, was one of the attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the United States Supreme Court. 

Add a few papaya daiquiris, a dollop of green tea leaf salad, and a splash of good advice on writing from someone who’s “been there”, mix together in the Monsoon, and presto! You’ve got the recipe for deliciously inspiring evening, or at the very least to answer to the question What Ever Happened to Humpty Dumpty?

"The Hemingway Challenge"

I give you the

Hemingway Challenge.

Write a story in six words.

Here’s mine.

Mind Your Head

I had to take a picture of this message on the low-ceilinged baggage claim area at the airport on the Thai island of Ko Samui.

MIND YOUR HEAD: a good piece of advice for tall people reaching for their luggage, and even better, a good reminder to those of us who spend way too much time thinking.

If I could just stop thinking so much, I’d be a lot happier. It’s my mind, after all, that keeps me awake at night and feeds my insomnia. Out on Koh Pha Ngan Island last week, my thoughts drifted out and away, and I slept in a deep and dreamless sleep.

Dragon Queen recently showed me some excerpts from Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” that reminded me of how excessive thought causes us to suffer. Here are some thoughts on how the act of surrender can be one of our greatest gifts:

"True surrender… does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean to cease making plans or initiating positive action. Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. The only place where you can experience the flow of life is in the Now, so to surrender is to accept the present moment unconditionally and without reservation."

I have a lot to learn about surrender, about living in the NOW, about not dwelling on the past or the future, but focusing on the present moment. So, these days, I’m “minding my head” and watching that I don’t spend too much time dwelling on the past or planning for the future.

NOW is a nice place to be.

Look below the fold for more on this subject:

Books Like Blink: A Questionnaire

If I Were…. and the Which Book Are You? quiz inspired such original, creative responses from readers. So, when I came across this interesting questionnaire over at Scheiss Weekly, I decided to take it. I hope you will take it, too because Shamash would love to hear YOUR answers to this questionaire.

1. If you couldn't get out of "Fahrenheit 451," what book would you like to be?

[This could mean one of two things: the book gets burned, and therefore no longer exists, or else the book gets memorized by the faithful outcasts, and is therefore is immortal.)

Deserves to be burned:

Any book in the “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. I can’t stand the authors (a “team with a shared evangelical fervor”) , and what they represent (LaHaye is the cofounder of the Moral Majority), even though one in eight Americans are reading this series.

Deserves to be memorized:

The Essential Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks)

2. Did you ever have a crush on a fictional character?

Oh, yes:

-the tall, dark, mysterious men in the Harlequin romances that I read when I was in middle/high school

-Asher Lev in My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

-Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

-fictional, big, bad guys with attitude (and tattoos) like these in "Gothic" novels. Where's the bat for the SHARP bodyguard, and why wasn't the chick wearing a"Hand of Fatima" round her neck? Where are the guys like this in real life who rescue a damsel in leather and studs?

3. What was the last book you bought?

A cookbook: Green’s Greens: Mostly Vegetables with an Oriental Twist by Daniel Green

4. What was the last book you read?

Punished by Rewards The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans,A's, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn

5. What book are you reading now?

Technopoly: the Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman

6. Five books you would take with you to a deserted island?

1. a. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
2. b. The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
3. c. a coloring book (with crayons)
4. d. The Holy Bible
5. e. Drawing on the Right side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

7. The last book given to you?

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

(thanks to “My Precious” Ruby, who, by request, hand-carried it all the way from Abu Dhabi and speed-read it on the plane.)

8. Three people you're going to pass this on to, and why?

Have Coffee Will Write: because I like the books he reads

Expat Nomad: because I always love to read his responses to quizzes and other, general questions about life (and the differences between the male and the female psyche!)

Legend of Y and Ms. Penelope, because they are bibliophiles, just like me.

Dry Spell

For those of you who’ve been following my blog since its birth in November, I’m a faithful blogger when not on holiday, averaging 3-5 posts a week.

But alas, I’ve hit a dry spell.

I can’t explain why, but I’ve lost the ambition to blog. I’m not sure why this is (because blogging is one of my favorite pastimes), but perhaps it has something to do with my other passions recently, namely:

1. Cooking new vegetarian meals and inviting good friends (as guinea pigs!) to dinner.
2. Reading good books like Blink by Malcolm Gladwell and Punished by Rewards: the Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn (I highly recommend both!)
3. Running the Hash, where I took this photo of a dried up riverbed in the countryside of this country somewhere in Asia.
4. Creating kick-ass units for my classes, namely, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, poetry, and photo manipulation in Photoshop.

5. Organizing my life for my upcoming move from serviced apartment into a high-ceiling-ed home with garden and yard and lots of space to paint and collage. (Horray!!!)

6. Acquiring accessories/clothes for Birthday Boy’s upcoming Goth party.

Perhaps the blog spirit will soon visit me once again.

Until then, be patient, my faithful readers. I love reading your comments….

I’ll get back on track sometime soon, Legend of Y, Datta, Expat Nomad, Have Coffee, and Sara.

Which Book Are You?

You're A Prayer for Owen Meany!
by John Irving
Despite humble and perhaps literally small beginnings, you inspire faith in almost everyone you know. You are an agent of higher powers, and you manifest this fact in mysterious and loud ways. A sense of destiny pervades your every waking moment, and you prepare with great detail for destiny fulfilled. When you speak, IT SOUNDS LIKE THIS!
Take the Book Quiz at the Blue Pyramid.

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