Year's End 2006

A custom for many at the end of the year is to pause, think back over the last year and what best and worst has come from it. A few items I thought about are: books, not newly published but new to me. “Jane Austen, A Life” by Claire Tomalin published in 1997 and “Her Own Woman, The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft” by Diane Jacobs published in 2001 are two of the best books I read out of many excellent ones. Curiously they are about two women writers living in the same time period, the late 1700s and early 1800s but living very different lives. Both their lives were severely affected by the lack of fortunes left to care for them. Yet both have left an imprint, both are still being read about and their works republished two hundred years later.

Another book that thrilled me (that I could read and learn about them) was “Stealing Heaven, The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard” by Marion Meade published in 1979. Nine hundred years after the fact, the love this couple shared until they died, separated by the walls of convents and monasteries is still exciting in the printed form. How can I choose a ‘best’ book? Impossible.

Looking over the videos I acquired this year in the absence of having television channels I choose The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and Lynn Collins. This movie has it all, a great acting cast, great background music, great quality, colorful period clothing and scenes of a favorite city, Venice. Love, mystery, humor, history and the dialog of a poet. What more can there be?

I choose BBC’s “The Duchess of Duke Street” for the best series. This story has been around for a while, but I just found it by chance. Based on the true story of Edwardian Rosa Lewis who began as a servant and emerged into the owner-manager of the London society’s sought after private hotel, the Bentinck.

For the music category I have taken classical music into my sphere of listening. This came about by watching-Impromtu, Children of the Century and Chopin, Desire for Love-all videos of George Sand and Frederic Chopin and their mutual friend, Franz Liszt. After watching the movies I just had to know more about their music and I’m following up with books on their lives and other composers of classical music.
It’s been a good that will hopefully lead on to more good things in 2007.

Bizarre Happening

For the end of the year I report a bizarre happening to me. This is an extreme event that is hard to believe but true. I’m not an athletic person but have played baseball, football and soccer as a youth. I ran and walked for daily exercise for the past 15 years and now ride a stationary bike nearly everyday to keep up bone density, strength, etc.

Yesterday while sitting in a wing-backed chair reading a smallish size book, “A Mapmaker’s Dream” Meditations of Fra Mauro, Cartographer of the Court of Venice, by James Cowan I sprained my wrist! I was holding the book in my left hand, thumb on the inside, next three fingers on the outside and pinkie on the inside opposite page. Try it. Since the book is new and 7” X 5” I applied quick pressure to open the pages wider to read along the crease easier. Yipes! I pulled some kind of muscle or delicate vein or something that now gives me great pain at the slightest wrong movement. Bizarro!
Of course I wrapped it. Can you imagine trying to explain to a doctor how I sprained my wrist?

Remembering Names

Everyone seems to have their own little ways of remembering names. Some with thought association as in what the person looks like i.e. John Bull-think of an English Bulldog, Mary Kay-think pink, Alice Bird-think bluejay. This can be embarrassing if you slip and use the association word instead of the name. Oh well.

Others use the repeat technique. Repeat the person’s name over and over again as you’re shaking hands, of course it’s hard to listen to what is being said while you’re concentrating on your repeats. Also it’s difficult to do this when you’re meeting several people at once.

Another way is to really look at a person while you’re hearing their name. I like to use this technique. This makes it especially embarrassing that I recently, in my last blog, took two fine individuals and formed them into one. My apologies to June Gibbs and Judy Baker. My mind was too full of bathing puppies, associating you both with the joyful event.

New Puppy Wash

When June Gibbs invited me to the puppy wash at the new Animal Shelter, I heartily agreed to be there on Friday. The event is no longer a social gathering of animal lovers sharing an evening of volunteering, but it’s just as satisfying.

While waiting for a working crew to check in I played with the kittens. This gives them a chance to be out of their cages with the reassuring comfort of human touch. It gives me comfort, too. Sometimes I just get so busy with life. Stopping to play with a kitten or a puppy brings me right back to basic human needs. A connection.
The new facilities at the shelter are great to work in, organized, efficient. The puppies are as much fun as always, showing their different personalities early in their life. Some sit docile, letting us rub and scrub them, others are so full of energy they can’t sit still. They all love being towel dried getting ready to meet their adopted parents.