January 31

I really love books.  Growing up we lived a block and a half from the local public library.  It was (is) a Carnegie Endowment library: deep brown brick, wide front steps, beautiful domed lobby, old polished wood counter.  Much of my childhood was spent in there reading, sitting on a leather hassock with my feet up on a cast iron radiator in the winter.

Since I've never used an ereader I have no idea if I'd even want to read a book on one.  Anne has a Nook so I should borrow it and give  it a try.  That said, the coolest tool I've ever seen is the Apple iPad.  I don't own one yet because I cannot think of a good reason that I need an iPad only lots of reasons why I want one.  In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyer talk about computers as they were in 1986.  The technology has gotten smaller, lighter, and more elegant, but the mystery of it still holds.

MOYERS:  Machines help us to fulfill the idea that we want the world to be made in our image, and we want it to be what we think it ought to be.

CAMPBELL:  Yes. But then there comes a time when the machine begins to dictate to you. For example; I have bought this wonderful machine -- a computer. Now I am rather an authority on gods, so I identified the machine -- it seems to me to be an Old Testament god with a lot of rules and no mercy.

MOYERS:  There is a fetching story about President Eisenhower and the first computers --

CAMPBELL:  -- Eisenhower went into a room full of computers. And he put the question to these machines, "Is there a God?" And they all start up, and the lights flash, and the wheels turn, and after a while a voice says, "Now there is."

MOYERS:  But isn't it possible to develop toward your computer the same attitude of the chieftain who said that all things speak of God? If it isn't a special, privileged revelation, God is everywhere in his work, including the computer.

CAMPBELL:  Indeed so. It's a miracle, what happens on that screen. Have you ever looked inside one of those things?

MOYERS:  No, and I don't intend to.

CAMPBELL:  You can't believe it. It's a whole hierarchy of angels -- all on slats. And those little tubes -- those are miracles.

January 30

One of the candidates for the new chair of my department gave a seminar today.  He used the most amazing graphic of a synaptic vesicle (see below).  After googling it, I learned that a synaptic vesicle averages 40 nanometers across.  I then googled a nanometer to make sure I knew exactly what that was.  If I understood it correctly, a nanometer is 1/1000 of a micron which is 1/1000 of a millimeter.  The blue dot in the corner, next to the number 30 is two millimeters across.  The entire square is 1.25 inches across.  Forty nanometers is really, really small, and yet there are things much smaller making up the vesicle itself.  It just boggles the mind.

While I was making my little calendar square for today, I watched a program on PBS called The Music Instinct: Science and Song.  It's all about the neuroscience of music.  When we listen to a piece of music that is very meaningful to us, our entire brain lights up.  And that is just one small bit of what they discussed in the program.  If you have the chance, definitely watch it....  Mary

A synaptic vesicle, up close and personal:  Takamori and Elsevier

January 29

Eileen is having a dinner party tonight.  She's making roast chicken with roasted root vegetables.  The house smells wonderful.  The iris are in a cobalt blue vase next to the table.  Rick and I are banished from the house for a couple of hours, so we're going out for a bite to eat, then going to Anne's house so I can watch Downton Abbey....  Mary

January 28

Eileen went to an estate sale today.  She found a framed copy of a Goethe poem:  "What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Courage has genius, power and magic in it."  Courage is the scariest part....  Mary

January 27

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Speak up.  Speak out....  Mary

January 26

A very good friend got very good health news today.  Thank heavens for that!

As for me, I'm so dull that my vaporizer is the most interesting thing in my day.... Mary

January 25

This is my brain on a cold.  We all just need to take a page from the cat playbook:  When in doubt, take a nap....  Mary

January 24

This cold is getting the better of me.

Years ago, Eileen gave me the Mix & Match Virgin Mary Deluxe Magnet Set for Christmas.  The idea of Mary as just a regular mom is so appealing.  There a wonderful book called Our Lady of the Lost and Found by Diane Schoemperien.  It truly brings Mary into the modern day and humanizes her while keeping her holy.... Mary

January 23

This morning I had a dentist appointment to get my teeth cleaned.  It was also the first day of classes for the new semester, so lots of students with problems.  Managed to solve them all.  And I have an awful cold.  Yuck!  Time for bed.... Mary

January 22

Eileen was cutting up a sweet potato this evening.  Natural forms are really the most amazing things....  Mary

January 21

The sun came out today and the temperatures rose into double digits, so the roads cleared.  We'll be in the 30s tomorrow, and we are closing in on the end of January.  In fact, it's less than nine weeks to the first day of spring.

Going down to the mail room at work, I pass vending machines that are next to the elevators.  The graphics on the soda machines are phenomenal.  In a previous existence, Rick and I had a small graphics business.  We made large display banners for non-profits, college alumni groups, fraternal organizations, corporations, etc.  In those days there were still a few old time sign painters working.  The hand lettering and graphics they did were amazing, but the clarity and detail of modern graphic printing is truly impressive.  These soda machines have seven foot high graphics of soda cans and bottles that look three dimensional.  The condensation droplets practically run down the surface.  Day after day it still takes me aback to see these images....  Mary

January 20

It was so cold and snowy today, I decided we needed some color to brighten things up.

One of the many things I do for my job is to collect the mail from the building's main mail room and sort it into the individual mailboxes in the department.  Our faculty get all sorts of professional journals:  Nature, Science, Journal of Physiology, etc.  Today someone got a copy of PhysicsToday in the mail.  On the cover was picture of a Russian icon being examined, so I opened it to see what the article was about. (It was about ion beams used art forensics.)  The article that really caught my eye, however, was "Quantum numbers, Chern classes, and a bodhisattva."  Not being a mathematician or a physicist, I have no idea what they were talking about in the article.  I really like the idea of creative breakthroughs in quantum mathematics and bodhisattvas having something in common though....  Mary

From Wisdom Quarterly

January 19

It's very cold outside tonight.  We'll hit 8 below without the wind chill.  Of course, in Fairbanks where my friend Terri lives, it's going to be 35 below tonight!  Makes Wisconsin seem balmy by comparison.

Eileen made this beautiful glass mosaic plate for us years ago in an art class.  It sits in the living room backlit on a shelf....  Mary

January 18

Today over my lunch hour I watched the second half of Being in the World, a wonderful documentary about finding what it means to be truly human in our technological world.  The film features an 84-year-old chef in New Orleans, a Japanese carpenter, a poet and flamenco dancer, and many others.  Thanks to my membership in Tricycle magazine, I was able to view it as part of their Film Club.  It was inspiring, delightful, and at times breathtaking in it's beauty.

Tonight outside it will be 25 below with the wind chill factor.  Inside there is another gorgeous, flaming red amaryllis flower in bloom.  Life is good....  Mary

January 17

The petitions for recall against Gov. Scott Walker (no relation), Lt. Gov. Kleefisch, and four Republican Senators were turned in today.  There are over one million signatures on the Walker recall petitions and nearly two million signatures collectively on all the petitions.  This is what democracy looks like:  People exercising their right to demand accountability from politicians.  Thanks to all the folks who worked so hard to get those signatures!

In the mail today were three separate, high quality printed pieces from the Republic Party of Wisconsin addressed to me.  (And all presenting the Republic version of "the truth".)   I'm not sure how they got my name on their mailing list because, while I am a staunch Independent, I am also a state employees' union member.  It's challenging to try and stay balanced in the face of all the anger swirling around politics in both Wisconsin and across the Nation.  All I can do right now is just sit with the emotions and breathe....  Mary

January 16

Today is Martin Luther King Day.  I'm old enough to remember that this wasn't always a national holiday.  It's a proud thing that, as a country, we can celebrate the memory and the work of Dr. King and all the folks who worked and continue to work for civil rights, economic justice, and equality for all.  Because of the holiday, the University was closed.  I stayed home and made chicken noodle soup and did laundry.  The soup is yummy, and the clothes are clean.

During the winter it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home.  If it isn't sunny on the weekends, I don't get see the subtle colors and shadows of the trees around our house.  Today the river birch in the back yard looked really lovely....  Mary

January 15

It may actually be illegal in Wisconsin to say this, but I'm not a football fan.  Rick and the girls are Packer fans though, so they are sad at today's loss.

All five of the narcissus bulbs have flowered in the kitchen.  The smell is utterly intoxicating.  It hits you in a wave as you walk into the room.  As I'm eating, the scent keeps surprising me.  Nothing should smell that good in the dead of winter.  And I've got five more bulbs to force once these are done....  Mary

January 14

Rick and I went to see the new addition to the Chazen Museum of Art at the University.  It's a beautiful building with a glass walkway between the old building and the new that looks out on Lake Mendota.  Like all museums, I have love/hate relationship with it.  Intellectually, I fully understand and appreciate that these works of human creativity need to be protected and displayed carefully.  But a visceral part of me wants to see the art in kindergartens, bus stops, homeless shelters, and nursing homes.  Very glad that folks take of the art for us wherever it is.

On PBS, both last night and tonight, Great Performances has shown "Let Me Down Easy" the solo performance by Anna Deavere Smith on the human body and the healthcare system.  To say that Ms. Smith is a genius is an understatement.  She brings people's stories to life with such humor, such thoughtfulness, and such humanity.  I hope you have a chance to watch it.... Mary

January 13

It's Friday the 13th.  With lots of folks thinking the day is unlucky, it seems like there's a lot of good luck just lying around waiting to be claimed. 

Our old cat, Mittens, is eighteen and half years old.  That's something like a billion and half in people years.  She is mostly deaf, partially blind with bad back hips.  Food and naps make up about 23 hours of her day.  And yet she just kicked the snot out of a cat dancer toy, leaping up to bat the end of the toy in mid air....  Mary

January 12

We had the first real snowfall of the winter today.  The weather folks are saying it will be 4"-6" by morning.  It looks very lovely and white out, but the roads were awful.  The bus just crawled up Campus Drive and along University Avenue.  The poor mother duck and ducklings that Anne gave us for the front porch look a bit cold and lost in the snow.  Thank heavens they're impervious to the weather....  Mary

January 11

On the bus today, Pema was talking about not having an iron heart, not hardening your heart and shielding yourself from everything.  It reminds me of the quote from Hebrews to "harden not your heart".  The similarities between Buddhist and Catholic symbolism is something I love:  reliquaries and stupa; bodhisattvas and saints; litanies and chants.  It is perhaps why Buddhism seems so familiar to me when I listen to the dharma talks.  As Joseph Campbell said, the mystics of every religion recognize each other.

Nearly 20 years ago (can it really be that long?) I did a piece called, "I will break your hearts of stone, give you hearts for love alone."  It's rather large, 30" x 20", given that it's a beaded painting.  The piece hangs in our dining room....  Mary

January 10

The 10th of January, and it was 51 degrees and sunny.  It wasn't a record, but it sure felt like it should have been.  They're predicting highs in the twenties with a couple of inches of snow on Thursday.  That's a bit more like Wisconsin in winter.

Today I rode the bus home instead of my dear, sweet husband picking me up, which he's been doing of late.  Listening to Pema Chodron books/talks on the bus is my practice.  It was lovely to listen to her latest, Smile at Fear: A Retreat with Pema Chodron.  How could you not feel better, relaxed, more Zen listening to this woman talk?  Mary

January 9

There's a lovely full moon tonight.  When things get really loopy at work, I check the calendar and it frequently coincides with the full moon.  Today as pretty calm, so I wonder if tomorrow will be the loony day?  How can something that affects the ocean tides, have no effect on us?

Years ago my brother worked in IT at a small private college.  He tracked when their service calls would spike, and it tracked pretty closely with the full moon.  A reporter called him one day and asked him about what he'd found.  Larry told him about the spikes and how it was pretty clear that the computers were affected by the moon.  A short while later there was a piece in the National Enquirer quoting him.  Needless to say, Larry was not amused.  We thought it was pretty funny....  Mary

January 8

Tonight season 2 of Downton Abbey premiered on PBS' Masterpiece Classic.  I fully admit it: I am a Masterpiece junky, have been ever since the 70s and The Six Wives of Henry XIII.  Downton Abbey is, of course, a romanticized version of the period, but no one claims it's a history lesson.  It is just a wonderful story and a beautiful production.  And it's a habit I don't intend to break anytime soon.

Since beginning the new year and the new blog, I've been changing my studio work area from fabric based to paper based.  It will, undoubtedly, be an ongoing process for quite awhile.  I keep reminding myself of the advice Rick was given the summer he worked as a "casual employee" of the Post Office.  The old time letter carriers warned him to be careful which shoulder he put his bag on the very first time because it would be on the shoulder forever.

This advice has proven true whenever we've moved house or office.  The first place you put something is likely to be the place it will be when you move out in six months or six years.  Taking this advice to heart, I'm trying to be very mindful of where I place things and mindful if that place isn't working.  Rather than continuing with a less than ideal placement, I'm trying to move things to new, more appropriate places before it all becomes ingrained and I'm stuck there forever.  So far, so good....  Mary

January 7

Our weekly meeting of the World's Smallest Quilt Guild (WSQG) was delightful.  JK and I meet at Zuzu's, a neighborhood restaurant near the Zoo.  It's great to see all the little kids playing and grown ups chatting.  We'll meet again next week and just talk.

One whole week done, only 51 more to go....  Mary