Thursday Thirteen #130

Today, I offer up some local writing stuff:

1. Peggy Shifflett, who is president of the Roanoke Valley Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, will have a book coming out next week. It is called The Living Room Bed and is about Appalachian life and how folks had the bed in the living room and the role it played from birth to death.



2. I edited the book. I am also a member of the Pen Women. It was a pleasure to work on this book with Peggy.

3. My friend Meg Hibbert has an article coming out in a new online magazine called Southern Flourish. The magazine is due to make its premier March 15 at the link. Meg's article includes recipes!



4. Meg is editor of The Salem Times Register and we have worked together and been friends for a long time.

5. My friend Becky Mushko, another fellow Pen Women member, is busy promoting her book, Ferradiddledumday. She blogs at Peevish Pen.


6. Becky knows a great deal about self-publishing and scams and I have a lot of respect for her knowledge. She used to be a teacher and goodness knows you have to be some kind of saint to do that.

7. Dan Smith, publisher of Valley Business Front, has an interesting blog called fromtheeditr that local writers might want to check out.

8. He also has a blog for Roanoke Writers. Dan started the recent incarnation of the Roanoke Writer's Conference, which has been going on for three years now. It has proved to be an interesting day of meeting and networking.

9. Bonnie Cranmer, a fellow Hollins Horizon Program alum, is interested in social media and she writes about it on her website. Apparently this social networking stuff is the wave of the future and seems to be the new busy work for a lot of people. She's really into it.

10. For an interesting reading from an up-and-coming children's book author, try The Virginia Scribe. She's up on agents and other information. I heard her talk at a Pen Women meeting once and she is a lovely person.

11. For good sophisticated information about writing, including marketing information, check out C. Hope Clark's blog. She is not exactly local but I suppose the Carolinas is close enough. She runs the famous Funds for Writers website, which offers two free newsletters that I urge folks to subscribe to. You can subscribe to them right from her blog if you want.

12. Colleen over at Loose Leaf Notes always has interesting writing on her site. She is a thoughtful freelancer and sometimes showcases the articles she is working on.

13. You can see two of my recent articles for The Fincastle Herald here and here.

For the FCC: No one paid me anything to promote their websites or work.

Lots of people play Thursday Thirteen. You can read about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 130!

Maslow's Triangle

Where are you on the triangle of life?

Abraham Maslow was a humanist psychologist who in the 1940s hypothesized that humans have a hierarchy of needs.

His ideas are often presented in the form of a triangle, with the basic needs as the triangle base.

The basic needs are grouped into five categories: survival, security and safety, sense of belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Survival means basic necessities such as water, food, clothing, shelter. These are the things that are required in order for a human to live.

Security and safety means many things. It means having the doors locked. It means financial security, which may mean many things to different people but to me means being able to pay your bills. It means being healthy, and that might include having health care for a lot of people.

Sense of belonging means that you have friends and family. It means society and community. It means people are not singular individuals but instead are part of a larger (and hopefully greater) good. People do not stand alone all the time. Loneliness can be a real killer, so this is very important. People may meet this need through family, clubs, religion, sports, and other ways.

Esteem means that you are valued and feel you have value. People must feel they are contributing and have something to contribute. This is also reversed: people need other people and things (such as ideals) to respect, as well. It might mean a little hero-worship and having someone to look up to, like a sports hero or a saint. Self-respect is important so long as it is not out of control.

Self-actualization means a person is at the very top of the triangle. A self-actualized person will be a learner, someone who seeks self knowledge and worldly knowledge. She will be aware of self and devote time to her own needs. She will know joy. She will accept responsibility for her mistakes and move on. She will not dwell upon weakness but instead will acknowledge it and choose to either keep it or do something about it. She will be committed to helping others and will feel kindly towards others and will want to be of service to humanity.

Given what I see around me, not to many people, including myself, are at the top of the triangle these days. Most seem to fall somewhere near the bottom, fighting over scraps. I see people insecure in their nation, in their families, in their religions, in their lives. Particularly during this recession, security has taken a nose dive as so many people worry about their retirement. Health care remains an unknown and even if Congress makes changes, someone will find a way to rape the system and cause more havoc than good.

Obviously as funding for the arts and education tumbles, the higher courses of life will crumble too. The beauty will be gone and we'll all be wallowing amongst the midden heap as things are not properly cared for.

Our base is not sturdy. As a nation, in families, as individuals, many humans are now looking more like a topless volcano than a triangle.

It's kind of scary, isn't it?

For more information, see here. The Wiki article is here.

Growing Cactus

The other day I bought a "learning" kit at the hardware store so I could grow cactus.

I know, I am weird. But I have always liked cactus. And I really like to watch things grow. And I know stuff will be growing outside soon enough but with my allergies acting up I will have to be careful out there.




I did not know cactus grew from a seed, so this was indeed a learning adventure. I had never really thought about it, to be honest.



The kit came with dehydrated dirt, which took much longer than the five minutes it claimed on the instructions to turn into anything resembling "real" dirt. The dehydrated dirt came in a little patty that you placed in the little flower pot. Supposedly then 2 teaspoons of water and five minutes later, you have dirt, but it took a lot more water and a lot more time, along with some stirring of dirt with a finger, to get that dehydrated dirt to fluff out.



The instructions said 3 seeds to a pot, but it didn't say how deep or anything. Hmm.



Once you plant the seeds, you put the pot in this plastic thing to create a green house effect and sit it in the sun. Unfortunately I don't have a single window in this house that gets good sun, so we'll see how it goes.

I'll let you know if they grow.

The Lord of the Rings

The Fellowship of the Rings
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
By J. R. R. Tolkien



I took the last two weeks or so to read The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This hardback edition is one that came out sometime when the Peter Jackson movies were playing. My husband gave it to me for Christmas and I had set it aside, though with a place of honor in my bookcase. I confess I was loathe to open the boxed set and it hurt me to break the seal to read the contents.

However, the covers are embossed and it is a really nice set. It has all of the appendices included in the last book.

I believe I read the trilogy long ago, probably well before I should have, as has been my wont sometimes with books. For example, I read Wuthering Heights when I was nine - far too young. But I cannot recall exactly when I read these books and sometimes I am not sure I read them all but instead perhaps read only the first.

I also remember an animated movie from high school; we took a field trip to the theater to see it. It must have been this one but the timing does not seem quite right, because it would have been my senior year (1980-1981) and Wiki says this film came out in 1978. Perhaps it took a while to show up in Roanoke.

At any rate, I have read the books now. While I enjoyed reading them and revisiting the characters, I have a confession to make.

I like the Peter Jackson movies better.

Which is not to say that these are bad books; not by any means. But the film is a marvel at keeping close to the books, right down to exact dialogue. I cannot imagine a better effort that would keep to the books and still bring this world to life.

I read these books as a writer, looking to see what worked and what did not. Someone told me once that until I had analyzed The Lord of the Rings, I could not write fantasy. So I thought I should get to it, since I read a lot of fantasy and wouldn't mind writing one some day.

Foremost on my mind was the author's voice - very noticeable with an omniscient narration. Given that in the Appendices it becomes clear that this is supposed to be a translation of a history of the Third Age of Middle Earth, that makes sense, but from a reader's standpoint it serves to create quite a distance.

The dialogue was also quite stilted and forced. Again this might have been part of the "translation" device Tolkien was using, but I suspect an editor in this age (being the 21st century and all) would have advised him to do something entirely different for today's readers.

Another issue is the lack of female characters. Eowen is the strongest human female character in the book; Galadriel is a strong elfish character, while Arwen (elf) is an after thought in the writing, it seems. Eowen, unfortunately, comes across as moody and rebellious and only happy when she is loving a man. The movie does a much better job of bringing a few females to life. Galadriel in the book is mostly mystic.

To be sure, I did not feel characterization was a strong point in the entire series and I know there are many who might argue that differently. Instead, this was an adventure in world-building and plot. Characters seemed to have a few main characteristics and were not fully fleshed out. Truthfully I ended up liking Merry and Pippin more than Frodo in the end, because they grew as characters while Frodo, at least for me, did not. I really wanted to love Aragorn in the book but I never felt any compulsion in that direction, either. He was already a king when we met him.

This is a full book. One could, (and others have, I suppose), devote an entire life to understanding the characters, looking for religious themes, life meaning themes, etc. etc. I know that is what makes a great book, a piece of work that has so much going for it, which can be read one way by some people and another way by others.

I know that there will be those who quibble with my short analysis, which is their right. I did not dislike these books. But I do not think I love them, as I do the movie.

Tractor Show in Buchanan

Saturday we ventured to the open house at Blue Ridge Farm Center in Buchanan. They had BBQ and hot dogs and a petting zoo.

Mostly we looked at the machinery.



My husband counted off a spreader of some kind to see how long it is. One of his feet equals one foot. He counts that way a lot.



Above is a hay rake. These are my favorite machines because they look so cool when they are brand new. They make a nice splash against the sky.



The seat-to-steering-wheel ratio was too small for my tall husband in this particular tractor.



I am not sure what the above things are. I think they are balers but I wouldn't swear to it.



I think the above (and below) animals are alpacas. They were in a very small cage at the petting zoo and had the most plaintive little bleat I had ever heard. It sounded like a cry. I told my husband I wouldn't be able to raise those animals if they always sounded like that because it would make my heart ache to hear them.

Thursday Thirteen

Things in my to-do box. I do accomplish things, really, I do!

1. Finish my a booklet or small book on Cloverdale. It's practically done, I just need to write a few more little pieces and then decide how I want to publish it.

2. Do the same thing with information I have on Blue Ridge.

3. Go through all of my old poems. Some of them I will then send out or submit to contests. Some I will throw away. Some I will refile.

4. Go through all my old journals. I strongly suspect I will throw away a lot of this. Some of it may be worth keeping, though.

5. Genealogy research on my husband's family and my family. I must purchase software for that, too. Any recommendations?

6. Do something with an "how to write effective emails" presentation that I created but haven't yet figured out how to market.

7. Write some keyword articles for a client.

8. Finish up an assigned article for The Fincastle Herald.

9. Tear down the wallpaper in the kitchen and paint the wall.



This wallpaper has been up for at 15 years. Some of it is peeling from the wall. I am ready for a new look.

10. Put up wallpaper on the back part of the built-in bookshelves in the living room.



These bookshelves are dark and I think they would look better if they were lighter. We don't paint woodwork so I have decided I could cover the back part with something light. I've had the wallpaper here for this project for oh, I dunno, seven years?

11. Paint the spare bathroom. It hasn't been painted since 1987. The paint has held up pretty well, but it's just the two of us so there is no reason for it not to.

12. Read those 56 books that are in my "to read" pile(s).



All of these book are awaiting my attention.


13. Write a novel, which has been on my to-do list ever since I knew what a novel was. I am starting to think it ain't never gonna happen.


Lots of people play Thursday Thirteen. You can read about it here. My other Thursday Thirteens are here. This is number 129!

Writing Magic

A while back I purchased a book called Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine. This is a how-to-write for younger folks, not old fogies like me, but I liked the title. I also have found young adult how-to books helpful in the past.

The author wrote Ella Enchanted and is a Newberry winner.

At any rate, the book is loaded with writing exercises, several at the end of every short chapter. My intention is to do as many of them as I can.

And you all get to see the first draft.

So here goes. The assignment is to make a story from the first two lines, which I have reprinted here. This is fiction, for those who can't tell.

******

I have one green eye and one brown eye. The green eye sees truth, but the brown eye sees much, much more.

My name is Camilla and I am that girl in the hallways that you ignore and walk by without seeing. But I see you, all of you, in great detail. I know that you are fighting with your mom, that your dad drinks too much, and that your sister is failing all of her classes.

At night I shake the stones and throw them into the circle. I have the high school annual and I recite a name every night. I squint as I work, so the brown eye can read the tales told by the stones. The shapes give me the information, you see. They let me know that you're a spoiled little girl or bad young boy. And all I need is your name and the truth of your image.

Last night as I cast the stones, I felt a peculiar shock run through me as I read the story the bones left behind. I was working on Andy's story, because Andy had been particularly unkind to me the day before. He had bumped into me in front of the principal's office and knocked my books from my hands. Instead of helping me pick them up, he stepped on them and tore my papers loose from the notebook with his foot. Then he wiped his sneakers on my homework. Tears escaped and he laughed at me.

So I cast the stones. I usually only want the story, to see why someone acts like in a certain way. Andy's story? He is a jock, athletic, and his parents are rich. I know he lives in the huge McMansion on the far side of town. His father is a cancer doctor, and that apparently is a lucrative disease to treat.

But Andy also has trouble with his knee, and it likely will cost him a place on the college team of his choice. And his heart stones are black. I am not sure what that means; I've never seen black heart stones before. I scoop up the stones and toss once more, and blink my brown eye.

Heart stones again. I study them, wondering. Is he sick? Simply hard-hearted? Evil? I've cast these stones a thousand times and now twice I come up with this odd formation.

****

Bear Cubs

I am posting this because I daresay none of us seeing this picture will ever see bear cubs this young again.

This is my brother's snapshot. He still lives on the farm where I grew up, and Saturday some of his friends and their dogs went rabbit hunting.

During the course of their hunt, the dogs and men came across a bear. The bear attacked and the men killed it in self-defense.

They found these three small cubs.

The game warden ruled the kill as in self-defense and took the cubs to Virginia Tech.

The mama bear of course was only defending her tiny little babies. My brother said they weighed about four pounds and the game warden said they were maybe two weeks old.

I feel very bad for the bear and for the cubs. People need to be more careful when they are out in the woods. The bear, after all, was there first.

Eagle Rock Library

In mid-April, Botetourt County will open a new library in Eagle Rock. Eagle Rock is in the northern end of the county and is very rural. The county has not built anything new in that area since about 1976, when it constructed the elementary school.

The library is over 9,000 square feet and will offer a meeting room that is accessible from the outside (so it can be used any time and not just when the library is open) with accessible restrooms, a computer lab, a local history/genealogy area, a children's area, an adult reading area, and a smaller meeting room, plus staff offices.

It will open with a collection of 12,000 books.

This afternoon a few members of the Library Board of Trustees, a supervisor, the county administrator and others toured the facility.



The library has a rustic look. It was built with the area in mind. It sits amidst mountains and across from the James River. We (Library Board of Trustee members) wanted it to look like it belonged there.



This is the rear of the building.



The doors on this side open into the meeting room. The meeting room can be used 24/7 and library staff need not be there. This arrangement is similar to what already takes place at the Fincastle Library, so we know it can work.



The front of the building. It has a lot of glass and a clear story, which is a high upper story with windows.



Library Director Steve Vest, in the middle, explains things to County Administrator Jerry Burgess on the right and Library Board of Trustee member Ruth Ann Assaid on the left.



The entrance area is pretty impressive.



This is what everyone was looking at.



The book shelves were installed last week and are waiting on books. Michael Hibben on the left is the new branch librarian. He will work with Steve Vest (right) to catalogue and shelve books and acquire additional staff. "It is not a good time to be staffing and opening a new facility," County Administrator Jerry Burgess said during our tour today. His remark was made in response to a query about hours and staffing.



This is the computer lab room. Pictured from left: Donna Vaughn, the Fincastle District Supervisor, Steve Vest, Library Director, Ruth Ann Assaid, Library Board of Trustee representative for the Valley District, and Michael Hibben, Eagle Rock Branch Librarian. There will be 11 computers in this room and free WiFi for the public. Some of the furniture has not yet arrived, obviously.



Empty shelves! Soon they will be full of books.

For those who may not know, I serve on the Botetourt County Library Board of Trustees, which oversees library operations. I was appointed as the Amsterdam District representative in 2002 to fulfill someone else's term and then appointed to two consecutive four-year terms and I will be serving until 2012. I am the second longest-serving member on the board and have served as chairman, vice chairman and presently am chief trouble-maker and rabble-rouser. All of the library board members worked with the county and the architect to build the finest library we could for the money budgeted.

In fact, the project is well underbudget, thanks to a competitive construction period.

The Black Swan Remains

The black swan, first seen on Thursday, was still here yesterday. He or she was floating serenely on the pond.



Black swan theory subscribes rarity to the notion of black swans. Things unexpected are black swan events. Things that are a surprise, which have a major impact, and which can later be rationalized though not expected, are black swan events.



That's because prior to 1697, when black swans were discovered in Australia by the Europeans, the more civilized folks did not think such birds existed. And the birds are still quite rare, apparently.



Black swans, like all black animals, are thought by some to be devil's pets or witches familiars. Swans, though not necessarily black ones, are found in many aspects of myth, fairy tales and literature, such as the story of Leda and the Swan and Swan Lake.



Swans mate for life, leaving me to wonder if this one has lost its mate. That thought makes me sad.

The Black Swan

This is not something we see often:







The black swan, if that is indeed what it was, spent hours in the hayfield plucking up grasses. My husband spied it from the road and called me. "You need to come and take pictures of this weird-looking goose," he said.

We have flocks of geese. They stop for a visit as they migrate, leaving a mess of goose poop in the hay fields and down by the ponds.

But this was no long-necked goose, I realized when I drove by to see what I could see. I could only think that it must be a black swan.

Neither my husband nor I had ever seen a real living swan and certainly never a black one. Nor had we ever seen a picture of one out of the water. Swans are always in fairy book tales; they are almost an unreal creature, something of myth. They are birds that haul princesses away, carrying them across lakes.

Whatever this bird was, it was not native to our area.

Having a swan land in the hayfield was like being visited by a demigod. Wouldn't it be something if this bird and its mate, if it has one, has decided to call our farm home?

Prayers for a Friend

This morning, I was shocked to read on Facebook that Ginger over at landofmilknhoney had lost her husband last night. Ginger also has a short blog entry up.

Ginger and Philip have been staunch supporters of the farmer's market in the county. They have a farm in Catawba and last year I wrote an article about her trip to India. They have five children ranging in ages from 17 to 6.

Please offer up prayers and kind thoughts as Ginger and her young ones go through this time of great turmoil.

I have long admired Ginger's courage and generosity of spirit as well as her commitment to their farm and family. Her blog is one of my daily reads and as blog readers know, there is a connection and bond that forms through this contact. The fact that I have met her in person only makes this connection stronger.

I am stunned and saddened by this news.

Thursday Thirteen

I have no topic today, so I offer up random thoughts from my brain.

1. A long day with a Library Board meeting stretches before me like Silly Putty in the hands of a child. All I need is a cartoon to go with it.

2. The breeze blows the blue spruce and the sight of it brings "brrrss" to my brain.

3. This morning I opted for hot chocolate instead of tea for my morning hot drink; this means that I have already blown my diet and I haven't even had breakfast yet.

4. The government is after Toyota, but I really don't think it is because of safety issues. It is politics. The U.S. government now owns a car company, how can it be impartial?

5. I found this bit of "verse" in one of my old files the other day:

He lives
in Future Perfect Tense
of world of haves and will dos
where perfection is
the point! and tomorrow
the beginning
of the sentence.

6. From page 46 of the fiction book closest to me: "So I told him that I'd like to go to the bow of the boat so I could see the Dragon's Mouth and the Gulf of Paria and the Northern Range Mountains because this is probably what my father would have seen when he came from panning gold near the Essequibo River in British Guiana, and if he could help me I would be very grateful." - Lime Tree Can't Bear Orange by Amanda Smyth.

7. From page 46 of the nonfiction book closest to me: "All this computer stuff can be acquired and learned gradually, as time and budget permit. Don't feel you have to load up on a complete set of high-tech gear before you start soliciting business." - Secrets of a Freelance Writer by Robert Bly.

8. A small herd of deer brave the chilly wind and cold dawn to move to and fro across the fields. I saw nine of them pass not 50 feet from my window, trudging along the other side of the fence. They follow the path my husband plowed out for the cow with a calf; there is no snow there. I don't know if that is all of them or if I simply did not see that there were more.

9. I have 56 books on my "unread books" shelf and I wonder how I will find time to read them all.

10. I have a globe on the shelf to my right. If I look up, I see it. Sometimes I study it. It is over 20 years old and so the names of countries on it are not correct; it still shows a Soviet Union. But while my globe has not changed, the world has. It is meaner and crueler than it was when this map was made. People are less civil and more filled with hate. It is as if some nameless enemy from space has leaked a "mean-ass" gas into our atmosphere and it has poisoned us all. Some of us are only weakened and sickened by it; the rest seem to feed and breed from it. I wait for the aliens to pop out of their chests.

11. Something scared the deer and they all just ran by the window in a clump; I counted 15 of them. They are now huddled up in the small cedar forest in front of my house.

12. In the mornings I watch a TV show and exercise. Right now I am watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD. It is time for me to go do that.

13. Becky Mushko at Peevish Pen posted the following video on Facebook. I liked it so much I reposted it there and now I offer it to you here: Go see this.


Thursday Thirteen is a little blog thing that lots of folks do on Thursdays. Check out the list here for other participants and go see what they have to say. This is my 128th week of playing.

My car broke its finger

A while back, as I climbed into my Toyota Camry,* I heard something snap.

I looked down and pieces of the light switch on the left side of the steering column had broken. I think I either hit it with the telephone book that I was holding (I had just pulled my mail from the box and was heading back up our long driveway) or it caught in my coat.

I called it a broken finger. Poor car!





In any event, this was a major problem because I could not turn on the headlights. That meant no driving on rainy days or in the dark.

The car was long out of warranty. I stood in the driveway wondering what I should do. It was about 2:30 p.m. on a Thursday and my husband was at work. He's the go-to guy for automotive repair.

I went home and called the automotive place we dealt with. Dave said to bring it right over and he'd take a look at it.

My hope was that perhaps he could tape the parts back together so that the headlights burned all the time, but he could not. In fact, trying to make the headlights turn on by replacing the switch resulted in lights flashing and an electric shock to the fingers. Yowza!

So Dave ordered a whole new light switch assembly.

Four days later, I dropped off the car. In about six hours, I picked it back up again.

My car had a new finger, and I was out about $400.

And I still don't know how I broke the darned switch.



* My Camry is not involved in recent recalls. It is too old.

Save Our Lands

Sustainability means self-supporting. It doesn't mean a Walmart on every corner.

What would a good community be like?

Sunday I thought I might find out. I slipped over to Troutville to watch a video called Save Our Towns, Save Our Land, by Tom Hylton. It originally appeared on PBS.

I have long had an interest in conservation issues. As far back as the early 1990s, I ghostwrote a column called "Rural by Design" for a conservation group. I advocated things like greenways, cluster designs in development, and sustainability long before it became the "in" thing to do. Back then, it seemed, no one listened.

Fast forward to today. The Town of Troutville has embarked on a study to find itself. What kind of town is it and what does it want to be? A steering committee has been holding meetings to see what the public thinks.

The video was a part of this process. Unfortunately, technical difficulties meant the video did not show.

Enter then the Conservation Steward for the Valley Conservation Council, Genevieve Goss. She stepped forward and gave an excellent presentation on the issues.

Essentially, a good town would be sustainable, she said. It would have affordable housing. It would have health care (like a doctor's office, not necessarily a hospital). It would have economic viability (stores, retail, maybe even a place that provided jobs). It would support and enhance communities that already exist. In other words, it wouldn't be a drag on the county by taking anything away from it, it would "add to." And it would be a neighborhood and a community, one in which folks waved and said "howdy" and looked after one another's kids.

An essential element is a "sense of place." That means that when you are in a community, you know it. The Town of Fincastle, for instance, is identifiable by the Courthouse and maybe the church steeples. It is steeped in history, Goss said. Buchanan has shops, retail and the river. Troutville has ... well, that is what they're working on. I know it has a nice little park, for one thing. It has some cool stuff, it just needs packaging.

Another essential is "built on a human scale," Goss said. This means that it is built for feet, not wheels. It's people-sized, not Hummer-sized.

Other components include diversity - old, young, middle-aged, white, black, male, female - people in all their forms. It offers trees. It has parking to the rear of buildings and buried utility lines. The architecture fits its surroundings (I hate to say it, but think "Taubman" art building in downtown Roanoke - does that crashed spaceship really belong there? Really?).

And last, but not least, is maintenance and safety. A community must stay spruced up and cleaned up. The buildings shouldn't be run down and the trash shouldn't overflow. Civic and community pride in appearance is a must.

Making these kinds of decisions takes courage and effort. Zoning laws must be reviewed. People who don't want change must have things explained to them until they are otherwise convinced. It is a long process. Troutville is to be commended for taking on this challenge.

The Culture of Life

Ellen Goodman retired from column writing at the first of the year. I greatly miss her work. She wrote eloquently on issues that have long concerned me.

In October 2005, she spoke at Hollins University. What follows is the column I wrote then for The Fincastle Herald concerning her remarks. I thought I'd share it today. As the budget ax rolls across the state, and things important to women - education, health care, food stamps - are removed from the public domain, creating an even more impoverished state for women, it seems relevant.

*****

It proved easier to kick in the door than to change what was on the other side.
Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, used that analogy last week at a lecture at Hollins University when she said that the women’s movement is stuck. For 150 years, women’s rights moved forward, but true societal change has proved difficult.

In other words, women managed to obtain a form of equal responsibility, but not true equality. We did not effect social change.

Instead we have legions of stressed-out superwomen who try to live up to the mythology of bringing home the bacon, cooking it, and never letting the man forget he’s a man, as the old song goes.

Have it all, be it all, do it all, in other words.

Women have tried to keep the best of the traditional female roles while obtaining the best of the nontraditional, Goodman said. She called it an effort to change without upsetting society.

But society has to change if women are to have effective leadership roles. It is the values of women that society is presently lacking, after all.

Women’s values are those we traditionally think of as feminine – nurturing, caregiving, cooperative values. Values barely on the radar of the national dialogue.

I call it a culture of life. That culture would focus on issues like health care, education, child care, and poverty, to name a few. They are the values of society that make us care about one another.

Thirty years ago women moved into the work force hoping to bring these values into the workplace with them. There were visions of a corporate work environment that understood women, where CEOs nodded knowingly when a woman needed a year off to care for a child. Women, as the child bearers, would bring about radical change.

Instead, women moved into male roles and adopted male values. It’s all about power and success, not changing the way an organization and society surrounding it operates so that it values the contribution of the all of its members.

What we have today is a net loss of caregivers, Goodman said. We don’t have people attending to their communities and to society at large. We don’t have folks stepping up to do the right thing.

Locally, just take a look at the low volunteer rates in the rescue squads, for example. Emergency services are short of people and in Botetourt they now bill your insurance for something that once was free because there aren’t enough volunteers to man the vehicles during the day. That’s just one example; practically every volunteer group can say the same.

Welfare reform was a turning point for the women’s movement, Goodman said. Suddenly, everyone agreed that poor women ought to work. No free ride in these United States.

Goodman said we have a culture that has middle and upper class women going to college, earning degrees, finding fulfilling jobs, and then quitting those jobs when it comes time to raise a child, because no child care in the world is good enough for that woman’s child.

Lower class women have to work and stay at their job, because there is no childcare in the world bad enough for that woman’s child.

No child care is good enough for the CEO’s kid. No child care is bad enough for the welfare mom, Goodman said. What does that say about this society?

In a culture of life, children would be viewed equally, money notwithstanding. The age-old question of who will care for the kids would be answered in some way that was fair to everyone, because as a value just being alive would be among the highest and most revered. Each child – each life – would be valued for the soul glistening behind the young eyes. Souls don’t have color or checkbooks.

It just isn’t that way today. Women haven’t brought those feminine values into the workplace or into the political arena. We will never have it all, but are we even striving for it anymore?

We won’t move forward until there are childcare and health care programs that care for everyone regardless of the color of their money. A culture of life acknowledges the valuable reproductive role of women and allows for flex time and time off to raise the children without punishing a woman when she returns to the workforce.

The only way to effect change in these times is to vote your values. Not an issue, but your values. I really believe if the values of women move to the fore, the issues which divide us at times will become, if not moot, then less dominating. The screaming we hear is symptomatic of a much bigger problem.

This new millennium was to usher in a kinder, gentler, patriarchy. But as Goodman said, it’s still a traditional man’s world. I wonder if there will ever be a place in it for those feminine values.

A Creator

Becky over at Peevish Pen recently put a link to a personality color test. I love to take those kinds of things - you just never know when something will tell you that magic something that will send you off in a new direction - so I headed over there.

I wasn't surprised when I turned out to be a Creator just like Becky. We are, after all, in the same field (we're writers) and at least wave at one another from similar circles.

My second-best choice was different, though. Here's what the test said about me:

You're a CREATOR
Key Words: Nonconforming, Impulsive, Expressive, Romantic, Intuitive, Sensitive, and Emotional

These original types place a high value on aesthetic qualities and have a great need for self-expression. They enjoy working independently, being creative, using their imagination, and constantly learning something new. Fields of interest are art, drama, music, and writing or places where they can express, assemble, or implement creative ideas.

CREATOR OCCUPATIONS

Suggested careers are Advertising Executive, Architect, Web Designer, Creative Director, Public Relations, Fine or Commercial Artist, Interior Decorator, Lawyer, Librarian, Musician, Reporter, Art Teacher, Broadcaster, Technical Writer, English Teacher, Architect, Photographer, Medical Illustrator, Corporate Trainer, Author, Editor, Landscape Architect, Exhibit Builder, and Package Designer.

CREATOR WORKPLACES

Consider workplaces where you can create and improve beauty and aesthetic qualities. Unstructured, flexible organizations that allow self-expression work best with your free-spirited nature.

Suggested Creator workplaces are advertising, public relations, and interior decorating firms; artistic studios, theaters and concert halls; institutions that teach crafts, universities, music, and dance schools. Other workplaces to consider are art institutes, museums, libraries, and galleries.

2nd BEST OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORY

You're an ORGANIZER

Key Words: Self-Control, Practical, Self-Contained, Orderly, Systematic, Precise, and Accurate
These conservative appearing, plotting-types enjoy organizing, data systems, accounting, detail, and accuracy. They often enjoy mathematics and data management activities such as accounting and investment management. Persistence and patience allows them to do detailed paperwork, operate office machines, write business reports, and make charts and graphs.

*****

I am not sure how those two different personality aspects go together, and truthfully I do not consider myself that well organized as stated in the second best category. I am detail-oriented but I hate math. But if this is true, maybe this is why I have such difficulty in terms of career. I am two very different people!

If you want to see what you are, here's the link to the test.

Thursday Thirteen

Today, I give you 13 of my favorite online video games. Pick one and kill an hour today! If you have trouble with the links, you can type in the game name and find them on other sites than the ones to which I have linked. I'll give them stars, too, from 1 to 5, with 5 being something I really enjoy.

1. Bubble town. This is a shooter game. You match three and those three vanish; the goal is to get rid of all the little "bubble heads" before they get into the danger zone. This game has a story in that the little heads have names. I don't call them what the game does; for me, there is pretty purple lady, the dead head girl, the fuzz ball, the orange devil, the green thing from Pac Man, and others. I am weird that way sometimes. 5 stars

2. Peggle. In this game, you release a ball and it goes down and knocks out pegs. You have to knock all the pegs of a specific color. It's a lot like Plinko (I think that is the game) on the Price is Right, but, um, not. 3.5 stars

3. Bubble Spinner. This is another "shoot and match 3" game, but I find it very calming for some reason. Maybe it's the music? 5 stars

4. Scramble. I play this on Facebook. It is a Zynga game. I have the highest score among my friends but people beat me all the time when I play live. It leaves me humble. 5 stars

5. Bejeweled. Match three and watch things fall. Go for the high score! 4.5 stars

6. Filler 2. In this game, you take a square area and place circles in it. You only have so many tries to fill the game with circles. It is very addictive. 4 stars

7. Rise of Atlantis. Match three and move through the boards to find artifacts from the lost city. 3.5 stars

8. Ice Breakers. This is another match three (like Bejeweled & Rise of Atlantis) with a fast pace. The boards get harder and harder but you have to build the city before the penguin king gets there! 3.5 stars

9. Collapse. This is an old game but I like it. You have to match color tiles and click on them to make them disappear. 3.5 stars

10. Alchemy. This is also an old game that I enjoy. You have to match tiles and make the back board turn into gold. 3.5 stars

11. Jewel Quest (any version). Another match three. Move through the boards to get to the treasure! 3 stars

12. Cubis. A 3-D matching game. I am not any good at this one but I like the challenge of it. Apparently I don't see in "3-D". 3 stars

13. Word Challenge. This is another game I play on Facebook, and again I have the top score among my friends. But I am nowhere near the highest scores in the game lists. 4 stars


Here we go with my 127th Thursday Thirteen! You can read my other TT's here. Learn more and read other people's TT's here. Have fun!

No lights

This morning, as I lay snoozing, the power went out.

That meant that the air purifier, which we run at night to cleanse the air and to make a nice humming noise so things like the refrigerator turning on won't wake me, turned off.

I struggled awake.

My husband was in the shower. I learned this when I heard him curse. Groggily I reached beside me for the flashlight that I always keep on my bedside table. I flipped it on and hurried in to him. I placed the light on the counter so he could see to get the lather off and climb out of the tub.

I was still half asleep as I moved through darkness and went for the other flashlights in the living room.

I am not much of a morning person.

The minutes ticked by. I thought the power would return any moment, but after about five minutes I realized it would be out a while.

My husband dressed. He had to go to Lynchburg to a class today and needed to leave. His father uses an oxygen machine and so he hurried over there (they live across the street) to make sure that his dad could get the generator hooked up.

Then he came back and quickly started our generator. He showed me how to turn it off and on ("Come on, wake up!" he barked at me at one point as I tried to focus) and then he left.

With the generator running, I was able to plug in the electric tea kettle and boil water. We also could hook up the water pump so that we had cold water for drinking and flushing the toilets. What we didn't have was hot water for long showers or the ability to wash clothes or heat the house unless I built a fire in the fireplace.

Because we still had a little water in the hot water tank, I hurried through a lukewarm shower and dressed. I had my morning tea and then instead of my usual egg I had instant oatmeal for breakfast.

Then I realized that one of the toilets had stopped up. I unstopped that with a plunger and flushed a few times to make sure it would work.

I waited a few minutes for the water tank to fill back up. In the meantime, I managed to get the garage door up and back the car out (the garage door uses electricity and I wanted it free in case of an emergency with my in-laws). Then I flipped the switch on the generator to the "off" position to save gasoline.

The dead silence of a house without power was incredible. Total stillness. No furnace ran, no dishwasher hummed, no electrical outlets buzzed. The only sound I heard was the wind roaring around the corners of the house.

I put on a sweater, picked up the newspaper and began to read. And then just like that, the house roared back to life.

The power was out for about two hours. It's amazing how dependent upon electricity we all are.

Just listen to it hum.

Boots

The day of our first snow, way back in December when it dumped about 20 inches here, I was out and about and arrived home just as the first flakes fell.

I went to find my snow boots but they were not where I thought they were in the garage. After much searching, I called my husband (who has managed to be at work during every snowfall this year) and asked him if he had seen my boots.

"I threw them away. They had dry-rotted," he told me.

Oops.

I went through that first snow with no boots. Tennis shoes are a poor substitute, I must say.

Five days after the first snow, when I could finally get the car out, I went in search of boots.

There were no boots to be had. The stores were sold out. Apparently everyone had needed boots.

For weeks I looked but still no boots. Finally, after Christmas, my husband took me to Southern States in Troutville.

There we found a pair of mud boots.



They slipped over my sneakers and at least gave me a little protection from the snow.



However, they are a pain to pull off and on over a shoe. I started to put an old pair of tennis shoes down in the mud boot, so I'd just have to pull my foot in and out, but then had a great idea. I used a pair of fake Crocs instead. They work great! I just leave them in the boot. Now I don't have to worry about my foot slipping out and I don't have to do anything but slip my foot into the boot and into the plastic shoe, shove my pants down inside it, and snap it shut.



I always knew these plastic shoes had to be good for something!

Ugly Snow

After the snow has been around a while, it starts looking pretty ugly.



A big pile of dirty snow by the driveway.



Piles of snow in the backyard. My husband scooped away some of it, pushing it into the yard, because we are expecting more snow and there is no where to put it.



Mounds of dirty snow and a driveway still slick with ice.



See how it is all piled up? It will be here until March!



Poor deer are having to find their grass where they can. They will be skinny in the spring and could have sickly fawns from lack of food this winter.

Snow babies

Mother Nature doesn't care if there is 16 inches of snow on the ground - and up to 5 feet in drifts in places.

When it is time for the babies to come, they come.

Our beef cows are older cows who have had many babies. They do not like barns and they stay outside. They are pasture fed and in the winter my husband takes them hay every day. When it is time to have their calf, they wander from the herd, find a comfy spot, and pop it out.

Because we never deal with heifers (young cows that have never had a calf before), we seldom have problems. But we still pay attention and watch the animals so that if something should go wrong, we can help.

Saturday, two cows had calves. Early in the day, the first cow had her baby on the far side of the farm under a cedar tree. Everything was fine, but then the baby strayed from momma and found himself hung up in a snow drift. My father-in-law spied the trouble from his front window and gave us a call.



Husband hopped on the big Ford tractor and used the snow plow to furrow his way to momma and baby, where he reunited them. He took momma cow hay, too, so she could eat and keep baby warm.

Meanwhile, as he cared for that momma and baby, another momma cow had a calf right in front of the house under a cedar tree! I saw it happening from the window and called him on the cell. "Don't put the tractor away yet!" I told him. "I think we need another bale of hay over here."



He used the snowplow to make a track to this side of the farm, too.



And here is mom and baby beneath the cedar, waiting on him to bring them hay.

Books: Through Wolf's Eyes

Through Wolf's Eyes
By Jane Linkskold
Copyright 2001
596 pages

Excerpts on the authors site are here.

Fantasy author Jane Linkskold takes on the myth of the feral child raised by wolves in this first book of a six-part series.

Firekeeper is a girl who thinks she is a wolf. Her family was killed in a fire when she was two, and the wolves, with the help of some mysterious speakers, take her in and raise her.

When she is 15, the land is visited by humans who are searching for a banished prince and his family. The old king is in need of an heir because his other two children have died.

The humans find the remains of the prince's encampment. They also find Firekeeper; or rather, Firekeeper and a wolf named Blind Seer and a peregrine falcon named Elation find them.

The men assume she is the prince's young daughter.

Derian, a red-haired youth of about 19, is given the task of civilizing the young girl for a short time before she is presented to the king as his granddaughter.

The book is filled with political intrigue as the many cousins who wander about the palace attempt to curry favor with the king in order to be named his heir. But the king has a nephew who was raised in a distant land, a child who was supposed to bring the two kingdoms together. He decides he should meet this relative before he makes up his mind.

Firekeeper, meanwhile, attempts to learn the ways of the courts and civilized society yet she continues to converse in her manner with the wolf. She roams the woods and will not wear shoes.

She does not learn to read and she has trouble with the language. Her dialogue throughout the book is stilted, though it gets better toward the end. Hopefully this will go away in the next book; I found it a bit aggravating at times though I understand why the author used dialogue in this manner.

This book is strong on character, a little short on magic, and full of webs of intrigue. The world has good backstory and supporting characters are interesting in their own right. I look forward to picking up the next books in the series.