Saturday, December 23, 2006

Children Are Gifts From God



My sister used to make "treats" for my mother to eat when she came home from work, things like half oranges decorated with peanut butter smiley faces or slices of bologna covered with fruit loops. She'd present these creations with great joy and my mother would pretend to like them as they came from a good place, the same kind of love that your kitty shows when it leaves you a rat. My mother came declare that my sister had to eat the creations she made. No Rachel Ray, she quickly found out that what looked good didn't always live up to the dream, and she stopped and might just be the only person more phobic about cooking than I am.

We're always doing this, creating things and choosing things for others, things they may love or not love. Writing is no different. John Cheever once said that he wanted an agent that loved his work, praised his sexual prowess, and had a stranglehold on the bank. Now there's an honest statement! We almost always laugh when a child says something honest -- I can remember a friend of mine getting married and her flower girl asking her if she was pregnant. When my friend said no, the little girl said, So you just let yourself get fat? I once saw a sign that said, Children Are Gifts From God and His Way of Laughing. Clearly. That little flower girl will be the one in a writing workshop years from now, saying, I don't think you've earned that ending. But, in the end, who does?

Michelle's Spell of the Day

"I've been to prison once, I've been married - twice. I was once drafted by Lyndon Johnson and had to live in shit-ass Mexico for 21/2 years for no reason. I've had my eye socket punched in, a kidney taken out and I got a bone-chip in my ankle that's never gonna heal. I've seen some pretty shitty situations in my life, but nothing has ever sucked more ass than this!" Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa on being Santa

Cocktail Hour

Drinking music suggestion: No Sleep Till Brooklyn Beastie Boys

Benedictions and Maledictions

Happy Friday! Thanks for all the sweet wishes for my health! Take good care of yourselves over as the holiday approaches with all its delights!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps only Jesus earned His ending. And for Him, it was only a beginning. Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward Humankind.

Anonymous said...

Amen.

Anonymous said...

Mighty fine lookin' Black Dahlia type woman that's a sittin in that chair.

JR's Thumbprints said...

You're not supposed to let yourself get fat until five years into the marriage. At least that's how I did it. At some point, I'll have to post some pictures of myself from this time period. Fat, dumb, and happy. Those certainly were the years!

Anonymous said...

You must not have done many drugs in your youth to be able to remember all these stories from "the old days" Michelle.

Personally from dropping that first white pill which I later found our was mescaline at 14 through to this present day I have forgotten what came before, except in the most general of sense.

I know this thing happened or that thing happened and maybe children in Detroit haven't been as cute in thier lack of dissimulation but I don't think I have ever heard any kid say anything that was cute just a lot of "Why's" that begin when they first learn the word and carry on all the way to adulthood, the ""Why's" of the teenage years being the best.

Why are you such an asshole, wh are you such a prick about letting me use the hot rod instead of the station wagon etc etc etc.

The most honest question I have heard lately from a Detroit child was "Why won't the bullets from a mac10 fit in an AK?"

And now I am asking "Why am I missing a pack of cigarettes when I am the only one in the hoouse that smokes."

"Cosmic Thoughts said...
Perhaps only Jesus earned His ending. And for Him, it was only a beginning. Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward Humankind." This is not a why question but rather a how question. If Jesus was the perfect man, for in order to a sacrafice to God to be acceptable it had to be "without spot or blemish" then how did he earn the fate of thieves, murders and alduterers etc.? And the Why question is if afer 2000 years there has been less than a hundred years of peace on earth was that the beginning of peace on earh and goodwill towards mankind.? Now mind I am not asking to be contentious today, just asking.

Anonymous said...

His was the new covenant. Just sacrifice and don't worry about the blemishes, or scars.