Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Strangest Of Dreams



Been watching the new season of Californication which has begun to oddly mirror David D's life, as if he became Hank Moody, (at least what we know from the tabloids) which makes me wonder how much art both shapes and reflects our realities. Since I've gotten into the heart of my own recent book, I'm constantly bombarded with shows on rapes, murders, and crimes against women. New age thinking counsels that what we think about comes to us, that we create our realities. But while I agree with some of that idea, I also think we carry our scars, that they can't be undone, and we are left with a past we can't quite forget and a future which we can only glimpse through the strangest of dreams.

I grew up next to the Brazos River which means the arms of God. It is full of snakes and trash, but I still loved swimming in it. You never knew what you might see. Sometimes people camp next to it, usually with guns to protect themselves from the other nuts that also are out in droves. Sufficed to say, it wasn't a prime camping location. You could still be alone out there given that you were willing to go to a place that nobody else wanted to be.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"In the dark, the eye begins to see." Robert Lowell

Cocktail Hour

Love In The Afternoon

2 oz vanilla vodka
2 oz coconut rum
1 oz sweetened lime juice

Strain over ice and serve in a martini glass.

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Thursday! And a special thanks to my beautiful Jodi for the great suggestion about the mystery answer. I think I can get away with this if I use the biblical phrasing, This is a profound mystery even to me. And truth be told, I'm glad anyone is interested at all! Advance copies for everyone thanks to Mark's question. And keep checking out Laura's Handbasket -- her brilliant writer husband Pinckney Benedict is in the basket this week.

8 comments:

Scott said...

Michelle,

I love that phrase at the end, about scars and the future glimpsed only through the strangest of dreams. I often have very strange dreams, and some are more straightforward, and I wonder what they may mean.

I'll have to try that drink recipie.

Have a good Thursday, too, whta's left of it!

Anonymous said...

you are sp strange

Charles Gramlich said...

Very true. You can always be alone if you go where no one else wants to be. gotta give that some thought.

the walking man said...

There is a certain calm in being where no one else wants to be. I would dwell there, especially if no one knows the road to that place. It is good to take any signs down on the way to that treasure.

Anonymous said...

To all the people I've lied to.--Denis Johnson

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

I'm always inwardly alone.

laughingwolf said...

exactly so... i can be alone in a crowd, and mostly am....

Anonymous said...

RIP Levi Stubbs. It's the same old song, but with a different meaning since you've been gone. You put the soul in soul music, man. The Four Tops were the top and still are.--Detroit Native