I so needed this laugh

With a sick husband begging me to come home at 2:30, missed deadlines, a manic marketer from back east who is taking some pill I’m not, and a call home from school about a daughter who won’t stop talking and hit the three-strikes-and-I-call-your-parents jackpot, I was grateful for this laugh.

(To Babs’ credit, she was also selected by her classmates as “Most Friendly” today, which kind of balances it all out, but as her teacher said — fortunately with a sense of humor — “That’s a big part of the problem.”)

Unfortunately, I now have to think about what BIG thing I’m going to take away from her since I told her that if I got a call home, that would be the consequence — the loss of something important. How I hate accountability!

For these reasons I was grateful for the respite when I stumbled on this T-shirt and post. If this isn’t immediately funny to you, you either need to 1) check to see if you’re still breathing, or 2) click through to watch the video linked in the post.

The rumor was that the fellow did it purposefully because he enjoys his You Tube fame. You have no idea how much I want to buy this T-shirt. Oh, and happy Talk Like A Pirate Day, Matey! ARRRRR!

Read the post here from Bob McCarty about the shirt, its origins and how you can get one, too!

Showing some love

Most of you know I’m an English major. And most English majors I know like to think of themselves in the present tense as English majors. Not “Oh, I majored in English” or “I was an English major.” We are English majors. Because we are poets. Lovers. Bohemians. We didn’t choose business or athletic administration or underwater basketweaving. We chose English. Because English chose us.

During my late teens and early 20s, I adored many poets, philosophers and writers. One of my favorites was Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese poet who moved to the south side of Boston, very near where I used to live, when he was 12.

For those of you who are familiar with The Prophet, this will be nothing new. But the pictures from yesterday’s post brought this to mind, and I began thinking again of the dance of intimacy that we do with our loved ones, especially our mates. Closer. Back a step. Right. Left. Twirl. Push. Pull. Dip.

I’m torn between my love for Gibran’s prose and no longer being able to wholeheartedly agree with everything he says. Ah, the impetuousness of youth. But for the thought that it brought both when I was posing for the pictures (and had pulled away purposefully without Jon’s noticing, curious to see how far I could go before he turned) and also just for the joy of sharing a work like this in a forum like this, without further ado, I present:

Gibran on Marriage…

Then Almitra spoke again and said, “And what of Marriage, master?”
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

One last thought that makes me smile: Redwood trees seem to grow just fine in the shade. Thinking of it, I wonder if they actually grow larger because of it. Curious, that.