When Did You Last Recieve a Love Letter?

The Daily Telegraph reports that Brits are Falling out of Love with Love Letters. Fewer than 1 in 5 Brits received a love letter in the last year. The story goes on to relay statistics of such letters, by demographics and age, and also the habit of writing thank you notes.

I suspect that we are ahead of the Brits in this devolution. A 41 cent stamp and 7 pm delivery is still shocking and may have something to do with the aversion to writing letters. I remember 13 cents and mail delivery twice a day.

This morning NPR did a terrific 12 minute story on the collected letters of the Mitford sisters, including an interview with the last surviving sister. Remember Cold Comfort Farm? also a 2001 Masterpiece Theater production with Anthony Andrews in the perfectly creepy role of 'Boy', Pursuit of Love? Oswald Mosley? Mary Lovell, one of my favorite biographers (Rebel Heart on Jane Digby and Cast No Shadow on WWII spy Betty Pack), has a book on the sisters, too. Quite a window into the history of the last century. The loss to history is another reason to mourn the lack of letter writing.

When was the last time you received a hand written note? Vote in the survey in the right side column. And maybe take the time to write a letter today.

Posters to Slam GOP

Arianna Huffington announced an effort to 'visually blog' on the modern GOP and all that it now stands for after 7 years of King George. The graphics are visually aggressive and effective. I'm not so sure about the words. There are three versions: people, slogans, events.

On the people poster, John Yoo is missing. But both Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are in a larger font than George Bush, which is funny. Mike Brown should probably simply be Brownie.

On the slogans poster - they are primarily related to the war. No Child Left Behind is missing. The effect of all the war slogans is shocking.

On the events poster - again dominated by the war. Non-war events include climate change, Katrina and intelligent design. That's it. Signing statements, wiretapping, mine disasters are missing.

Designed by Rich Silverstein, the ad guy who came up with "Got Milk?" the posters are an interesting idea. To check it out for yourself and 0ffer your own comments, check it out here.

Presidential History Revealed

One of the other reasons I love DC and that there is C-SPAN radio. On the dial, it's right between the two major radio stations WAMU 88.5 and WETA 90.9. C-SPAN is 90.1. Sometimes going from one to the other, a political hearing or press conference will catch my attention. It's raw and unfiltered.

Then there's C-SPAN television. Last night I caught their Friday night series on Presidential Libraries. I saw a fascinating lengthy commercial for Ford, which aired on election eve 1976, with Pearl Bailey and Joe Garagiola. Then Ford himself spoke while on Air Force One. It seemed so unscripted.

I also saw George H.W. Bush tour the new Air Force One. It looked like the one depicted in the Harrison Ford movie. And Eisenhower give a speech at the United Nations on nuclear proliferation.

Finally, and most interesting, was an interview Brian Lamb did with the woman in charge of all the libraries at the National Archives. The most visited libraries are Kennedy, Johnson and Reagan (Reagan has the retired Air Force One at his library). Johnson's library is free; Reagan's charges twelve bucks. The budget for all the libraries is 58 millions, supplemented by about 10 million from various presidential foundations. Kennedy's is the most expensive because its in Boston. The foundations are playing a more active role because of budget cuts (thank you Republicans) and new archivists are only hired when there is a new library established.

She also address the controversy of the Clinton library. She explained the status and noted (as have news reports) that Bill Clinton put about 6 categories off limits until he or his agent had a chance to review the documents. One area is the correspondence between him and his wife (remember her brother's pardon. Did you remember her brothers at all?). Another, for example, is any correspondence he got from previous presidents. The Clintons need to get someone down there to review and release. The National Archivist portrayed herself as an advocate of access.

To check out the C-SPAN series and see what's coming up next (Friday November 30th is all about Clinton), click here. The link sometimes work and sometimes doesn't. Keep trying. If you like history and politics, there are some fascinating gems.

Also the National Archives has created a presidential time line of the 20th century. A fun resource, it can be found here.

Ted Sorensen Supports Obama

On the 44th anniversary of the Kennedy assignation yesterday, C-SPAN rebroadcast a program from October 17 which was held at the Kennedy School for Government at Harvard. Ted Sorensen talked of the Cuban Missile crises, which occurred 45 years ago.

The discussion was very good, mostly because the questions from the audience were well informed (well, with the exception of one - a baby boomer who bemoaned the lack of social convulsion that "Kennedy inspired" in the 60s and 70s).

Noting the talk of experience in the current presidential campaign, one asked what of Kennedy's background and experience aided him in foreign policy. Sorensen said Kennedy was a

• A man of peace – religious upbringing and the fact that he lost friends and his brother in the war.
• A man who lived abroad, when his father was the British Ambassador
• A man who believed in communication.

Then he noted that only one candidate currently running fit that bill - and he made the connections directly on each point - and that was Barack Obama.

He also shared that he yelled at a Secret Service agent who was protecting Obama (can you imagine???) after the campaign drove through high winds and rains (later deemed a tornado) at a high speed.

You can watch the program yourself here. Also Sorensen has a book coming out next May in 2008.

What I'm Thankful For

Mostly people. I'm deeply grateful for these people in my life :

• Ali M. – for his generosity of spirit, his time and his care.
• Ali S. – for offering his knowledge and service free to help me get better.
• Ari – for helping me quickly with all my computer ails, doing so cheerfully and efficiently, and liking Obama too.
• Anita - for providing emotional support and information in my endeavor to have a child, and for memories.
• Barbara - her sense of humor, encouraging my writing, her companionship with this endeavor to write, her understanding.
• Cecilia - for making me laugh, her emotional support and trips to Cosco.
• Chantal – for her constant and unconditional support, our long friendship (31 years!), and her resilience which is an inspiration.
• Christina – for her knitting help, for her emotional support, laughter, intelligence.
• Christine – for her checking in on me, her notes, care, and our long conversations and making me laugh.
• Claudette - for always making me belly laugh, being artful, and her loving gift of art that hangs on my bedroom wall.
  
• Connan and Blake - for checking in on me, sharing my love of theater, and for memories.
• Corinne - for checking in on me, encouragement and love.
  
• Elizabeth - for her steadfast example of dealing with loss and challenges with wit and intelligence and generosity.
  
• Emily - for checking in on me, and for memories.
• Erik – for adding to my hip factor, and always calling me with loving messages.
• Francesca - for her encouragement, good sense, and humor
  
• Gabriel - for his constant encouragement to keep me social, for the birthday party he gave me this year, and for bringing me groceries.
• Jen - for encouraging my writing and providing excellent and enthusiastic feedback, and for memories.
• John - for deeming me hip enough to have him as a friend, for checking in, and his sense of humor.
• Juliana- for teaching me yoga and inspiring stability and bringing laughter to my life.
  
• Libby - for her like-minded politics, encouragement and moral support, and visits with lunch, for groceries.
• Maggie - her thoroughness and information about film, arts, books, her companionship on this journey of illness.
• Mercedes - for checking in on me, letting me know when a good film is on TCM, and for her emotional support.
• Monica – for reminding me in ways big and small of my mother, sending me articles, and many phone calls checking in on me, her companionship in and understanding of chronic illness which has been a comfort.
• Nickie – for making me laugh, for working my muscles, for welcoming me so warmly and sharing her family and home.
• Sara - for her information, encouragement and visits with lunch.
• Sally - for informing me about Crossings which gave me the best gift, the gift of a dream about my mother.
• Sheryl – for her professional encouragement, her self-reliance which inspires, and her companionship in dating a Brazilian.
• Shirley - for her love, support, making me dinner and bringing her beautiful kids by for a visit.
  
• For my writing group last summer and this spring - Bill, Matt, Sarah, Tom and Zach - for keeping my mind awake, encouragement, and being funny.
  
• And most of all - my yoga students: Aaron, Ali, Carole B., Carole G. Cissy, Ellen, Jan, Karen, Kate, Laura, Maria, Reid, Sylvia, Tamra and Libby and Sara too - for their patience during this year of mourning.
• My care givers - Abdul and Fatima, Kevin, Rebecca, Nickie, Juliana, Claire, Rosalba, Alan, Jennifer, Karen, Ali, Ali, Dorothy and David.
  
• I am also grateful for the joy of children, especially my nieces and nephews Isabelle, Lucas, Austin, Curtis, Jack, Andrew, Margot, Sabrina and Ava.
• I am very grateful for the financial support of my father.
  

Boy, that makes me feel pretty lucky. These months have been trying, and I am appreciative of these connections and relationships which have buoyed me in all sorts of ways.

Thanksgiving Service at the National Cathedral

I attended the Thanksgiving Day Holy Eucharist at the Washington National Cathedral today. But two winters ago, on the first weekend in February of last year, I was at the Cathedral College for a weekend retreat on Centering Prayer. That Saturday, cold and rainy afternoon, a single bell tolled from the Cathedral bell tower at least 60 times, slowly and heavily, rotund with emotion. I lost count, but the sound seemed to go on and on and on, like the mist, that afternoon. There was a funeral and after the service the bell tolled in sadness. And I had just learned the night before that my mother had cancer.

It's a tender time now because my mom died less than a week after Thanksgiving last year. The night before we worked furiously with her doctors to get her out of the hospital so we could all have Thanksgiving safely at home. She'd been in the hospital for nearly three weeks and had discovered during that time that the cancer was back. But she was ready to come home and we were ready for her - with a bed, a baby monitor, television set up, flowers, nebulizer, home nurse, oxygen tank, wheelchair - and lots of love.

I can hardly believe that a year has past. It feels like eons and it feels like moments. And it still feels pretty awful. At the Thanksgiving service, despite the fact that I could hardly get through an entire verse, a stranger complemented me on my singing, which was nice, especially because my mom often did.

A Welsh folk tune, borrowed from my childhood hymnal, the Lutheran Book of Worship of 1978 was the hymn before the sermon.

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving to God the creator triumphantly raise, who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us, who still guides us onto the end of our days. God's banners are o'er us, his light goes before us, a pillar of fire shining forth in the night, till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished, as forward we travel from light into light.

The second verse speaks of the "stars in their course and sun in its orbit." And the preacher told a tale of a friend who'd seen the Aurora Borealis and how it'd affected her. It made her slow down, to feel instead of think, to allow her to be aware that she was of something larger than herself. The word "consider" from its Latin roots - means "with the stars" or "to observe with the stars." so that consideration and contemplation was always meant to take you out of your own world, your own universe. (For more on etymology, click here.)

She also spoke of the flower star gazers. And how they represented the life of contemplation, and how stargazers were thought to have arms open to God and arms open in service to our neighbors. You can listen to the entire sermon of Reverend Canon Carol Wade here.

The closing hymn was an Easter tune, Lasst uns efreuen, a melody written in 1623. The introduction started and I recognized it immediately. My religious heritage and understanding is one of my most treasured gifts from my mother. And I thought how appropriate, given where my mind was, that the service would close with a hymn that I associated with the celebration of the resurrection. It was a comfort.

The melody has at least two versions in the Episcopalian hymnbook - #400 and #618. We sang a version of #400 which was set to words of St. Francis of Asssi -

All creatures of our God sing praise, with thankful hearts your voices raid, O sing praises! Alleluia! O Brother Sun with golden beam, O Sister Moon with silver gleam! O sing praises! O sing praises! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

As I left, the bells were ringing more hymns. The day was warm and I sat in the garden while I called my family from my mobile phone. The bells were joyous, uplifting, melodious and quite different from another sound of those bells on a colder, dreadful day earlier last year. The sounds heartened and yielded a glimmer of hope.

A Woman Finds Home in Italy on Thanksgiving

A heart warming tale on Thanksgiving of a woman who traveled alone to Italy at the age of 41 (my age) to see the town where her grandparents were from. And her life changed.

Thank you Maggie for the heads up.

The Difficulties of Chronic Pain

The last three weeks Jane Brody of the New York Times did a series of columns on chronic pain.

Living With Pain That Just Won't Go Away (November 6th, 2007) yes, she mentioned my condition and also delineates the problems chronic pain cause beyond the physical difficulties including the adverse affect on social connect, economic burden and misunderstanding. Most apt statement: "No one in his right mind -- and most patients were in their right minds before the pain began -- would trade a fulfilling life for the misery of chronic pain."

Chronic Pain: A Burden Often Shared (November 13th 2007). Really address to those who have a family member in pain and how to cope. The suggestions struck me as helpful and relevant, if only I had a family who could take steps one and two. Most apt statement: "Whether you are the patient’s primary or intermittent caregiver, it is important not to contribute to feelings of helplessness."

Many Treatments Can Ease Chronic Pain (November 20th, 2007). She doesn't talk about yoga, but does mention meditation. And she didn't mention what for me was the most difficult side effect of painkiller drugs - dizziness. And she mentioned the fentanyl patches but neglects to note that since July 2005 the FDA has been investigating the patch as a cause of death, a report I saw on CNN just tonight.

On a related note, Dr. McCall has a two-part piece on chronic pain on the Yoga Journal web site.

A Literary Mystery Solved?

I love stories like these in the New York Times today, Wharton Letter Reopens a Mystery. A letter from Edith Wharton shows a writer at work, researching her work and revealing her method. Its fascinating that things like this still come to light.

Did Lily Bart, the heroine of The House of Mirth, intend to commit suicide or not?

I tend to agree with Auchincloss (sorry but I'm not going to spoil the mystery here). But to me the most fasicinating part of the piece is that her ending of The House of Mirth wasn't finished as the beginning was being published serially Scribner’s Magazine.

You can also see the actual letter in a slide show at the New York Times web site above, which is really cool

Why Pat Robertson Endorsed Guiliani

The Dean of Grace Cathedral, the Episcopalian cathedral of San Francisco, is Alan Jones, the author of several books. I've read The Soul's Journey, Exploring the Spiritual life with Dante as Guide, which was just terrific! Also - I own, but have not (yet) read Passion for Pilgrimage, Notes for the Journey Home and Reimagining Christiainity, Reconnect Your Spirit without Disconnecting Your Mind.

Jones is erudite, religion and able to write. And he interviewed Gary Wills - a historian at Northwestern University whose many books delve into American history and religion. He is also a frequent and excellent contributer to The New York Review of Books, most recently writing about Ghiberti's doors, "The Gates of Paridise" from Florence, now on exhibit at the Met. He covers the history, the competition, the religious meaning of the images, the art. To read, click here. (It might be restricted to registered subscribers, but some of NYRB articles are not).

Gary Wills has a new book out, Head and Heart: American Christianities. I wrote about it on October 8th and highlighted a radio interview done on NPR. There's also a book excerpt at that link.

And so Wills and Jones talked about American Christianity. Two smart guys talking about an important subject given how religion is being used in politics by the Republicans. They show how uninformed so much civil discourse is (especially when it invokes the religiousness of our Founding Fathers). And Gary Wills explains the apparent mystery of a social conservative's endorsement of nasty Rudy Guiliani. Pat Roberson, and his ilk, believe that we are fighting the devil (in Iraq and the Middle East) and fighting the devil is more important than anything else. And Guilani seems, to them, to be the best person to lead that fight.

To watch the whole program, click here.

To watch a five minute answer to Was America Founded on Christianity, from Wills' talk at Politics and Prose, watch this:

Karen Armstrong's New Book on the Bible

Karen Armstrong has a new book out on the Bible, "The Bible: A Biography." She did a 30 minute interview on Talk of the Nation.

Andrew Sullivan on Why Obama Can Transcend the Hell of our Civic Discourse

Andrew Sullivan has a MUST read in this month's Atlantic Monthly, called "Goodbye to All That: Is Iraq Vietnam? Who really won in 2000? Which side are you on in the culture wars? These questions have divided the Baby Boomers and distorted our politics. One candidate could transcend them."

I couldn't put it down. I don't agree with quite all that he says. I think the left is much more sane, less extremist, than he does - obviously. But I was pleased to see that Alan Brinkley, the Allan Nevins professor of history and the provost at Columbia University, agreed in his review of Ron Brownstein 's book The Second Civil War. "But making the same argument about a similar dogmatism and zealotry among Democrats is a considerable stretch," Brinkley writes.

But whether or not Sullivan is off on which side is more entrenched, we need a way out. I'm desperate for that. And this conservative believes Obama can help us transcend baby boomer angst. The last caller on the Diane Rehm Show tried to ask Brownstein about Sullivan's piece last week; Brownstein didn't answer the question adequately. So far, I've not been impressed with Brownstein's book.

This aspect, the ability to get beyond the poison of the 60s, was a visceral attraction for me, but he put my sense of putting the (political) past behind into words, rather well. It's an interesting perspective, strongly expressed, from an unusual perspective.

Let me note that Newsweek cover story is on 1968. Yuck.

Barak Obama on Meet the Press

Okay - he did well. Nothing hit wow out of the park. Not like his speech last night. But he parried ripostes well.

Let me add that while I don't agree that Tim Russert is to blame for Hillary's lame showing in Philadelphia last Tuesday (as the Hillary campaign leaked to the Drudge Report), I have very little respect for Tim Russert. He seems more impressed with his own questions and doesn't listen very well to the answers. His mind seems to be on the next question. I constantly yell at the telly, what about that, ask about that! (yes, I'm usually alone).

His stupidest question was whether or not being gay is a choice or not:
"Do you believe that it is something that you are born gay and that—or that you can change your behavior?"

Obama answered he did not believe it was a choice. But the better answer is that homosexuality's genesis is not a matter of belief. It's a matter of science. And science is increasingly showing us that homosexuality is not a choice.

To watch the interview or read the transcript, click here.

Obama's JJ Speech Echoes MLK and RFK

I watched it live after midnight, early Sunday morning. The Jefferson Jackson dinner is THE Iowa event. And he was break out.

You've got to watch. (it's about 20 minutes). You'll be inspired; This man is an ORATOR. Finally!

Don't Know Thomas Cahill? You Should

In a strange coincidence I pulled Thomas Cahill's Desire of the Everlasting Hills off my bookshelf over the weekend. He opens, "History has much to do with hills," and goes on to site the hill of Zion, Hamburger Hill, Bunker Hill, Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi. I added to that list in my mind - Capitol Hill. The book covers historical Jesus, what Palestine was like before and after Jesus' life and the life of the early Christian church.

My aunt loaned that book to me after I gobbled up Cahill's Mysteries of the Middle Ages - The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe earlier this year. I LOVED it.
And then Bill Moyer's interviewed him on Friday. You can watch or read the interview here.

Here's what Moyer highlights:
Bill Moyers interviews best-selling author and historian Thomas Cahill in a far ranging interview that takes viewers from the Coliseum in Rome to death row in Texas and examines what our attitudes toward cruelty can tell us about who we are as Americans. “We are the only democracy that is still executing. We're it. There's nobody else,” says Cahill, who is best known for his THE HINGES OF HISTORY series of books, which includes the widely read HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION. Cahill says his books ask how we became the people we are: “It's human cruelty that is evil….We're not willing to acknowledge that this is inside of us. It's there,” he says. ”I'm really interested in…what's good about us.”

Reynolds Price on Faith and Reason

Reynolds Price, a literature professor from Duke, offered an engaging interview today on Fresh Air. (It's actually rebroadcast from June 2006, on the occasion of the paperback edition of his book Letter to a Godchild: Concerning Faith. Reynolds Price has written dozens of volumes of fiction, poetry, plays, essays and translations.

Why Madison Square Garden is Nowhere Near Madison Avenue

A long time ago, when I was a little girl I went to the circus at Madison Square Garden with my family. My mother's parents also were there, in separate seats. I volunteered and was selected to be a part of a parade of kids and got a shiny hat which I kept for years. And while going around the ring also got a chance to wave at my beloved grandmother and father whom I spotted in the stands because they were waving insanely at me! It's a treasured memory.

But I always wondered why Madison Square Garden was called that when the facility was no where near Madison Avenue. Well, in another fun bit of New York City history, here's the story from the New York Times. And it has to do with the circus and P.T. Barnum. It's a fun read. And there's a great video at the link too as well as a walking tour to down load and listen to while you walk the city blocks.

Does Ayurvedic Medicine Work?

It did for me. For 6 weeks in 2002 I was cured of my chronic illness. Now a Frontline reporter investigates how health care is delivered in other parts of the world. In this episode, he focuses on India and the practice of Ayurvedic medicine. It's a good overview. And it's a fascinating result.

Rendition is Always Extraordinary

Last week Frontline/World broadcast a story on "extraordinary rendition." It's about a 30 minute video and well worth the time. Keith Olbermann cited the story the next night.

I'm not sure what makes a rendition extraordinary or not. Any rendition is extraordinary. What does rendition mean? It's the practice of scooping up terrorist suspects and putting them into CIA black sites. CIA officers are on trial in Italy for kidnapping a suspect off the streets of Milan.

It's so myopic and short sighted. These terrorists, suspects, criminals - whatever they are - are put into legal limbo and this practice makes holding them accountable impossible. Our government has done this to British citizens, a man who was undercover for MI-6 who basically abandoned him. I'm not saying all these guys are good guys but we hurt ourselves by engaging in this practice - both short term and long term. And we've even scooped up women and children in Kenya via Ethiopia. (Yes, we've got our mits in the conflicts of Somalia and Ethiopia).

Last month at Politics and Prose, Jack Goldsmith noted, correctly, that the first rendition was done under the Clinton administration on September 22, 1995. This fact makes it onto the web site, but not the television program. And the fact that a Bush official can point to the Clinton Justice Department as approving this practice upsets me.

And if you wish to cleans your palette after familiarizing yourself with what atrocities the Bush Administration has committed, check out this book of a literature professor who teaches at West Point about honor. I remember reading that in World War I that German soldiers would search for Americans to surrender to because word got around that the Americans would treat the enemy honorably, more so than the British. That hurts.

Why is Clarence Thomas so Angry?

The answer is self-pity, according to Jeffrey Toobin. The New Yorker published his review of Thomas's memoir, My Grandfather's Son, and it's the best I've seen. Toobin knows enough to be able to point out the inconsistencies of Thomas' wrath, and that makes the review particularly fun. The historical context Toobin provides is also good.

You can listen to a 12.5 minute interview with Toobin here about Thomas and Toobin's book The Nine.