2:12 a.m. - 2003-09-25
Hidden in Plain Sight
Just very brief musings tonight, dear diary, I'm tired. Reinstatement of the vote in California. I'm so grateful I'm not in a Returning Officer's shoes there. Not only dealing with a stop and start event, but facing the chance that the Supreme Court could reverse things again before voting day. How do you keep plans moving forward steadily and logically when there is no certain goal. Add in a two question ballot where what happens in "a" drives "b". No one knows until after the count on the first section whether the second part is even valid. Add in over 100 candidates and voting machines that are questionable at best and just surviving the test would seem like a major coup. I wish them well.
We've reached the meeting of the hobbits with the ents in "The Two Towers" - the second book in "The Lord of the Rings " trilogy. Put me in mind of a couple of other earlier movies. Remember the scene in "The Wizard of Oz" where Dorothy is insulted and ridiculed by the apple trees? She is hungry and finally tricks them into throwing their ripe apples to her when she questions their edibility. In "Babes in Toyland" the children find themselves in the forbidden forest surrounded by trees singing that they will never get out of their clutches. The first time I saw that show, was when I had traveled by train to my grandparents home in "Winterpeg" one Christmas. The movie had just come out and we stood on the corner of Portage and Main for what seemed like hours in -20 F weather waiting to get into the theatre; wind chill making it infinitely colder. Don't know which circumstance gave me the worst nightmares thereafter.
This time, the trees are friendly and Elven Lothlorien is recalled as well, even though reference to the black hand of Mordor with respect to the forest of Mirkwood and the Old Forest where the malice of the Weeping Willow requires the hobbits' rescue by Tom Bombadil, keeps one's fear of wooded places alive. A lot of the scenes in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are archetypal in nature. They draw on profound emotional states humanity as a whole still subconsciously carries within them. The old "mysterious forest" is a classic and usually contains a 'wise old hermit' or a 'wild trickster' - two sides of the same coin, separated by timing , maybe or intent - to complete the riddle.
What is hiding in the thickets of our hearts that needs expression right now?
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