02:34 - 26.09.06
Chronos and Ravens
Happy Ramadan, Navratri, and belated Rosh Hashanah everyone.
I lied last night, dear diary. I thought I had finished the last assignment for Elections Canada, but when I reread it today, I found I had a fair amount of editing to do. I guess working until nearly 4 in the am really isn't all that efficient, is it? I did finally send the last assignment in late in the afternoon today. It has been well above seasonal temperatures here, reaching the mid 20's C/high 70's F, so sitting inside was difficult. I need to do things like mow the grass one last time, rake the leaves, go for walks, dance, and go pick up my next elections assignment from the post office. Oh yeah. My youngest and number three son did go shopping for me for housewares and baking things, so I was able to tackle the first layer of housework today.
My sister's sister-in-law called yesterday just to touch base about her arrival in town today. She is so excited because her new computer is awaiting her at her mom's home. She wanted to set a date so we could get together to work on that, as well as work through some astrology and website issues. Received an email from the one friend in the Middle East too. They are packing up now and will be back in Canada before the end of the year. Both happy bits of news. Called the one sister today as well. That conversation was less pleasant. She is the one that is a bit mean at times. She usually picks on one of my other sisters. The middle one is so insecure, that it is easy for the called sister to needle her. When it was really bad, was when she used to do that to my sister until she had reached the point of explosion. She would wait until one or both of my parents were presents to do the last bit of needling - usually what appeared to be some inconsequential remark - so that the middle sister would lose it in front of them. For years she has made it appear that the middle sister is volatile, unstable and the bully, when in fact the reverse is more often true. The sister I called today seems to have decided that she will try the same tactics on me. I think those comments are noted in earlier posts. Today, as a change up, she started taking verbal shots at my sons instead. My Dad's neighbour told me that she often tells people to do anatomically impossible things to themselves - and as a nurse I'm certain some of the directions are quite "creative". She advised me to do likewise. My Dad has been pushing me to stand up more for myself too.
However, in this instance, I think responding to the needling with that behaviour would actually make me look like my middle sister. It wasn't until Friday that it finally clicked why my Dad was so easily deceived by the called sister's underhandedness. He's usually a very good judge of character. It was when I was telling the story about going by train to my mom's parents' home in Winnipeg for Christmas, that my Dad commented with a very shaky voice that that was the time the sister came close to dying from a childhood disease. The truth is all four of us sisters has had at least one brush with death by the time we left home. This one sister, though, was the same age as my Dad's sister when she died of pneumonia back in the 1930's when there were no antibiotics. Apparently his Mom's grief was extreme. He subconsciously relates very strongly to any circumstances that recall it to him or so it seems to me. When the called sister was small she could do no wrong even when caught red-handed. I had always just put it down to being the youngest daughter. However, the bullying behaviour that grew out of that and the constant eating away at the middle sister's self image and self confidence was very hard to understand even in that context. As a child in the family I knew of the imbalance because it affected us all, but it is hard to address the inequities with one's parents, isn't it. I wouldn't have known how to begin.
I'm not certain why the called sister has turned her attention to me, but there have been several instances of her trying to call me into disrepute and to discredit my ability to make good choices for myself. I've managed to not respond to any of those, so I guess she sees denigrating my sons as the next line of attack. It makes me wonder if I should even go to Thanksgiving dinner - in Canada that is October 9. I get the feeling she wants to make her last jab a very public attack. Don't know what's wrong with her. The rest of the conversation with the called sister was mostly about travel and international issues. The problem is that she pays so little attention to those that her opinions are based on emotional responses to buzz words used by politicians and the media. It felt as though some of that conversation was a loaded minefield too. On the up-side while talking, I did manage to get a couple of sinks of dishes washed, ran a couple of loads of laundry, made supper, then when that was all done cleaned out the litter boxes. I love cordless phones.
I had promised to talk about some of the synchronicities that played out over last week, but I don't think they are done yet. The one that is interesting me the most is the one about the 60's and John Lennon. You see, last Wednesday my oldest was watching the last concert of The Band while he ate supper at about midnight. We got into a long discussion about the key people who influenced the direction that rock music took and who led the social consciousness development of the boomer generation. Bob Dylan was the starting point, since The Band was his group. It was disconcerting to try to explain to my son, because his recollection of groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, the Bee Gees, and the individual performers was from after their re-inventing themselves to survive the 70's - disco and yuppies, bleagh. When I started talking about Joan Baez and the antiwar movement, he asked me who she was. I was actually speechless for a bit about that one. I decided I would try recalling some of the videos of Woodstock as a starting point so he could see - and hear - the difference. My son understood the civil rights issues because he grew up with written material from my volunteer work freely available to read. I also rented those historical movies so he and his brothers would understand how much has changed since then. He had seen clips of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, for example. He had heard me tell the story of how our family, my parents and sibs, found ourselves driving through Watts just after the riots when King was assassinated. As children we were only thinking of arriving at Disneyland for our big,long anticipated Easter holiday. Most of that trip featured very dangerous encounters of all sorts. We landed in the Hells Angels' backyard too then drove into a segregted neighborhood with licence plates that the residents took to read as Alabama instead of Alberta. It was very scary at that point. It is odd but that was one of the stories that was discussed at dinner with my Dad and his neighbour.
Anyway I digress. The search for Woodstock vintage videos led to the pleasing discovery - for me - that some Joan Baez videos that I had been searching for earlier had finally been uploaded. Still not the ones from the earliest part of her career when she focussed on British folk ballads, but definitely her protest songs were available. I also found several videos of other strong musical influences at that time - that's why you might have noticed some, well, rather ancient tunes linked in your posts recently dear diary. I found that one John Lennon video at the Hare Krishna ashram in India in August as a means to explain the transformation of him and his partners in song to what my son actually sees as their one and only musical incarnation. Then in one of the paranormal enewsletters on the weekend there was a story about John's sighting of a UFO in New York city - corroborated by many other witnesses. I researched that a bit, knowing it influenced the direction his music took. In the video of the song he wrote about it - Strange Days - there are family photos including his two sons. There is also a clip where he is dancing with Yoko in front of a Canadian flag behind which is a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. I think it was a reference to the filming of his Give Peace a Chance video in our country. The gesture he made at the end of that video shook me up a bit. The reason was that I was also trying to explain to my son about John's promise to his son Julian to contact him from the other side of death. Julian sang about the White Feather floating across the room, but I haven't been able to find that piece. My son related that to the story about Harry Houdini's promise to his wife before he died. I don't know the connection, but maybe a Friday 13th and Hallowe'en coming up next month will pull back the veil and reveal more, eh?
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