Breathtaking

This poem is so beautiful, so heartwarming, it literally took my breath away and gave me goosebumps.  

So in these days of summer (summer camp on the brain), and years of motherhood (Dear Daughter, I'm forever humbled), and a lifetime of being a daughter (thank you, Mom), it seemed especially apt to post, share, and save. Flag for Mother's Day 2013.

Poet Billy Collins is a gem.

It's your narrative, use it well.

Another lovely Hax perspective on love and life.  In this case, the letter write was having difficulty coming to grips with the ending ambiguity of a relationship.  Blame? Responsibility?  Shortcomings?  (Dis)Honesty? But no, we are mere mortals just trying to get to the end of the day.  Here's what she said.  So wise...

"Here’s the narrative I suggest to replace it: You’re just two people who tried to make your unique combination of strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, histories and hopes fit together — and in the end, they didn’t."

And another great 'toon from Nick...where has he been all my life?

Love this!

Just really appreciated this set of posters advertising an art exhibit in Dakar.  Nice, storng graphic statement.  Love the blue-black-white print.  Nice going, Dakar!

Tempting

Another little fantasy - how about a home in Cyprus?  Check out the article and the slide show.  I can so feel the warm sun, the fresh breeze.  I can taste the olives and the glass of wine. I can imagine reading the book on the patio, the stroll about town.

At 450,000 euro, it's a dream, but a good one!

Not guilty

Happy to say, I'm not guilty of any of the cliches of good taste as reported in this NYTimes article and slide show.

No vintage typewriter ,monogrammed towels or taxidermy in my house!

Details, details...

File under Major Blindspots - this article describes a study that finds the IUD the most effective method of emergency contraception, with a failure rate of 1 in 1000.  Great, but for emergency contraception (post-facto-ooops birth control)  the morning after pill does just fine for my money with a low 1 to 3% failure rate. The article states, despite the IUD's efficacy and safety, it is rarely recommended by clinicians for emergency contraception.  The reasons cited - it is not covered by insurance and it is not readily available.  Frankly, I'd add invasive to the list of why it's not a great option as a back-up option.  You have to get an IUD inserted through the vagina into the uterus.  A great long-term contraceptive method, but not super-appealing morning after plan B.

Didn't we just go through this in Virginia?

Please consider a donation to Planned Parenthood.

The 55% have spoken

A sea change is in the air. Yesterday, the shareholders of Citigroup voted against the proposed compensation packages of its top 5 execs.  While the vote is not binding, the 55% who were opposed sent a clear signal about outrageous outsized pay to these corporate cats.  The tents of Occupy Wall Street have been taken down, but the sentiment has rooted, and not just within a fringe-y radical element.  One of the nay voters represented a Philadelphia money management firm that lays claim to 5 million shares of Citigroup.  I'm pretty sure their rep was not camped out in Zuccotti Park. I can't help but wonder if there was some organzing around this vote.

It's about equity; it's about fairness (The Buffett Rule); it's about stakeholder (and shareholders) exercising their voice.  The pendulum is swinging - it's a long, and not altogether smooth arc.  And this is not a 4-year term, but rather a generational shift, and thus more like 20 years.  I'm recommending a veggie share in your local CSA (community-supported agriculture).  It's a different kind of dividend.   

Music, movement, breath, beauty

Wow.  Isn't this gorgeous?  This interactive media feature in the New York Times shows how conducting works with the musical director of the New York Philharmonic.  With very cool videographics from the Movement Lab, we can see the invisible lines and waves he makes with the tips of his fingers and the swoops of his hands.  We see him crouch and lift, bend and nod, as he explains what he his trying to draw out of two classical pieces.  I especially like the way he explains the draw of the note (how it finishes) and anticipating the arrival of a new instrument.

Classical music can be so  supremely beautiful.  At my trip to the Kennedy Center last month to see a special concert of the National Symphony Orchestra, I was so enchanted with how classical music just holds you.  There is something in classical music where the individual sounds of the dozens of instruments and an odd hundred musicians swirl in the air, blend, and become one beautiful sound.  I remember trying to just listen for the strings or the woodwinds, and it is a difficult task, as they become indistinct from one another as they fill each corner of that magnificent hall.

Beautiful (but also sad)

Isn't this a beautiful infographic representing the voter divide and the voter turn-out data for the DC Primary election for At-large City Council member?  I love infographics, and I love data.  I wish I were better at presenting and depicting data in this beautiful visual and clear way.

Washington, Post. April 4, 2012

On a sad note, this city is so racially divided, depicted so clearly on the map - the white (blue) -black (green) divide feels more demarcated and prominent than ever as the city's demographic change.  See how Upper Cupcake aka Upper Northwest is so blue, and the blue travels south to Georgetown, and eastward to 16th Street NW.  Travels that Golden Mile, crosses over to Mount Pleasant and the now gentrified Columbia Heights, Dupont Circle and the lofts of downtown Chinatown, and condos of NoMa.  It stays blue across The Mall, well into Capitol Hill, and south to the SW waterfront and Navy Yard.  If only we could track that voter spread against real estate prices, household income, and of course race.  Likewise, the green stays east - first in Petworth,  down and over to Bloomington, Trinidad, and Benning Road, and across the Anacostia to Congress Heights and Minnesota Avenue - in the blackest parts of our city.

The red map is good, too.  It seems our low interest in voting traverses the entire city hovering around 15% across the voting precincts.

Will this city ever overcome its racial divide?  And how?  What would that look like?  I mean Marion Barry just got re-elected to City Council in Ward 8 with 72% of the vote!  Then, he got a little giddy with that victory, and began talking trash during his election night speech at the Player's Lounge about getting rid of the Asian-owned businesses.  SMDH.

Things that make me happy

Because you just can't help but smile, when you round the corner, and see Big Ben....
on a clear blue sky London day...

...or after a stupendous evening.

Smart & Sushi

Best Cocktail of My Entire Life

In between my Tuesday late afternoon meeting and meeting the fam for Indian dinner, I stopped by the exquisite Brown's Hotel in Mayfair for a cocktail.  Best mixology I've ever encountered! - see below photo of the counter along the bar of potions and mists to make these tasty chic and tres cher cocktails.

In anticipation of a lovely dinner ahead, I enjoyed The Indian Touch, a sparkler composed of fresh mottled raspberries with gomme syrup and cardamom seed infused Brockman's gin topped with fine French champagne. ($25- ahem)

I can't say I've ever had a memorable cocktail before.  This totally qualifies!  The bartender took good care of me - I think because at the crowded bar, I was the one who was savoring every sip, every moment.

Long distance train travel? Why, yes, I'd love to!

A wonderful article in this week's WaPo travel section extolled the virtues of long distance train travel.   This particular article highlighted the writer's trip on the DC-Chicago line Capitol Limited, and then from Chicago to San Francisco on the California Zephyr, through the glorious Rockies!  There's also the Empire Builder that takes a northern route to Seattle across the Dakotas.  Wow.  I am enchanted.  Check out the breathtaking photo gallery.

I love train travel.  Even on my regular trip to NYC a few times a year, I just stare out the window mostly at industrial NJ along the I-95 corridor, but also across the Chesapeake and its tributaries as we race through Maryland.  It's a short-trip, about 3 hours, but I always feel relaxed after a train ride.

Last summer, I took Dear Daughter to NYC by train.  She was dying to see the "snack car," which i think she imagined like a DC-subway car filled with all the goldfish crackers and granola bars you could ever want.  I've been tempted to take her on a longer train trip to Burlington, Vermont or even Montreal, Canada.  It's still in my sights, though I haven't worked out all the details. On one of my trips, I sat next to a guy who had taken his teenage son on a train trip to Chicago to visit family.  Tempting.

And these long-distance more exotic trips across the country or down the west coast sound even more magical.  The Coast Starlight (Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles). The Lakeshore Limited (NYC, Boston, Albany, Chicago).   Amtrak Cascades (Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Salem). I'm blissed out by the routes alone.  Forty-hours on a train?  Perhaps it would lose its allure quicker than I think - for me, let alone a nearly-8 (!) year old.  But I imagine a panoramic window seat, lots of card games, a few books, an iPad, and a iPod Genius soundtrack would while away the time just fine.

What's holding me back? I haven't worked out the logistics, and silly as it may sound I can't figure out what we are doing when we get to our destination, or how we get back....Not rocket science, I know, but still puzzling me for the moment.

Book here.  All aboard!

Most Pink. Bakerloo Line, London

Can you find La Nouvelle Observatrice?

Most Awesome Kid on the Planet. Southbank, London

More London photos to be posted in due course....

Perfect

I've made such progress...but oh, can I relate!  Thank you, Nick Galifianakis (my total crush).

Parenting. Tricky, tricky.

Why I LOVE Carolyn Hax....

"The child's needs have to be paramount--yet no child can be expected to be in complete control of all decisions, because what child is ready for that? Parents have to be in charge -and- leave no fingerprints. Tricky. "

This particular response took place during today's Live Chat on WaPo regarding a young son's declaration of "being a girl inside." Carolyn answered with such a thoughtful and moving sentiment, "I would give him a hug and say I love him, it's going to be okay, we'll figure this out together."  I mean, how simple and profound is this?   

And yet, this, as well as the first tenet can be applied to so often when parenting.  Kids want us to be in charge.  They need us to be in charge.  And yes, their needs are paramount.  But guiding them firmly through to adulthood, and leaving barely a trace of your hand, is such a delicate art.

I'd like to post both of these sentiments someplace I could read them everyday, as I practice the art of mothering my awesome kid.

Car-free in DC

 

Interesting data from Greater Greater Washington shows a nice swath of car-free households! Of course, there are two main reasons you might not have a car: 1) you need a car, but you can't afford it or 2) you can afford a car, but don't need it. I'll take glass-half-full for both. For those that can't afford a car, they can be car-free just by virtue of public transport available in cities.* In far too many places, public transit is unavailable or abysmal. There, even the poor need to own a car to get to work or school and buy groceries - and by necessity must shoulder the costs of gas, insurance, maintenance and car payments. For those who can afford a car, but don't need it, public transit and walkable communities allow them to choose to live car-free. Yippee!

I do own a car, though I arguably don't need it.  I have a metro station 1.5 blocks a way, a bus on my corner, and a Capital BikeShare membership - plus, I like to walk.  I can get to work door-to door by public transit in less than 30 minutes (Thank god!).  My neighborhood amenities are plentiful - a coffee shop within 3 blocks, a supermarket within 5 blocks, and a commercial district with shops and restaurants within 1 mile of my house.   Despite all that, my car sure makes things easier when lugging around a kid and her associated stuff.  On most weeks, my car does not leave it's parking space for 4-5 days straight. 

And Happy 4th Birthday to my Prius!  You look and feel great @ 28,118 miles, 40+ mpg!

*Yes, I'm aware that the poor are increasingly squeezed out of great city living because of lack of affordable housing.  Haven't reconciled this.  More affordable, housing and mixed income development!  But that's a different post, I'm not capable of taking on here and now.