Blue Moon With Heartbreak

I broke out an old poem a couple of days ago.... "Mutually Exclusive". I'd written it about a workplace that had suddenly gone toxic on me. Where we all stopped feeling good about the team and suddenly everybody was throwing everybody under the bus.

It upset my equilibrium at the time. I'm not above mudslinging and gettin' angry and even and such, but as I get older, it just feels like a waste of time. Upsetting situations don't anger me any more; I try to gain some perspective, try to get some alone time to shake it off, usually write about it. This results in me almost forgiving too much and too fast (and those kids of mine know it, too!). And, in giving up my rush to anger, I do find that now I get the blues.

I look back on the workplace situation today and laugh. The three of us involved in the workplace fiasco are still fast friends. Granted, we have different lifestyles and we only get together once a year for lunch or dinner... but we retain that fondness and that caring that we recaptured.

So, I rolled out "Mutually Exclusive" this month because some relatives were in town and my ex-husband monopolized all their time for 8 days. They called first to make sure I knew they were coming, and, although they couldn't be specific about when they'd be able to see me and the kids, they promised to do so. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday went by. No call. They were in Orlando on Thursday and Friday, and hope against hope, I decided they just might call for their last Saturday, and hope against hope, I would get to see them. We've been friends for 30 years. I guess I can clarify it by saying I love them with all my heart.

So..... it's time for me to get over it.

The situation is better - now that they have left town without even calling me. I wonder when I will be able to let it lie, to let it course by me like a brook...to not get hung up in wondering, why?

Maybe, just maybe, it'll turn out all right and I'll look back on this with them and laugh 2-3 years from now. Maybe my heart will mend without them. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I fixated on these words from "Blue Moon with Heartache" .... by the delightful Roseanne Cash:

....I run into that heartache just like a wall

And act like nothing happened to me, nothing at all

Lately I'm amazed at how blind we can be

Lately even dreaming feels like old reality

What would I give to be a diamond in your eyes again

What would I give to bring back those old times

What did I say to make your cold heart bleed this way

Maybe I'll just go away today

A different kind of Memorial Day

Today my daughter and I had a different kind of memorial day -- I had been to the St. Petersburg Holocaust museum, but she had not. I did warn her, before our journey there, that no one who goes in comes out unchanged. The museum is witness to the conflagration brought on by evil in the world -- the type of evil that generates a war. There are all kinds of casualties in war beyond the brave men and women who fight it. And while the stark reminders of the evil that was Nazi Germany are hard to witness -- the yellow "Juden" stars, the damaged copy of the Torah, the sets of childrens shoes found in the camps after liberation, the unrevised or updated wood and locks of the boxcar that took the prisoners to Treblinka (above) -- hardest of all, and the most memorable reminder of what can never ever be allowed to happen again is the wall memorial of those who did not survive the Holocaust. Two stories high, 300 pictures.. truly a sad memorial on this day.

Stand By Me.... it's one of those songs

I've got a couple of great posts in this blog of some phenomenal takes on artists performing the great Ben King song, "Stand By Me".

Here's the world version:

http://livingimperfectly.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-mistake-it-doesnt-come-any-better.html




Here's the old clip of Springsteen and U2 jamming it:


http://livingimperfectly.blogspot.com/2009/02/not-enough-boss-in-world.html




I've been having a Neville brothers kind of weekend and found this incredible tribute that Aaron did to Ed Bradley after his death in 2006. It's just as meaningful, just as jaw-dropping as either of the two above. Enjoy.

Mutually Exclusive

Mutually exclusive,
We feint around the frost
Of a friendship that once was..
The edges, crisp.
Once, I felt we’d recapture
After the fog of recrimination
Of “judgmental politeness” dissipated,
Warmth.
But with time I’ve grown
Accustomed to the distance
We bob and weave and multitask
And do what it takes to fill the days and hours
Efficiently, effortlessly.
I’ve been accused of forgiving
Too easily, not plumbing the depths of blame,
Content to flare and move on
Caring more to mend than to point fingers
I prefer this.
But this cold, this draft, this silence and
Dare I say? Smugness, it’s changed me
Worn me down, left me of all ungodly things
Aloof
I don’t even like that word, do you?
And yet I enact it, content to
Keep you at a distance as you
Keep me beyond your borders
What a waste.

I've become an obligation.

Moratorium

We're just asking, Mr. President, that you order a moratorium on Don't Ask, Don't Tell... the second largest Clinton folly after Monica.....while the recent appeals court decision is taken back to the courts. Oh yes, we know you want to build consensus and proceed, in the words of your spokesman "in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security" ... and all that jazz. But meanwhile, the law of the land violates the civil rights of some of our most distinguished veterans. Here's number 2 (see Dan Choi, here http://livingimperfectly.blogspot.com/2009/05/dont-ask-dont-tell-dont-keep-it.html) in my humble blog:






Fehrenbach - an American hero. Discharged two years before he earned his full Air Force pension.

You can wait for Congress to stomp around getting the legislation ready, Mr. President. But, while you're waiting, refuse to continue the program of drumming these fine people out of the corps by signing an executive order to cease carrying the program out while the courts and the legislature sort it out. Fulfill this promise.

21 st CENTURY SOUTH CAROLINA

I've been having some jaw-dropping fun with the remarks of the esteemed governor of Texas, Rick Perry. Now, Perry has had a distinguished political career, and if he can somehow hold on to his fragile grip on the governorship (he won in 2006 with only 39+% of the vote) against what will likely be the formidable Kay Bailey Hutchinson, he will have been the governor who has served Texas for the longest term in history.

He has a nice haircut. He's an Aggie. (He actually was an Aggie Cheerleader :)) ). He had a distinguished military career.

Oh, and Texas? There are few places I like more. Two of my best girlfriends in the world live in Austin and Dallas. I have a great person who works for me in located in North Dallas. I'm enamored of San Antonio and have some wonderful work colleagues there and in Houston. I have fond memories of vacations on the beach at Padre Island. And it's pretty rare to find me rooting for someone else if the Longhorns are in a college football game. (I'll just neglect to mention how I feel about those @#S#$$%^$#!! Cowboys).

I hope that all of those things I love won't mess with me when I poke some fun at the governor's stance on secession. And while I'm laughing about it, let's not forget that what he is advocating could be construed as treason...and the right wing militia-allied group that formed the Independent Republic of Texas in 1997 resulted in violence under leader Richard McLaren.

Anyhow, here's the salvo that Governor Perry fired on April 16, if you haven't already seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzbdugWJbNo

And, while Keith Olbermann is a little bit radical himself (on the other side of the coin), his "WTF" feature on Texas succession is pretty funny.... below:

MILITARY TRIBUNALS - THE WRONG DECISION

I've broken from the herd a few times so far in the Barack Obama 2009 administration.

I haven't spoken out widely when I disagree. Now is the time.


From the New York Times in November, 2001:

President Bush's plan to use secret military tribunals to try terrorists is a dangerous idea, made even worse by the fact that it is so superficially attractive. In his effort to defend America from terrorists, Mr. Bush is eroding the very values and principles he seeks to protect, including the rule of law. . . .

But by ruling that terrorists fall outside the norms of civilian and military justice, Mr. Bush has taken it upon himself to establish a prosecutorial channel that answers only to him. The decision is an insult to the exquisite balancing of executive, legislative and judicial powers that the framers incorporated into the Constitution. With the flick of a pen, in this case, Mr. Bush has essentially discarded the rulebook of American justice painstakingly assembled over the course of more than two centuries. In the place of fair trials and due process he has substituted a crude and unaccountable system that any dictator would admire. . .

American civilian courts have proved themselves perfectly capable of handling terrorist cases without overriding defendants' basic rights.


To clarify Obama's statement yesterday, that he will authorize the military tribunal commissions to continue prosecuting what is estimated to be 20 of the 241 detainees still at Gitmo, Glenn Greenwald says:

"I suppose that if we're going to have military commissions, it’s better to have “more safeguards rather than fewer, ” but Obama himself has argued that U.S. civilian courts are perfectly capable of delivering swift justice in these cases. Even “kinder, gentler military commissions” tell the world our government is willing to bend the rules when it thinks it can’t convict someone 'under our normal system of justice.' "


Obama, it is said, is having a bad case of "reversal cha cha". Now, all politicians have trouble keeping their campaign promises, but this particular reversal by Obama is dead wrong. In 2007(while running for the Presidency):

....from a speech by Senator Obama in 2007 denouncing "a legal framework that does not work." He also referred to the civilian criminal justice system and courts martial that Democrats then claimed, and many still claim, are the right venues for antiterror prosecutions. After the Supreme Court's Boumediene decision gave terrorists habeas rights, Mr. Obama again laid into the Bush Administration's "legal black hole" and "dangerously flawed legal approach," which "undermines the very values we are fighting to defend."

How do we reconcile this new position with what I believe are his true values? We can't. It's politics. It's criminal.

Musical Poetry

For Kelly....from U2

"One"

Is it getting better

Or do you feel the same

Will it make it easier on you now

You got someone to blame

You say...

One love

One life

When it's one need

In the night

One love

We get to share it

Leaves you baby if you

Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you

Or leave a bad taste in your mouth

You act like you never had love

And you want me to go without

Well it's...

Too late

Tonight

To drag the past out into the light

We're one, but we're not the same

We get to

Carry each other

Carry each other

One...

Have you come here for forgiveness

Have you come to raise the dead

Have you come here to play Jesus

To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much

More than a lot

You gave me nothing

Now it's all I got

We're one

But we're not the same

Well we

Hurt each other

Then we do it again

You say

Love is a temple

Love a higher law

Love is a temple

Love the higher law

You ask me to enter

But then you make me crawl

And I can't be holding on

To what you got

When all you got is hurt

One love

One blood

One life

You got to do what you should

One life

With each other

Sisters

Brothers

One life

But we're not the same

We get to

Carry each other

Carry each other

One...life

One

AMOS LEE IN CONCERT - IN CLEARWATER TONIGHT

*
*
*
I am jazzed for it. You may have heard his "Arms of a Woman" in an earlier entry on this blog.

If not, it is number 39 on my playlist below.


#54 and #90 are by Amos, as well. ENJOY!


*
*
*

Saturday - Life of a Song Feature #1 ... an oldie from Cat Stevens

Amazingly enough, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) is scheduled to tour again in 2009. My jaw drops when I think that it has been nearly 40 years since the music of this young European played endlessly in our dorm rooms. I personally wore out two vinyl copies of each of "Tea for the Tillerman", "Teaser and the Firecat" and "Catch Bull at Four". Steven's obscure first album, "New Masters" in 1967 didn't chart but featured his song "The First Cut is the Deepest".

It amazes me to chart the life of some songs... after Stevens' recorded it, he gave it to one of Ike Turner's backup singers, P.P. Arnold, who had a hit with it in Great Britain. Rondstadt recorded a laid back, more countrified version in 1973.

Completely out of character, Rod Stewart made the song his own in 1977...

I fell into obscurity when Stevens took back all usage rights to his song when he began his new life in the middle east...starting in 2000, he began to make public appearances and release the rights to cover his music.

Sheryl Crow hit with it in 2003 -- since her version, it's been covered on a lot of reality singing spots. My favorite? Duffy on British televison. Check out the videos below.
Cat Stevens with his own song, 1967:






Rod Stewart in 1977... I really get a kick out of seeing "Young Rocker" Rod again.
This song is a staple in all his concerts, so most people are familiar with seeing it more jowly and spangly than this!








Crow's version - live (what a great place for a concert!):







Duffy - last year:

Don't Ask, Don't Tell.... DON'T KEEP IT!!

This "just" in....12,500 US Military personnel have been fired for admitting they are gay, violating "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which has been the law of the land since 1993. And what an ignominious piece of work it was/is.

From Blogger Aaron Belkin, via the Huffington Post:

"A new study, about to be published by a group of experts in military law, shows that President Obama does, in fact, have statutory, stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. Obama could simply invoke his authority under federal law (10 U.S.C. §12305) to retain any member of the military he believes is essential to national security.

Or he could take advantage of a legal loophole. The "don't ask, don't tell" law requires the military to fire anyone found to be gay or lesbian. But there is nothing requiring the military to make such a finding. The president can order the military to stop investigating service members' sexuality.

An executive order would not get rid of the "don't ask, don't tell" law, but would take the critical step of suspending its implementation, hence rendering it effectively dead. Once people see gays and lesbians serving openly, legally and without problems, it will be much easier to get rid of the law at a later time."

Catch Dan Choi, the law's latest victim, below:

I am so freakin' sad

Another senseless, inhumane death in Tampa. What monsters walk among us?

This particular case (baby of a 17 year old girl thrown to the cement walk by her boyfriend, then kidnapped and thrown out the window of his car on a busy interstate)is unspeakable. Florida's death penalty seems, somehow, fitting some days.

quid

Odd Day

Oddest thing popped into my mind today.... it would have been my 30th anniversary.

Instead, I can celebrate my 4th divorce anniversary. (In late June, I will have been on my own for 5 years. It's gone by in a heartbeat.)I know, it's eerie that divorce and marriage occurred on the same day.

No bitchiness intended.... just a recognition that what is, is better for both of us, than what might have been.

quid


And the best memory of what was:

It speaks for itself

One of my favorite videos...THE BEAUTIFUL PLANET EARTH... Enjoy!

Hillsborough County copes with H1N1

5 Cases in my county... all mild. This news just broke, and the school district just took action on school closings for tomorrow.

One is an 11 year old child, 4 are under 23-post high school. All have had recent trips to Mexico.

The 11 year old's middle school has been closed, and a high school sister of one of the diagnosed cases is probable... so her high school/middle school campus is closed, as well, for the next week.

Cleaning along the CDC recommended lines began this weekend. Sigh; it will be worth it if we have restricted outbreak.

This should cause a little havoc at work tomorrow... since the connected highschool/middleschool are in a district where many of my workers live, and we might have people wanting/needing time off without it being subject to attendance guidelines. Sort of like in a hurricane emergency. Tough to negotiate for a national company. I'd managed to dodge that bullet for the Carrollton, Texas office, that I now supervise, because the Fort Worth schools that closed last week were so far away.

Looks like I'll be doing some negotiating.

Tribute

A Tribute to Jack Kemp - I didn't always agree with him politically, but I respected him as a player, a politician, a statesman:

“Pro football gave me a good perspective. When I entered the political arena, I had already been booed, cheered, cut, sold, traded and hung in effigy"...

“We will not rest, ... until there's a quality education -- public, private, parochial, charter, magnet or whatever -- for every child living in the United States of America, every family in America."

"There are no limits to our future if we don't put limits on our people."