Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

I have had for a long time a tea kettle I really love. Actually bought two of them - the big league one for me, and the other for son Brian - for him and for my tea when I’m at his house. Beautiful and elegant and European.

Mine got a cracked top when I let it boil dry. That didn’t bother me. Then the whistle stopped whistling and I could live with that. Then the whistle just fell apart - that bothered me. I tried to screw it back together - the threads were worn. Didn’t want to glue it, given all the heat it takes and the toxicity of most glues.

So I looked up the manufacturer’s name on the bottom and emailed them about the cost of a new whistle - thinking that since Europe is way ahead of us climate-wise, this would be easy to do. Not so. They wanted me to simply go by another tea kettle.

I explained that I didn’t want to just throw away a good and beautiful tea kettle. I wanted to buy another whistle. This disposable culture is not healthy, and I want to live a more sustainable / recyclable life. If they couldn’t sell it to me, could they direct me to their supplier?

So they emailed that they were going to send me another tea kettle, after I mailed mine to them. I was astonished, knowing it was a fairly expensive item. I did go ahead and mail it in, and they’ve emailed that my new one will be here within the week. (What did we do without email? All those envelopes and stamps….)

I’m glad to be getting a perfect new tea kettle - but I sure wish we had a culture where I could have just bought the whistle. Maybe they’ll think about my email, and begin to stock them. A small change - but a step in the right direction.

I had both my grandsons with me for a couple of days last week. Grandson Kyle had popped in from DC on a surprise visit, and Grandson Patrick left his Clifton abode to hangout with us.

So after the mandatory trip(s) to Skyline for Kyle (I think that may be a major factor in his visits), we decided a movie was in order. Basically, it was picked by what time it was when we arrived at the ticket window, and who was willing to see which film.

I knew from the title that Doomsday was going to be apocalyptic. And it was all downhill from there. A virus arose in 2008 in Scotland - special effects of pustules, putrescence and pervasive panic. The solution? Erect a 30 foot wall along the old Roman wall separating England from Scotland, create a no-fly zone, and let them go.

Sometime later this century, the virus arrives in England anyway - a drab and debilitated England, since other countries have stayed away. Immediately the leadership walls itself off from the problem, and sends a crackerjack team headed by an Angelina Jolie-type actor through the Scots wall to find a scientist who may be alive and may have found a solution.

The special effects are great - if you like bodies squishing under tires, one of the crackerjack team members fried and then distributed as a special treat to a crowd of wildly dressed and tattooed futuristic Celts, several beheadings, etc, etc, etc.

It all turns out about as well as you’d expect.

I spent my time wondering why this culture’s vision (male? patriarchal? corporate?) is that folk left to themselves will create not peace and prosperity but viciousness and barbarity. And why does anyone believe that killing someone solves a problem of any sort?

p. s. There may be more on this later. I continue to wonder.

Quite an evening last night at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.

This production of King Lear is excellent. Bruce Cromer presents an unforgettable Lear in all his majesty and his madness. The villains are as cold as any ever written. When the Duke of Cornwall gouges out Gloucester’s eyes, it is chillingly believable. When he in turn receives his death blow and his wife Regan walks away - again, believable.

Giles Davies as Edmund, the bastard who would be Earl, is the best villain of all. Willing to be the lover of both wives, willing to betray everyone in his way, he is flexible, creative - and evil. A perfect Giles role, played perfectly. Jeff Sanders as Edgar deserves a special mention. And Matt Johnson’s Fool is terrific work.

This is a great company, talented and versatile. The stage set, bare, with black wooden chairs and the back wall used imaginatively, kept us focused on the words and actions. Only later would I realize how well this production was done.

The play is a downer. The bad guys are vanquished - but so is nearly everyone else. And in worse fashion than in Hamlet.

Go see it anyway - especially if you like horror movies. Some of Shakespeare’s best lines and best ideas. And an outstanding production.

I am amazed at those who say Hillary is a better choice for president becuase she’s been ‘vetted’ - her credentials have been checked out, we know who she is.

Republicans crossed over to vote for her in the primary in Ohio, because they know the Bush White House has control over the Clintons documents from their era. Bush et al are vetting that material as we speak. I suspect we don’t know the half of what went on there. But we will, and to Hillary’s detriment.

And then - folk are believing her ‘I mispoke’ about being shot at. Digging a bit deeper, I found that she may have ‘mispoken’ the first time - but she repeated that story for the press and audiences a number of times, after she had ben told it didn’t happen. Not really not an error of memory at that point.

And those who say that ‘memory is tricky’. This is the creation of an entire episode, not forgettng a name. This is replacing a specific memory with another. And it involved gunfire - a little harder to forget than what I ate for lunch.

Seems to me the sexism may be running the other way. Hillary supporters are willing to twist themselves into pretzels to believe statements that are not very believable.

Amazing.

Cathal Liam’s Blood on the Shamrock is the second of his two books on Irish history. The first, Consumed in Freedom’s Flame, covers the Easter Rising of 1916 til the treaty with England in 1921. This books covers the Irish civil war (1921-23) which followed the signing of the treaty by Michael Collins, murdered by IRA extremists who did not get the exact wording they wanted in that treaty.

This is an agonizing book, yet continues to capture the feel of Irish life and the Irish people, the fresh air and the green landscape. At the very end, Cathal takes us on to the 1950’s, so we can look back and appreciate the distance Ireland has traveled, as well as the peace and prosperity then prevailing.

The peace and prosperity has continued to increase, with Ireland now being the most prosperous country in the European Union.

Thanks to Cathal, born and raised in Ireland, now a Cincinnati resident, for doing the hard work of bringing these truths to us.

At most book stores, or www.cathalliam.com.

You’ve got until April 6 to see this regional premiere of August Wilson’s last play, Radio Golf. The first production since its Broadway run, this is the last play - the 1990’s - of Wilson’s Century Cyle - 10 plays on black America, one for each decade of the 20th century.

This story of an African American real estate developer running for Mayor of Pittsburgh, is true in every character, every line, every golf swing. For me, it is also true for most of what I know about the fields of real estate development, urban development and politics.

Two characters - Sterling Johnson and Elder Joseph Barlow - become a Greek chorus, echoing and expanding on the play’s themes, provoking much of the play’s action.

The acting by all concerned is great, played with a sure touch. Harmond Wilks, the wounded hero, his wife, Mame Wilks, with her own high-powered career, Roosevelt Hicks, the slick developer with his contacts and schemes. All exhibit the pain and risks of being black and talented in the 90’s.

The last half of the play is hard to watch, as everything comes tumbling down. The ending was a surprise, though on reflection, it fell the right way.

The gritty set, lots of humor and sideways wisdom, the attention to costumes and small touches - add depth and atmostphere to the production, which is definitely among the best I’ve seen at the Ensemble. Grab your ticket and get there!

I was actually in a Kroger’s store earlier this month. My two favorite local markets - Keller’s IGA on Ludlow, and Clifton Natural Foods (+ Whole Foods / Wild Oats, but I go by the other two almost daily) - didn’t have currants. Currants are a sacred requirement for Irish soda bread, which I bake for about 2 weeks around St. Patrick’s Day.

So I entered the Corryville Kroger - hadn’t been in any Kroger for nearly 2 years. They don’t feel good - feel like they’re full of anxious, irritable, unhappy people. And as far as I’m concerned, there’s almost no food in there.

What most folk consider food includes preservatives and additives - material I do not choose to put in my body. And when organic food (and some Kroger stores have some) is handled by unhappy people - I don’t like that either.

So there I was - and they did have currants. I actually bought every box on the shelves - 10 altogether. But the smell of the place - like everything is about to go sour - and the un-cheeriness, were just as I remembered.

I checked out the health food section - worse than it used to be. Lots more snacks - healthier than the stuff on the main shelves, but not really healthy, more power bars, and fewer food choices.

And aisle after aisle of stuff that none of us really need, most of it not ‘green’, sustainable or necessary for a wonderful life. I wonder why we need 20 choices of toilet paper, none of it recycled? Are those really choices, or just different labels and prices slapped on wasted trees?

I’ll give you an update in 3 or 4 years, when circumstances force me back in those doors again.

Easter changes as we all go through life. When I was a kid, I loved the candy. Then the opportunity to dress up - still a favorite.

When my kids were little, Easter was a blur - buying the candy at Aglamesis, dyeing the eggs - and then on Easter, getting them dressed and off to family gatherings in Springfield.

When grandson Patrick was small was the best. We’d color 4 dozen eggs on Saturday, and on Sunday morning, I’d get to hide them all over the living room - and try to keep track as he searched them out. Occasionally, we’d find one or two a couple of weeks later.

And it was less hectic, because we started the tradition of spending the day with my Glendale sister and her kids out in Sharonville and environs.
Which is what we still do.

So I got up this morning, made more Irish soda bread - since Easter was so close to St. Paddy’s this year - then made tabouleh, read the New York Times on line and the Enquirer on the couch, did the puzzles and had a leisurely journey to the gathering.

One great Easter surprise and present was the arrival of my DC grandson, Kyle, on the doorstep last evening. He did the same thing this afternoon - surprising the gathering with his unannounced arrival.

An excellent grandmother Easter.

When an animal, flower, situation - anything - shows up in front of me several times and / or behaving in an uncharacteristic way, I’ll investigate further. I’m looking for the message / symbolic meaning of the encounter.

So to gain insight about the little towhee, who turned up among the gang eating birdseed on the patio for a number of days, watching me but not being unnerved, I tried to look him up in Ted Andrew’s Animal Speak. It’s a tried and true book for ideas about animals and what they represent. Couldn’t find him there or in any of my resources.

So I decided to look in the bird books, and see if I could parse out some ideas myself. They are said to be a skulking species, foraging on the ground for insects by hopping backward and raking their feet to stir up the ground cover, to find insects and spiders. They also nest on the ground, and sing from concealed perches.

Hmmmm. So this might well be a good time to ‘go to ground’, be quieter, less out front and busy. And that searching for spiders - the message of spider is about creating/writing. And I have at least 2 books in my head.

It has been my intent to draw inward and just get that writing done. I am tired of hearing, everytime I’m near someone psychic (which, given my right-brained work, is pretty often), the question ‘what are you writing?’ or ‘why aren’t you writing?’.

So if I’m less social for a while - just blame it on the eastern towhee.

The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company just finished its run of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie - which I just managed to see on its second last day.

I love the Shakes repertory company’s plays almost always. The upfront ways they present the classics. The exuberance of the company. And especially with this one, the way they found humor in the writing, and brought it to us - most particularly in the ‘love scene’ with Laura and the gentleman caller.

One interesting technique was the use of projections on a screen behind the play - showing us the absent father occasionally, then words and phrases and visuals to expand our understanding.

Tennesse Williams left these questions wide open in his concept of the play. As always, these creative moves on the part of the Company left Jackie Demaline of the Enquirer quite cold.

After nearly 10 years of being a subscriber, I can’t remember any totally positive reviews by our daily paper. Very rarely, an actor or perhaps part of a set will meet with approval. I had made the mistake of reading the review before attending, and so had imbibed those negative feelings.

What a treat to get there and find it to be the best of the Williams’ plays I have seen in various theaters around town. The set, the screen, the acting, the staging - all met with my approval. And the play itself, while still pretty much a downer, as I’ve found all of his plays to be, had much humanity and honesty in it.

I will probably not see it again no matter where it shows up - but am glad I got to see this crew turn in a fine performance.