Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

Thought that has been gradually coalescing toward articulation and thesis: 20th and 21st century attitudes toward Disability parallel 18th and 19th century attitudes toward Womanhood.

Notion that proves I think too much: You know those M&M candy commercials, where each color is given its own personality, and neuroses? You're led to believe that these "people" get eaten shortly after the spot is over. And yet, they keep returning in new spots. Does this mean that the spirit of each color is immortal, and continually moves on to new bodies as the old body is eaten? Um... Yeah. Like I said.. I think too much.

Another think-too-much thought: in both series of the NCIS television franchise, the visual hook coming back from, and going into commercial break, is a freeze of the action in the form of a black and white photograph; in the original series, you even get the photographer's sight-cross-hairs, and hear the camera shutter clicking. Who the heck is taking the picture -- and why? Will this person ever be revealed?

The Art Garden's next theme is "Charms..." As usual, I am thoroughly stumped as to what to write for it. An idea came to me that maybe I could write about using individual words as charms (in the sense of amulets), in that understanding their key idea can be held in the mind as a protection from verbal / emotional onslaught. But that may be too far afield. I queried the organizer about it earlier this week. I have yet to hear back. The deadline is November 12.

When it gets near Christmastime, I'm going to have to write about Tiny Tim for my blog, aren't I (From Dickens' A Christmas Carol, just in case you forgot)?

1) How is it that I can enjoy a television show like Bones even when I'm cringing about five times per episode due to ableist dialog, and really stupid stereotypes about politics and nationality? After each hour, I find myself wanting to apologize to... me

J) There's this Lipton Ice Tea commercial that's been airing, lately, with a woman singer-voice-over singing a mock "Inspirational Ballad Hook" (It's just one line, and except for the final spoken tag line, it's the only language in the whole spot, which makes me think it was written just for this ad, and not a borrowed line from an actual complete song). The line is: "I ... Belong ... to all ... That I've... Been Through!"

And it wouldn't bother me so much if the music and singing and visuals that go with it weren't written well. But they were well-written.

So that line gets stuck in my head for the whole day. And it drives me up the proverbial wall, because it's backwards. That's the opposite of inspirational. That means that we are owned and controlled by our past, that we have no power to redefine who we are.

But the individual words in that line probably got pinged by some focus group as "feel good words," and so they were written into the lyric, regardless of what the whole sentence means. This is what gives the Advertising Industry its creepy reputation, boys and girls.

7) Speaking of industry, every time I hear on the news, that the "new home construction" statistics for each month indicates the current health of our economy, I can't help but think we need to find a new foundation for our economy. That can't be sustainable, can it? Every new home built needs to have more land cleared to build on, so that our suburbs keep sprawling, and more highways get built, and more cars get driven, and more petroleum-based fuel gets depended on... and... Really?! That system is the best indicator of a healthy economy in this day and age?

I mean, I understand that when America was starting out, and the various governmental systems were working out the kinks on the way to our current Constitution, having political power meant owning your own land and the home you built on it. So the idea that the more citizens owned their own homes (rather than renting or squatting) the greater personal stake they'd have in making sure the government kept going, and they'd be less likely to start their own revolutions. ...At least, that was the theory (and that's why home mortgage payments are tax-deductible). But isn't it time we moved on to some other measure?

I mean, I'm no economist, Jim. I'm just a former English major. I'm just saying.

b) Speaking of "Bones" (Hey, I warned you this would be random!), I'm wondering if "procedurals" (whether police or medical-based) are especially prone to ableist nonsense in their scripts and long story arcs, because the sellers-of-advertising in these shows depend on promising a loyal audience who's hooked quickly and consistently, even when they've missed the first four episodes of the season, and the first twenty minutes of this particular episode. And What's the cheapest way to do that (in terms of cognitive capital and time, at least)? Pit the Normals as the good guys against the Abnormals as the bad guys. 'Cause that way, you don't have to waste any time explaining or exploring an unfamiliar idea...

You know what genre of TV I miss most? Variety comedy shows, like "Laugh-in" and "The Carol Burnett Show" and the Flip Wilson show (IIRC, it was just called "Flip").

~) Part of me wants to adapt Kant's "Second formulation" of the Categorical Imperative into a tee-shirt. But I'm not sure it's possible to convert formal 17th C., translated-from-German, philosophical language into a pithy, snarky, tee-shirt saying. That second formulation goes like this:

(Quote) "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end." (unquote)

I like it because it does acknowledge that we are "means" to each other (and ourselves) -- that human do rely on the help of others to accomplish what we cannot do alone. But it says we must Also accept that simply being the best human we can be is a worthy goal in its own right -- and it makes the point that you are not being a good or moral person if you lie down and play doormat.

Back in May, I wrote the following analogy about what living inside my body with cerebral palsy is like:

(Quote) Imagine trying to open your door, and go inside your house. Simple, right? Now, imagine that your arms are full of a dozen loose oranges [snippity-snip]

So reaching out to turn the doorknob is interrupted several times in order to catch a threatening orange avelanche with your chin, and then you have to pause, and rearrange your load. (Unquote)

(The whole thing is here: Musing on the idea of "I," and what "Me" means to me...

Well, yesterday (or it may be the day before), that analogy came back to mind as a perfect little example played itself out:

I went to the water dispenser in the refrigerator, to fill up my coffee mug. Only, I'd left a water class on the shelf. So I put the mug in my left hand, grasping the whole top of it in my fingers, and took the water glass in my right hand, and moved to put it down on the counter.

No matter how I tried, I couldn't get my right arm to extend comfortably enough that I could put the glass down with any confidence that it wouldn't go crashing to the floor (and it's one of only two glasses I have that are actually glass... for this very reason.

The way I got around the problem? I stopped, and changed the grip on my coffee mug, so my left hand was more comfortable.

After that, my right hand and arm worked perfectly and smoothly as if I had no (or hardly no) balance problems at all.

Heh. Sometimes, my right hand knows far too much about what my left hand is doing...

I finally wrote that changeling post: Changelings: When parents fear the child they did not expect. I ended up not using the story of the boy I knew who died, because my memories are vague enough that it's entering into the legend territory that I'm criticizing.

But it's still a subject that brings me down...

In happier news: I have half a peck of fresh, local, tree-ripened peaches on my kitchen counter (minus two peaches, 'cause I couldn't resist, and one just wasn't enough)

I also have my daily art still to do. I think I will try something silly and jolly. -- maybe just spirals and stars. I don't know, yet. I'll find out when I start.

Also, my cat is calling me to come pet her, please. So I will go do that. Yes.

Later!

ETA: Testing, testing.... Is LJ back enough to allow cross-posting ? (According to the tech wonders at DreamWidth, there needed to be some shifting of code to deal with the kerfuffle)

ETA #2: Apparently so, but there was a typo in my password...
One:

The trouble with the "Ugly Duckling" model of "Stick it through, it'll get better when you grow up" pep talks:

The ducks who abused the cygnet for being an ugly duckling would have abused the swan for being an ugly drake, if he'd stuck around: "Your neck's too long!" "Why don't you have a nice green back like the rest of us?!" etc.

Things got better for the title character, true. But not because he "grew out of" an "ugly" phase (he was never in an ugly phase). They got better because he escaped an abusive community and was found by another where he fit in.

Two:

There seems to be a common meme among Theists that atheists view the world with a cold and calculating eye, and thus, live in a world without beauty or wonder. To those theists, I would like to pose the following question:

Is a garden rose, cut and put into a bouquet, inherently more beautiful than a wild rose, growing spontaneously in the forest, simply by virtue that it was bred to be a gift?

Three:

I'm planning on making my next "Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream" post on the Northern European Chaangeling tales (Trigger Warning: discussion of abuse and murder of disabled children). I found one such story on Google eBooks, about a troll-changeling. At first, I thought I'd copy and paste it into my blog, and then write up my thoughts on it.

...Every other story in the book converted to plain text to make this process easier -- except a ten-page span where this particular story appeared.

...It's things like that that lead people to the feeling that The Good People are watching us.

Four:

I miss my parents.

Five:

I forgot to get cocoa at my last shopping trip. A whole week without chocolaty goodness! Will I be able to make it?

Today, for some reason, my mind keeps going back to a "limberjack" toy I had, as a kid.

On their own, they don't seem like much, until you realize how closely the "nonsense" dancing of the puppet actually matches the look and sound of their living human counterparts:

A YouTube vid showing human clog dancers

A YouTube vid showing a clog dancing puppet at work

A Meddling Monk type person* from the future decides to do a little experiment, and pulls Shakespeare from his own time into the late Late 20th/Early 21st Century to see what would happen with the ripples -- yet somehow working it so that Shakespeare's own, real, timeline is not disrupted. -- Maybe by reconstructing his consciousness-cum-body via their signatures left behind in the Space-Time matrix?

But -- and this is the key thing -- not so that the world can be graced, once again, by the Genius of Shakespeare ('cause we already have that, thank you very much), but so that he can be the instantly-recognized bellwether to the people following in his wake -- people that only he would recognize: Anne, his children, Susanna(h?), Judith, Hamnet...

So that they could have the chance to show what their Genii were.

And my role in this drama? To witness this, and to have quiet, long conversations with Susanna and Anne about ...stuff... and how the world has changed, and how it hasn't



*or maybe it's just Fate, or random anomaly, or even the Gods of the Arts, or what-have you.

I can read my friends page, and when I click on user names and profile links, individual journals open just fine.

But when I click on "reply" or "read replies" I get an "OMG! You've Lost the Interwebs!!" Message (with: "Could be any one of a number of things..." when I click "more information" Which ... I don't think they know what "more information" means).

So, at the risk of being cryptic and incomprehensible, here are the replies I was planning to post (to open, public entries)

To: haddayr -- Damned if I know, never having done it. But it's my secret belief that that's why so many people are cranky and irrational all the time.

To: gordon_r_d -- That's frustrating... but possibly good news? Fingers crossed and *hugs*

To: daibhid_c -- Whoa-ho! (I missed all of them, btw). I remember hearing on the radio, years ago, about consciousness studies, comparing cultures. I wonder if that trick would work at all, for, say, a Japanese audience.

(thanks to some recommended videos, because last year, sometime, I was wanting to draw a picture of a hedgehog)

1. That Hedgehog faces are remarkably Muppet-like
   
   
2. That for a Hedgehog, getting out of your own balled-up position is like a human trying to get out of a beanbag chair.

( Brief video offered up as evidence: )

So: my rant against awareness ribbons started getting comments right away, and giving me all sorts of ideas (and social permission) for Anti-Pity designs for my Zazzle store.

But.

Those ribbons are surprisingly tricky to draw, and thinking about them, and what they represent (mostly, what they represent), is making me cranky.

So I am now taking a deliberate break and posting about things that make me un-cranky.

If I recall correctly, I think I have jesse_the_k to thank for this, but if not, I hope you know who you are:

Rolling around in my head
The author of this blog has worked as a counselor for folks with disabilities for 30 years; four years ago, he became disabled, and writes about the new insights that has given him. Currently, he's working around the Canada giving workshops on how to defend yourself against bullying. He updates daily, and his posts are a usually happy blend of Deep, Srs Bznz. and Silly bznz. And he writes well.

Ill Doctrine A video blog by New York City rapper, Jay Smooth. No, he doesn't do transcripts (Boo!), and I keep telling myself that I'll type them up. But even after a sixth or seventh viewing in a row, I keep getting so swept up in what he's saying that I actually forget to type.

So that's a bit of fail on my part. But it does make me happy, and that's what this post is about...

So, um, forgive my fail? and have this video on how to tell people they sound racist (a strategy that would also work for other ____-isms, too), from the height of the most recent Presidential campaign: