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April 1st

Hi, Everyone,

Spring certainly is sproinging, at least in my back yard. It seems that overnight every fern is sprouting green tendrils, bushes burst with buds, and the air is filled with the heady perfume of jasmine and orange blossom. My purple wisteria is gleefully clashing with the orange kangaroo paws in the bed below the trellis, proving that spring is a time for reckless, carefree abandon, especially when it comes to color combining. I am prone to meandering through the yard with my clippers at this time of year, wanting to bring the best of the garden indoors, especially the smelly stuff. I am so glad the days are getting longer. I was out for a walk this morning before 7 when the air was crisp and fragrant and the birdsong was riotous.

Click on the link below, You'll get a black page.Then click your mouse anywhere on the page & see what happens.

http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

I have been wondering if any of the presidential candidates can articulate solutions for global warming. Are there solutions for this mess? If so, please, let's hear them. I am terrified that we are ruining the planet to the point of no return, and time is running out. If we wreck our planet, what good is money? To me, this is issue numero uno, and I'm resentful of rampant ignorance (or denial) of the urgency of this issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2ceKlzF6Ak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov6GPTB4Tio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5r6TqpOQGc

"Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty."
-Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Along those lines, this is a must-see.

"The Story of Stuff".

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. "The Story of Stuff" exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

http://www.storyofstuff.com

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."-Thich Nhat Hanh

I loved Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd", which was surprisingly well- realized musically. (Bravo to Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, and also to the marvelous boy who played Toby). I understood lyrics in I had never heard before. (Such a brilliant score.) I also saw recently the PBS film of last year's Broadway revival of "Company", and thought it was fresh and marvelous. Of course I am a Sondheim fan of the first order. Was disappointed, however, at his interview with Frank Rich at L.A.'s Royce Hall a few weeks ago. It didn't seem like they divulged any interesting tidbits that couldn't have been gleaned from all of the Sondheim biographies. I actually fell asleep in the audience.

We went to the marvelous DeYoung Museum when we were in San Francisco last week. It may be my favorite museum... brilliant.

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting."
-e. e. cummings

"You Will Remember"
by Pablo Neruda

You will remember that leaping stream
where sweet aromas rose and trembled,
and sometimes a bird, wearing water
and slowness, its winter feathers.

You will remember those gifts from the earth:
indelible scents, gold clay,
weeds in the thicket and crazy roots,
magical thorns like swords.

You'll remember the bouquet you picked,
shadows and silent water,
bouquet like a foam-covered stone.

That time was like never, and like always.
So we go there, where nothing is waiting;
we find everything waiting there.

Seek out nature and really look at the miracle of it, the delicacy of it, the inter-connectedness of all of nature's systems, and then think of the generations to come. Starry skies, forests teaming with wildlife, clean oceans... these are everyone's birthright. The song "I Remember" by Stephen Sondheim could be sung by someone in the future, someone who doesn't know those things any more.

I remember sky, it was blue as ink
Or at least I think I remember sky
I remember snow
Soft as feathers, sharp as thumbtacks
coming down like lint
and it made you squint when the wind would blow
and ice like vinyl on the streets
cold as siver, white as sheets
Rain like strings and changing things like leaves
I remember leaves
crisp as paper, green as spearmint
I remember trees, bare as coat racks, spread like broken umbrellas
and parks and bridges, ponds and zoos
Ruddy faces, muddy shoes
Light and noise and bees and boys and days
I remember days
or at least I try
but as years go by, theres a sort of haze
and the bluest ink isnt really sky
and somtimes I think I would gladly die
for a day of sky

Sending love to All Y'all,

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