MULTISLACKING

Multisclacking, from the urban dictionary: doing multiple slackeresque things concurrently. It occurs to me that those of us who are 'multitaskers' will find it easy to be 'multislackers' when we decide to goof off. This made me think of some of the ways that people can slack off. A healthy way is to pay attention when you need to slow down to regenerate yourself. Everyone's battry needs charging from time to time.

It is said that people use their executive processing when they do several things at one time. That sounds great but I question whether it is really a choice at all, or whether one is just the kind of person who can only focus when all senses and brain function abilities are being used at the same time. There are people in my life who want me to give them my undivided attention. They do not understand that I cannot listen to them if I am not knitting, sketching, glancing through a catalog, playing Free Cell on the computer or any of a myriad of other things. If I am not otherwise partially engaged, my mind wanders and I find it difficult to focus on what they are saying...often because I have found that people who demand your undivided attention are responding to others in their life who find them boring and clearly no longer listen and are not spellbound by them. I've met a few other people, as I, who read a book as they watch television. I am apt to fall asleep if I don't have something physical as well as mental to keep me awake.

As for the multislacking, that is yet another process for me. I have to work to cleanse my mind of all the things I 'should' be doing in order to relax and do what I want to do. Part of the only way it will work for me is to shut the world out. Phone calls, which I am always compelled to answer when I hear them, are intrusions. For that reason, I have to carefully plan my rare days of multislacking. It is not fun to multislack if you think you are letting people down, in some way, who might be waiting for you to finish something for them. My ideal multislacking is when it is horrible weather outside, no one is likely to arrive, I don't have to get dressed, and can read or play in my jewelry studio, or with the computer. One must be able to suppress the 'you have to accomplish something' gene since most people have to do good for others or make a product of some sort.

It is my belief that we all must balance the stress in our lives with whatever works for us. Some do Yoga, some do Transcendental Meditation, other get themselves deep massage, and there are many more choices. I prefer physical comfort in the familiarity of my own home doing anything that gives pleasure to all my senses and is totally without stress. Multislacking starts the day with not having to get dressed, choosing whether to make the bed, do the breakfast dishes, or just let all those chores go and give yourself over to feeling free of all responsibility but that of making sure you relax.

Follow the rule: If you want to fall asleep, only go to bed when you are sleepy!

WHEN THE LIES COME FROM THE TOP, IS THERE ANYONE LEFT TO RESPECT?

Bush admits deceiving by his responses and rationalizes his reason which the writer, Steve Benen from the Carpetbagger Report, sees as yet another lie to influence the mid-term elections.

Bush Watch has kept track of Bush lies. They accumulate very quickly. Areas covered are Agriculture, Commerce. Justice. Science, Defense, Energy and Water, Financial services, Homeland Security, and so on down the alphabet of areas on which the President speaks

When asked, "Why do they lie?", Al Sharpton is quoted as responding, "Because they are liars."

At least 21% of our citizens believe him. Horrifyingly terror stricken, the other 79% believes what they see and hear with their own eyes and call it lying. Just Google Lies that Bush has told. One questions why there are not lawsuits against those who are accusing him. Can it be because the writers have the videotaped speeches which leave little doubt?

VIRGIL, BERLIOZ, MAESTRO LEVINE AND THE OPERA LES TROYEN

Having long been a negative critic of Maestro Levine for forcing atonal music to the Boston audience when only a minority (I firmly believe from all my unofficial polls in conversations at Intermissions) even think they 'should' like it if they listen to it often enough. Nevertheless, this blog is about superb conducting on the part of Maestro Levine in the presentation of this opera.

While I make no pretense of a vast knowledge of operas, I don't believe one needed more than the program, carefully read, the pre-concert lectures, and Google to prepare for an understanding of what Berlioz had in mind. The tale of the Greeks conquering (destroying is a better description) of Troy, Aeneas's escape to Carthage, and the melodrama as only that era with all their Gods and emotions can portray, with Aeneas finally off to conquer Rome to build a new Troy is a fascinating fantasy. I say fantasy rather than history because I believe it to be so with all the Gods and ghosts that were running around in the plot.

There was not an instant of boredom in the music. The theme changes, melodic and mesmerizing, with the accompaniment, and often harmony with the orchestra, adding to the tonal quality of those superb voices like the support of a strong, masculine arm for a maiden. They were flanked by the Tanglewood Chorus. Tempo changes kept the music so alive and vibrant, as did the strip above the orchestra bearing the libretto so that no one could miss the accuracy that Berlioz gave his music in tune with the story. The love scene as a 'night of ecstasy' stood out with its beauty as Solomon's Song, a poem of beauty unlike most of the rest of the 'begatting' in the Bible ... as though it wandered in from out of nowhere, noticed it was alone, but decided to stay anyway.

The last act had one of the longest, sustained volumes which included the full Tanglewood Chorus as well as the entire BSO orchestra at full blast. Unfortunately, a giant from Senegal sat in front of me so I could hear but not see the principal actors. Maestro Levine had placed them behind the cellos, flutes and who ever was back there on stage so they were not visible to those of us in orchestra seats. The giant bobbled his head, like a bowling all with ears, throughout the performance so I finally stopped straining around him when my neck got stiff. Even with the visual loss, I was spellbound by the music. Maestro Levine, high on his swivel chair, turned from side to side, rhythmically, waving his hands and pulling out some of the best music I have heard in a long time.

Lines like the dying Queen spoke of her abandoning lover, Aeneas, " I should avenge by serving him his own son's limbs in a hideous feast." and "Let his body lie on the field to feed the vultures." Written in 70 BC. Virgil knew the mantra of vengeance. The queen foretold that she would be avenged by Hannibal. There were lots of premonitions and omens with the Gods and ghosts bustling around pushing things.

I was struck at how little has changed over the centuries. When people are helpless, they pray to the Gods, God, or whatever/whomever they think will respond to them. Would that it were so!

THE TRUE DARCY SPIRIT

A couple of days ago I wrote about Elizabeth Aston's books as sequels to the Jane Austen series. The first one I read, Mr Darcy's Daughters, did not compare to Jane Austen's work. However, though I didn't read the next in the sequence in which it had been written, it stood on its own. This book was The True Darcy Spirit. The author has captured the Austen style totally. It kept me wanting to keep reading and not put the book down until I was done though I couldn't quite manage that. However, I was through with it before the day was over while many tasks were put off until tomorrow.

For all the Austen fans who might read it, while written in our current time, the story takes place around 1830 in London. It is exciting, the characters are built up in a much more effective manner than Elizabeth Aston's first book after Austen, Mr Darcy's Daughters. (see Yiayia Online 4/26/08)

As a personal reading experience, I would rate The True Darcy Spirit right up in pleasure, anticipation, anxious moments, surprises and acceptance as quite equal. I cannot assure that Aston's books will survive two centuries as Austen's have, but for me, they are at present, sheer ecstasy reading. For those of us still romantic, it also is nice to read of a period (though purely misogynistic) had integrity and pride as important to many people of all classes.....at least that is the books' focus.

SPRING HAS FINALLY SPRUNG

For all of us who have been waiting for the world around us to turn green, Cheers! It is happening right before our very eyes. Having little to sustain me but a light box, and occasional red cardinal against the white snow and house plants through the long winter, it is always an exciting time as the days grow longer and the sun grows stronger.




Some parts of New England are seeing blossoms. How wonderful not to look onto blackened snow from vehicle exhausts. The sun has to break through leaves instead of bare branches. Now the crocuses are past. The lovely rare botanical blue shows up in some tiny wood hyacinths.







Tulips are beginning to come out. It was a lovely surprise to see some red ones on the side of the house. Chipmunks usually eat all bulbs that aren't yellow, so usually only my yellow tulips and jonquils survive from year to year.




Remiss for the past couple of years in my pruning tasks, a Rhodora has grown way up past the windows...not something I can tolerate. I had pruned this bush down to 24 inches
seven years ago.
Now I will wait for it to stop blossoming and give it a proper haircut again!


The blossoms are far too beautiful for me to disrupt anything until they have finished their showing for the year.













Another sign that spring is really here also will require a thorough pruning, long overdue. However, it, too, must wait until all the blossoms are gone. This andromeda japonica is a version of a japonica with a larger blossom which is often called the Lily-of-the-Valley bush.

These are but a few of the signs of spring in the yard. They are enough to lift my spirits though not quite enough to move my body too far! Before one can realize what has happened, we will be looking at the fall foliage, I fear.

DECISION MAKING

Too many people try to make decisions when they lack the critical data with which to do it. Decisions can be made rapidly when the reasons, pros and cons and consequences of it are clearly understood and factored into the predictable outcome. Blink a book by Malcolm Gladwell. who also wrote The Tipping Point, is described by its author as: "It's a book about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good."

"You could also say that it's a book about intuition, except that I don't like that word. In fact it never appears in "Blink." Intuition strikes me as a concept we use to describe emotional reactions, gut feelings--thoughts and impressions that don't seem entirely rational. But I think that what goes on in that first two seconds is perfectly rational. It's thinking--its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking." In "Blink" I'm trying to understand those two seconds. What is going on inside our heads when we engage in rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better?"

Quoting Dragnet's Sgt. Friday I'd add that decision making is about rapidly going through a set of internal criteria and making a judgment. It is said that information speeds from one hemisphere to another faster in women's brains. There are theories around this in terms of possible evolution because of the need to protect their children. Who knows? If that is so, there are still lots of women who just can't seem to make their minds up. This suggests another interference from making the decision. It might be 'Whom will I displease?' or, 'If I hold back, a better offer might come along.' There are others who procrastinate in decision making because of their own denial. 'What you don't know, you don't have to deal with.' 'Put it off definitely and people will forget about it', or, 'If I wait long enough, someone else will have taken care of it'.

The saying, 'Those who hesitate are lost.' should not come as news to anyone of this generation. Many great opportunities are missed in life by this avoidance of decision making and procrastination in snapping onto opportunities. In 1982, Johnny Rutherford won the Indianapolis 500. Someone suggested that he was lucky. His comment was, "Luck is where preparation and opportunity meet." Our youth has not had the good fortune of excellent education that generations before had available. We are 25th in a 30 nation evaluation, it was reported on the Tim Russert show, 4/27.

However, lest someone thinks that one must always make a hasty decision, one must be aware the decision must be hasty and well-thought out. It is also as imperative that correct decisions be made. Sometimes that is as difficult to do as deciding which fork of the road to take when both are unfamiliar as to where they will lead.