Boo! Scary!
Oct 2, 2003 Uncategorized
Not for the kiddies in our audience, these Haunted Memories portraits are pretty creepy. Make sure you check out the short video clip on each picture’s page to see how they work.
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Your daily moomin
Oct 1, 2003 Read/heard/seen
For this month, I’m going to type in passages from one of Tove Jansson’s moomin books as an encouragement to you all to rush on out and get them. Some of them have been reprinted by the good people at Farrar, Straus and Giroux and they’re worth tracking down. Seriously. Get them.
It’s the right evening for a tune, Snufkin thought. A new tune, one part expectation, two parts spring sadness, and for the rest, just the great delight of walking alone and liking it.He had kept this tune under his hat for several days, but hadn’t quite dared to take it out yet. It had to grow into a kind of happy conviction. Then, he would simply have to put his lips to the mouthorgan, and all the notes would jump instantly in to their places.
If he released them too soon they might get stuck crossways and make only a half-good tune, or he might lose them altogether and never be in the right mood to get hold of them again. Tunes are serious things, especially if they have to be jolly and sad at the same time.
But this evening Snufkin felt rather sure of his tune. It was there, waiting, nearly full-grown — and it was going to be the best he ever made.
Today’s daily moomin was brought to you by Tales from Moominvalley.
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Tags: moomins
Two things
Oct 1, 2003 Feminism/Politics
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month but did you know that it’s also Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Well, not yet officially.
I always think of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month because when I worked at the shelter, the first Saturday in October was a big conference. I believe that’s when we held the Take Back the Night march but I could be mixed up about that.
The problem with making October the official month for domestic violence awareness is that it means that two issues extremely important to women everywhere will be competing for media time. That kinda bites.
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Tags: Shelter
I’m working on this
Oct 1, 2003 Uncategorized
Sometimes I think all of the problems in the world could be solved with empathy. I’m working on empathy. More specifically, I’m working on empathic communication.
See, I notice that I have a tendency to generalize my feelings and experiences to other people’s feelings and experiences. I think, “I would do that this way,” or “When that happened to me, I felt that way,” and then I leap into the conversation ready to talk about what I would do or how that would make me feel. I think that’s ok if the conversation is about sharing but very often the person on the other end is wanting to be heard and it’s hard for me to hear someone when I’m fascinated by the sound of my own voice.
I get very frustrated when people do that to me. I’ll share a problem and they’ll share a possible solution only I wasn’t asking for a solution, I was asking for sympathy. Or I’ll describe an event and they’ll interrupt me to describe a very similar event in their own lives. Feeling my own frustration was a humbling reminder that I could myself use quite a bit of work in this area.
I recognize that very often people are offering advice or their own stories as a way of seeking connection. They want to help or they’re trying to find a way to say, “You’re not alone.” I also recognize that sometimes when I myself offer a solution or a story instead of listening, that my motives are not quite as generous. Maybe I’m looking to save the person from their dilemma with my own (supposed) wisdom. Or maybe I’m so anxious to talk about myself that I start yammering about how something similar happened to me.
I’m trying really hard to stay in the moment and listen but I couldn’t tell you how successful (or not) I am in this right now. I slow myself down by doing the reflexive listening bit (”That must be very difficult for you” or “So how are you feeling about that?”) but it’s hard. Sometimes I hold a mental image of physically grabbing onto my runaway blabbermouth racecar ego and throwing myself down to drag it to a stop.
It’s humbling to feel myself getting frustrated in a conversation only to realize that I am guilty of the very same thing. Humbling but I’m grateful, too, because it’s certainly a strong impetus for me to grow.
I wrote this because I was thinking about a conversation I had with someone and getting annoyed when I reluctantly had to admit that it bothered me so much because I do it, too. Writing this up will help hold me accountable.
