Oh, did I blunder and how? Recently, I learned about the death of a friend. I was very surprised to learn of the illness of this former friend and so I contacted her daughter who told me some news about herself and her family, and the cause of the death of her mother. Without thinking, I blurted out on facebook the connection between the death of the woman and my sudden decision to go to Cortez to see my dad.
We all live in our own little worlds so much that we don't always think when we make statements. I simple connected the two since because of Nelda's death I came to discuss with my friend from my high school years the need for us to see one another as soon as we can before either one of us should pass away. Our class is dwindling fast.
I had forgotten that Sonja would be notified when her name is mentioned. So I received a message from her today that her mother did believe that she would be going Home, to Heaven. My grandmother always said that herself, that she wanted to go Home. I know that she did. I can testify to that myself.
But my dad has never believed in Heaven. We have in our family the belief that someone comes to greet you when you pass over.I have always wondered who will be there to greet him when he does, either his wife or his mother...maybe both, or maybe neither. I do not know how much real belief has to do with the facts.
In the end, I will say this much. I have much to forgive about my dad. He has done me wrong so many times that if forgiveness alone were the quickest way into Heaven then he has certainly been the one to show me the quickest way home so long as I forgive and mean it. Even yet to this day, I nurse grievances that he has caused me, and to be honest I don't always feel like forgiving. Just because people age, get old, and even more crotchedy does not mean that they can be forgiven just due to old age and approaching death.
But I did decide that if Diane meant it when she offered me money so that I could fly to Durango and then to Cortez I would accept it from her. It would give her happiness to help me, it would give me happiness to know that my dad would have one last and final chance to make his peace with me, and it would also give me a chance to find out what in the world is the matter with my brother for all his wrong doing to me and against me.
So I wrote a note to Sonja quickly explaining that I had been thoughtless to have said what I said. I was just not thinking. Nelda was close to me for a very long time and in a sense is still as close as when we had been in Azusa, whether they think so or not. She had done a lot for me and we spent a lot of time together. Naturally, after one parts, things change. I do not know what she did after I left.
Since Sonja and I have not seen one another since the 70's, I doubt that she will be truly bothered about my faux pas. But I explained. The simple truth is that I was simply connecting the dots. Young children become mature adults. We all age and die. It is a part of the process. I know that we go somewhere after death as I believe that we also come back to earth time again when and if necessary. Of that I am totally convinced.
Life is not really all platitudes. I get all kinds of stuff on facebook that tries to keep us thinking on love thoughts, positive thinking, Heaven, Love, and then there is some balance with some cynics who are aetheist and send out their diatribe as well. I had to finally eliminate that from my life since it was affecting me in a way I did not like. I do believe in vibrations. I do believe that thoughts become realized and that it is best to say good things about people rather than harmful things.
All anyone has to do is to look at my blog and one can see that my soul has searched itself for identity and has come up with and produced answers for me. So Yes, I believe. I also know that for the most part most people can't deal with it, much less with me.
I drove along the East Coast in my Honda with my pet yorkshire terrier, and I discovered the truth about the Eastern Seaboard. It is becoming gargantuan and grotesque. America is no longer America the Beautiful. It is America the grotesque and ugly. People do not know how to take care of themselves.
At this stage in my life, I am one of the class failures. All I did was to care for my parents in their old age, watch my dad suffer so badly he tried to take his own life, and then had to fend for myself the past years in a time when nobody really wants to hire the aged for any kind of jobs. And for sure, I am smart enough to know that. A saint I am not. But I know more about God than most people could ever dream, and I often speak of it. That is another aspect of me that most people cannot understand. I don't bother to try to explain. Accept me as I am. I will do my thing. You do yours. I hope I can get that $50 exacta this weekend. Come on horse world, let's do our stuff finally right.
Yours Truly
Janet Fauble at home
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Follow up to Previous blog
I just read the mad monarchist at monaco's blog which is a picture postcard saying Happy Birthday to America. (All lower case for a reason.)
When Susan offered to get my plane ticket, she had to ask me some questions, one of which is how do I spell my middle name. I was called by my middle name until I went to first grade whereupon my first grade teacher chose to call me Janet instead of Charlene. My middle name was spelled Charlene until my brother began to call me Charlie. Then my mother decided to stick the letter y in it so it is now spelled Charylene. Chary means stingy by the way, if you did not know that already. Sometimes I live up to that.
Reading about now in upper case Mad Monarchist of Monaco's blog, I remembered Princess Charlene. What a pretty name! Between Prince Albert and Burt Reynolds, I have a few berts in my life! Burt Reynolds is also born on the same day as I, but three years earlier. His and mine is a long, long story long before Laugh In and Judy Carne, and later, Sally Fields. But leave that for another day.
At any rate, my family and I are a group of fighters. We have all fought all our lives long. Another hollywood buddy, Ed Anser, once made it clear that we are all bred like pit bulls. Could be true. I don't take it all to heart though. It may appear that way.
At any rate, I always remember the day that Princess Grace had her auto accident. My mother and I were driving together on the same day. I always associate that day with Princess Grace since Stephanie has explained a bit of what happened.
So Burt makes a movie with Sally called the Runaway Bride. Smart girl! I am beginning to ramble. All my life is caught up by Hollywood so that I can nearly relive my entire life by watching certain movies, but one, I never wore a wedding dress, and I have never run away from a wedding. I always got out of the problem long before that stage of the game.
One of the reasons I came to love Madame de Maintenon. She is one wise gal but she had suffered througha miserble marriage with Paul Scarron, and was fortunate or unfortunate to suffer through a secret marriage to the king. She wanted to stay single but somehow or other, could not find the way to avoid marriage as her friend Ninon d'Enclos had managed to do.
I believe the King liked the worn old shoe better than the tight, unbroken new shoes that a young bride would have been so he chose to stay with Madame de Maintenon who was the best insurance policy that he had.
Old habits are so much better than having to break in new habits.
When Susan offered to get my plane ticket, she had to ask me some questions, one of which is how do I spell my middle name. I was called by my middle name until I went to first grade whereupon my first grade teacher chose to call me Janet instead of Charlene. My middle name was spelled Charlene until my brother began to call me Charlie. Then my mother decided to stick the letter y in it so it is now spelled Charylene. Chary means stingy by the way, if you did not know that already. Sometimes I live up to that.
Reading about now in upper case Mad Monarchist of Monaco's blog, I remembered Princess Charlene. What a pretty name! Between Prince Albert and Burt Reynolds, I have a few berts in my life! Burt Reynolds is also born on the same day as I, but three years earlier. His and mine is a long, long story long before Laugh In and Judy Carne, and later, Sally Fields. But leave that for another day.
At any rate, my family and I are a group of fighters. We have all fought all our lives long. Another hollywood buddy, Ed Anser, once made it clear that we are all bred like pit bulls. Could be true. I don't take it all to heart though. It may appear that way.
At any rate, I always remember the day that Princess Grace had her auto accident. My mother and I were driving together on the same day. I always associate that day with Princess Grace since Stephanie has explained a bit of what happened.
So Burt makes a movie with Sally called the Runaway Bride. Smart girl! I am beginning to ramble. All my life is caught up by Hollywood so that I can nearly relive my entire life by watching certain movies, but one, I never wore a wedding dress, and I have never run away from a wedding. I always got out of the problem long before that stage of the game.
One of the reasons I came to love Madame de Maintenon. She is one wise gal but she had suffered througha miserble marriage with Paul Scarron, and was fortunate or unfortunate to suffer through a secret marriage to the king. She wanted to stay single but somehow or other, could not find the way to avoid marriage as her friend Ninon d'Enclos had managed to do.
I believe the King liked the worn old shoe better than the tight, unbroken new shoes that a young bride would have been so he chose to stay with Madame de Maintenon who was the best insurance policy that he had.
Old habits are so much better than having to break in new habits.
Friends
When I was a senior in high school we had a special speech class taught by Clyde Coon, one of the more interesting drama teachers that Van Wert boasted having on its faculty. Mr. Coon was a very strong influence on us in ways that none of us at the time would understand. But one topic that he had us give a speech in class was called Friends, Family, Faith, Health, and Wealth. We were to place them in the order of their importance to us, then we had to explain why. Only one person that we knew would put wealth first, and this person did give a great speech and explanation as to why wealth is so important. Eventually, naturally, we all find out. Probably many of my classmates put faith first for that is in a sense putting God first in our lives. I recall that most thought either friends or faith were most important to them. I would actually use this same device in my teaching years later to have my students struggle with this assignment. I have kept a few papers for some truly impressed me. At tenth grade level, some students show more maturity than many adults would if they had to think about this now.
The truth is that many people place in importance the things that they most need and take least for granted. Family is the most likely choice to be taken for granted since nearly each one of us has family but few of us realized that we also had classmates who were orphaned and therefore were housed at the Marsh Foundation, a home for children of neglect. Probably to that child the family may have been more important than to those of us who lived with our parents, complaining about tensions at home. Several classmates did have deformities due to childhood illnesses so that perhaps those youngsters realized how important a good leg or a good arm is to them; whereas, those of us who had all four limbs truly did not understand the boy in the class with the crooked arm that had been deformed due to a bout of polio.
I think of all this now many years later. At this age, health is paramount for we are nearing the time of passing from this life onto the next. When I was a child, I had suffered through many childhood illnesses, asthma, pneumonia, chicken pox, but fortunately, all were cured by the time I reached adulthood. But I nearly died of pneumonia one time when a very young child so that the doctor came to our house to look after me, an act that I remember to this day. I can remember wearing mustard plasters on my chest when a child, I can remember wheezing from asthma, and I remember having to take sulfa pills because I was allergic to penicillin then. What a time it was to get through the early years in my life. I was skinny and small, but I managed to survive.
I never gave a thought to wealth much myself even then. I worked as a child so I was paid for babysitting, waitressing in local restaurants, and eventually, being a cashier in the local drugstore. We did not make much money in those days but prices were totally different. My first legitimate paying job was for the incredible sum of 35 cents an hour. I probably made more babysitting.
I saved all my money so that my mom and I could go to Chicago to buy me clothes for schools. My parents bought all the necessities but I had saved my earnings to buy sweaters, skirts, and dresses for school. We did not wear blue jeans in my day to school. We wore long skirts and bobby sox. We tried to stay in fashion as much as is possible. We poured over magazines like Seventeen, Vogue, and the few McCall pattern books that we could find, and tried to be up to date as much as we could. Television was new then, did not have the influence that it has now, and all our clothing styles were dependent upon the department store where we bought them.
I loved Chicago. It is a great huge city in comparison to one single Main Street in small town Van Wert,Ohio. It had huge department stores and my favorite was Marshall Fields. I love that store to this day as it was the greatest store in the world to me. I bought my first cashmere sweater there, a Dalton brand, which I have never forgotten. Another store that was big then was Carson,Pirie, Scott, and Company. A third major department store I have forgotten its name now, but I know that there were three. Yet, I liked Marshall Fields the best. We stayed at the Palmer House, a great Hilton hotel, where we could hear the street noises down below from where we were lodged high up on a high rise floor. The doorman greeted us whenever we went in and out, and we even dined there, having our picture made. That photo is on my wall now that shows me and my neighborhood friend sitting beside my mother at dinner. My friend Janet who is two years younger than I lived four doors away from us. We eventually made contact with one another again after all these many years.
Faith is something I studied all my life. At Kent StateUniversity, a philosophy class professor had us write a paper on how we are honest with ourselves. I never forgot that lesson. Psychology was my main interest then so I wrote a paper on the effects of religious belief upon our lives. Religion has always been a bugaboo with me, so I analyzed its effects upon the personality using psychological principles to explain how it controls or asserts itself on our lives.
I had grown up in a conflicted family. My grandmother was a fundamentalist Christian whose beliefs and behaviour drove my dad, her son, away from religion. He has some points to make as most religious leaders do use scriptural verses to scam their victims, the believers, into handing over their worldly goods so that they can become rich from them. That probably might be a serious problem to someone who wants to hold onto his own material gains.
My mother therefore was also opposed to my grandmother's holier than thou attitudes so she had us baptized into the protestant church closest to those dreaded Catholics who surely were the devil's own. In fact, those who made claims against the Catholic Church had some valid points to make as time has proved. Anyway, I was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith then. It is as close to Catholicism as any but because of the differences I wrote the paper. Eventually, I did become Catholic for a short time. It was due to the influence of my first love who came about in the suburbs of Chicago. My mother and I had seen the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers so I am a wee bit suspicious today about how it is that I came to work in a country club on the south side of Chicago where I met a fella! I did not marry him. But a famous couple Adolph Green and Phyllis Newman were married in a special ceremony at this Jewish Country Club.
Since then, I have come a long way when I learned of other faiths and beliefs, none of which I place much stock. Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish, Indian folklore, stories, all these eventually were studied in courses at Michigan State University for sociology classes. I even discovered Edgar Cayce whose concepts on reincarnation were worth a bit of a study. I am dubious at best about all religious faiths. But despite being dubious, I am also well grounded in my own personal belief and interpretation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But like my dad, I am convinced that because the church leaders are exempt from income taxes in America, that many are preachers for the benefits more than the love of Jesus Christ. In fact and truth, one did tell me as much. It is a good scam, being a preacherman if you can find a following. Food is free, all kinds of contributions are made, and some like Jimmy Baker and his wife Tammy made quite a nest for themselves.
So thanks to my dad's ill health and his desire to pass over to what he believes will be nothing, I have learned that both wealth and friendship are essential in this life. My good friend from Van Wert has done me the honor of giving me a gift of money to get airfare to Colorado to see my dying dad whose last breath is still a question of time. My faith in my friend was confirmed. She came through doing as she said she would do. I am going to see my dad before he takes his last breath I hope, and perhaps he will learn to believe in Love which is God after all. It is going to be a quick trip.
I cannot afford the $88 for the motel I will stay or the $250 round trip airfare, but it will prove something. I may finally decide to play a $50 exacta on the horses now just to cover all this. I need to get my eyes examined which is expensive as well as new eyewear when I return. Comically, my brother who is a pain in the ass to me, did not want to hear me talk of exactas or trifectas. A 25 to 1 longshot would pay $50 for a $2.00 bet, so $20 would get me $500. So believe it or not, I will attempt it. But my brother says to me, Not on your friends money. Just on your own...What a jerk! So it is his wife who used her credit on line to get me the ticket as I won't put my card numbers online. Too much trouble because of one lousy government scam through the internet. The hell with the government I say! Don't ever fall for the grants free scam! It has been one dose of hell that America has become. So much for Independence Day...Nobody is really independent in the USA as all are in debt up to their ears and are owned by the banks. Ticks me off a bit to think of all the lives sacrificed just to get separated from an English King to find ourselves in debt to banking organizations. Throw over all the banks now, Americans, to be really free! If I had the right attorney, I would own one of those damned organizations which calls itself Banking!
So while we have our health, our faith, our friend, our family, let us not forget that without $$$$$$none of it truly exists at all! I have a roof over my head, thanks to family, a dying father, and a truly straight forward talking brother who reminded me of how dull assistant living homes really are, and cats who make it necessary for me to return asap, and a good friend from Ohio who truly remembers our friendship well enough to share her bounty with me now. She wants me to heal from times past for she was there when I was hurting most. God bless her. Being a charity case is not fun at all, but I am not too proud not to accept her kind offer.
Yes, it is true that I could have and should have probably used an attorney, fought my dad and my brother's actions which were hostile rather than friendly. Time will tell because I am going to Cortez to see my dad, confront my brother, and see this story through. Whether my brother is friend or foe yet I am not certain. We are both senior citizens now and it is time that everybody realize that. I did call my dad, asked him if he wanted to see me, because I know that he tells my brother one story and me another. My brother sees things only through his own emotionally tainted temperament and eyes and believes what he wants. He turned me against him when he had me evicted from the house, and said the unkind things he said to me. He did me wrong, made me think ill of him, yet I am going to accept the drive with him to and from Cortez and will settle things as much as possible. I will repay his wife for the ticket when I see her in person. We discussed it on the phone.
Because I spoke up about him on a question from a cousin on facebook he does not want me to be on his facebook. So I rarely if ever talk to him. He said that my dad did not remember talking to me on the phone. I suppose that he told him that I was coming up there soon. I know that my brother lies and my dad lies but at this point there is no lie about my going to see my dad. I have confirmation from the airlines, have made motel reservations, and will come and go. I will see to it that I know just how well or ill my dad really is. I have had enough of lies already.
So the story goes on...there will be a follow up to this story.
The truth is that many people place in importance the things that they most need and take least for granted. Family is the most likely choice to be taken for granted since nearly each one of us has family but few of us realized that we also had classmates who were orphaned and therefore were housed at the Marsh Foundation, a home for children of neglect. Probably to that child the family may have been more important than to those of us who lived with our parents, complaining about tensions at home. Several classmates did have deformities due to childhood illnesses so that perhaps those youngsters realized how important a good leg or a good arm is to them; whereas, those of us who had all four limbs truly did not understand the boy in the class with the crooked arm that had been deformed due to a bout of polio.
I think of all this now many years later. At this age, health is paramount for we are nearing the time of passing from this life onto the next. When I was a child, I had suffered through many childhood illnesses, asthma, pneumonia, chicken pox, but fortunately, all were cured by the time I reached adulthood. But I nearly died of pneumonia one time when a very young child so that the doctor came to our house to look after me, an act that I remember to this day. I can remember wearing mustard plasters on my chest when a child, I can remember wheezing from asthma, and I remember having to take sulfa pills because I was allergic to penicillin then. What a time it was to get through the early years in my life. I was skinny and small, but I managed to survive.
I never gave a thought to wealth much myself even then. I worked as a child so I was paid for babysitting, waitressing in local restaurants, and eventually, being a cashier in the local drugstore. We did not make much money in those days but prices were totally different. My first legitimate paying job was for the incredible sum of 35 cents an hour. I probably made more babysitting.
I saved all my money so that my mom and I could go to Chicago to buy me clothes for schools. My parents bought all the necessities but I had saved my earnings to buy sweaters, skirts, and dresses for school. We did not wear blue jeans in my day to school. We wore long skirts and bobby sox. We tried to stay in fashion as much as is possible. We poured over magazines like Seventeen, Vogue, and the few McCall pattern books that we could find, and tried to be up to date as much as we could. Television was new then, did not have the influence that it has now, and all our clothing styles were dependent upon the department store where we bought them.
I loved Chicago. It is a great huge city in comparison to one single Main Street in small town Van Wert,Ohio. It had huge department stores and my favorite was Marshall Fields. I love that store to this day as it was the greatest store in the world to me. I bought my first cashmere sweater there, a Dalton brand, which I have never forgotten. Another store that was big then was Carson,Pirie, Scott, and Company. A third major department store I have forgotten its name now, but I know that there were three. Yet, I liked Marshall Fields the best. We stayed at the Palmer House, a great Hilton hotel, where we could hear the street noises down below from where we were lodged high up on a high rise floor. The doorman greeted us whenever we went in and out, and we even dined there, having our picture made. That photo is on my wall now that shows me and my neighborhood friend sitting beside my mother at dinner. My friend Janet who is two years younger than I lived four doors away from us. We eventually made contact with one another again after all these many years.
Faith is something I studied all my life. At Kent StateUniversity, a philosophy class professor had us write a paper on how we are honest with ourselves. I never forgot that lesson. Psychology was my main interest then so I wrote a paper on the effects of religious belief upon our lives. Religion has always been a bugaboo with me, so I analyzed its effects upon the personality using psychological principles to explain how it controls or asserts itself on our lives.
I had grown up in a conflicted family. My grandmother was a fundamentalist Christian whose beliefs and behaviour drove my dad, her son, away from religion. He has some points to make as most religious leaders do use scriptural verses to scam their victims, the believers, into handing over their worldly goods so that they can become rich from them. That probably might be a serious problem to someone who wants to hold onto his own material gains.
My mother therefore was also opposed to my grandmother's holier than thou attitudes so she had us baptized into the protestant church closest to those dreaded Catholics who surely were the devil's own. In fact, those who made claims against the Catholic Church had some valid points to make as time has proved. Anyway, I was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran faith then. It is as close to Catholicism as any but because of the differences I wrote the paper. Eventually, I did become Catholic for a short time. It was due to the influence of my first love who came about in the suburbs of Chicago. My mother and I had seen the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers so I am a wee bit suspicious today about how it is that I came to work in a country club on the south side of Chicago where I met a fella! I did not marry him. But a famous couple Adolph Green and Phyllis Newman were married in a special ceremony at this Jewish Country Club.
Since then, I have come a long way when I learned of other faiths and beliefs, none of which I place much stock. Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish, Indian folklore, stories, all these eventually were studied in courses at Michigan State University for sociology classes. I even discovered Edgar Cayce whose concepts on reincarnation were worth a bit of a study. I am dubious at best about all religious faiths. But despite being dubious, I am also well grounded in my own personal belief and interpretation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But like my dad, I am convinced that because the church leaders are exempt from income taxes in America, that many are preachers for the benefits more than the love of Jesus Christ. In fact and truth, one did tell me as much. It is a good scam, being a preacherman if you can find a following. Food is free, all kinds of contributions are made, and some like Jimmy Baker and his wife Tammy made quite a nest for themselves.
So thanks to my dad's ill health and his desire to pass over to what he believes will be nothing, I have learned that both wealth and friendship are essential in this life. My good friend from Van Wert has done me the honor of giving me a gift of money to get airfare to Colorado to see my dying dad whose last breath is still a question of time. My faith in my friend was confirmed. She came through doing as she said she would do. I am going to see my dad before he takes his last breath I hope, and perhaps he will learn to believe in Love which is God after all. It is going to be a quick trip.
I cannot afford the $88 for the motel I will stay or the $250 round trip airfare, but it will prove something. I may finally decide to play a $50 exacta on the horses now just to cover all this. I need to get my eyes examined which is expensive as well as new eyewear when I return. Comically, my brother who is a pain in the ass to me, did not want to hear me talk of exactas or trifectas. A 25 to 1 longshot would pay $50 for a $2.00 bet, so $20 would get me $500. So believe it or not, I will attempt it. But my brother says to me, Not on your friends money. Just on your own...What a jerk! So it is his wife who used her credit on line to get me the ticket as I won't put my card numbers online. Too much trouble because of one lousy government scam through the internet. The hell with the government I say! Don't ever fall for the grants free scam! It has been one dose of hell that America has become. So much for Independence Day...Nobody is really independent in the USA as all are in debt up to their ears and are owned by the banks. Ticks me off a bit to think of all the lives sacrificed just to get separated from an English King to find ourselves in debt to banking organizations. Throw over all the banks now, Americans, to be really free! If I had the right attorney, I would own one of those damned organizations which calls itself Banking!
So while we have our health, our faith, our friend, our family, let us not forget that without $$$$$$none of it truly exists at all! I have a roof over my head, thanks to family, a dying father, and a truly straight forward talking brother who reminded me of how dull assistant living homes really are, and cats who make it necessary for me to return asap, and a good friend from Ohio who truly remembers our friendship well enough to share her bounty with me now. She wants me to heal from times past for she was there when I was hurting most. God bless her. Being a charity case is not fun at all, but I am not too proud not to accept her kind offer.
Yes, it is true that I could have and should have probably used an attorney, fought my dad and my brother's actions which were hostile rather than friendly. Time will tell because I am going to Cortez to see my dad, confront my brother, and see this story through. Whether my brother is friend or foe yet I am not certain. We are both senior citizens now and it is time that everybody realize that. I did call my dad, asked him if he wanted to see me, because I know that he tells my brother one story and me another. My brother sees things only through his own emotionally tainted temperament and eyes and believes what he wants. He turned me against him when he had me evicted from the house, and said the unkind things he said to me. He did me wrong, made me think ill of him, yet I am going to accept the drive with him to and from Cortez and will settle things as much as possible. I will repay his wife for the ticket when I see her in person. We discussed it on the phone.
Because I spoke up about him on a question from a cousin on facebook he does not want me to be on his facebook. So I rarely if ever talk to him. He said that my dad did not remember talking to me on the phone. I suppose that he told him that I was coming up there soon. I know that my brother lies and my dad lies but at this point there is no lie about my going to see my dad. I have confirmation from the airlines, have made motel reservations, and will come and go. I will see to it that I know just how well or ill my dad really is. I have had enough of lies already.
So the story goes on...there will be a follow up to this story.
Fourth of July Celebrations
I had to laugh at the news tonight when the weather man on Fox 10 said that the rain will be from ten to two and won't affect the fireworks. Frankly, I would love a 24 hour downpour that would affect the fireworks as fireworks can always be canceled and shown at a different time. But happy Arizona will be to have a wee bit of rain instead of a lot and enjoy fireworks in the evening. HA!
Talking Stick Resort is having a fireworks party for the low cost of $10 and had you planned ahead, groupon would get you in for $5.00. I think that they could be seen from here pretty easily since we are so close to the casino. I have not decided but I thought I might go to the casino and see it from some spot. It is a big maybe. I don't really need to watch fireworks at all to be honest. We have them go off on a regular basis.
While we may be celebrating the anniversary of when we declared our independence from the English King, for sure we have become more and more dependent upon other nations since then both economically and strategically. One should use the parable of the mustard seed with the USA. It began as a small seedling but the growth has been such that I am not sure what the root really is, as this plant called America is certainly overwhelming in this time period.
But patriotism, nostalgia for the good old days when life was seemingly better, and just the need to party and relax make the fourth a very special occasion. Love it when competition makes New YorkCity, Boston, and Washington, DC vie for which display is bigger and brighter than the others. Happy Fourth!
Talking Stick Resort is having a fireworks party for the low cost of $10 and had you planned ahead, groupon would get you in for $5.00. I think that they could be seen from here pretty easily since we are so close to the casino. I have not decided but I thought I might go to the casino and see it from some spot. It is a big maybe. I don't really need to watch fireworks at all to be honest. We have them go off on a regular basis.
While we may be celebrating the anniversary of when we declared our independence from the English King, for sure we have become more and more dependent upon other nations since then both economically and strategically. One should use the parable of the mustard seed with the USA. It began as a small seedling but the growth has been such that I am not sure what the root really is, as this plant called America is certainly overwhelming in this time period.
But patriotism, nostalgia for the good old days when life was seemingly better, and just the need to party and relax make the fourth a very special occasion. Love it when competition makes New YorkCity, Boston, and Washington, DC vie for which display is bigger and brighter than the others. Happy Fourth!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The Coming of Power of Louis XIV by Roberto Rossellini
In 1966, a film directed by Roberto Rossellini for French television portrayed the young king of France in his first days of taking the reigns of power in France. When I first began my research into the study of Louis XIV this film had been tops on my list of films to see. I had seen many references to it, but much as I tried, I could not find it so that I could get it. Luckily, last week when I was browsing the videos at the library I found it while looking for Angelina Jolie's The Tourist. There were two copies. I was determined. I checked out both of them so that if something was wrong with a disc I had a backup. I had to clean the disc as it turned out because it was dirty and causing the film to stop. I had done myself right after all.
If I were to ever want to judge a king by a film, this would not be the worst or the best to use, but it is adequate. It opens with the death of Cardinal Mazarin so that the first part of the film deals mostly with the priests of the church who are administering the last rites to the dying cardinal. They discuss mostly his list of sins as we have to hear his confession of which frankly there is little to say since all his life was devoted to the cause of the state of the nation, France. So he can be forgiven much since he gave so much.
Immediately we get a glimpse of a young assistant, Jean Baptiste Colbert who is a very interesting character in this video. He warns the prime minister early on about the scheming of the financial minister, Nicholas Fouquet. But because to be honest, Mazarin has been also living high off the hog himself, he cannot truly condemn the financial minister while Colbert who is scrupulous and honest can and does.
After witnessing the commotion around the dying Cardinal, we are twenty minutes into the film finally ushered into the bedroom of the young king who is only 22/23 with his queen while the court waltzes in to watch them do the morning levee. (Insert here that this is performed similarly but not exactly as the way in which I first learned of it in my memory of it. It is far more elaborate than depicted in the film with flourishes and bows which the film did omit.) The queen does clap her hands gleefully in this scene so that it is explained that that means that the King had performed his conjugal duties with her that night. In this film, the queen is decidedly pretty.
With this video comes a brochure which explains the making of the film, and there is also a set of features built into the video that one can see which also describes the making of the film. Gary McCollim had told me that the actor who portrayed the king had been a mailman but the feature said that he had been an actor with some company but had been told not to memorize his lines but to read them from a blackboard of some kind. The idea was to give the impression that the King is talking to the world. Who knows for sure?
At any rate, the man who portrays the king is named Jean Marie Patte and is reasonably close in physical appearance to give an idea of how the king may have looked at that time.
Once the cardinal has died, the king now has total rule and control over the court so that this film shows how he acted in his early days, responding to a crisis regarding the financial minister who is clearly embezzling and ripping the court off, hoping to make himself prime minister so that he can rule the kingdom. He appears to have been acting as though he had the power of the king all along and it has often been said that the real King had to prove himself so that Fouquet was his first evidence of the power he would wield. He had Fouquet arrested, tried, and sentenced early on so that Jean Baptiste Colbert becomes the primary financial minister. Fouquet would have been the same age as the king's mother since he had been serving the crown for many years while she had been acting as regent.
We also meet the young Louise de la Valliere, the King's first mistress. I liked Roberto's choice of actress and the way in which he proved that Louise is a loyal lover to the King. Fouquet had tried to bribe her with a gift. She quickly reported it to the King who was then able to make his decision to have the greedy minister arrested and tried.
We also meet his mother, and this is one part of the film that I did not like at all. For the most part, the actors chosen do appear to resemble their characters but not so with the Queen Mother. She is even portrayed too harshly for my tastes. She was the king's most loyal and dependable supporter all his life long until her death. Nobody defended the King more than she but in this film she is critical and rude at times which I do not believe at all. She is a pious woman and probably would have made appeals to his nature but she would not have sounded the way she does in this film. Her attitude towards the kings remarks about Cardinal Mazarin are frankly puzzling since she was also the staunchest supporter of the Cardinal.
There is a hunt with a stag, and a lot of hounds making a lot of noise. One of the most interesting scenes is the construction of the Chateau de Versailles. The Chateau de Versailles is built around the former King Louis XIII's hunting lodge where he liked to go to get away from court. In honor of his father, King Louis XIV brings the entire court to the hunting lodge to have it turned into the seat of government.
Rossellini used a quarry to show this scene of cutting into concrete blocks and hoisting them to develop the work and years it took to build this monumental awesome Chateau. It is incredibly worth everything to see just this much to understand the value of King Louis XIV upon the state of France. Not that there are not enough chateaux already dotted around France built for and by previous kings but to impress upon the world the relation of the court to the king as the planets are to the sun Louis XIV determined that he would make his mark in this way.
Rossellini would have you believe that the King learned from Fouquet the importance of fashion and style. Tis not so. The King had been well dressed as a child at his majority, at his wedding and in his ballet costumes. He always dressed in excessive grandeur, but this time the director errs when he tries to imply that the King decides to control his court through fashion and decorum, changing his own bland and otherwise dull outfits into glorious creations of satins, silks, and lace. He looks like a buffoon in this transformation which frankly is untrue of the Sun King as well. He dressed fashionably well, and it is a discredit to Rossillini that he did not pull this off better than he did.
Finally, at dinner, we find the king dining alone, having his meal served one dish at a time, eating with his fingers, disdaining the new invention the fork, and having his 24 violinists play beautiful string music in the background. The King sets the tone for the court, and all courtiers must dress fashionably and well.
In a short 90 minute film, Rossellini attempts to give the audience a look at the young King who is now in power. The final moments are fascinating to me. Once away from the court and in his private room, the king removes his wig, shows his hair smashed down while he takes out a book to remind himself of his duties as king, his personal credos...in the image that I saw the look resembles that of some other famous person in history. I won't reveal it now. But personal to me.
I did see an occasional tendency to try to confuse him with Napoleon. The King had been a ballerina and would have walked in a graceful, elegant manner. This actor portrayed his walk in a way that I found unfortunately unlikely and also too soldier like, brisk, and rigid. Louis XIV talked softly, as he seldom ever raised his voice, he walked gracefully and elegantly. He always tipped his hat to the ladies of the court. He was the bona fide gentleman who never lost his temper but five times in his entire life. He is an amazing king, and this film does a fairly decent portrayal...I recommend it but it is not true to life as I have come to know the King.
If I were to ever want to judge a king by a film, this would not be the worst or the best to use, but it is adequate. It opens with the death of Cardinal Mazarin so that the first part of the film deals mostly with the priests of the church who are administering the last rites to the dying cardinal. They discuss mostly his list of sins as we have to hear his confession of which frankly there is little to say since all his life was devoted to the cause of the state of the nation, France. So he can be forgiven much since he gave so much.
Immediately we get a glimpse of a young assistant, Jean Baptiste Colbert who is a very interesting character in this video. He warns the prime minister early on about the scheming of the financial minister, Nicholas Fouquet. But because to be honest, Mazarin has been also living high off the hog himself, he cannot truly condemn the financial minister while Colbert who is scrupulous and honest can and does.
After witnessing the commotion around the dying Cardinal, we are twenty minutes into the film finally ushered into the bedroom of the young king who is only 22/23 with his queen while the court waltzes in to watch them do the morning levee. (Insert here that this is performed similarly but not exactly as the way in which I first learned of it in my memory of it. It is far more elaborate than depicted in the film with flourishes and bows which the film did omit.) The queen does clap her hands gleefully in this scene so that it is explained that that means that the King had performed his conjugal duties with her that night. In this film, the queen is decidedly pretty.
With this video comes a brochure which explains the making of the film, and there is also a set of features built into the video that one can see which also describes the making of the film. Gary McCollim had told me that the actor who portrayed the king had been a mailman but the feature said that he had been an actor with some company but had been told not to memorize his lines but to read them from a blackboard of some kind. The idea was to give the impression that the King is talking to the world. Who knows for sure?
At any rate, the man who portrays the king is named Jean Marie Patte and is reasonably close in physical appearance to give an idea of how the king may have looked at that time.
Once the cardinal has died, the king now has total rule and control over the court so that this film shows how he acted in his early days, responding to a crisis regarding the financial minister who is clearly embezzling and ripping the court off, hoping to make himself prime minister so that he can rule the kingdom. He appears to have been acting as though he had the power of the king all along and it has often been said that the real King had to prove himself so that Fouquet was his first evidence of the power he would wield. He had Fouquet arrested, tried, and sentenced early on so that Jean Baptiste Colbert becomes the primary financial minister. Fouquet would have been the same age as the king's mother since he had been serving the crown for many years while she had been acting as regent.
We also meet the young Louise de la Valliere, the King's first mistress. I liked Roberto's choice of actress and the way in which he proved that Louise is a loyal lover to the King. Fouquet had tried to bribe her with a gift. She quickly reported it to the King who was then able to make his decision to have the greedy minister arrested and tried.
We also meet his mother, and this is one part of the film that I did not like at all. For the most part, the actors chosen do appear to resemble their characters but not so with the Queen Mother. She is even portrayed too harshly for my tastes. She was the king's most loyal and dependable supporter all his life long until her death. Nobody defended the King more than she but in this film she is critical and rude at times which I do not believe at all. She is a pious woman and probably would have made appeals to his nature but she would not have sounded the way she does in this film. Her attitude towards the kings remarks about Cardinal Mazarin are frankly puzzling since she was also the staunchest supporter of the Cardinal.
There is a hunt with a stag, and a lot of hounds making a lot of noise. One of the most interesting scenes is the construction of the Chateau de Versailles. The Chateau de Versailles is built around the former King Louis XIII's hunting lodge where he liked to go to get away from court. In honor of his father, King Louis XIV brings the entire court to the hunting lodge to have it turned into the seat of government.
Rossellini used a quarry to show this scene of cutting into concrete blocks and hoisting them to develop the work and years it took to build this monumental awesome Chateau. It is incredibly worth everything to see just this much to understand the value of King Louis XIV upon the state of France. Not that there are not enough chateaux already dotted around France built for and by previous kings but to impress upon the world the relation of the court to the king as the planets are to the sun Louis XIV determined that he would make his mark in this way.
Rossellini would have you believe that the King learned from Fouquet the importance of fashion and style. Tis not so. The King had been well dressed as a child at his majority, at his wedding and in his ballet costumes. He always dressed in excessive grandeur, but this time the director errs when he tries to imply that the King decides to control his court through fashion and decorum, changing his own bland and otherwise dull outfits into glorious creations of satins, silks, and lace. He looks like a buffoon in this transformation which frankly is untrue of the Sun King as well. He dressed fashionably well, and it is a discredit to Rossillini that he did not pull this off better than he did.
Finally, at dinner, we find the king dining alone, having his meal served one dish at a time, eating with his fingers, disdaining the new invention the fork, and having his 24 violinists play beautiful string music in the background. The King sets the tone for the court, and all courtiers must dress fashionably and well.
In a short 90 minute film, Rossellini attempts to give the audience a look at the young King who is now in power. The final moments are fascinating to me. Once away from the court and in his private room, the king removes his wig, shows his hair smashed down while he takes out a book to remind himself of his duties as king, his personal credos...in the image that I saw the look resembles that of some other famous person in history. I won't reveal it now. But personal to me.
I did see an occasional tendency to try to confuse him with Napoleon. The King had been a ballerina and would have walked in a graceful, elegant manner. This actor portrayed his walk in a way that I found unfortunately unlikely and also too soldier like, brisk, and rigid. Louis XIV talked softly, as he seldom ever raised his voice, he walked gracefully and elegantly. He always tipped his hat to the ladies of the court. He was the bona fide gentleman who never lost his temper but five times in his entire life. He is an amazing king, and this film does a fairly decent portrayal...I recommend it but it is not true to life as I have come to know the King.
Happy Canada Day
Today has been Canada's birthday and so there have been many outbursts of love poured forth on the internet to celebrate the neighbor north of us. I have been in Canada only on a few rare occasions. When I lived in Michigan, we would go through Port Huron to cross into Canada where life is truly different from the USA which one notices immediately. For one thing, Canada is always much cleaner and fresher than the USA but also more expensive when one has to make purchases. The rate of exchange is such that Canadians pay more than Americans do and it is a shock to Americans that simple things like fast food stores are so much higher in cost than in America. One other thing that one notices immediately is that the Canadians who we would meet are always so warm and friendly. They are actually hospitable and can always tell that one is an American. I do not know how or why but it is probably the same way that we notice that the lawns and streets are so much cleaner and neater than American lawns and streets.
So Happy Birthday to Canada today. Many very nice people live there who visit America frequently.
So Happy Birthday to Canada today. Many very nice people live there who visit America frequently.
Journals and Diaries
I wonder if people do write secret thoughts in journals or diaries when they believe that they will be read somehow. If one wants to keep a secret, should he do it in a journal? But where else can one find a place to unload one's thoughts so that nobody else will become burdened by them? I have just been reading a journal purported to be written by Marie Antoinette when she first arrives in France at the Chateau de Versailles. I believe that I know the author, and I was quite taken up by the story that she told but I could tell who it is by a few tell-tale author's lingo. I am sure that it is Melanie who wrote this tale. I had been looking up blogs about Marie Antoinette when I found this and decided to read it since she has been selling it through her Madame Guillotine blogsite for some time. I cannot use a credit card on the internet due to past problems so I have not read any of her Marie Antoinette storylines until now.
I use the journal in my novel on Alexander to share his thoughts as well. It is a common device but it is the only way that one can get into the thoughts and emotions of the character from his point of view unless you use him as the narrator of the story. In this case, it is difficult to do to think that a young child could write a diary.
However, with the Egbert cartoons, one can see that one can think as a fetus even. That would make a great story to tell, the nine months of a child living within the womb of a mother to be, and how that child decides whether he will love and accept her or hate and reject her.
I think I would write it so that my half that is sperm is my twin half and the half that is ovum is the other half of that twin half, half from mom and half from dad and me, I am the ONE whole that came from that thrilling performance designed to make me come into the world.
Oh, heck! I will publish this anyway.
I use the journal in my novel on Alexander to share his thoughts as well. It is a common device but it is the only way that one can get into the thoughts and emotions of the character from his point of view unless you use him as the narrator of the story. In this case, it is difficult to do to think that a young child could write a diary.
However, with the Egbert cartoons, one can see that one can think as a fetus even. That would make a great story to tell, the nine months of a child living within the womb of a mother to be, and how that child decides whether he will love and accept her or hate and reject her.
I think I would write it so that my half that is sperm is my twin half and the half that is ovum is the other half of that twin half, half from mom and half from dad and me, I am the ONE whole that came from that thrilling performance designed to make me come into the world.
Oh, heck! I will publish this anyway.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)