A favorite essay: "Date a Girl..."

Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.


Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.


She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.


Buy her another cup of coffee.


Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.


It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.


She has to give it a shot somehow.


Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.


Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.


If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.


You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.


You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. 

You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.


Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.


Or better yet, date a girl who writes.

by Rosemarie Urquico.

LEONARDO DA VINCI - Flights of the Mind. A review.

This is has to be one of the most thorough biographies about Leonardo ever written. The most widely read biography, Leonardo: The Artist and the Man"(1988) by the Florentine, Serge Bramly, first translated by Jean-Claude Lattes into French, then later translated into English by Sian Reynolds, and published in England in 1995, was highly considered to be the definitive work on the quintessential renaissance man. Having read Bramly's work in 1996, I considered it to be rough going, strangely dense throughout; due, I expect because of its two translations from the original Italian. Reading translations and not knowing the original language can be a dubious experience for the ignorant reader, as particular words and phrases at times appear out of place. That said, reading Nicholl's passionate and adeptly written life history of Leonardo, combining historical investigation with literary speculation, one would have to admit that this work far out shines its predecessor in terms of its accessibility, detail and style. This is a formidable study of the great man and his work.

Nicholl's certainly did his research on his subject, pouring over Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus, that displays much of da Vinci's multi-varied interests, ideas and doodles, which reveals the linear and non-linear flow of his mind. The master had so many thoughts and ideas endlessly flowing that it is no wonder that he failed to complete many of his projects and paintings. Nicholl, unlike so many speculators before him, refrained from psychoanalyzing this great genius. His method was more to submerge his consciousness into Leonardo's native environment, walk the paths that he walked, and emotionally submerge his soul into the paintings, sculptures and sketches. 

Nicholl spent years physically, mentally and spiritually with Leonardo, sometimes peering at a particular work for hours on end, to possibly catch a true glimpse into the master's mind. Nicholl's approach was to combine scholarly methodology with literary imagination - and reading his work certainly proves that he has paved new insight into the character of this renaissance genius.

This is what makes this work special: Nicholl seems to have left no stone unturned in his analysis of da Vinci's life and work. As he places many of Leonardo's works in the chronological context in which they were created, speculating on da Vinci's stage of "maturity" and the social and political events manifesting at the time, we get a real sense of the man, and the developing stages of his work, ending in his self-imposed exile and dignified death with the French king, Francois I.

The text includes well-produced mono and color images of da Vinci's work. Nicholl's Notes and Bibliography are relatively extensive and valuable for the student of the master, and the renaissance as a whole.

This biography is an entertaining and gripping study of one of the most fascinating artists in history.

Disturbing though Important Revelations of World Situation.

John Perkins' ground breaking expose' of the economic machinations and collusion of multinational corporations, high levels of government and the international banking institutions and their brutal exploitation of third world countries in his popular text Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, sent a ripple of concern through this highly corrupt elite community, however mainstream publishing and media chose to ignore these disturbing confessions, wanting proof other than Perkins text. As Perkins states in his introduction in this sobering and informative text, A Game as Old as Empire,

"Eventually a courageous independent publisher, Berrett-Koehler, took the book on. Confessions success among the public astounded me. During its first week in bookstores it went to number 4 on Amazon.com." (P.2)

Despite being on the New York Times best seller list for 25 weeks, The Times refused to review it. (Much later the book was featured in the Times Sunday Supplement) The fact that the book implicates the highest echelons of government and corporations, including the IMF, WTO, World Bank, U.S.A., Britain and the "G8" countries deeply involved in money laundering, tax evasion and environmental disasters that turns one's stomach, never mentioned in the main stream media, reveals the appalling extent of this corruption.

A Game as Old as Empire is a collection of essays by investigative journalists, EMH's, academics, practicing lawyers, scientists and writers exposing the extent of corruption in the exploitation of developing countries; for example lending billions of dollars, raising debt, knowing full well that particular regimes were pocketing the cash, opening off shore accounts, while the regime's country falls further into abject poverty, then to lend more money, raising debt further...

These essays are terribly disturbing as the greed, destruction and waste is so vast, crippling small countries, causing poverty to become more entrenched to fill the pockets of a Global elitist few and their cronies.

One would logically assume that because of the billions of dollars poured into some third world countries for their development, one would see the benefits of such huge investments. In actual fact, there has been no benefit, because in most cases, the poverty has worsened. Why? Money is loaned to known corrupt regimes that pocket the money and make the money clean through tax loopholes and off shore accounts.

Other reasons are presented such as the trade agreements of the World Trade Organization which makes it impossible for developing countries with debt to produce and export because developed countries, per the WTO agreements, import products into the local market under-pricing them, thus making it impossible for the developing country to rise out of debt, let alone make a living.

In this review I've chosen not to write specific examples of this high level corruption as this format, does not allow the space. However, in order to understand the extent that these so-called elites go to... including genocide, crimes against humanity and all out war and occupation in order to ensure access to resources such as oil and other natural resources, read this text because it will make you wonder how and why it has gone on for so long.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man started the ball rolling in terms of more awareness of the waste and destruction that neo-liberalism and globalization has wrought on developing countries; A Game as Old as Empire is the confirmation and the quintessential wake up call to actually do something about it.

In the last chapter, Global Uprising: The Web of Resistance, Antonia Juhasz writes a compelling piece for all concerned individuals around the globe to do something about this entrenched elitist corruption. The bibliography is extensive and worthy, including a list of important web sites to enhance your knowledge.

Even if you haven't read "Confessions", A Game as Old as Empire will inform, disturb, shock and hopefully stir some of us into action before these elitist corporations, banks and exclusive, corrupt governments go too far...

Comment on Young Love.

It was late afternoon last week when sitting out side writing in my journal at an attempt to describe those people and objects around me.

The afternoon had been very hot and a cool change, a soft wind, soon made the area more comfortable.

It seemed I had been writing a long time, looking at the sky turn crimson, when I noticed two young people half laying on the grass and gazing into each other's eyes.

There is no doubt that I was observing "young love", reminding me of a sentimental scene from some forty's film.

As a writing exercise, I tried to describe both their emotions and body language.

Then, I suspect, the boy must have said something to the beautiful young woman for she suddenly stood up, turned in a huff, and walked in the opposite direction. The young man called out to her but she ignored his pathetic apologies and left through the door.

The poor boy looked devastated, running after her like a puppy with a broken heart.

Oh, the games we play in love!

What I found interesting was how sudden their mood changed from a love scene to a "lover's spat."

Sometime I miss the intensity and almost unendurable passion of young love. Then only a few seconds pass and I remember the pain and loss that young love brings as well. Is it worth the pain? At times I think "no", and other times remember the passion and overwhelming pleasure of it all to then ask myself if it was even worth the trouble.

"It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." as the saying goes.

Looking back, for me at least, it was worth the trouble, because thankfully, the heart is a resilient muscle.

Nostalgic & Brilliantly Written. "Speak Memory" - Vladimir Nabokov - A Review

It is known that the great author worked on this project for many years, collecting photographs, letters, scraps of unfinished poetry, searching his past in order to write a close to accurate account of his early life. In fact this autobiography is atypical, similar to a wandering mind, grasping at images, sights and smells, recollections, reminisces, rather than a chronological,'factual' version of a life lived.

The opening sentence of Speak, Memory, to my mind, is probably one of the most moving and haunting recollections in an autobiography ever read:

"The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."

The narrator continues on to describe a young chronophobiac who experienced panic when he viewed an old home movie, seeing his mother wave from an upstairs window and below, a brand-new baby carriage standing alone, realizing that the carriage was his own days before his actual birth. This disturbed him as the feeling of peering at a world days before he came into existence, sort of a reverse course of events, was akin to staring directly into eternity.

Nabokov's childhood and adolescence was an enchanting one, part of an aristocratic family, a beautiful mother and a liberal-minded father who had a vast library, where little Vladimir would arrive home to find him practicing his fencing, the clanging of blades, with a colleague. This was a civilized existence in St. Petersburg before the onslaught of the Russian Revolution. Similar to most aristocratic families at the time, the Bolsheviks seized the family fortune, forcing the family to flee their beloved Russia to Germany. But when Nabokov looks back at this tumultuous period, he says,

"My old (since 1917) quarrel with the Soviet Dictatorship is wholly unrelated to any question of property. The nostalgia I have been cherishing all these years is a hypertrophied sense of lost childhood, not sorrow for lost banknotes."

The book is strewn with old black and white photographs of Nabokov's family. There is one particular photograph of his father and mother taken circa 1900 at their estate at Vrya, which really depicts the aristocratic demeanour and pure strength of the author's father. In the background are the birches and firs of the countryside where Nabokov discovered his life-long passion with butterfly collecting.

Even if the reader is not familiar with the great novels of Nabokov: Lolita, Pale Fire, The Eye and many others, will certainly enjoy this unique and brilliantly written autobiography by one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Forgetting One's life.

To live a full life, a life of goodness and kindness, faith in God and driven to spread the Good News, is a CALLING.

As child, I dream of becoming a Monk, giving myself to God and God only.

As I developed into puberty and later, adolescence, my sex-drive clouded any dreams of becoming a priest.

Sex was a sin unless you were married; I committed this sin, too many times.

As an adult, somewhat an old man now, my views have changed.

Young Love is the closest to God one can ever experience.

What makes me happy is the JOY in some one's eyes; two people in-love, holding hands and that indescribable energy that emanates around them.

I think, " Love is Real and very close to God."

The light is pure and also so bright...

I grew up to believe that there are GOOD men on this planet. Women and men who go out of their way to help someone in need.

This belief makes my life worth living.

We live on a very strange planet, however.

Why would a man devoted to his family and a minister of a church, who only preached the value of kindness, develop a devastating disease that makes one lose their memory? This disease aggressively pushes the memory of your life OUT, to the extent of forgetting your family, one's son, one's wife, who YOU are...

For the last week, my mind was constantly on my ex-brother-in law's father, a Minister of a church. He had been diagnosed with this particular disease four years ago; a quiet conversation between his son and I some years ago , he said, "I'll know it will only get worse and everyday I pray for the guts to deal with him."

I tried to contact the Uncle of my son, to no avail.

My mother found the Minster's number and I made the call.

I was, of course, a little angst but made the call any way.

Surprisingly, He answered the call.

The man is Scottish, thus, because of his accent, I knew I was talking to the right man.

"My name is Craig, your old grandchild's' uncle!

"Who?"

"Remember I came to your church one time and listened to your sermon about love and kindness."

Silence.

In his thick Scottish accent, he said, "No, I do not remember you."

"I know it is you. You have a son named, Paul."

Silence- at least 15 seconds...

"No, I do not have a son named, Paul."

The poor man's mind was gone.

"I'm sorry I bothered you, sir."

"That's okay", he said,

"It's nice to hear a friendly voice."

Then he hung-up the phone.

I have to admit it, I'm a wimp, and cried after the phone call.

To have lived a life devoted to helping others' to strive to become good people, to then have one's memory taken away is... cruel.

Life is a beautiful and cruel mystery, yet somehow in the deepest recesses of My memory, we are MEANT to FORGET.

Comment: We have had Enough.

I have been listening, watching and separating the false from the true. One can see a lying politician at a dead run. To be fair, most of these people lie in order to get ahead. All politicians lie. Obama lied. Bush lied. Clinton lied. Bush 1 lied... All really, to move us to War. Why? Good question.

Presidents' of the US are never in control of foreign policy, when it comes to expansion. That is, the CIA has been in control since 1947. These are the powerful warmongers, the one's who make the decisions, no matter how many lives are lost. Try not to blame Trump. The poor man is a patsy. All set up to please his own ego. Why do Trump's base follow him like Lemmings to the slaughter?

The American people, and really, most of the western world, have had enough. During his 2016 campaign, Trump connected to this major population, and fed into their worries and disappointments. A chasm between rich and poor has widened. The way of the US, that is, neo-liberalism, has separated the poor and the rich, that has only been seen as a tragedy, that was last seen in ancient Rome.

The chasm between rich and poor is beyond comprehension. The stats you may have heard, the 1% own 60% of the wealth, is absolutely correct. America's middle class is disappearing, not due to Trump, but an economic and political view that favors the rich. (See GOP tax bill, 2017)

Trump supports these actions. He favors the rich. He promised his friends that he would pass this tax bill....and he did. Trump is not for the working person, but for the rich. You should know this.

Trump, along with his rich and racist cronies, has turned our attention from economic issues to cultural ones. Why is this "caravan of refugees" become such an issue? In normal times, the Border Patrol would take care of the situation, defining the true refugees from the false. Though Trump has made it a National Issue, like we are actually being Invaded. This is so far from the truth.

Trump is an opportunist-liar.

My point: most politicians are bought, sold and later, put in the garbage as they deserve.

I believe Americans' should vote Democrat, to save us from the retards that surround us.

Including Herr Trump.

CM