Key

If I'm crabby, try feeding me.
If I'm going upstairs, it's two at a time.
If I'm whistling, I probably don't even know it.
If I'm sleeping, look for the foot dangling over the edge.

If I'm dressed up, my day started badly.
If I'm wearing a dress, you're looking at an old picture.
If we're walking, I'll want you to my right.
If we're talking, I might forget your turn (sorry).

If I apologize, I'll be hoping for forgiveness.
If I get worked up, I'm maybe tired of waiting for justice.
If I say it's no problem, I'm trying to mean it.
If I go on and on, that's love for our little man D.

If I seem confident, thank my parents.
If I've got a spring in my step, talk to Terri.
If I'm singing, it's because I can't help it.
If I'm writing, I want you to read every word.

(Thanks to the good folks at Poetry Thursday for this week's prompt.)

Before You Enlist

Know anyone who works with teens?

"Before You Enlist!" is a 15-minute film that provides "the real deal on joining the military" as told by veterans from Iraq to Vietnam, their family members and other young people who've dealt with recruiters. Produced by Telequest of Princeton NJ with support from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Veterans For Peace, the Coalition for Peace Action, the Puffin Foundation and others, it is ready for viewing (and download) via YouTube and Google Video.

You can watch it at BeforeYouEnlist.org ... or at YouTube and Google video:
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFsaGv6cefw#GU5U2spHI_4
Google Video:
http://tinyurl.com/rbtso
DVD copies are being ordered, and AFSC will play the lead role in their distribution. Many will be sent out at no charge; others will be included in training packages; and still others will be for sale at the AFSC online store for a nominal charge to cover duplication and shipping costs. Details on ordering will be posted soon at BeforeYouEnlist.org and ASFCstore.org.

Many thanks to the participants who shared their stories, and to the many individuals and organizations who contributed time, expertise and resources to this production.
Dick Blofson, Scott Nielsen, Dan Preston
Co-Producers

(Shelley's note: Dan Preston is my friend, so I'm totally biased,
but I think this video ROCKS.)

Time to Sell HP

How's your blood pressure?

Check this out.

How're you doin' now?

Not too many things leave me speechless, but this is pretty close. Fer cryin' out loud.

(Hat tip to BPhD.)

Pass the Torch Tuesday

Two great reports of kids doing the right thing to share today! First, on the way to school today I explained to D that I was going to want to do a little big of household cleanup after school in anticipation of tonight's dinner guests. Did he want me to pick him up asap, with the understanding that what would be happening would be cleanup, rather than playtime? Or would he prefer to stay a little bit late at school while I tackled the cleanup? His immediate uncoached response, "You should come and get me, Mommy, because then I can help with the cleanup!" Rocket.

Second (although temporally first), I spoke last night with the gal in town about the Darfur rally in NYC. I wasn't able to go, but wanted to touch base with someone who I knew had been very involved and who would be able to help bring me up to speed. I also mentioned the possibility of using one of the upcoming Family Dances at PFS as a venue for increasing awareness of the crisis in Darfur, to which her response was an enthusiastic, "Do you know who I should talk to at PFS about this?" The kicker? The gal in question is a fourteen year old. Hope for the future indeed.

(Want to see who else is Passing the Torch?)

Autumn Haiku

Green has gone amber
And here comes autumn, trying
To blow through the light.

(For more autumn haiku, check out One Deep Breath.)

PS: This is post #201. Whoa.

Clarity

Here's our little man, telling us how it ought to go. The barefoot pro.

I love how tirelessly he works to understand the world, and how confident he is when he thinks he's got it.

His absolute faith in the power of the explanation, in his ability to make it all come clear.

I think he gets it from us. Even though our belief in clarity and its power is less secure than it once was.

(Thanks to the women of Mama Says Om for their continuing inspiration.)

Tam Lin

I've got a thing for Jane Yolen. Or at least for her work. Owl Moon, one of her best-known children's books, was the first book D ever asked be re-read immediately upon finishing it. Since then we've also loved Letting Swift River Go (about the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir), Raising Yoder's Barn, and, at the moment, Tam Lin.

This story is a re-telling of an old Scottish ballad by the same name, and I've been wanting for a while now to do a little digging around in the loam. So I went a-Googling, or rather, a-Scroogling. (Scroogle is an alternative search engine that "scrapes" personal information from its searches. It has been my default search tool since 2005, when I became more aware of privacy concerns as they relate to Google. I know it may seem weird for someone who is out here blogging for all the world to be harping on privacy concerns, but everything I write here I mean to be shared. Anyway. Back to Tam Lin.)

What I learned is that Tam Lin, like any good folk song, has been re-recorded and re-interpreted countless times. Abigail Acland's got a good "one stop overview" site here, and there's an interesting "life imitates art" situation here (Mergatroyd Productions trying to "rescue" Tam Lin from lawyered-up Einhorn... of course in 2006 the nasty faery Queen would be a lawyer). If I lived in NYC, I'd totally head over to the free reading on Oct. 18th. (How 'bout it, NYC friends? Can anyone go so I can live vicariously through you?)

Collector of legends Paula Kate Marmor says, "Tam Lin is probably the best-known of the traditional fairy ballads. In many ways, it is the canonical ballad."

I still love Jane Yolen's version, although I do miss the Faery Queen's lament: "Whoever has stolen Tam Lin has won the fairest knight in all my Company."

I've always loved stories (see Your Life In Stories, above), and the nightly discipline of reading them aloud to our son since shortly after his birth in 2001 has only deepened that love. (We sing together every night, too.)

But I stand in awe of story-songs like this one, stories that live again and again, down through the ages, sung and told and sung again, burnished with use until they shine and shine.

(To see where the other Sunday Scribblers went exploring, click here.)

Beauty Is

I'm not that much of a flower person, actually, but black-eyed Susans just get to me.

My favorite color is the saturated yellow that they so proudly declare to the world, and I also love twilight, when this picture was taken, so this photo – which old-time But Waiters may recognize from last summer, when it was initially taken – is the first image I thought of when prompted by Mama Says Om this week.

Here's the second one:

Beauty is a boy deep in thought. I am so grateful that he is still willing to happily claim some things he enjoys seeing in his world as "beautiful." I hope that we can keep this alive in him while the world tries to squash it out of his vocabulary.

(To see what other mamas thought of, go here.)

Katrina Tanka

Who will we be now?
Stayed or fled, living or dead,
Our world divided:
Heavy, and mangled past use.
Light, to be broken and strewn.

(More tanka at One Deep Breath.
More on Katrina here.)