The Fine Line

Mixing business with pleasure.  A lot can be said.  And has been said.  The school I teach at is small. The teachers are young.  There is a lot of socializing.  During school.  And after.  Really and truly I am grateful to my colleagues.  They are the cheese to my macaroni (Juno, how I love you so.)  After-school hours shared together relax, destress, and unite us all.  But countless hours spent in a dark, loud, damp space leaves me to wonder: when does the appropriate become the excessive?  The teammates and I just celebrated a birthday. A special friend, well loved.  While the party was a blast (universally agreed), the fine line between colleague and friend was moved.  An issue that has already emerged and will continue to.  What I think important is that no matter the situation we always represent some version of ourselves.
Save the line. It belongs.

Animated Charm

I'm about to sound really corny.  Apologies.  But Snow White is on TV and it is holding my hands and warming my heart.  It had to be said.  The film is old hollywood charm at its best.  I never realized how high pitch Snow White sounds.  Did you know that the film was Disney's first full length feature animated film? Just learned. I grew up on Disney videos so whenever one is on the tube I devote some time to it.  Though Snow White was not on my top five list as a kid when I was younger, I'm thinking it deserves a higher rank.  Especially since it is pretty fantastic.   Nothing like some prince charming charm, cute little dwarfs, and singing animals.

Excitement at the Oscars

winner! The Weary Kind, the song from Crazy Heart, received the Oscar for best song :) Deserving.

The Water Element

I am loving Deepa Mehta.  Thanks to the magical invention of Netflix, a movie called Water arrived in my mailbox this week.  So long since I put it on my queue that I had no idea what kind of film it was when I put it on.  I devoured the DVD- watching all of its features, listening to every bit of commentary, absorbing all of its artistic and musical gifts.  Deepa (we're friends, aren't we?) wrote and directed this heart-wrenching story about the life widows in India.  According to the film there is a misinterpretation of the Hindi text that describes the fate of widows.  The film is set in 1938 when Ghandi is becoming popular.  It takes place in a ashram where widows are forced to live out their days piously until they meet their husbands in the afterlife.  The story follows women of different ages but focuses on the seven year old girl who is forced in  to the ashram after her fifty year old husband dies.  Like the other women in the ashram, Chuyia, as she is called, must wear only white (color of mourning) and have her head shaved. The women are permitted to eat one meal a day with no salt- as to not excite any desire! Imagine.

Many reasons I reacted so strongly, but truly it is the idea that fate can be determined by other people.  Yes I know that life brings forth certain truths that cannot be undone.  I have had my share.  Yet I think that for many of us we overlook our freedom.  I am reminded that power comes from choice, enabling us to create our own destiny.

Water is beauty, truth, sadness, darkness, and love.