Cyndi Lauper...Time After Time

My sister has surgery tomorrow...she has pericardial effusion and we must find out what is causing it and the excess fluid needs to be drained. Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time has been running through my head all day...

“if you're lost you can look--and you will find me time after time if you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting time after time”

For a good portion of my sister's life, I've been there to catch her...I only hope that if anything negative happens I can be there to catch her this time.

I've also been thinking about many friends that are no longer around...most of them gone because of HIV...Cyndi had a link on a website to make a pledge regarding the need for equality for gay people. If you are so inclined, you may want to sign it too.

http://community.pflag.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=573&srcid=573

Websites to gather the latest news about Cyndi:

http://www.cyndilaupermusic.com/

http://www.cyndilauper.com/uniquecirx/home.php

Time After Time on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZYxsUDZQ4Q

Robert Heinlein

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

~Robert Heinlein

I'm just a bit tired of all the experts with whom I've been working lately...they don't seem to listen...they just babble out memorized rhetoric... to those who might be a bit dull or are unable to think for themselves...they lap this stuff up like cream...and continue to drink it down in spite of curdled aftertaste...I listen, and then do what I know is right and proper.

http://www.heinleinsociety.org/

This is the official Heinlein website...although I find it a bit cluttered and difficult to navigate it is full of information.

My favorite Heinlein works:

Stranger In A Strange Land - Man, did I ever have a crush on Michael Valentine Smith when I was 15...

Podkane Of Mars - I wanted to have her as a friend when I was about 12...

Friday - Lived vicariously through her a few years ago...

Parallel Universes and Michio Kaku

Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and popularizer of science. He's the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and continues Einstein's search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.

Visit Dr. Kaku at: http://www.mkaku.org/

Our Universe will die in ice rather than fire. Our Universe eventually, trillions and trillions of years away from now, will reach near absolute zero making intelligent life impossible. Therefore, we may have to escape into hyper-space if we are to survive the death of the Universe.
~Michio Kaku

Tiny particles form the seen and unseen in our universe...are there worm holes that make time travel possible...what if Einstein's Relativity theory is more than theory? All this fascinates me to no end...the possibilities are excruciatingly delicious...had I not been such a science fiction geek as a child, I don't think I would still have the desire to know more about the infinite possibilities of what is "out there." Kaku discusses the theory of parallel universes which is both exhilarating and disturbing...

Musing On Truman Capote

“A conversation is a dialogue, not a monologue. That's why there are so few good conversations: due to scarcity, two intelligent talkers seldom meet.”
~Truman Capote

The NYT Obit for Capote:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/12/28/home/capote-obit.html

My parents had this gigantic walk-in closet. On the right side hung my mother’s clothes, on the left side hung my father’s clothes. They were ordered according to the season. It must’ve been summer when I first read Capote’s In Cold Blood, as I recall being propped up in the back of the closet surrounded by heavy clothing. The wool coats and suits would have been soft and comforting in the chill of winter instead of being a bit stifling in the heat of summer. I corrected that state by turning up one of my favorite creature-comforts, air conditioning

I had taken the habit of retreating to that closet to read; I would read non-stop starting on Friday evening and reluctantly emerge on Sunday to rejoin the real world. My goal was always to finish entire books during the weekend. I wasn’t allowed this pleasure every weekend, as my parents were afraid that my pallor would turn a ghostly-white and I would be deprived of some vitamins that my mother said only came from exposure to sunlight.

That closet was my refuge from the frenetic pace of my sisters and their often noisy activities. I would occasionally allow our dog to enter for a nap, otherwise no one except my parents knew where I had secreted myself.

It was in that closet that I first read a book by Truman Capote entitled, In Cold Blood. His account of murder was raw and savage, and pained me so emotionally...my reaction was so visceral that my personality was forever altered. To this day, stories of murder force me to respond in the same pained, visceral way.

Regarding In Cold Blood, Capote said, “No one will ever know what 'In Cold Blood' took out of me. It scraped me right down to the marrow of my bones. It nearly killed me. I think, in a way, it did kill me.”

A precious young woman was recently murdered in an adjoining county. It has been impossible to ignore the media reports. Her murder has shaken me and everyone in our community. I feel the need to retreat to a closet for refuge and take solace in some insipid comedy to mask the sick feeling that keeps bubbling up from my gut.

In Search Of Inspiration...Bessie Coleman

I suppose we all have someone who is a source of inspiration...some well-known, others...not so much...Many of those that have inspired me are people that were the first do to something...Bessie Coleman is one of those...the first Black Female Aviator

Find out more about Bessie at http://www.bessiecoleman.com/

I believe this quote says it all...

I refused to take no for an answer.

~Bessie Coleman

Somewhere...out there...Deep in the Cosmos

Carl Sagan
Astronomer
1934-1996


I was captivated by Carl Sagan's 1980s PBS series Cosmos. I have always spent time looking into the sky, dreaming and imagining what could be out there...I plan on revisiting Dr. Sagan starting with the website http://www.carlsagan.com/



In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
~Carl Sagan

Today's Search Has Led Me To Rumi

Jelal'uddin Rumi, the 13th century mystic poet was born in what is present day Afghanistan in 1207, he produced his master work the Masnawi which consists of over 60,000 poems before he died in 1273.

Here is his poem Guest House

Being human is like

a guest house.

Each morning a new arrival.

A joy,

a depression,

a meanness,

some momentary awareness

comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought,

the shame,

the malice,

meet them at the door

laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

More From The Dalai Lama

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.
~His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

http://www.dalailama.com/
Here is a link to The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Don't try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.
~ His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

The wisdom of this man amazes me...

Today's Search Has Led Me To The Dalai Lama

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.
~The Dalai Lama