Saturday, November 20, 2010

wild wind

i remember a children's book that i found as a young woman called the girl who loved the wind. wind was a metaphor for freedom. i hear that phrase, the girl who loved the wind, whenever the wind blows big. like now. this morning it's amazing and wild and scares wendy, who hates the sound of big winds. (and thunder and gunshots)
november 20. 
waiting.
there has been rain and sleet and snow on the wind this morning, but just now the wind has gone quiet.
out the window it is quite bare and ochre and grey. 
november.


thank you all who i set to thinking about the ownership of ideas. it was pointed out to me that in the specific cases i was thinking about the tm was only on the title or phrase, not on the content. 
i am also inviting you all to celebrate the day after thanksgiving. i have been one of the non-shoppers for several years. this probably means nothing to readers outside the us. but here it's a mad craze to shop for christmas, with shoppers crazed by sales and hype. speaking of, i saw christmas decorations on a house last night. and one of my students informed me that they put up their tree (aritificial) on all saint's day. i cannot imagine this! 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
addendum
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 from Patti Smith's acceptance speech for the National Book Award for the memoir Just Kids:

“Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon 
the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the
book.”


21 comments:

  1. I will happily join in Buy Nothing Day with you. I cannot imagine why people feel the need to fight their way through crowds, and sometimes trample people, and exhibit extremely rude behavior,in order to score a bargain on more "things". I plan to spend the day with my children tucked into a B&B in Keene.

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  2. atta girl, marilla! how nice--i love keene.

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  3. it is quite a puzzle really. the economy will not pick up if everyone buys nothing on that day, still i never buy anything. actually there is nothing to buy. we need more small business. but hey that is another puzzle. so i will just listen to the wind for a while.

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  4. I have a slightly different take on it. We have a lot of local arts/crafts fairs the weekend after Thanksgiving. So it's a "buy nothing that's not local/handmade day" for me. It's something I try to all the time actually.

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  5. they are trying to cash in on when people are in the spending mood. i just hate the spending hype. by all means buy art!!!

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  6. i LOVE that cover. and now that i see it more clearly, that illustrator used to live in hastings! maybe he still does...i remember being a child and going to the library in elementary school and once in a while they'd pull all the ed young books or even when we were really lucky they'd bring in local authors and illustrators. how i adore libraries.

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  7. i am so repulsed by the christmas buying, it started here in September and just keeps whipping itself into more of a frenzy. I buy nothing, except food and recycles and a little art, most of the time.
    oh and i nearly forgot, love the weaver bird nest. hope it survives the wind.

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  8. aimee, i cannot imagine how wonderful it would be to grow up next door to a library. i, too, love libraries. (you know that) my home town library was so cozy. beautiful OLD (1700s) building and vast wooden tables with windsor chairs.
    and kaite, the nest is a baltimore oriole's and it's large because it's coming apart. it's ok, it won't be reused, if i see it has fallen, it may come to live on my porch.

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  9. Thank you for the addendum. There really is nothing like a book with real pages, textures and smells - illustrations made of ink instead of some strange electrical stimulation of plasma layers.

    I will join you in buy nothing day. I'm actually going to a wedding that day but even if I weren't you wouldn't catch me within 20 miles of a retail outlet. A handmade arts fair? I would do that. :)

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  10. i guess its preaching to the choir! i really like our choir! i wouldn't think of shopping on that day and haven't in a lot of years... but i would go to a craft fair... that isn't what its about... its the big corporations... and for me it calls attention to the commercialization of the holidays... and greed. handmade gifts ... no problem there. thats what its all about in my opinion. and yes the addendum is good... i like patti smith!

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  11. it might hearten you to know that in a land far far away (with no thanksgiving day celebrations - so no after-thanksgiving day sales) we ARE aware of BUY NOTHING DAY...... and from way over here I'm sending everyone over there a big BUY NOTHING DAY hug of support! (here in oz our manic sales days are just after christmas - with the boxing day sales... and I'll be hanging around home buying nothing...)

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  12. it's an excellent choir! happy wedding, ginny. boxing day sales happen in ontario, 30 miles away--ottawa is about 60 miles away. but that's far enough to be a non-issue. americans haven't a clue about boxing day (yet!)

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  13. "...this probably means nothing to readers outside the us."...Well, sort of. Being Canadian, we mark Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) as our Big Shop...well, at least some do. So I can understand why the decision NOT to buy anything on a particular "Big Shop" day... And will support you, for sure! :-)

    As for the book...I don't think we need fear its demise. There are too many of us -- of all ages -- who love the smell, touch and very idea of books -- REAL books...

    And for the wind...your words reminded me of the song, "They Call the Wind 'Mariah'"....Big Land, Big Wind...And the Spirit lies therein.

    Best,

    M

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  14. Crazy me... I was RAKING today in this wind! Until a HUGE tree came down on the road, hit all then wires, but luckily sliding on by.. I was in the lee of the house and it was working OK, but I gave up after the tree fell, seemed a little dangerous, I agree with Wendy, sometimes living in the forest, the wind scares me.

    And I'm with Patti Smith... I do hope the predictions of going all digital will NOT happen... or I;'ll surely be a luddite.

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  15. margaret-i remember that song, and too much shopping is always bad.
    valerianna-be careful. i was hiking once and a tree felled itself. scared the shit out of me. my nephew who was with me held my arm and kept me still, he had had a tree fell itself the week before. no wind those times. be smart and careful.

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  16. there's a lovely book by NZ author Margaret Mahy
    'the wind between the stars'
    worth searching out

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  17. Boxing Day - did you know that it was called boxing day originally because the wealthier folk packed up a lot of gifts, clothing and food etc in boxes, on the day after christmas to distribute to the poorer folk. bit of a change now - ha!
    thanks for correcting me re the bird, we have weaver birds who makes similar enclosed nests.

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  18. V-I loved the closeup of the delicate nest. Such a symbol of determination given the howling wings. Go well and stay warm. B

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  19. kaite, i think i remember the boxes from when i was absorbing all things english and rural.
    thanks, barry. i like staying warm this time of year! it will get cold, 20 below sometimes. i've been outside at 34 below! breathing hurts.
    india, i'll look for the book.

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  20. it would be wonderful to turn it around into buy handmade.the pace will be totally different, human scale no crowds no frenzy.
    unfortunately the mass will not spend money on handmade even if price is similar to wallmart's.
    it still has connotations of make do- go without.
    perhaps handmade is an urban phenomena.
    as for frugal ms. here i've been on a shopping diet for some years now.my big spends are on books and materials.

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  21. books and materials, what else is there? big grin.

    but because buying equates with being for so many, or being the same but better...sigh. i don't get the frenzy part.

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