It absolutely made my day to see that our photo essay Jupiter is everywhere made it into this week’s Carnival of Space. Yay!
If you are interested in submitting something of your own, home base for the carnival lives over at Universe Today.
Declan imparted some further wisdom about the gas giant to me earlier this week:
“Jupiter doesn’t make any sense. The red spot doesn’t make any sense.”
That’s basically true.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2008.
Today is the kind of day that makes me wish our fireplace was working. It’s gray and cold – a preview of the hallmarks of Ohio winter. I feel too overcast to think of much to say.
So I won’t say much, other than to point you in the direction of some of the great posts I’ve been reading, thanks to NaBloPoMo. I’ve been using Google Reader to share posts as I read and enjoy them (you can find my feed in a blue box on the right side of this page), but here are a few highlights:
I laughed
• Some sins of the mother visiting over at Boobs, Injuries & Dr. Pepper.
• Running With Books experiences the joys of Kindergarten parent-teacher conferences.
• The Queen of Shake Shake rebels against November-writing nerds like me with a little NeeNerHaHa.
• Busy Dad’s five year old starts the revolution.
I cried
• The myriad forms of solace at Slouching Past 40.
• You have to wonder at one plus two.
I thought
• Chopping away at the truth at Cheerio Road.
• A precious gift at Blogs Are Stupid.
I wondered
• Do Humpback Whales say things to each other like “are your tail flukes tired? Must be, because you’ve been swimming around my head all day”? Apparently, we’ll know soon.
• News about what our mega-telescopes are finding in other solar systems seems to be coming out in throngs lately. Will SETI help us?
• Here’s a possible future addition to the decor at our house: The Alien Abduction Lamp.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2007.
Writing a blog is a funny exercise.
When I write for publication, media kits and writer’s guidelines give me some sense of who the audience is, or, more precisely, who the publisher would like it to be.
But when I write here, there is no Power Point-wielding man in a suit trying to tell me that my core audience is 30-something Volkswagen drivers who go out to dinner twice a week and own at least one iPod. No one is trying to push me to write in a way that they think will attract more 23-year-olds because the ad team wants to sell more space to movie theaters and stores that sell sports equipment.
Ultimately, this space is here for me to write things that I will want to re-read ten years from now, not things designed to make more steak house patrons bookmark me. But because I have chosen not to shield myself with anonymity, it’s also tricky, and a bit scarier to dig into the real nitty gritty of motherhood. Overthinking this has has given me a little writer’s block this week that I hope to subvert by delving into NaBloPoMo next week.
Until recently, I hadn’t engaged much with the larger world of blogging. I’d done some of the standard mom blog reading, like dooce, Suburban Turmoil and Breed ’em and Weep. But I’d missed blogs like Twas Brillig, Attack of the Redneck Mommy, Running in Wellies and Not that I don’t love my kids…. Then, a couple of weeks back, I joined Cre8buzz.com, a social network which seems to have drawn an unusually high number of woman/mom bloggers by wisely promoting the fact that unlike MySpace or Facebook, the owners would not deem pictures of women breastfeeding obscene and delete them.
While the aforementioned blogs are among its top stars, there are hundreds more in its ranks, accompanied by a frenzy of women trying to get to know each other, make connections, get their blogs noticed, find respite from domestic isolation, or impart the secrets that make their homes happy. It becomes addictive very quickly – cruising through pages and pages of household scenes, images and mini-essays laced with powerful thoughts about personal identity, marriage, body image, child-rearing, sisterhood, bathroom habits, illness, death, meal planning and accidental comedy. This stuff is authentically funnier and more moving than anything Lifetime could come up with, produced by people with imperfect bodies and faces.
But beyond being a diversion, I realized that the reading I’ve been doing recently has reaffirmed the way I want to look at the world. As a writer, I’ve felt strongly for a long time that everyone has a story worth telling, and those of non-famous people are usually far more interesting than the ones behind the overexposed faces on newscasts and newsstands. The happiest work I have done has generally involved giving rock star attention to un-famous individuals.
For the last week, I’ve noticed faces in the grocery stores that I might have glanced past before and wondered more actively about what kind of extraordinary experiences they might be willing to share, what secrets they possess and if they might be one of the remarkable women I may one day happen upon on the Internet.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2007.
In all the years that I’d heard the winners of the Nobel Prizes announced in my life, I didn’t know what motivated its patron and founder, Alfred Nobel, until they happened to cover it in a high school class I sat in on last year. And that, my friends, is exactly what the man hoped for on his deathbed.
The inventor of dynamite, his obituary was accidentally printed in a French newspaper eight years before he actually died. It said “Le marchand de la mort est mort” (The merchant of death is dead). Rather than wag his finger at the paper and bluster about “typical liberal publishers” or try to get the editor fired or something, he decided that he wanted a different legacy. A few years later, he willed the bulk of his fortune to the establishment of the international prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and, of course, work done in the name of peace.
I realize that there probably aren’t many multi-millionaires reading this blog, which is okay, because I don’t think you have to be one to make a difference. I believe strongly that we all have the ability to transform our legacy as Nobel did, whatever our economic status. In the case of healing the ecology of our earth, a lot of personal, daily choices we already make have a bearing on the legacy we will leave.
Just days after Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were announced as the recipients of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, over 12,000 bloggers will turn their thoughts toward the environment. On Blog Action Day (this Monday, October 15), blogs that ordinarily carry posts about make-up, photography, news about company x, auto repair, motherhood and who knows what other topics will all share their own perspective on the environment. Since this is blog is largely about things domestic, I’ll share some things about a household pollutant that we have some personal experience with.
If you’re a blogger who hasn’t joined, there is still time. Just click on the banner above and sign up. And if you are a blog-reader, be sure to click the banner on Monday and do some surfing to read a variety of perspectives on one day of global conversation about this one important issue.
Life soundtrack: The O’Jays, The Essential O’Jays, “Love Train”
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2007
Here is a column I wrote about my work with KnowledgeWorks Foundation’s storytelling project.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2008
Pop Culture
Children’s television makes a remarkable number of musical references to classical compositions. My knowledge of symphonies and concertos is nowhere near exceptional, but I’m amazed by how much I recognize when, say, “Little Einsteins” is on. Here’s one possible explanation: Wikipedia’s extensive list of popular songs based on classical music.
If the new Clive Owen movie “Shoot ‘Em up” is as clever as it’s previews or web marketing suggest, it may be the first movie I laugh at this year.
Mysteries of the brain
Here’s one of the hardest things to recoup from my pre-motherhood days: creative flow.
A whistling genius who decided to spend the last 15-16 of his 58 years as a five-year-old died in August. Here is the New York Times’ obituary for Joybubbles (his legal name).
Momosphere
There is some mighty fine writing out there by moms in blog-land.
This week, I was moved to tears by words at Velveteen Mind, most recently Camille was a Lady, Katrina was a Bitch, which led me to the wrenching Victor Vito.
It takes a certain kind of skill to write about happy times without stumbling into clichés, but Oh, The Joys has a knack for it. I particularly loved this post.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2009.
Here are a few selections from my week in web stumbles and ‘net exploration.
Moms
In light of the recent Mattel/Fisher Price recalls of toys produced with lead-based paint, two different blogging moms have taken the initiative to put together lists of toy companies with higher safety standards. Check out the lead-free toys lists at My Two Boys and Mamanista. If you don’t know about the risks of lead paint, particularly to very young children, you can read about them here.
Moms in our playgroup compared notes on Time-outs and other forms of toddler discipline on Saturday, and then I found out that Elizabeth Pantley, author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution
Her web site also has a fair amount of good, free advice.
Fun
It took surprisingly little time for me to create myself as a character on The Simpsons. (Pictured above.) Dan made one for himself, too. (Right.)
Oddee has a genuinely funny list of 15 unfortunately placed ads.
Space
The space shuttle may be the big news of the week, but there’s always so much going on in the world of space news, like the potential discovery of a new “invisible” form of dark matter.
In a couple of weeks, folks in the Western U.S. may get a rare look at the Aurigid Meteor shower.
There is also a cool feature with pictures of the top 10 views of earth.
Environment
The first ever Blog Action Day will be devoted to environmental issues this October.
The imaginative people at Craftster challenged their community to come up with recycled uses for plastic shopping bags.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2009.
My latest story in Columbus Alive.
Had a lot of fun seeing and writing about this one. The pictures are hilarious.
I also made it into my first blog carnival this week: The Carnival of Good Stuff.
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2009.
I barely blinked before buying The Dangerous Book for Boys
According to last week’s Time Magazine, plenty of people joined me in buying that book, which remains a best-seller. David Von Drehle’s cover article “The Myth About Boys” makes the argument that this rekindling of the traditionally magical parts of boyhood – from tying slip knots to knowing the story of the Alamo – means that now is a very good time to be a boy. Apparently, there are (pretty pricey) summer camps devoted to creating outdoor spaces that are essentially safe, but allow lots of room for boys to play, explore and feel some sense of danger. And that’s actual danger, not Nintendo danger.
It seems as though Drehle first dismisses some of the ideas in books like Raising Cain
I still resist it when anyone tries to define Declan’s actions or personality as somehow definitively or traditionally “boyish.”
I’ve seen toddlers of both genders push boundaries, dig in the dirt and splash through mud puddles. Maybe it’s because we’ve been lucky enough to keep him at home (away from the competition of daycare) for these first two years – not to mention the fact that he’s an only child – but so far, his nature seems very gentle. He fearlessly approaches kids of all ages out in public, especially girls, looking them in the face and saying things like “you have blue eyes.” (Eye color has been his favorite thing to observe about people lately.) But he also cracks up and slaps his knees when he sees older boys doing playground slapstick. He obsesses about outer space and loves to throw a ball, but he’s also an awesome dancer, puzzle-doer and snuggler who often declares himself “scared of bugs” and is thrilled if he gets to teach a grown-up something new.
I worry about the expectations future teachers, friends, family and acquaintances might give him about being male, particularly if they happen to quash any part of his ravenous curiosity or chastise his sensitivity by dismissing it as feminine. Sheltering him from people and experiences wouldn’t be particularly helpful, but I hope I can help him develop the strength to face all of it with the kind of assured innocence he possesses today.
Life soundtrack: The Shirelles, The Scepter Records Story, Vol 1, “Boys”
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2007
Once or twice a week, Declan and I sit down in front of an old video of Fantasia 2000, raise our arms and wildly conduct Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony together. He has a great memory for instrumental music, and can hum along with several popular classical melodies, thanks to nap-inducing car rides with WOSU FM on and Classical Baby.
A couple of weeks ago, we went out on a family day trip and stopped at one of those nondescript Max & Ruby’s Apple G. I. Friday’s places to eat on our way home. As we noshed on completely uninspired cuisine, Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” played and Declan danced in his high chair, flapping his arms and bouncing his head to one side in time with the music. Something about straightforward rock and roll really winds him up. I put on David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane for him a few nights ago and it took about 20 seconds of “Watch That Man” before he started dancing around the living room.
There are a lot of studies out there about music and the brain
What’s inspiring is that he is so optimistic about our capacity to change, no matter how ingrained bad habits might have become. This is a relief to me, I often wake up at night, wondering if even the things that seem so positive about the way I parent could be causing unrealistic expectations and future pain for Declan. A reminder that nothing has to be permanent – that I don’t have to be perfect – is comforting.
LeDoux has founded an “Emotional Brain Institute” at NYU to promote the study of emotion, from the scientific perspective, but also through the lens of the arts and humanities, law and business. Thank heavens for these kinds of scientists, who, in the midst of insane political times, still have the capacity to try and look at ways that we can all, as humans, be and do better.
Life soundtrack: Steve Forbert, Alive on Arrival, ” Thinkin‘ ”
Copyright Tracy Zollinger Turner, Tinymantras.com, 2007.
