Jess and other thoughts on identity

I started working through this book/journal called 'The Identity Project' by Patrick Dodson. It is intended to assist in the discovery and remembrance of identity. He frequently writes about how important community is in the development of identity. Thus, optimally a project like this would be done alongside other. We need our friends/family to facilitate and affirm who we are. In many cases, we just need to be reminded of who we are by people that know us. This has become particularly evident to me since I moved to Los Angeles. Moving to a new place creates an identity crisis of sorts. I didn't realize that the people who know me somehow hold my identity in place. Just by being known, my unique personhood is subconsciously affirmed. We play a powerful role in the lives of those we know. We are the keepers of their identity. Our knowing speaks life over their being. This loss of being known by moving sparked in me several desires, first, knowing myself, and second, affirming the things I know of other. Since I live far from the people I know and love the most, I decided to create a series of cards that highlight certain qualities of particular people and send them by mail. Some of my favorite people in the world are my sisters, so I started with them.

For Jess...



Traveler, Kind-hearted, Fun, Wanderer, Hard worker, Thinker, Competitive, Free, Performer, Kind, Flexible, Rhythm, Cyclist, Loving, Minimalist, Wordsmith, Social Justice, Physical, Creative, Generous, Servant, Sister, Compassionate, Strong, International, Dancer, Funny, Merciful, Adventurer, Clever, Without Borders


Jess has a beautiful soul.

Beauty

stole this pic from jess' blog: http://clipsandcustoms.blogspot.com/ Check it out!

About a month ago I went to a photography exhibit called Beauty CULTure (http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/exhibitions/overview.asp). I've been meaning to write about it for a while now. It was a collection of pictures featuring models, anorexics, bodily mutilation (aka plastic surgery), women of color, ect. It was an interesting exploration into how our culture defines beauty and the extent people go to acquire that very specific definition of beauty. Needless to say, I've been thinking alot about beauty lately...more thoughts to come.

gypsy blood

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
... And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.

If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they're always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
_Robert Service



This is basically how I feel today...and most days. Some people call it adventurous, or discontent, or hyperthyroidism, or Mahoney blood. I don't know exactly what it is, but it rarely leaves me.

schwesterbesuch

thrift store. malibu. ukulele. jane erye. olives. refreshing. chipper chicken. shakespeare. hiking. sushi. hollywood. scrabble. june lake. telescope. grand central market. fresh corn. angels flight. beauty culture. picnic. forever21. lacy park. couscous salad. artwalk. blossom. 26th birthday. camping. frozen grapes. youngest child. griffith observatory. waterfalls. pride and prejudice. peanut butter. naps. moon. long unbrushed hair. euro sisters. scrabble again. h&m. 6 hr car rides. striped shirts.

i love sisters.

on learning to draw...

My latest learning endeavor is drawing. A painting class last summer (which was a blast) has opened a door to the wonderful world of visual arts. I never considered myself artistically inclined (and still don't actually), but I'm discovering the joy of dabbling in things without the pressure of being 'good at it.' With that said, I picked up a stack of drawing books from the library several days ago and I've been drawing on my metro ride/at lunch/ect. ever since. My repertoire currently includes a 3x4 inch composition book (thanks joi) of an owl, some vegetables, three dimensional boxes, some other kind of bird, a funny looking man in a top hat, and a pitcher. I kind of feel proud of them even thought it looks like a second grader did them. I have attachment to the things I create even if they aren't very good. I painted this Van Gogh that came out looking more like Michael Jackson and I still having hanging in my kitchen. Jon keeps asking me to take it down but I refuse. I'm actually really proud of it.

Up until today, I had only drawn from looking at pictures in the drawing books. Today I started to draw a object by looking at the object not a drawing of the object. It's turning out to be rather challenging. At lunch, I tried to draw a picnic table with an umbrella above it. It looks horrible. That whole three dimensional thing is pretty tricky. I guess I'll have to try again tomorrow at lunch. Actually, I'll probably be drawing that picnic table for the next several months at lunch.

my dear friend, jane

I just finished reading Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. I always walk away from an Austen novel feeling thoroughly entertained and smiling at being reminded of how clever she is. A feminist before it was cool. She's making light of someone's reality (her own actually) and I seem to be the only one in on the joke. I sometimes feel like it's a secret we share as I'm reading her book.

A few of my favorite quotes from this book:
"Mrs. Allen was one of that numerous class of females, whose society can raise no other emotion than surprise at there being any men in the world who could like well enough to marry them."

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel must be intolerably stupid."

"Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman, especially if she has the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can."

"The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject I will only add, in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance."

"It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies, could they be made to understand how little the heart of a man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire... Woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone. No man will admire her the more, no woman will like her the better for it. Neatness and fashion are enough for the former, and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter."

I Want to be the King of Spain

"Well if you could reinvent my name,
well if you could redirect my day,
I wanna be the King of Spain."




Jon has been singing (parts of) this song incessantly for three days straight. This is usually a habit of mine, so I'm not the least bit annoyed by repetitious singing. And it's a great song. I'm really writing this blog for Jon. Jon is a great blogger. When he lived in Germany, I used to read his blogs faithfully. Mostly because they were so thought-provoking, but on a more honest note because I was in love with him and wanted to know everything about him. I've been wanting him to start blogging again, which is why I let him 'share' this blog with me. If you read it, you know that I'm the only one that contributes. So, I thought write a blog for him to encourage him to get started again. This song is basically about Jon. He loves Spain. His favorite things originated in Spain....flamenco, pamplona, me, etc. And He wants to be the King of Spain.

I heart Jon Ziegler, the King of Spain. (and i wish he would write a blog).