The Moon Garden Lounge

Juniemoon, I'm sorry to hear you lost such a lovely companion. My condolences.

Thank you -- alison, winter, nikki, factorfictn, and sugaree for your compassion.

I was trying to remember why I posted a picture of my lovely little friend on the board. It was back around the time that the video for BTIKM came out, but I think the discussion might have had to do with kale. We were allowed a bit more joking around back then, and a lot of people didn't know what kale was. I buy kale almost every week and I think I might have posted that I had an in-house expert on kale and she unequivocally preferred curly kale to the flat variety. nikki, here is your picture:



My creative friend set up this picture when she was pet sitting for me, went to answer the phone, and came back 90 seconds later to find that her Mac cord had been chewed neatly through.

winter, that was a beautiful Mary Oliver poem you posted. As sugaree said, the unconditional love is what sets apart the pet relationship from any we have with our human loved ones. All we have to do to make each other happy is just be ourselves (well, and come through with the treats).

OK. Adam? Adam. Yes. I hope Adam can get the dog he wants someday. That would be a lovely thing.

nikki, one of my clever friends over on ALFC posted that maybe Map is about kale. What do you think?

Seriously, I like the way you think. I too find literal, linear interpretations of Adam's music tiresome. I know from my own writing, even with modest success, that you channel your experiences and emotions into your work, you don't just recreate them. That way of thinking is how we have ended up with so many novels about middle-aged college professors who are writing a novel ... and so many songs about partying and getting wasted.

Map has some beautiful symbolism and poetic license. In its dreaminess I think Adam is trying to bring us into an atmosphere of love and emotion, there to pursue our own flights, finding love in every point of space, in each other, and in ourselves.

Or something like that.

Only themselves understand themselves,
As Souls only understand Souls

(Whitman)

I think maybe kale flowers will always grow in the Moon Garden now to remind us of love. Here is one for all of you:

Junie, coming in a little late here, but I also want to express my condolences on the loss of your beautiful companion - and what a sweet picture you posted!

As a former kid, as a mom, and now as a grandma, I know that having family pets that are loved and cherished will at some point bring heartbreak and heartache. We recently lost a 15-16 year-old dog (not sure how old she was). She was a homely desert-rat of a dog who had survived somehow in the Mojave Desert and ended up in the pound in Barstow. When my son who was living in Barstow at the time found her, she was scheduled to be put down the next day, but he rescued her because he knew no one else would want her. So she stayed with us for the next 15 years - a tough old girl. When she finally needed to be put down a few weeks ago because of old age, my autistic grandson who loves animals wanted to come with my son and me. It was emotional and tearful with my grandson hugging the dog and me hugging him from behind, but our old Sadie knew even at the end that she was loved. As for my grandson, it was a catharsis and a closure, and he's OK.

I'm glad we have the Moon Garden where we can share things like this.

Take care -

Aw, Juniemoon, I'm so sorry for your loss ... Pets are family.

I just got here but have been enjoying the discussion (one of these days maybe I'll even figure out how to "have fun" with my appearance ... I'm a professional communicator but have never yet been able to make myself take my own presentation seriously (or lightly?) enough to spend much time or money on it, even though I know that communicates, too. I call my work wear "office camo" ... Try to turn up looking professional enough that I won't have to waste buckets of energy convincing people who often don't take creative types seriously that I AM professional. But watching Adam, I delight in his delight in making himself a canvas, and I hate to miss out on that fun so ... We'll see. Mszue, it's funny that you mentioned people coloring the under-layer of their hair as a way of concealing their individuality in the workplace ... That is something I wondered if I could try not so much to hide something as show it ... The presentation of, "Okay, it all looks very bland on top, but look a little deeper" is a message that feels like something I might be able to pull off (I know, Adam, you only have to WANT to ... But for some of us it actually isn't quite that simple, tho we might wish it were and love you for making it look that way).

Loved the Whitman and Oliver, thank you.

And the Stephen Fry! What an odyssey you sent me on with him ... Watched his documentary on manic depression, a talk he recently gave. In Sydney, and all the snippets of him playing Wilde that I could find ... Must find the movie somewhere now. I also watched the Shrink Rap videos, and then watched the ones with Robin Williams and Billy Connolly, too ... Some really interesting resonances there among these quite different men. The Tony Curtis one truly was sad, for a bunch of reasons.

And I am so glad someone noted the Blue Moon on the weekend!

Mika, hope all is well. I checked in here one day at work a week or two ago and saw you'd posted Saint Leonard's "Take This Waltz," which I love ... It was such a lovely and ephemeral gift because next time I looked it was gone. Very Kerouac writing poems by candlelight and then burning them in the flame ...

Winter, welcome (we North Americans will have to say that for real soon enough, eh? How did get to be September?) .... You're enriching the place. As do you all, thank you.