Favorite Quote

A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle. 
-Gloria Steinam

TGIF!

Shakira- Si tu no vuelvas

So beautiful this song!

If you don't return,
all the seas will dry
and I will wait with you
stuck to the bottom of some memory

If you don't return,
my will, becoming smaller
I'll stay here,
next to my dog, spying horizons

If you don't return
only deserts will remain
and I'll listen if
some heartbeat remains on this earth,

which was so serene when you loved me
there was a fresh perfume that I breathed
it was so beautiful, so big, it didn't have any end...

and each night a star will come to keep me company
so that you know how I am, so you know what is going on
tell me love, love, love,
I'm here don't you see?
If you don't return, there won't be any life, I won't know what to do

I won't know what to do

If you don't return,
there won't be hope, nor anything
I'll walk without you, drinking rain

....I won't know what to do

Spice and Wolf!

Theme song from my most recent anime adventure, Spice and Wolf, with pics of the main character: 

All alone, 
on a journey, I lost my way;
as I stood still, my heart alone wandered.
But now I can walk again, 
as far as I need to;
yes, ever since I met you 
on this road.

The song travelers sing, 
though I don't know it,
sounds familiar to me
as long as I'm with you.

If the world we dreamed of 
exists anywhere,
let's go look for it, 
beyond the wind.
The freezing dawn, 
the parched midday,
the trembling night; 
let's go see what's at their end.

Your eyes, which 
know loneliness well,
blink, and that color 
is reflected.

I'll fly into the sky 
and become a crescent moon;
those mint-colored stars must be 
shards of tears.

A dock in the country to the east; the western sea;
a southern town in a dark forest; a golden tower;
a hill in the south, shaken by water; above all, the same moon. 

As long as you'll let me 
hold your hand,
how far shall we go?  
Together with you,
I can go anywhere.  
Let's go embrace
the rustling scent 
of a world yet unseen.

images from: sodahead.com media.photobucket.com

Good morning, Monday

Images from: fanpop.com, flashscreen.com

tango...can create a space to reflect on power and terror

I just read an amazing book called "Paper Tangos" by Julie Taylor. The place: Argentina. The time: the years 1966-1983, full of political instability, state sponsored terrorism, Dirty Wars, and desaparicidos. Taylor discusses how the tango provides Argentines a free, safe space to think, similar to modern dance therapy. But it is especially effective because the same controversial elements of Argentine culture are present in the dance. By dancing the tango, Argentines can grapple with impossible, forbidden topics such as hierarchy, fear, violence, machismo, authoritarianism. By dancing, they can continue to truly live, shadow of the fear of death.

Here are two selections from that book:

That the world is and always was a mess,

I already know

in the year 506

as well as in 2000....

Just like the unrespectful window

of the pawn shop

all of life has been mixed up...

Twentieth century, pawnshop window

problematic and feverish;

the squeaky wheel gets the grease

and he who doesn't steal is a fool

--from Cambalache, by Enrique Santos Discepolo

And...

dearest, it's that I cannot be there and yet I am there

when bargains are being struck over the price of a life

and exchanging one violence for another

or when you wake up with the fear of a child

when you feel something behind the door

left open as it always has been left open in the dark

it is that not even as an adult can I tell you that behind the door there is nothing at all,

because the worst is that we both know that

just there lies in ambush an obscenely bustling marketplace

where lives and violence and even tranquility are sold

but in such a nightmare carnival

never never can there be an agreement on price

nor can one know with whom one has to make the agreement

much less know if security comes from death or promises of life

or both at once

where are you that I can't tell you?

where are you that I am writing this?

and if you are by my side,

then, where am I sending this letter?

Julie Taylor, from "Paper Tangos" Public Planet books

The last sentence of her book is haunting to me:
What does your dance need? Your tango lacks scream. Dance a tango that screams.

Khalil Gibran-Joy and Sorrow

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
...
Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay sorrow is the greater."
But I say to you they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember the other is asleep upon your bed.

Photos from: gaiaonline.com, layoutsparks.com