Penny Prompts #3 – Art vs Artist

Standard

This quote is from the eleventh book in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, The Nature of the Beast.

The story itself centers on a play written by a serial killer, and Armand questions the appropriateness of performing a play written by someone with questionable to no morals in addition to his heinous actions. This is something that I sometimes struggle with, in the past, currently, and imparting my feelings to my children while letting them make their own decisions on the subject.

Armand and Reine-Marie seem to disagree in the quote below.

What do you think? How would you or how have you separated the art from the artist? Have you had to do this? Have you dropped someone or something completely because of that internal, moral struggle?

Think deeply and then write your thoughts.

“Should the creation be judged by its creator? Does it matter?”

…

““So it has nothing to do with Fleming and his crimes?” asked Reine-Marie. “Nothing to do with him as a man?” “It has everything to do with him,” said Armand, his voice clipped, strained. They looked at him. Never had they heard him come even close to being upset with his wife. “If John Fleming created it, it’s grotesque. It can’t help but be. Maybe not obviously so, but he’s in every word, every action of the characters. The creator and the created are one.””

HARRIS/WALZ 91 DAYS LFG!

Standard

What do we get with Tim Walz?

  • As governor, he has executive experience
  • Midwest state
  • Joyful – this is going to be the most joyful Presidential ticket in history, and there’s something to be said for joy for the sake of joy.
  • In his state, he signed an executive order protecting gender affirming care; he eliminated tuition for state schools and signed into law universal free school lunches. We know that kids need to eat healthy in order to learn and thrive.
  • And so much more.
  • As an added bonus, his Lieutenant Governor is Peggy Flanagan, who will become the first Native American Governor in the country. She is a citizen of the White Earth Nation Ojibwe and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Child Psychology and American Indian Studies.

The choice of Walz is a win-win for the country and for Minnesota.

Election Connection – 91 Days Left

Standard

Today we should know who VP Harris chooses as her running mate. All the names put forward as being on the short list are all excellent candidates. They all have virtually the same positions on every subject: reproductive rights, gun control, rule of law, Supreme Court reform, and the war on Israel.

We will be lucky to have any one of them.

But first, we need to get them elected on November 5th!

Before you go on vacation.

Before school starts.

Before Election Day comes and goes.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO SAVE DEMOCRACY BY GETTING OUT THE VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS AND HER VICE PRESIDENT AND THE REST OF HER PROSPECTIVE ADMINISTRATION?!

August Inspired

Standard

I’m not as annoyed when I see Halloween stuff in stores this early. Especially in the heat, I’m happy to be reminded that the cool weather will be arriving soon. At least, I hope so.

I’m also not a big fan of skulls. I know they’re popular at Halloween as well as Dias de Los Muertos, and my daughter loves them. She has a couple of skull designs on her hairdressing tools.

However, while I don’t want this table accessory I was taken by it and of course needed to add it to my picture collection.

Early Happy Halloween.

Salt & Pepper Shaker Skull. Cracker Barrel. (c)2024

Penny Prompts #2 – The Quebec Jig

Standard

This quote is from Louise Penny’s twelfth book of her Chief Inspector Gamache series, A Great Reckoning: A Novel.

It was such a great visual, especially for those of us living in the Northeast. Penny’s characters are obsessed with the weather, from spring flooding to blizzards to driving on the ice, to warming up at the bistro next to a warm fire with a chocolat chaud or cafe au lait.

When you read this quote, what comes to mind? What do you want to write about that’s related or adjacent?

“They stomped their feet, brushed wet snow off their coats, and slapped their hats against their legs. It was a singular Québec jig learned in the womb.”

-A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

Penny Prompts #1 – Maps are Magic

Standard

This quotation comes from Louise Penny’s twelfth book in her Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, A Great Reckoning: A Novel.

In this twelfth book, we find Gamache as the head of the Surete Academy unraveling the mystery of another death while also investigating a mysterious map from Three Pines. The quoted passage is a conversation between Gamache and one of the professors at the Academy, Hugo Charpentier.

“Oui. It’s because maps are magic.” If he didn’t have the Commander’s full attention before, he did now. Gamache lowered his tea to the table and stared. “Magic?” “Yes. They’ve become so mundane we’ve forgotten that. They transport us from one place to another. They illuminate our universe. The first maps were of the heavens, you know. What the ancients could see. Where their gods lived. All cultures mapped the stars. But then they lowered their sights. To the world around them.”

-A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny

Summer Intentions – It’s Never too Late to Start

Standard

I groan when I’m asked what my intentions are at the end of my six-week memoir class. In the spring, they are called summer intentions, and, in the fall, they are winter intentions. I know that the teacher will write it down, and when we return in the next season I’m asked and draw a blank and when she reminds me from her notes I will cringe and say, “Yeah, no, I didn’t do that, but I did…” Every time. It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

I’m a little more focused as this summer began. I’ve set actual deadlines on the calendar.

I’ve focused on my main book while also keeping my eye out for things to pull my prayer book together.

I’ve tried to write every day, and I can almost meet that goal.

So, if things are going so swimmingly, what exactly are my intentions?

  1. Keep my morning routine – do my word puzzles, check my email, balance my checkbook, and check Threads (because I hate myself).
  2. Review my St. Kateri outline and see where my research and writing focus will be that day and week.
  3. I’ve been asked to consider leading a workshop on St. Kateri, and so I’m doing that – considering it. I would plan it for the fall, around Indigenous Peoples Day or Kateri’s canonization anniversary, but we’ll see how that advances.
  4. Read a chapter in each of the books I’m reading – one is about Israel, one is about Democracy, one is about White Poverty, and one is about Indigenous relationships plus a skimming re-read of Louise Penny’s Gamache series (there’s nothing wrong with feeding an obsession, is there?)
  5. Speaking of Louise Penny: as I was reading her books, several things jumped out at me in the way of writing prompts. The first one appears tomorrow, and they will continue weekly through September. I have aptly named them Penny Prompts. So clever 😉 And alliterate.
  6. Plan the blog at least two weeks out, including Instagram and Spotify (please check them out)
  7. And last, but not least, rescue democracy. Sunday was rough; I’ll admit it, but we’ve seen worse, and we can get through this if we remain focused. They won’t be weekly, but I plan to publish more of Election Connection. We all have work to do. I’ll repeat this over and over again: There are NO polls! The only poll that means anything is the one on November 5th. Let’s all work towards that one.

Pardon My English

Standard

As you may know, and as I may have mentioned at least once, I have recently been obsessed by Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache book series. This could be a good as well as a bad thing. I’ve read the series twice now and have taken a few forays into the depths of some plot points. I am immersed. One of the negative things I find in binge reading and re-reading so closely together is noticing things like continuity errors that pop up on occasion, things that would typically slip by the reader if the books were read as they were released rather than all at once, the change of a pet’s name or a grandchild’s nickname; the age of someone when their parents died. There is also the redundancy that follows a book series in order to catch-up new readers with things that series regulars know, like the physical characteristics of the characters (I’ve had some issues with a couple of the women characters’ descriptions), their phobias (heights & closed spaces) and their foibles, their likes and dislikes (like Beauvoir’s love of steak frites – why mayonnaise with fries, someone please, please explain this to me, and his dislike of Anglos), their idiosyncrasies (the poetry), their hidden agendas and pasts that play into how they act and react to others and to situations. One of the things I do love about binge reading and re-reading is discovering the Easter eggs hidden and the foreshadowing that are only visible in hindsight.

Continue reading

A Personal Word

Standard

On Tuesday, I had intended to begin the campaign season with a new Election Connection, and if I do, it will be links to Act Blue, Vote Save America, and the Kamala Harris campaign. (Any money that continues to go into Joe Biden’s official campaign account can be and will be transferred to Vice President Harris, so don’t stop donating.)

It’s currently Sunday afternoon, and when I first saw the news, I didn’t believe it. I went from room to room to chair to TV remote with my mantra, thisisbullshitthisisbullshitthisisbullshit, and apparently it’s not bullshit. That doesn’t make it okay. That doesn’t make me okay. I thought I might pass out.

I’m still shaking.

It’s 2:40 and the pity party is over. I don’t want to hear about proxies. I don’t want to hear about Republican unity candidates. I don’t want to hear about a contested convention.

THERE WILL BE NONE OF THAT.

Do you hear me? NONE.

Kamala Harris has been the Vice President for four years, she is on the ticket,

and she will make a superb President on January 20, 2025.

We have 103 days to get this right.

Vote like my life depends on it. And my daughter’s.

Because it does.