photo credit: ssedro
So I’m reading Eat Pray Love
I’m at the part where she is in Bali, Indonesia. And she is describing some of the customers that come to see the Medicine Man. One family is very poor, and come to him because their 1 year old has been crying for days. They bring him 25 cents and a few grains of rice of which he graciously accepts. Later that day a wealthy family comes to him and brings him a huge basket of fruit, and flowers, and a roasted duck of which he also graciously accepts.
It just seems so… what’s the word? Humane! To live in a society where everyone works and pays what they can. Sure, there is a caste system there that would make any American cringe. But really, is it any different from the informal caste system we have here? Yes, we live in the country where dreams come true. But for how many people? Face it, for most of us our destiny lies in the socioeconomic status we were born into.
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone paid what they could, and there was no animosity that “Why should I have to pay more than that person? I work hard for my money!” or “Why should that person who cannot pay as much money as I can get the same medical services I get?” or “Why should their kids get a high quality eduction like the one my kids get which I pay extra for?”
Instead, can we just have respect for the work that people do and the realization that we all work hard, even if we are not all born into privilege? But that we all deserve certain humane services such as medical care and a quality education?
“You may say that I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.”
-John Lennon
A friend of mine came over for lunch this week and while we were reminiscing over Eva’s baby book she asked me a very simple question “Do you miss having a baby around?” It seems like a simple question but I was dumbstruck. My mind told me that I was supposed to say “Yes YES I want her to be a baby again!” but my heart said “No…NO…I love this age!” And I do I really do. Whatever age it is that she is currently at, that is the age I love. Every day she is one day older and I tell you every day she is a different child. That is my FAVORITE thing about being a mom. Seeing her grow up day by day.
One day…when she is “too old” to sit on my lap with her blanky and cuddle after her nap…then I might miss when she was a baby. But perhaps I will be so in love with her pre-teen self that I won’t want her to be any other age. (Before I had a daughter I would have told you that was impossible but now I’m not so sure.)
So my very long answer to a very simple question is “No, I do not miss Evangeline being a baby.”
This week my almost 3 year old mastered the art of cutting paper, being completely independent in the bathroom, making up a story in a picture book, and doing the hokey poky. I ask you how can life get any better then that?
…and the shining star that stole my heart.
Disney has done it again.
Not only were there frogs falling in love, adorable little girls, strong-women, amazing fathers, singing fireflies, and a backdrop of New Orleans….
THERE IS A CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE WITH THE NAME EVANGELINE!
Not JUST a character, a shining star.
Did I ever tell you my daughters name is Evangeline? Eva is just her nickname.
So we are sitting there in the theater on opening night of the latest Disney princess movie with our little princess and there is a character with her name. There is even a beautiful song with her name in it…”Look how she lights up the sky, Ma Belle Evangeline.”
For those of you that don’t know, Evangeline is the name of a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is a very lengthy poem, more of a book really. In the poem Evangeline and Gabriel fall in love but through a series of harrowing events are separated. They spend the rest of their lives trying to find each other again. They both end up finally meeting again in New Orleans but they are old and dying. They die in each others arms and are buried next to each other to be together forever in eternity. “Still stands the forest primeval; but far away from its shadow. Side by side in their nameless graves , the lovers are sleeping.”
Nobody knows for sure if the story is actually true, it was a tale past down through generations, but the name Evangeline was the creation of Longfellow.
Apparently the story of Evangeline and her lover is an important one in New Orleans culture. There are statues of her, restaurants named after her, a parish and even a race track. Which is evidently why it made it’s way into this movie about New Orleans. I knew I was going to love this movie but now it really has a place in my heart.
-I should add that I had no idea the poem even existed when we named Evangeline. The day I told my mom what we planned to name her she wandered into a used book store and saw the poem.
This is Eva’s hair in all it’s glory.
She woke up with this miraculous fro one day and I just fell in love with it.
So I photographed it a few hundred times.
This pic is my all time fave. Isn’t it delicious?
I was heartbroken when Chris gave her a bath that night.
I’m reading this book for one of my classes called “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. I won’t get into too much about what the book is about except to to say that globalization has leveled the playing field among countries so that the world is now indeed flat instead of round like we once thought it was.
What I wanted to share with you are all the amazing abilities of Google that I never knew about before!
1. Want to know what’s for dinner, just google three ingredients in your fridge and see what pops up.
2. Go here to see pretty much every service under the sun that Google offers.
3. Did you know you can translate something whether it be a simple phrase, a whole document, or an entire webpage?
4. If you download the Google toolbar you can add what services you are most interested in like a translator button that also allows you to just hover your mouse over any word on a web-page and it will translate the word for you right there. My favorites are the dictionary, facebook feed, and Craigslist button.
5. Oh ya and let’s not forget about Google scholar where you can view entire books right there on your internet browser. Go ahead and try it, go to google scholar type in a book or an article title and see if it comes up. They’re not all there yet but I hear it’s just a matter of time. I tried it with The Five Love Languages and there it was!
How long has this been going on for? Have I really been sleeping through it, am I the only clueless one left or what? When did Google become my very own FREE personal assistant?
I swear I am not getting anything from Google for writing this, I just think it is really awesome.
