Radical Transparency

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mimi

December 17, 2008

Not How You Are Made

Just got this from my sister.  She says it reminds her of Mimi, our granny, who died last January.  It's from The Velveteen Rabbit.

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

Wisdom and inspiration come from unexpected places.  Glad Giuls is always on the lookout.

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October 14, 2008

Til the Need Seeps In

I first heard this song about nine months ago.  I was playing hearts with three of my cousins, and ten year old Winslow sang along to every word.

Someone took this pic within days of that moment.  Win and I are hanging with our granny.  Those were her last couple of weeks, and they were sad, but there was a lot of love in that room.

I haven't yet found a magically coincidental connection between the song and the granny, but their plotlines intersected last January, so they sit together in my memory.

Sleeping Lessons is track 1 on Wincing the Night Away.

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