I'm so glad you finally made it here

Have I mentioned before how much I like Dar Williams? here  February and here why cranberry?

I've been thinking of this song recently, which I think is an awesome, inspiring song.

Well, I was going to post a video - but none of them really fit my impression of the song. So please feel free to search on google or youtube for this song...


Here is an excerpt from the lyrics:
You're Aging Well

Why is it that as we grow older and stronger
The road signs point us adrift and make us afraid
Saying "You never can win," "Watch your back," "Where's your husband?"
I don't like the signs that the sign makers made

So I'm going to steal out with my paint and brushes I'll change the directions, I'll hit every street
It's the Tinseltown scandal, the Robin Hood vandal
She goes out and steals the King's English
And in the morning you wake up and the signs point to you

They say, "I'm so glad that you finally made it here
You thought nobody cared, but I did, I could tell"
And, "This is your year," and "It always starts here" And "You're aging well"

February

I thought of this song on the way to work - it snowed the day before and it was snowing this morning.

The snow this morning was actually quite pretty - big flakes just drifting down to the ground. I'm not feeling negative about February at the moment - but it is traditionally a difficult month for me....that in between stage before Spring but after Christmas. It's still pretty dark, and cold - and snow and winter have lost their novelty.

These are photos I got from googling snowflakes. The photographer, Wilson Bentley was a bachelor farmer. This is the link to more of his photos.

"And then the snow came, we were always out shoveling,
And we'd drop to sleep exhausted,
Then we'd wake up, and it's snowing....

And february was so long that it lasted into march..."

-February
Dar Williams

This is a link to her official website...

Why Cranberry?

Well, I didn't realize that cranberries were grown in bogs until after I had graduated from college. I'm not really sure why this vital piece of information escaped me. Perhaps because I grew up in the midwest - far from any bogs. But I like the word bog, simply because it sounds like a combination of different messy, unrelated topics. Sort of how I feel about this blog.

And I'm also a fan of Dar Williams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar_Williams



On her first album is the song "Flinty Kind of Woman". While I was thinking of this entry I realized that I'm not someone who advocates vigilante justice. The women in the song take justice into their own hands defending their kids and chase a perpetrator into the cranberry bog.

More than anything, I think I appreciate the notion of strong women who do what they need to do. One line in the song says "but it's a victory won and it couldn't be done by the hippy-dippy flaky-shaky fun in the sun braless wonders".

Perhaps I have an idealistic view of the nature of being a woman. But I find myself inspired by strong woman who get the job done. I grew up with too many of women who were more concerned with their appearance and with appearing ditzy to attract men.

Sure, there are lots of beautiful women who are also strong, and I'm not disparaging them. I'm not a second wave feminist who believes that makeup is evil.

But images of strong women (like Rosie the Riveter) are few and far between in current American pop culture. Strong women are b_itchy. Strong women can't be happy or be satisfied until they've put on an apron and bake muffins.

I'm over-simplifying this and obviously there are many other examples. Women are complicated - humans are complicated. We do what needs to be done. Some of us live quiet lives of desperation.

It's nice to have those of us who make sure that our kids ride in car seats, who vote, who pay the phone and electric bills and read the paper glorified every once in awhile.

So no other reason than I like the color cranberry. I like the Dar Williams song. I am in awe of strong women. And I'm certain my entries in this blog will be all over the place - a mass of random thoughts that are difficult to wade through.