Monday Morning Musings:

Five Facets of Flight

“When you breathe in you’ll lift like a balloon
and your heart is light too & huge,
beating with pure joy, pure helium.
The sun’s white winds blow through you,
there’s nothing above you,
you see the earth now as an oval jewel,
radiant & seablue with love.
It’s only in dreams you can do this.”
–from Margaret Atwood, “Flying Inside Your Own Body”

1.

The light’s in flight,
dreary November has come,
soon the rain will become sleet,
rattle-tap on windows, icing their glow.

2.

Geese in the night—
honks of navigation and determination,
taking turns leading and following,
the V breaks, re-forms, circles
over my roof, farewell, they cry.

3.

Wren! Oh wren, how you sing
to your love, high-hidden
your voice flies, resolved, repeat, repeat,
repeat each summer-breath into the cold November sky.

4.

Now you calculate the physics of flight–
hope plus dreams, minus rules,
but there are divisions, a point reconsidered,
and the sides of the equation are never equal.

5.

Open the book to flight,
there it is—the act of living–
there are no rules, only gravity,
but look how our ancestors defied it–
they flapped their wings, we rise.

I used some of Jane’s random words.
Wasn’t it just recently that we were sitting outside sipping wine? Hah, said Mother Nature, you’re getting much too comfortable, and she has sent cold, blustery winds here. Though, I’m thankful we’re not getting the over 6 ft of snow that the Buffalo, NY area has. This will be a busy week dealing with family stuff, work, and Thanksgiving prep—leading up to Thanksgiving on Thursday.
On Saturday, we were able to get a walk in before seeing a play, School Pictures, at the Wilma Theater.

We both liked this play—a one-person show in which the actor, who worked as a tutor for many years, sings about students they taught. The actor plays a variety of school room/toy instruments pulling them from lockers and behind screens. There are revelations about the NYC public school system and its inequities—relevant, but gently done. It’s a quirky show that lulls you in. It is now available to be streamed for a brief time, Nov.21-Dec.4, with a pay what you wish option. The mural, “Flight,” is new. I looked up, saw it, and was stunned.

We also watched the movie, Emily the Criminal. We both like Aubrey Plaza, and this was a different role than other movies and shows we’ve seen her in. We both liked it, and I think there’s a shared theme between it and School Pictures—opportunity, connections, chance. She plays a woman who is saddled with student debt but cannot get a job that pays more than minimum wage because of her past criminal record. (It’s never fully explained, but we sense she had a troubled homelife and then an abusive relationship.) Here’s the trailer, but I’m glad I didn’t watch it first.

Random Cat Photo