Brenna and me

[vaneramos]

We've had a quiet week at home. This is one of the longest periods I've spent alone with Brenna. It's different. Marian and I talk about all kinds of things, sometimes very deep and personal, and share the same dry sense of humour. Brenna is less serious, with a cynical wit. She would rather watch movies than read, and prefers humour, but loved The Hours. She has many hats.

Her memory is incredible. This week she was humming the theme music to Pom Poko, which she saw only once on Easter weekend. I think she can recite a few of her favourite screenplays entirely. Last night we watched Pirates of the Caribbean, me for the first time, in preparation for the sequel. It was good fun, although I found the end disappointing. I can't see a legalistic mind forgiving so suddenly, certainly not in the face of betrayal. It would have made more sense if the protagonists had simply escaped.

Speaking of movies, I picked up several at a terrific used CD store in Hamilton last Friday. While Marian was still here we watched The Sweet Hereafter, by a favourite director of mine, Atom Egoyan. It's excellent, but by god, one of the bleakest movies ever. Sentiment gives way to numbness. The characters seem beautiful at first, but their bitterness gradually pushes the viewer away. Exotica is still Egoyan's best; its protagonists are screwed up, too, but sympathetic by the end. It has an ambiguously redemptive quality similar to Magnolia. Those are the best kind of stories.

The two of us watched The Wizard of Oz on Tuesday. I hadn't seen it in more than 10 years. Funny how paradigms change. I had no idea Dorothy's companions were so, um, swishy and affected.

Brenna has exhausted my entire DVD library and settled down to read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, which I've had lying around since her age.

I seem to have gotten over the worst of the whiplash, but she is still store. Apparently she was leaning forward when we got hit, so her lower back hurts more than neck and shoulders.

Yesterday we went for a hike through Little Tract, a conservation forest around the corner from the country place where we lived when the girls were small. Our property had a passive solar house on two acres of rolling meadow, and I established a large vegetable garden. I used to miss it terribly. But the adjacent cornfield has turned into a gravel pit. That would have been another kind of heartbreak if life had unfolded differently.

Comments

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

That's an adorable snapshot of her. It's probably pure accident, but the light in that shot is just... fantastic. Gorgeous.

Glad to hear you are both on the mend. I do love A Wrinkle in Time. Do you have the other two books in the series? Wind in the door and Swiftly tilting planet are the titles if memory serves. I think the latter ones get more Christian as she goes along.

[clairenolen.livejournal.com]

what a great portrait! It seems to show her personality quite well!
I used to have a large veggie garden also back in Germany. And yes, gravel pits are a pain. We have one right across a gravel pit and it's NOT fun.......:-(

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

The fill light is not accidental! I do know what I'm doing, sometimes. ;-)

Incidentally, it came from a big, mossy rock she liked and sat down on.

I probably read Wind in the Door, but have completely forgotten it. The Christian-ness of the novels was apparent to me even then, which surprises me, because I was not a very critical thinker. Brenna is well acquainted with Christianity, so I'll let her make of it what she will.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I used to love the acres of old meadow, wild apples and goldenrod, spreading behind the property. It was a wonderful sanctuary. I couldn't have handled watching my peace of mind turn to a barren wasteland. What a mess.

This summer we have a small plot in a community garden, the first time I've grown vegetables and herbs in ten years. It's exciting.

[clairenolen.livejournal.com]

community garden? Is this something in a city where you can rent a small piece of land? In Germany there is a whole culture called " Schrebergarten" and it's for the city folks that only have apartments, which is the vast majority ( around 75% of the population i assume)
You rent this piece of land in an area with all those other tiny pieces of land ( approx. 60 to 200 square feet each) and there they spend their week-ends, gardening and with BBQ. Some people have tiny huts on those properties. You are not allowed to stay overnight at those places, but some people have like a little living area, almost like a small trailer.
Even though i have no practical experience with it, it always fascinated me. You find them in every German city and they are very popular. There are long waiting lists for those who want to get one of those little gardens and quite often they stay in the family for generations.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting insight. I'd love to study the differences between concepts of land and ownership in Canada, where we have so much of it, versus Europe, which is densely populated.

Canadian community gardens have some similarities, but some differences as well. Most large cities probably have them, and you usually have to rent them. As in Europe, they provide apartment dwellers with an opportunity to grow their own food. They aren't difficult to obtain. No one would normally consider maintaining a living space there, probably because we have such easy access to camping and cottage property in Canada.

This particular garden is unusual in that it was established to bring beauty, function and community focus to a vacant lot in a low-income neighbourhood. You don't have to pay rent, although this year they started collecting a $10 deposit to encourage participants to clean up at the end of the season. Even though vandalism occasionally occurs, fences are not allowed. There's a large shared herb garden, compost piles, a sunflower house, a picnic table, a shed with a combination lock for sharing communal tools, and other joint projects. Community events are also held there, such as a solstice potluck, and harvest feast.

[ubermunkey.livejournal.com]

I had no idea Dorothy's companions companions were so, um, swishy and affected.

This made me laugh out loud, which on a day like today was yet another gift from you.

I hope that you both heal soon and well.

love
connor

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear work has been rough these days. I'm glad I gave you a laugh, and hope you can look forward to relaxing into a pleasant weekend. Man, I would like to be there to help. ;-)
Love,
Van

[missprune.livejournal.com]

Lovely portrait of Brenna - and I like your pink flower icon too. I'm so glad your accident wasn't even more serious than it was.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Me too, and thank you. I've created a few new icons for the first time since the limit was raised.

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I recently re-read several of these. Wrinkle In Time is still my favorite. My honest opinion about A Wind In The Door is that it reflects the times in a very specific way: it's a narrative mess, and without knowing anything about L'Engle's personal life, it feels an awful lot as if she'd been doing LSD or something else that affected her ability to tell a linear story.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet returns to form; it isn't quite as wonderful as Wrinkle but the story is much more coherent and at times very interesting and moving.

There is at least one further book that feels directly related to the series, Many Waters, which features the twin brothers who are background characters in the other books. It's interesting in that the boys are sent to the time of Noah and the Flood, but it's *nothing* like you'd imagine from reading Genesis.

In fact, though, there is a whole loosely interlocked series of L'Engle novels, a good rundown of them is on this page: http://users.aol.com/lengleweb/lnovels.html

On the topic of her Chrisianity: certainly she uses Christian images and themes, but apparently she frightens the more fundemental sorts, because she does thinks like having former suns who gallivant around in the guise of witches do the kinds of things fundamentalist Christians reserve for Jesus--such as sacrificing themselves so that others may live. She's quoted as saying that "Christians don't get" her work on a web site I found that seems to be published by Christians (http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/1998/7-1-98.html), so who knows.

I always take her as working in that kind of mid-20th-century "liberal" Christian zone where a lot of our UCC and UU friends also come from. I agree that the Christian stuff is used a bit more delicately in Wrinkle than in the later books, but seriously, read Many Waters, it's kind of hoot to see how she portrays both the human race of "biblical" times AND the fallen angels. It definitely doesn't remind me of anything a fundie could enjoy. ;-)

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

In case your LJ doesn't copy you on it, I wrote a long reply to Shimmer about the L'Engle books.

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Golly, I think I may have read Many Waters about 8 years ago when I had a flirtation with the Children's Room in the old Cambridge Public Library. Maybe it was longer ago than that... the memory is REALLY vague.

My memories of both "Wind" and "Planet" are vague, as well. From what I can recall, L'Engle used some pretty unusual lore from ancient Hebrew cosmology (with some Mesopotamian and Egyptian elements woven in). I remember a cherubim that was quite fascinating...

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

Wind struck me as both incoherent and a bit preachy, in a bad way. The key problem is that the farandolae in Charles Wallace's mitochondria are "refusing to grow up" and take on adult responsibilities. So it feels to me that it was meant in part as a critique of youth culture. Which is fine, but please be interesting and have some depth. The cherubim is interestingly done but as I recall it's the character that winds up doing a lot of the preaching, or rather scolding. There's a feeling of "can't you just learn to do your duty and be happy about it" in that novel, and it comes across in rather depressing terms. Too much severe Protestant work ethic for my liking.

Planet puts Charles Wallace into the heads and lives of various characters from the supposed history of the region his family lives in and tries to deal with questions of why violence and abuse proliferate down through time and what can be done about it. It also does some really interesting things with the character of Meg's mother in law. The characters in Planet are, by and large, much more human and much easier to care about, and it's far less preachy, far more humanistic in its aims and concerns, though surely informed by her religious beliefs.

[dakoopst.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely picture of her, Van.

I am both excited and nervous about meeting her.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I can understand, but really, you have nothing to worry about. I think you'll find both girls easy to get along with, and they're generally comfortable around adults. Marian seems excited about lunch on Sunday. Perhaps she senses more than I've told her. She warms easily to people who make me happy.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Heh, swishy!

[grandiva1968.livejournal.com]

It is not for nothing that they're “friends of Dorothy…”

[blt4success66.livejournal.com]

A very earthy looking child. Thanks for sharing your life with us.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I'm almost interested enough to read it again! I'm sure I'd come at it from a much different perspective than I did at Brenna's age.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

The lion is even limp-wristed!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

And I no longer see with the eyes of a child!

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, Paul.

[eloquentwthrage.livejournal.com]

Actually, after years of not watching WOO and then seeing it, I thought the Tin Woodsman was the biggest queen ever.

[token-otter.livejournal.com]

Wow she is sounding like a complicated girl, but someone you can still bond with. I can see a little of you in what she likes and what she does not. Keep me up with your adventures :)

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

Yes, there are things I share uniquely with each of them. There should be more adventures through the rest of the month, so I'll keep you up-to-date.