adventures in home-making

The dogwoods in our front yard are blooming.

Ski lessons from Bunica.

Micah munches on strawberries.

Max prepares to hit the slopes at Arapahoe Basin.

A ski trip.

My mother, my sister, Max, and I headed to Colorado for some spring skiing over the past five days. Needless to say, I got more sleep than I've logged in almost 12 months... and I got to spend one-on-one time with three of my life's greatest loves.



We spent the first day at Arapahoe Basin, where the weather was perfect and the snow like butter gliding along my skis. Bunica gave Max a ski lesson, which he fought until he finally passed out in my lap while I enjoyed a local brew on the slopes. Arapahoe is probably my favorite skiing location-- the basin leaves me breathless, a combination of the altitude and the beauty. Apart from the challenge of Pallaviccini, which I was unable to take on this year, A-basin offers lots of backcountry skiing and excitements. With a base of close to 11,000, and a summit elevation more than 13,000, it  has the highest skiable terrain in North America and a vertical drop of 2,270'. If that's not sexy, then I don't know the meaning of the word.

The next day, we skied Keystone. Max got to take his first gondola ride before skiing with Bunica and promptly passing out in front of the fire at the top of Dercum Mountain. It was so warm that I didn't need gloves, so Carla and I just kept going. It was perfect, and I was so proud to ski with Carla, who had to be the classiest skiier on the slope.

There is so much more to post-- from the sled that I found in a park and managed to bring back to Tuscaloosa to the blizzards and Max's faithful rabbit burrow-- but I don't have the time or the hands to share it all. Unfortunately, Micah is still upset with me for taking this trip. At the airport yesterday, she wouldn't even look at me! In fact, she cried every time I tried to hold her. I felt terrible; it was all I could do to keep a stiff upper lip. So I have to make it up to her now.

But in the meantime, here are a few links of my favorite things about our ski vacation:

• Dinner at the Ski Tip Lodge.
• The lovely town of Dillon.
• Pancakes at the Sunshine Cafe.
  
• The story of Max Dercum and Edna Dercum. And how they brought trails to Keystone. And tributes.
  
• Keystone trail map.
  

Family time.

Yesterday, we took a stroll along River Road Park to honor the spring blossoms and the air, heavy with wisteria. Max ate organic cheese puffs and jumped over rocks while Micah rode in the little red wagon.

Micah is walking... and fighting with her bear.

Spring blossoms a bloomin'.

Max & Micah play with bugs.

Max discovered an old toy car garage in the yard which turned out to contain a secret treasure trove of friendly spring bugs. We petted everything from roly-polys to snails to slugs! What a beautiful gift from spring.

Micah just kept giggling and giggling.

A weekend visit from Bill and Anna.

A waltz around the web.

Greg Bottoms knows what you are supposed to do when you love someone. + The Row Boat longs for a pacifism that honors those who serve in the military, a political position on war that respects Christ's image in man without disparaging the men who offer their lives for their country. + Wikipedia has developed its own concept of "authority" via emergent norms, and Ryan McGrady wants to know more about it & them. + 12 animals made from a world map, or how to make the Israelis and Palestinians love each other through the creation of a new internationalist species. + Looks like Yucca Mountain won't fulfill its purported destiny as nuclear-waste-bin-cum-laude. And it looks like someone will be getting rich. + The forsythias are in bloom, and primavera graces the menu. +  An "obscure Tolkien work" awaits publication. + If perchance you find yourself in a bramble patch talking to a man who insists his name is Brer Rabbitt, then a "landscape with mud turtle" would be a real conversation-starter. + When people want to talk or write about race-specific poverty, or black poverty, they might try to fool senior citizens by writing a book review called "Why the Poor Stay Poor". + Slavenka Drakulic gets specific about the communist mentality that lodges in the minds of many commu-citizens and gives rise to an overwhelming inertia. Very similar to the experience in a freshman dorm at an American university. + John Lukacs wants to borrow 15 minutes of your time to impart his wisdom gleaned from years spent wandering the hallowed halls of history departments. + Among the great writings of Knut Hamsun, one cannot include his laudatory obituary for Hitler. + Sassy magazine was the stuff of pre-teen fantasy-- a land in which you could never wear too many jangle bracelets. Sassy made being frumpy fun. How to survive the post-Sassy terrain.  +  Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a soft, cuddly, and tender man who started blogging to share his tender side with the world. Or did he? Or did someone? Who done what? It's a who-dun-it. + Nothing makes me feel dirtier than "the perversion of sovereignty". I need a bath. Or a second baptism.

When did the Cold War officially end?

According to Thomas Blanton's essay in the Cold War International History Project Bulletin #10, the Cold War ended on 25 December 1989, during a meeting between Jack Matlock, US Ambassador to the Soviet Union.  and Ivan Aboimov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.

Matlock and Aboimov met to discuss the events in Romania, including the revolution and the execution of Ceausescu and his wife, Elena. Ambassador Matlock asked Deputy Minister Aboimov about the possibility of Soviet military intervention in defense of the revolutionary forces in Romania. Aboimov responded “entirely clearly and unequivocally” that “the American side may consider that ‘the Brezhnev Doctrine’ is now theirs as our gift.”

For more backgrounders, context, and information on the players and the play:

• Read articles by Jack Matlock in the New York Review of Books.
• Read Aboimov's diary entries from December 22nd on the events in Romania.
• Browse the many videos, statements, and articles on Matlock's view of US-Russia relations at the Russia Blog.
• "Can Civilizations Clash?", an article in which Matlock responds to Huntington's thesis.
• Conversation Between Alexander Yakovlev and Jack Matlock, December 26, 1988. 
• Transcript for interview on "US-Russia Relations: The Longer View" from the Carnegie Endowment circa 2008. Includes the heavy diplomatic players from the Russian and American sides.
• End of the Cold War Chronology from the Wilson Center starts in 1987 and takes you through the excitement blow by tiny blow.

Cross-posted at Totalitarianism Today, where I have started blogging about totalitarianism and its trends around the world.

5 things that made me beam today.

1. Seeing Mark and Becky's blog with photos of their wedding. I have to agree with Michael Bolton on this one-- "love is a wonderful thing"-- even though Michael Bolton's music is anything but wonderful.
2. Watching Micah engorge herself with pasta, olive oil, parmesan cheese, green onions, and tomatoes.
   
3. Free fiction from The New Yorker by David Foster Wallace + a poetry by Leonard Cohen.
   
4. So much splendid sunshine.
5. Best Movies By Farr-- an oasis of hearty, un-pretentious film review in a desert of overly-hip, supra-hyped film snarkiness.
   

Suebee and Pops came to visit this weekend.

It was so good to have them with us. Max and Micah were frothy with joy, and we did a lot of work on the teepee cover, which is still a work in progress. Of course, waking up to a winter wonderland spiced by the presence of Suebee and Pops just goes to show you CAN have your cake and eat it too.

10 great ways to spend 10 minutes 10 different times.

1. Read Edward Platt's essay, "The Migration", about bird-watching from the West Bank. Then try to imagine the birds that might travel Israel-way in a scene from Winged Migration. Or compare the sound of your vacuum-cleaner with that of an airplane surrounded by birds.
2. Read an interview with singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek entitled "Our True Love Finds Us When It Is Time". Because anyone who can say something so cliche deserves an opportunity to redeem themselves.
   
3. Make a new I-Tunes songlist that includes this tune that you just downloaded by pressing right-click and "save as"........  WHISKEY IN THE JAR - Mark Kozelek
4. Travel through 1960's Saigon with Faith Moostang. No one is really invited. 
5. Take a tour of the forced labor camps of the Soviet gulag.
   
6. Pick some old faded sheets or skirts or button-down shirts and cut pieces for these patchwork oven mitts. Then put the pieces in a bag near your sewing supplies to pick up when you have a little more time.
7. Explore the lengthy list of authors who have been influenced by Jorge Luis Borges. Consider starting a book club on the subject.
8. See what Marissa Fischer is up to on Rae Gun.
9. Wander around a place filled with Green Home Builders. And Green Home Buildings.
10. Take Rick Brentlinger's advice on how to make a pretty penny using free wood pallets and the universal human appreciation for small buds and blooming branches.
    

The snow settles around our home.

A brief but exciting rendez-vous with Southern Snow Men.

When we awoke this morning, the branches were covered with stunning white snow. For the next three hours, the snow continued to tumble from the sky, first in little scraps and finally in fantastic, thick clumps.Max could hardly contain his excitement, so we went outdoors to taste the snow, collect a few specimens for Micah, marvel at the way in which the white changed our landscape and turned our bushes into hopeful little damsels in hoop skirts. After a walk in the snow with Pops and Patrick, Max and I found the snow coming down so hard and fast that we almost needed ski goggles to keep our eyelashes from clumping together.

After our walk, Max and I ventured for a drive around the nearby neighborhoods in search of a very rare entity indeed-- the Alabama Snow Man. Unlike Northern Snow Men, which are very common and therefore quite plebian, the Southern Snow Man is a breed unto himself. Since he only appears every ten years or so, each appearance is remarkable. Unlike Northern Snow Men, who dot the landscape for as long as months at time, the Southern Snow Man stays very briefly before his dramatic disappearance. The reason why so little is known about Southern Snow Men is this tendency toward courtly manners, large smiles, and evasiveness. Before you can really establish a relationship and begin an interview, the Southern Snow Man beguiles with charming tales of gardens to come and rich soil. By the time you realize he is distracting you from pursuing his aquaintance, he has left you standing in a puddle of sunlight with only his hat and a carrot for a calling card.

Max and I learned this the hard way as we chased Dixie Snow Men, determined to establish a scientific count of these special creatures. We managed to count a total of 11 Dixie Snow Men within a radius of 3 square miles. In our effort to be thorough and introduce these Gentle Snow Men to other Snowmanophiles and Snow-Man supportees around the country, we took a few photos and shared them below.

  

The daily texture of life in communist Russia: One woman's account.

In the performance of my duties I paraphrase, in my own words, a newspaper clipping on the necessity of having literate people on duty in train stations:

"Day and night, literate people should be on duty in train stations in order to explain the difference between the old order and the new order to those arriving and departing."

The difference between the old and new orders:

The old order: "A soldier came by"..... "We made pancakes"..... "Our grandmother died."

Soldiers still come, grandmothers die, only no one makes pancakes anymore.

                            [From Marina Tsvetaeva's Earthly Signs, p.48]

Marina Tsvetaeva's Moscow Diaires, 1917-1922.

We come closer: hills and waves of sacks, in between them sighs, scarves, backs. There are almost no men: in the Revolution, as always, the weight of everyday life falls on women: previously-- in sheaves, now in sacks. (Everyday life is a sack: with holes. And you carry it anyway.)

The Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva is known for her highly emotional writing, her flagrant love affairs, and her tragic suicide at the age of 48. While Marina married a fascinating fellow, Sergei Efron, who deserves a post in his own right, married love did not soothe her. She spread her love like butter across the poetic landscape, cultivating love affairs with Sofia Parkon, Osip Mandelstam, Konstantin Rodzevich, Rainer Maria Rilke, and an epistolary romance with Boris Pasternak that lasted for over a decade. What drove Marina to these affairs as a wife and a mother of two children? Her husband, Sergei, gave his opinion in an anguished letter to a friend following Marina's obssessive relationship with Rodzevich:

"Marina is a woman of passions.... Plunging headfirst into her hurricanes has become essential for her, the breath of life. It no longer matters who it is that arouses these hurricanes. Nearly always (now as before)-- or rather always-- everything is based on self-deception. A man is invented and the hurrican begins. If the insignificance and narrowness of the hurricane's arouser is quickly revealed, then Marina gives way to a hurricane of despair. A state which faciliates the appearance of a new arouser. The important thing is not what but how. Not the essence or the source but the rhythm, the insane rhythm..... Everything is entered in the book. Everything is coolly and mathematically cast into a formula. A huge stove, whose fires need wood, wood, and more wood."

Efron is not concerned about Marina's potential for serious love in these affairs-- he is concerned with her destructive use of men and passion as fuel for her writing. As he notes in this letter, Marina was a chronic journal-keeper. All the fabrics of her daily life and love can be found woven through her journals, or "notebooks". It is these notebooks which house her most visceral and raw writings.

Earthly Signs is a collection of Marina's notebook writings from the period of 1917 to 1922, including her first-hand accounts of the Bolshevik Revolution, in which she witnessed the round-up and exile of the Russian bourgeosie and intellectual class. Her husband, Sergei, actually fought to defend Russia from the Bolshevik takeover as a member of the White Army. Marina's notebooks reveal the chaos and confusion-- the deification of Communist utopia, the struggles for new existence, the dawn of a new era in which words (and language) would be squeezed for every drop of meaning and subtlety before being resurrected as promises of salvation.

At one point during her husband's absence, Marina did not have enough food to feed her children. There were no jobs for poets in the wake of the Revolution-- especially not for poets who had reservations about the glories of political utopia. Lacking food, shelter, and property, Marina placed her daughters, Alya and Irina, in a children's home where they would receive proper nourishment and care.

The excerpt below is a record of a conversation between Marina and a Jewish lady on the train. It embodies the stereotypical caricature of Jews so popular in the time period immediately preceding Hitler's ascension to power in Germany. It is valuable as a testament to the complexity and inconsistency of these stereotypes, as well as the popular opinions of Bolshevism in the wake of the Revolution. The Jewish lady (referred to as "She") is a socialist sympathizer who nonetheless seems more concerned about the gold Marina might have left behind than the children she abandoned. After all, under socialism, the state will take care of the children-- there will be no scarcity of crying mouths to feed-- but gold, money, and wealth will be rare, therefore extremely valuable. The socialism intended to destroy class and "crass materialism" will, instead, generate a whole new upper class of apparatchik and nomenklatura whose love for money and material wealth become the stuff of absurdity.

She, almost cheeky: "And where did you leave your gold things? How can you leave gold behind and just take off?"
I, distinctly: "I not only left my gold, but.... my children!"
She, amused: "Ach, ach, ach! You're so funny! Are children so valuable? Everyone leaves their children nowadays, they set them up somewhere. What children, when there's nothing to eat? (Sententiously): "There are shelters for children. Children are the property of our socialist Commune..."
(I think to myself: "just like our gold rings...")

In February of 1920, not yet three years old, Marina's daughter, Irina, died of malnourishment or starvation in the children's home. It is not clear what happened to Marina's gold. What happened to the socialist utopia, however, is beyond dispute.

• A large collection of Tsvetaeva's poems are available online for your reading pleasure.
• A website devoted to Tsvetaeva contains videos, recent play productions, and lots of interesting data for fans.
• A bio at Books and Writers.
• Laura Marina's Tsvetaeva Home Page.
• The Poet Page for Tsvetaeva from Northwestern.
• Google Timeline results for Tsvetaeva.
• Marina Tsvetaeva, a critical biography written by Simon Karlinsky available on Google Books.