Taking it Easy

Somes days you just have to take a break. Cheska understands this.

March may be the second cruelest month

Walking to my car today after work (it's Spring Break, so there's actually parking on campus within reasonable walking distance this week, which means I don't have to take the little shuttle-bus), I felt like I was coming out from down under. Down under the blankets. Or out from a dark hole. Up for air.

Maybe it's because the light doesn't fade until after 6:00pm these days. Or maybe it's because spring is nearly palpable. Or maybe it's because I'm prone to unexpected mood swings.

Photo from Angela in Europe,
who got me thinking
about "The Waste Land"
with this picture

I have felt weighted down for at least the last four or five months. Maybe I'm finally surfacing. Or maybe not. It's always hard to tell.

I know it's only March, but I'm restless. I'm anxious. I hear T.S. calling to me:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu.
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?

'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
'They called me the hyacinth girl.'
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Od' und leer das Meer.

~The Waste Land, lines 1-43; T.S. Eliot

Goodbye Rocky-dog

A really great dog has left us. I feel so sad for my friends Allyson and Chad, who shared their home and family with Rocky for so long. It's sad to see him go, even though I haven't actually seen him in many years.

Chad muses about the impact of Rocky's life on others and makes an interesting point about wanting his own life to touch people. Some people will say that Rocky was just a dog. But when a dog has this kind of an effect on people, he is a gift from God.

Pixburghers are Nuts

So the Steeler victory celebration parade in downtown Pittsburgh today drew a crowd of 250,00. Say it with me now: Two hundred, fifty thousand. Officials had expected 40,000. Just a small underestimation.

And in a weird news tidbit, I just read that Greg and Rebecca Sparks of The Sparks created a song about Jerome Bettis. I saw The Sparks perform while I was in college. I don't think I realized that they are local. Anyway, they sing folksy-popish Christian tunes. And now they sing the praises of football legends, apparently. Fair enough, I suppose.

Question to Jess if she's reading: Is saying "Greg and Rebecca Sparks of The Sparks" like saying "Kip Winger of Winger fame"?

The Steelers Won...

...and all I can say is, "Thank Goodness!"

Two weeks ago when the Steelers won the AFC Championship James asked if I wanted to have a Superbowl party. Not being the football aficionado that everyone else in Western Pennsylvania seems to be, I asked, "When's the Superbowl?" (For what it's work, I knew it was within the next few weeks.)

James answered, "It starts tomorrow and goes for two weeks."

I laughed. Oh how naive I was.

Sometime in the middle of last week I said, "That's about it, too: It did start after the last game and last for two weeks."

So all I can say is thank goodness we finally got "one for the thumb." I briefly thought that now that we do have one for the thumb that I wouldn't have to hear it all the time. Only to realize that of course I'll still hear it all the time, perhaps even more!

I always knew that Pittsburgh is a football town. But I never understood the length and depth to which this is true. I don't think a day went by in the past two weeks in which someone didn't say to me, "Go Steelers!" Professional colleagues that I only know peripherally signed their emails and ended their phone conversations with "Go Steelers!" Even the independent, public radio station that I listen to played the occasional Steeler song.

It's madness, I tell you. Madness.

If you live here, you can only imagine what a fiasco it would have been if the Seahawks had won. The people of Seattle are not like the people of Pittsburgh. USA Today reports that an estimated 30,000 people attended the Steeler pep rally last week. The local news had reports of people being stuck on the Parkway in traffic and not making it to the rally. When you talk about fans, Pittsburghers are true fanatics. (And perhaps not all that bright. One 20-something fan at the pep rally said that nothing would keep him away. He was quoted as saying, "If it was raining and minus 5, I'd still be here. It doesn't matter." Well, technically, it would matter. I'd like to see it be 37 degrees below freezing and raining. But now I'm just being mean.)

I don't know how many people attended the Seahawk pep rally, but I heard reports of 8,000. So like I said, can you imagine the disaster if Seattle had won? A few thousand fans would be a bit sad. Pittsburghers, on the other hand, would have been absolutely devastated. There would have been rioting. Today would have been a day of mourning. If you don't live here you may think I'm kidding. Alas, it's no exaggeration.

So all I can say is, Thank Goodness.

I mean, Go Steelers!