http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/mtvideobox.php?video_id=78
I thought this was beautiful. Just breathtaking. I thought it was incredible how often I could see the faces of my Beloved and other women I love. Fashions, hair styles, and "ideal bodies" may all change but true beauty is forever.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
The Blue Remains
(Please note, this is the full version of the story I wrote for my local "alternative newspaper." They were kind enough to allow me to edit my own piece down to column length)
Nevada sports fans have been a little spoiled in recent years. Members of the Reno/Sparks community have looked forward to the end of winter every year as the spring equinox brought with it an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
But the success of our men’s basketball team became about more than a game of hoops. For the few hours spent watching our team take the court, there were countless more treasuring the sense of community they brought us. Pride in their accomplishments, and hoping for just one more win, gave each and every one of us something in common with all our neighbors.
Even those who aren’t sports fans found themselves swept up in the tide. Posters in windows, banners streaming from cars, even the Reno skyline bathing the city in the reflections of the casinos’ Wolf Pack spotlights. Everywhere you looked, you saw blue. It was so much bigger than basketball, bigger than players, coaches or fans. It was about us, a group greater and happier as a sum of our parts than we could ever be alone. It taught us to celebrate and rejoice as one.
This year, however, there is no light. With no invitation to the Big Dance, the banners will remain in closets. With no trip to the NIT, no blue-and-gray flags will unfurl. And after the heartbreaking loss to Houston, our little strip shined its customary neon rainbow, leaving the blue glow in storage and memory until bowl season.
Yet, wherever you go in our community, the blue remains. As you drive across town, flashes of it catch your eye. Anywhere you walk, pieces of sky snap in the wind. Perhaps it is fitting, in this year we have no triumph to unify us, that we have ribbons to remind us of the ties of community.
This winter we learned how to hurt and to mourn as one. A community daughter was taken, by a coward in the night, and we all felt the hollow carved by her absence. If any silver lining can be found on the dark cloud of our tragedy, it is a reminder of how tight we really are, or really can be. Thousands volunteered time. Hundred of thousands of dollars were raised. The entire community reached forth with a unified effort to find the missing simply because she was one of our own. We failed, and we wept as one.
The weight of this tragedy sits upon all of us. Our hearts were collectively broken and our hopes universally crushed. While we can’t forget what makes us so, perhaps Brianna Denison’s sad fate will make us all a little more careful with our lives and a little less careful with our love, a small memorial, certainly, but perhaps one fitting for who we lost.
Having had our community hurt in such a way, it’s all too easy to forget how we celebrated together every March for the last four years, but it’s vital that we remember. Not because of a few games, but because of how we felt and how we responded. Whether the devastating shock of a murder or the comparatively small joys of a game, we responded together, and that is worth something.
Under the eclipse of this tragedy it is clear; there is no light. But at least the blue remains.
Nevada sports fans have been a little spoiled in recent years. Members of the Reno/Sparks community have looked forward to the end of winter every year as the spring equinox brought with it an invitation to the NCAA Tournament.
But the success of our men’s basketball team became about more than a game of hoops. For the few hours spent watching our team take the court, there were countless more treasuring the sense of community they brought us. Pride in their accomplishments, and hoping for just one more win, gave each and every one of us something in common with all our neighbors.
Even those who aren’t sports fans found themselves swept up in the tide. Posters in windows, banners streaming from cars, even the Reno skyline bathing the city in the reflections of the casinos’ Wolf Pack spotlights. Everywhere you looked, you saw blue. It was so much bigger than basketball, bigger than players, coaches or fans. It was about us, a group greater and happier as a sum of our parts than we could ever be alone. It taught us to celebrate and rejoice as one.
This year, however, there is no light. With no invitation to the Big Dance, the banners will remain in closets. With no trip to the NIT, no blue-and-gray flags will unfurl. And after the heartbreaking loss to Houston, our little strip shined its customary neon rainbow, leaving the blue glow in storage and memory until bowl season.
Yet, wherever you go in our community, the blue remains. As you drive across town, flashes of it catch your eye. Anywhere you walk, pieces of sky snap in the wind. Perhaps it is fitting, in this year we have no triumph to unify us, that we have ribbons to remind us of the ties of community.
This winter we learned how to hurt and to mourn as one. A community daughter was taken, by a coward in the night, and we all felt the hollow carved by her absence. If any silver lining can be found on the dark cloud of our tragedy, it is a reminder of how tight we really are, or really can be. Thousands volunteered time. Hundred of thousands of dollars were raised. The entire community reached forth with a unified effort to find the missing simply because she was one of our own. We failed, and we wept as one.
The weight of this tragedy sits upon all of us. Our hearts were collectively broken and our hopes universally crushed. While we can’t forget what makes us so, perhaps Brianna Denison’s sad fate will make us all a little more careful with our lives and a little less careful with our love, a small memorial, certainly, but perhaps one fitting for who we lost.
Having had our community hurt in such a way, it’s all too easy to forget how we celebrated together every March for the last four years, but it’s vital that we remember. Not because of a few games, but because of how we felt and how we responded. Whether the devastating shock of a murder or the comparatively small joys of a game, we responded together, and that is worth something.
Under the eclipse of this tragedy it is clear; there is no light. But at least the blue remains.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Easter Day
I think my family stumbled upon a new Easter tradition this year. While my wife had to work, I headed over the the parents and, with them, the sister and the dogs, we took a morning hike.
Well, quick addendum. After the Easter egg hunt we took a hike. Yeah, half way through my 20's, my sister graduating HS, and we did an Easter egg hunt. No coffee/energy drink to boot. Back to the story.
So I was not looking forward to a hike at dawn in March in a climate that, frankly, isn't too warm this time of year. But my mom really wanted to take this family jaunt, appreciating the symbolism of the "Son rising" as we hiked. I had been a little surly about the whole thing until my wife and friends pointed out how awesome an idea it was. In my defense, I was being a real doubter about the whole thing well prior to the incredible Easter Vigil the night before. That's where those friends put me in my place with their their admiration and envy. Not much of a defense, thanks. I'm aware.
And they couldn't have been more right. The morning was beautiful. The sky might have been the bluest I had ever seen it. The dogs romped and played, running and grinning from ear to ear. The day was so warm, by a third of the way up the mountain the sweatshirts were off, to be reclaimed on the return home. Warm, entertaining conversations with my wonderful parents and perfect sister, all while basking in the Sonrise. It could not have been better.
Well, that's not entirely true. My beautiful wife and the two Big Leavers (my brothers) being there would have perfected it. But it was close.
My name says it all. I told you I was unworthy of my blessings.
Well, quick addendum. After the Easter egg hunt we took a hike. Yeah, half way through my 20's, my sister graduating HS, and we did an Easter egg hunt. No coffee/energy drink to boot. Back to the story.
So I was not looking forward to a hike at dawn in March in a climate that, frankly, isn't too warm this time of year. But my mom really wanted to take this family jaunt, appreciating the symbolism of the "Son rising" as we hiked. I had been a little surly about the whole thing until my wife and friends pointed out how awesome an idea it was. In my defense, I was being a real doubter about the whole thing well prior to the incredible Easter Vigil the night before. That's where those friends put me in my place with their their admiration and envy. Not much of a defense, thanks. I'm aware.
And they couldn't have been more right. The morning was beautiful. The sky might have been the bluest I had ever seen it. The dogs romped and played, running and grinning from ear to ear. The day was so warm, by a third of the way up the mountain the sweatshirts were off, to be reclaimed on the return home. Warm, entertaining conversations with my wonderful parents and perfect sister, all while basking in the Sonrise. It could not have been better.
Well, that's not entirely true. My beautiful wife and the two Big Leavers (my brothers) being there would have perfected it. But it was close.
My name says it all. I told you I was unworthy of my blessings.
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