What is the Message?

Equinox Sunrise from Our Window

I am in a strange cycle, metaphorically, with my electronic gadgets. First, for the first time in two years, I washed my ipod with the laundry. Vince was sure that this would have happened the first week I possessed the thing, and I fought his cynical attitude. (Of course, inside my own head I was amazed as well...I'd never admit that though.) Then Vince left my camera outside in the car overnight on a hard freeze. He never uses that camera and then he froze it.

I have the temperament of a mystic and here is where I am trying to decipher the metaphor. The Ipod still works, but the screen will not illuminate. The camera still turns on, but it turns itself off as soon as the lens extends. For those of you not used to looking at life the way an English Major reads a novel, the task at hand in situations like this is to look at the event not as the literal symptom, but to think, why did it break in this way...what is the metaphor...these metaphors are mystical clues. It was easy for me to see the metaphors in the new Woody Allen film. This is tricky.

If I had a camera, here are the things I would have had stunning photographs and blog entries about these past few days;

1. After the bear snack-fest in my yard, I was taking Falcom down to show him the sight of the garbage strewn about and he...like an old wise tracker...immediately spotted a paw print in our drive way. (This is when I learned that the camera was shot.) It was not a large track, just the small track of a black bear. The impressive thing about it though was the nails, how deeply the nails scratched down into the sand.
2. My meeting with the high school about DeeJay. I don't know if I would have had the guts to actually photograph it, but in this post I am pretending that did. I have a deep respect for special education teachers. They have to be so crafty and clever to make headway with the kids. They have to have the utmost compassion to be able to connect with some of these very difficult kids. They have to have so much extra knowledge to uphold the law and be able to explain it and apply it in ways that some tenured teachers will respect. The first picture I would have taken is of DeeJay's wonderful case manager and I having a good chuckle over Gov. Palin's inability to say 'Exxon Valdez' to Katie Couric when asked which Supreme Court decision she disagreed with. The second is of my own eyebrows when I learn that there is a teacher in the school who has chosen not to honor THE LAW. The third picture is of my pet Cerberus and and how he has been unleashed.


3. Falcom and Marina loving their afternoons at Jeanne's Learning Yurt. Falcom is so comfortable and relaxed and free there. Marina gets to be active and stimulated. This picture is of them there. Then I would have a picture of my putting Falcom and Marina and Willie into Cindi's truck so that they could meet their dad in Ninilchick and then drive to Anchorage.
4. The REALLY bad news this week is that our cousin Chuck learned he had brain tumors and has had surgery this week. Grandma Phyllis is here from Cleveland. I stayed home with DeeJay because I promised Sharon that I would watch Sam and Blaise and because I have things to do around here.
5. The neighbor dog killed the chick, Basil Nut. It was such an odd event and I am thankful that it did not become a full massacre. This dog is a hound dog and has been running up and down the road for years. All the dogs owner and I can think of is that the dog picked up on the scent of that bear, who I know is still hanging around, and got excited. We think this because for the first time the dog didn't just stay by the car, but instead bolted down the gully past the coop. The hound then came to our drive and laid Nut down gently and then ran back home. I would have photographed the color of Nuts very yellow feet.
6. Sam and Blaise who are so amazingly cute and mellow for very small (4 and 2) year old boys! I would have taken a picture of us at the Hutler Road Culvert where we spent over an hour running around, making echos, trying to climb up the side. Another family came (they were touring around with visiting parents) and their kids were playing as well. The grandma from Ohio said, "If we were in the states there would be a fence around this thing and a NO TRESPASSING sign and the kids would be inside playing Nintendo." Ah-laska!
7. The hail which turned to snow. I would have taken a picture of DeeJay going out in his slippers to the trampoline and jumping with the snow flying all around him. Sam and Blaise and I stood at the window laughing and DeeJay threw snowballs at the boys (he's got that great island aim) and the boys would laugh and laugh.
8. This morning, waking up to three inches of fresh snow covering everything. Valda and I are trying not to be depressed about it.

Maya investigating the scarecrows at Two Sisters Bakery while Europeans drink coffee and smoke cigarettes on the porch. When my eyes were closed I felt like I was in another part of the world...

If you have any ideas about the meaning of the metaphor, please post a happy hello and let me know. I need to figure it out before God decides that he's got to tinker with my laptop in order for me to get the message!