a sense of joy and then a panic

You can see examples of kintsugi--repairing ceramics with gold, so the crack itself becomes a thing of beauty, and the object-with-cracks is celebrated and appreciated--various places online (here's one). This morning I saw pine needles doing kintsugi with cracks in the road, laying down in the crevices and repairing the road very beautifully:

The ending of this show was intensely satisfying and mainly (maybe not entirely) realistic. Thinking back over the entire story arc and all the characters, I do have a few criticisms, but mainly so much love and so much admiration for the storycraft and the character development. It would be an excellent show to use with kids to get them thinking about how characters grow and change (and why this is important) and what motivations are--but beyond all that, it's so engaging!

My main criticism was that the main conflict for Belky, the protagonist, gets sorted out three-fourths of the way through the show, and then, rather than simply focusing on remaining conflicts/difficulties, which are not as high-color but very important (things about how she relates with her boyfriend and her family--that sort of thing), a whole new existential threat is introduced, one that's kind of cheap and tired compared with everything else in the show. Furthermore, it involves Belky, who's generally wary and mistrustful, trusting a simply odious character, and while the show's at pains to show how that character wins her trust, it still just doesn't seem likely. And, it's very hard to focus on the very interesting stories of the side characters when there's this existential threat hanging over Belky. I would have been happier without that storyline, honestly.

BUT STILL. The remaining storylines develop the main supporting characters wonderfully. People make bad decisions for good reasons and then have to extricate themselves. People have to take emotional risks, and it isn't easy. There are lots of excellent heart-to-heart conversations.

And the show is really progressive, too: there's a young lawyer who's wheelchair bound who gets to be heroic and who gets a happily ever after: he's just the right person for the woman he ends up with. There's a gay guy who's portrayed as an accomplished, brave, smart person, who's always wanted to be a father and is able to co-parent with a single mother, while maintaining his romantic life separately. Belky has a moving conversation with the older of her two younger sisters about becoming sexually active and making it be about her choice and not something she's pressured into. Public, pressureful marriage proposals and apologies are shown to be NOT A GOOD IDEA.

And more and more--but this is enough for now. Gotta get back to the day's tasks.

I've been doing writing sessions with adult learners in Holyoke. Last week's theme was "stories they tell," about stories told in your family. The group had great stories to share. There's a website, and gradually, as people give permission, some of their writing will go up there. I was reassuring them that nothing would go up without their permission, and one woman said, "It's okay; I like taking up space in people's mind."

It was such a startling, brilliant remark. I asked her if she'd write it down, and she did, and it's now one of the first things up on the website.

Taking up space

In life, some people get encouraged to take up space, and other people get told to keep out of the way, to make themselves small. I was really glad this woman had decided to assert her right to occupy people's thoughts and attention.

I was away over the weekend with very limited Internet, so I'm giving you my weekend's Inktober drawings now--along with critique, because why not?

The theme for October 7 was "shy," and I liked my concept for it, but was disappointed by my execution. I think I either should have worked on it longer (and paid more attention to, like, anatomy) or else gone for something more cartoonish--simpler lines, etc.

The theme for October 8 was "crooked," and I decided on lightning, but my first attempt used Too Many Different Sorts of Crosshatching, plus the lightning itself had a too-solid, not-glowing-enough look to it, like it was made out of plywood and painted white. So I tried again, this time aiming for a more pure-energy lightning... but the result looks... hmm. Not dazzling enough. If it were pencil-tober, I'd do it in pencil; I think I could get what I want with pencil. Maybe.

But you know? I'm having fun in spite of these dissatisfactions. Today's theme is "shriek"--maybe I'll post something before the day goes by.

Shy


Crooked

I can't think of swords without thinking of the evocative Rider-Waite tarot swords--this one, for example:



Or this:



Or this:



This picture is more reminiscent of Rider-Waite 5 or Rider Waite 7, in that the figure's carrying a bunch of swords, but I was also thinking about sword-bearing angels and... so on.

Rampisham Down is where, from 1939 until 2011, the transmitters for the BBC World Service in Europe were located--"twenty-six iron giants stand ... with a grey cat's cradle in their hands," in the words of Talis Kimberley in her song "Rampisham Down." They were so well known that when my mother came to visit us when we were living in Dorset--where Rampisham Down is located--she was excited to drive by them.

A friend gave me Talis Kimberley's wonderful song about them, which starts with a message on a picture postcard of them and then goes on to describe them and their stalwart duty:

Eight miles northwest of Dorchester
ST5401**
On the high chalk land where the Romans were
Upon Rampisham Down
Oh twenty-six iron giants stand
ST5401
With a grey cat's cradle in their hands
Upon Rampisham Down
Upon Rampisham Down

Here the news comes in and the news goes out
ST5401
And the world will hear what it's all about
Upon Rampisham Down
...
And when the world looks dark, as it sometimes will
ST5401
Then look to the giants on the high chalk hill
Upon Rampisham Down...

*This is the grid reference in Great Britain's Ordinance Survey maps that Rampisham Down is located on

(source)

The song--and the concept of those twenty-six faithful iron giants--really touched me, so I was sorry to learn from Wakanomori that they'd come down, victims of changes in how broadcast technology works. Here's a short (2.07 minutes) video about it:



That video is from August 2017. Let's have a moment of silence and respect for these hard workers.



... I'll post my picture for inktober next.