What do you think of this artist and her work Scottish Economist?

[PRgirl]

SE, don't worry about when you can reply. Take your time. I could not reply for a while either. In fact, the computer is being fixed and no internet at home. I am at the public library now for a brief time and read your fun reply! We are busy preparing the house for the arrival of the little lad and I have a full time job and a part time job tutoring the kids. There is much work to be done at home!! Oh, SE, I will have a great time with my lad. I will!

Don't work so hard you forget to take the time to enjoy life SE. For that is our real purpose in life is to enjoy life. If your work is meaningful to you then it is a great way to spend your life doing the things you love. But if it is a means to make money only. It is not worth it to stop doing other activities that relax and make your life more enjoyable.

I plan to cut back on work and focus more on my creative writing and my family and on anthropological research (which I highly enjoy) and dancing and cooking and learning new things. Work to pay bills only is not really worth it. It might be necessary if you are a single parent. But I am not. I am so glad of that.

I learned something new today. Church=Kirk. Old Greek root. Interesting. My parents were the kind of parents who did not believe in indoctrination of their kids in religion. I won't push religion on my son either. He must be a mature adult young man when he decides on his beliefs. Brainwashing youngsters in rituals they find boring and meaningless is not on my list of priorities. But, religion with granny was theatrical. After all it was a church filled with Puerto Ricans who love some hot music, and lots of gossip,and lots of intrigue. Lol. Those women went to church to socialize and manifest their emotions full spectrum!! Lol. Quiet contemplation and silent prayers were few in that church!! Now I love meditation, yoga and total silence and its benefits. But that is for adults to decide on. Living a life that your son or daughter can use as an example is the best way to teach how to live to the younger generations, spouting crap you don't plan to follow yourself is not the best method to convey a person's lifelong value systems, and that goes for most everything in the world.

[PRgirl]

[quote=TheScottishEconomist] Hi Vida,

apologies for the lateness of my response, again it is work which keeps me offline. I know you don’t like capitalism, and after this week I can tell you I am not too fond of it myself! Whatever happened to the ‘leisure society’ we were promised by the Utopians in the 1950’s & 60’s? I also feel a touch of stress too, probably my life expectancy is being diminished by the hour.

PRgirl: Simpaticon, you should not be shortening your lifespan. Not for anything in this world. Most certainly not for a job that doesn't make you feel you are doing something you always wanted to do your whole life. People should work of course, but they should also balance that out with play, and with self care and with developing their interests too. And sharing with others what they most enjoy making, doing and exploring and setting goals for themselves. For example, I know AndyJ3 is dying to go travel and see the Spanish speaking nations of the Americas and the Caribbean. He worries about funds and responsibilities. If I was a millionaire I would send him some wire transfer to Thomas Cook in the UK in his hometown in Scotland and talk to his boss or supervisor and make it easy for him to go and do what he is longing to do the Sweetie cake! But no, he needs to plan and worry and finally become determined to do it. Though I am willing to put some effort in helping him save some funds and get some help in cutting back on expenses. He should stop dreaming and mortifying himself and just do it!! Take the risk and take the plunge. He deserves all the fun stuff in life. He has had enough of responsibilities and worry and limited choices. Now he needs joy and exploration and discovery and adventure and being supported. Most people of decent hearts and minds should seek to be more loving towards their own goals in life and fulfill that which they most desire (that includes you handsome Scottish Economist!). I enjoy diversity in human beings. I like Scottish people, African people, Native American people, Asians, and most every type of culture and thinking in the world as long as they are fair minded, open, and are interested in learning and sharing. People as I once said (as individuals are world unto themselves, you meet one person and you find an entire world to explore with just that one person if they want to share it....you discover a planet in one person.)

Enough griping from me though, I had a read at your charming memoir of being a young lassie at your granny’s house. I had to keep scrolling down to the glossary to see what words mean, and I liked your literary style, your memories of being three years old filtered through your adult consciousness and rendered in adult language.

PRgirl: My husband is convinced that I have never forgotten that innocent period of life because I am at heart still a little girl. I think he is in many ways just a little boy as well. I bought him a little remote control sailboat for his birthday a couple of years back!! Oh that face filled with the joy of the thought of putting the expensive but lifelike replica of a real caribbean sailboat but not a real sailboat in a crystal clear lake and playing with it to his heart's content from the shoreline, transformed an adult man's face to that of a child! He gets the same boyish look on his face when I make him 'tortitas de calabaza' little pumpkin fried fritters with butter and pure maple syrup. He might as well be 6 years old again! Now that I think of it anything with his manipulations in the kitchen that I fulfill is very similar to a little boy's reaction. And it makes me want to love him a lot more everyday. All men have a bit of that in them. If they don't, they need a lot of love and care and sincere affection and eventually the little boyish parts come to the fore again!! Under a layer of heavy responsibilities and worries.Men are under a lot of stress in modern society. My father SE, was such a playful MAN!! He made me laugh and dance and was creative and funny and so naturally affectionate. And so ACCEPTING. He was a boy in his way all his life!! His best friend and he were older mature men, but they enjoyed each other like two imps still young getting dirty in some horseplay in the backyard or something. My father influenced me SE, but so did so many other people too. My mother of course. And to tell you the truth my father told me something about myself a long time ago, "Vida, nacistes con tu temperamento fijado. Tienes todo lo que necesitas para cumplir con todo lo que deseas de esta vida. Yo solo le di una pulidita." (Translation), "Vida, you were born with that fixed and steady temperament. You have all that you need to fulfill all that you desire from this life. All I did was give it some polish." Lol. He always was so supportive. Papi and I are going to hear that divine Brazilian rythm someday. Of that I have no doubt.

First thing it made me think of was my own childhood holidays in Spain and Spanish resorts like Tenerife and Majorca, for I too was fascinated by the little lizards I saw crawling through the cracks in the concrete. I was never any good at catching them though. There was also much ‘urbanizacion’ about, as much of these places I visited were built rapidly to cater to the tourist boom among the new markets that were emerging in the 1960’s and 70’s

Continue in next post.....

[PRgirl]

PRgirl: Hmm, SE. You were highly fortunate you traveled a lot as a kid. Most of the traveling we did as a family was due to political activities and community commitments. My mother was an expert on multicultural education. As such she got contracts for work at interesting projects in education such as many Native American cultures trying to preserve their native ways and integrate modern curricula with ancient traditions. It made my growing up years a study in cultural anthropology natural. I met the Dine (the Navajo), the Blackfoot Lakota, the Hopi, and the Apache, the tribes from many parts of North America and the tribes from South America and many other parts of the Americas. My mother mixed with intellectual academics, fiery political figures of many nations, and people who trusted her on many levels because she came from the working class of Latin America. Not the elite. I learned a lot from her. And I still do.

The importance of your relationship with your father also comes across strongly. I know you have touched on this before, but in this particular narrative he seems to me the central figure. Even before he arrives you write that you would “watch the driveway carefully to see if I could see my father's postal service vehicle pull up to pick me up”, and when he does arrive you write “As soon as I heard my father's post office truck with no doors on the side pull up, I would rush down the driveway and jump right into his arms and play with his necktie, rolling it up and watching it unfurl playfully while he would talk to my grandmother and loosen it and carry me around the livingroom. My grandmother would say how I behaved and my father would laugh at something I don't remember what, except I loved the way he would hold me, like I was the most important thing in the world.” That demonstrates an intensity of feeling not shown towards the other members of your family, and I would perhaps deduce from this that your relationship with your father was central to your personal development.

PRgirl: My father was important to my development. And so was Mami. And my Aunts and so many others. I really believe people grow up being molded and taught by many in a community. No individual grows up without the input and sweat equity of the many!! We are all the product of an entire social effort. To believe otherwise is sheer foolishness. All this--I sprouted as an individual without the help or succor of others promoted by the me, I and mine and just me first crap spouted in 'capitalism' is an absolute falsehood. All lies designed to placate the responsibilities to others that all members of society have, and which if individuals actually gave deep thought to how many people had to sweat and worry and work in order to produce one well educated and productive non-criminal member of society would definitely impede the alienation necessary for pure selfish motivations to take root in most everyone, it is all a scam to keep individuals consuming, and not reflecting on the truth that no man or woman is an island and that as the old anthropologists know, the individual does not evolve, but the GROUP does. That says it all, and not doing much to improve society as a whole is self destructive as all deeply unconscious and thoughtless behavior without responsibility is destined to failure in the big picture. I firmly believe that.


Though perhaps I am reading too much into it. You write of your husband: “Hector is a very common name back home. But it is appropo for my husband. He is an honorable Greek hero. He has that strength, gentleness, compassion, agressivity and dynamism that good men have. He is filled with poetry and music and ideas. And such love that is amazing and endless.” I wonder if perhaps the same description could be applied to your father too?

PRgirl: My father and my husband were very different in personality and temperament. But both were and are, very respectful and loving and enjoy women and respect them deeply. I trust men because of the high quality of personal relationships with many men in my life (including my husband and father). I think for other women who have been used, betrayed and hurt deeply by males in their lives, they will feel differently.

Your husband clearly has some poetic gifts, I like his use of the timeless elements: moon, sun, stars, night, day and raindrops. Hopefully he won’t google for it on the net.

Why did your grandmother take you to Church and not your parents? My parents took me to Church when I was young, but I only remember being totally bored by the whole experience and longing for it to cease. An hour can be a long time to a child. Mundane fact for you: In Scotland we call a church a church, but we also sometimes call it the Kirk. The word ‘Kirk’ come from the Middle English ‘circe’, which itself derives from the Greek word ‘κυριακον’. However the word ‘Kirk’ is only used in Scotland, its use ceased in England centuries ago, and an Englishman would only use it with reference to the Church of Scotland. In fact the language of Scottish people retains much more from the medieval period in pronunciation than does the English spoken south of the border (and around the world).

Bet you really wanted to know that!

PRgirl: SE, my parents were socialists. My mother in fact was the ex-president of her chapter of her party in New York City many decades ago. She respects spirituality but conventional religion she finds a way of manipulating emotional needs in human beings for the purpose of keeping them from reaching for concrete social change that is necessary and critical for humanity to take action now. Waiting for some foggy afterlife to make things better for the 'sinners' for her is just a cheap copout. Put your mouth, money and life on the line for your principles is what she is about. And my mother is no bloody religious hipocrite. She is no hipocrite at all. Her values and her life are not in contradiction. They are in accord. Something I find lacking in many fundamentalist Christian and other fundamentalist weirdos out there who talk a lot about loving Christ but the real master they serve is the Golden Calf and themselves. Not the poor and destitute and not the working class. A bunch of superficial incompetents in general in my honest opinion. My 'spirituality' is rooted in love that is non-judgemental and accepting people exactly as they are. Imperfect and flawed and here in my presence doing right by them now and in this life. Not waiting for change in the next one. In that I put my 'faith' in.

I also am starting to really care for you Mr. SE. ANd even though my time is running out I won't stop checking in to see what you are up to on your leisure time in here. Lots of love to you Senor SE.

Vida



Hasta la vista. Muchos besos Senor. Simpaticon y guapo que eres!! Translate it SE. Big kiss.

[TheScottishEconomist]

Hi Vida, sorry for the lateness of my reply, usual excuse: work is to blame! I did leave the office early todat though.

Originally Posted by PRgirl

My parents were the kind of parents who did not believe in indoctrination of their kids in religion. I won't push religion on my son either. He must be a mature adult young man when he decides on his beliefs. Brainwashing youngsters in rituals they find boring and meaningless is not on my list of priorities.

I was reading Anthony Burgess biography not that long ago (called Big God and Little Wilson), and took a particular interest in what he said about his Catholicism. Burgess was totally unimpressed by Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene because they were converts and not cradle Catholics like he (and James Joyce) were. When I think of the influence Catholicism has had on writing, I cannot feel too negative towards it. What would A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man have been like without Catholicism? Obviously indoctrination isn’t a good thing, but let us not overlook the positive aspects! Having said that my parents were not really indoctrinators either.

While on the subject of religion, do you ever watch Southpark? They did a good episode where the pseudo religion of Scientology is mocked:

http://www.scientomogy.com/stopscien...cientology.php

I think that episode was banned in the UK due to Tom Cruise threatening to sue or some such thing, I watched it online.

Originally Posted by PRgirl

PRgirl: Simpaticon, you should not be shortening your lifespan. Not for anything in this world. Most certainly not for a job that doesn't make you feel you are doing something you always wanted to do your whole life.

Unfortunately I never really found what I always wanted to do. I suppose most people don’t. However I sometimes think I might like to have been a property developer, when I was younger I remember seeing disused factories (this was in Manchester) that were converted into flats and being quite impressed by it. There are some good example is Glasgow too.

Originally Posted by PRgirl

My father SE, was such a playful MAN!! He made me laugh and dance and was creative and funny and so naturally affectionate. And so ACCEPTING. He was a boy in his way all his life!! His best friend and he were older mature men, but they enjoyed each other like two imps still young getting dirty in some horseplay in the backyard or something.

Sad to say, but not really how Scots would behave. Perhaps it is our Calvinist inheritance, but we have a ‘not here to enjoy yourself’ philosophy of life. Although maybe I am exaggerating a bit, perhaps it is not quite that bad!

Originally Posted by PRgirl

PRgirl: Hmm, SE. You were highly fortunate you traveled a lot as a kid. Most of the traveling we did as a family was due to political activities and community commitments. My mother was an expert on multicultural education. As such she got contracts for work at interesting projects in education such as many Native American cultures trying to preserve their native ways and integrate modern curricula with ancient traditions. It made my growing up years a study in cultural anthropology natural. I met the Dine (the Navajo), the Blackfoot Lakota, the Hopi, and the Apache, the tribes from many parts of North America and the tribes from South America and many other parts of the Americas.

Seems like you were more fortunate than I was! I didn’t do anything a hundredth as interesting. Sometimes when driving through France (on route to Spain) my dad would chip in with bits of local history (usually about the second world war). We passed through Lyon in France and he would tell us about Klaus Barbi (a member of the Gestapo known as The Butcher of Lyon), but that was about it.

Originally Posted by PRgirl

My mother in fact was the ex-president of her chapter of her party in New York City many decades ago.

Is your mother from New York?

Originally Posted by PRgirl

Hasta la vista. Muchos besos Senor. Simpaticon y guapo que eres!! Translate it SE. Big kiss.

I translate it as: See you soon. Much kisses mister. You are Sympathetic & handsome!!

Am I close?

Adios & que tengas un buen dia

[PRgirl]

Originally Posted by TheScottishEconomist

Hi Vida, sorry for the lateness of my reply, usual excuse: work is to blame! I did leave the office early todat though.



I was reading Anthony Burgess biography not that long ago (called Big God and Little Wilson), and took a particular interest in what he said about his Catholicism. Burgess was totally unimpressed by Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene because they were converts and not cradle Catholics like he (and James Joyce) were. When I think of the influence Catholicism has had on writing, I cannot feel too negative towards it. What would A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man have been like without Catholicism? Obviously indoctrination isn’t a good thing, but let us not overlook the positive aspects! Having said that my parents were not really indoctrinators either.

PRgirl: SE, my husband thinks being raised in an RC nation is cultural legacy more than anything else. And as such it is different. ( I also think he doesn't like people raised with Protestant values a la Max Weber's version. God judging you by how much work and money you make is anathema to the vows of poverty no matter how hipocritical a lot of RC clergy truly are.) My husband practices yoga and is interested in spiritual themes. But he is not into religious dogmas of any sort. Though I see some hangups that are about being raised in a Catholic household coming out once in a while. He went to a Roman Catholic university in Puerto Rico and he suffered a lot of class discrimination due to it. Yet, the best 'professors' were RC nuns and priests who were always questioning church doctrine. One of his favorites was a nun from Spain with three doctoral degrees in Philosophy, History and Theology. Hmm.

While on the subject of religion, do you ever watch Southpark? They did a good episode where the pseudo religion of Scientology is mocked:

http://www.scientomogy.com/stopscien...cientology.php

I think that episode was banned in the UK due to Tom Cruise threatening to sue or some such thing, I watched it online.



Unfortunately I never really found what I always wanted to do. I suppose most people don’t. However I sometimes think I might like to have been a property developer, when I was younger I remember seeing disused factories (this was in Manchester) that were converted into flats and being quite impressed by it. There are some good example is Glasgow too.

PRgirl: Hmm. Maybe you should reconsider a career in property development Senor. I like the "Loft" feeling too. BTW, I redid my kitchen and am broke. Literally broke. Anything in which moving heavy things, repositioning and getting brand new whatever is a drain on the finances. But my house looks much better. New carpeting in the bedrooms, new paint, new dishwasher, new sinks, new countertops, new cabinets, new paint, new wall tile, new paint in bathroom, new sink and faucets, etc. Cost a fortune!! But I painted my kitchen with a rich dark red, a lovely subtle pale green and bright mango yellow, I put three dimensional salsa dancer frames on the wall and so on. I bought new sheets, new curtains for the laundry room. You add it all up it is a small fortune!! But, the kitchen is cool!! People go in and see it and say "I feel like I am in some tropical paradise ready to eat something great!" There is color in my home! Everywhere. Colorful walls, furniture, art, music...so many people say, "It is like you left the USA and entered another world. You expect something to come alive in here." I am so pleased.



Sad to say, but not really how Scots would behave. Perhaps it is our Calvinist inheritance, but we have a ‘not here to enjoy yourself’ philosophy of life. Although maybe I am exaggerating a bit, perhaps it is not quite that bad!

PRgirl: What are you here for then? To suffer and feel guilt at every pleasure in life? Oh, I feel guilty for eating such rich food. For having such passionate sex? For dancing too much or something? I don't know about that thinking. It is critical to be mature and responsible and hard working SE, but it is also critical to enjoy the pleasures to be had in life. Otherwise you feel you aren't really living. It is true. The little daily pleasures and enjoying those is what makes you want to keep living. If you take those away....you start feeling down. Don't let the pleasures die off SE.



Seems like you were more fortunate than I was! I didn’t do anything a hundredth as interesting. Sometimes when driving through France (on route to Spain) my dad would chip in with bits of local history (usually about the second world war). We passed through Lyon in France and he would tell us about Klaus Barbi (a member of the Gestapo known as The Butcher of Lyon), but that was about it.

PRgirl: Oh, SE, talk about drama, excitement, intriguing happenings, events and conversation that is deeply satisfying most if not all of the time? Yes, that is a good description of my family life in a nutshell. For good or bad the drama was there all the time. Lol. If it wasn't politics, culture, art, music, dance or heated debate and arguments, it was rich landscapes, and so much more...so much more. I loved it.



Is your mother from New York?

PRgirl: Mom was born in a small town named Naranjito, Puerto Rico. My grandparents were forced to move in 1947 to New York City due to the promise of work. My mother grew up partly in New York City. Hated it. Though my mother is a bit of a New Yorker in many ways. Mostly her ability to drive in crazy traffic in big huge metropolises like NYC, Mexico City, Los Angeles and the like. Be fast and business like, and being able to get a lot done in a short amount of time. But she hates all that urban rush and so on. Though she likes all the cultural diversity of New York. The variety of nationalities and languages...all mixed in...together and yet different. Interesting. My grandparents retired from their jobs and went back to Puerto Rico and never wanted to be reminded of their 'sweat shop' years in New York City. Neither learned much English and were totally uninterested in becoming 'Americans'. To my maternal grandmother especially SE, NYC, was a big gray, cold, urban hellhole filled with small cramp apartments, crime, drugs, bad wages, and struggle. She longed for the tropical and warm hills of her native town...and was glad to see the last of her days in New York City. She scrimped and saved for years in order to be able to buy a nice home in White Plains, New York, and the American "neighbors" threw bricks through her house for renting the second floor to some Puerto Ricans who the 'neighbors' thought were African Americans, since they 'looked' Black to them. She thought people in the USA were basically weirdos without any social skills. And you had to be nuts to want to live in some cramp city, in tiny apartments paying a fortune and living with a bunch of people who you can't even speak the same language to and whom are if assimilated a bunch of racists. That is how she thought of it. Lol. My Dona Paquita was your typical immigrant in her longing for her native soil. NYC was just a depot station on the way back to her homeland. A means to survive. Many immigrants in NYC see NYC the same way.



I translate it as: See you soon. Much kisses mister. You are Sympathetic & handsome!!

Am I close?

Adios & que tengas un buen dia

Pretty close. And another big kiss!

PRgirl.