MIERCOLES MUDO: Chilly Dog

Have Spiders For Friends?

I'm all for personal development. Getting over fears. Stepping into rather than away from challenges. Yet, there are two fears I can say with confidence that you will NEVER see me attempt to conquer: heights and spiders. Sure I've heard of people jumping out of planes and getting cozy with spiders to make them friends, but me thinks no thanks. Never. Nunca. Jamais!  It's against the natural order of things.

How about micro exposures? Isn't that how most phobias are challenged. Fear of crowds? Hang out in a lobby. Fear of snakes? Hang out at the zoo. Fear of spiders?

Spiders of Massachusetts

Maybe exposing myself by viewing spiders in a safe environment like on a computer screen could help me along? Nothing crazy there. Why not try it?

So I googled "spiders in Massachusetts," and low and behold there's a beautiful page with photos dedicated to the 39 species of spiders living in my state, about 38-37 more than the couple types I've seen since moving here (and a Facebook and Google+ link in the event you want spiders in your social network and circles). I thought that maybe scrolling through the photos and reading about them might help me be less fearful … here are some noteworthy key words:

"Mature females are enormous …"
"This robust spider …"
"Spin dense, non-sticky, sheet-like webs, with a funnel-like retreat where the spider hides [italics mine]."
"The circular webs are built close to the ground …"
"This striking patterned species is a wandering hunter …"

Lovely.

That's about as far as I could scroll -- the Six-Spotted Fishing Spider -- before my scalp tingled and I started to get that barfy feeling in my mouth. Is anybody else surprised to learn that spiders go fishing?

How to Overcome the Fear of Spiders

Thought I'd share this uber visual article on How to Overcome the Fear of Spiders for any of you who would like to attempt facing your spidery phobia. I could barely get through the illustrations. It's not a rational reaction, I know, but turns out seeing them on the screen is as real to me as seeing them in person.

Do you have a fear of spiders? Or have you gotten over a fear of them? How did you do it? If you're not afraid of them (lucky you), why not?

Please share your logic!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Paletas Y Patínes

PALETAS Y PATÍNES

by Ezzy Languzzi 

Paletas

Patínes

Veranos at home

Paletas

Patínes

We were never alone

Paletas

Patínes

Hermanitas

We played

Each other’s company

Through the heat of the day

Tamarindo

Horchata

Jamaica

Limón

Paletas de jugo

Chilled us to the bone

Side by side on the curb

Our futures unknown

Paletas

Patínes

We longed to be grown

The butcher

The workers

The gang members, too

Watched as we skated
Through
The afternoon

¡No Más!

I think that pretty much sums it up. Even the dog is sad.

Who Gets To Say Who's 'Proud To Be'?

Teaching Tolerance is an educational organization founded by the Southern Poverty Law Center that raises social awareness in classrooms through its free resources. They shared this two-minute video on their Facebook page this past Sunday. The clip was posted by Films For Action. It's short and powerful. If you are someone who "doesn't get why some people are so angry" over the use of the name (racial slur) "Redskins" for a football team's mascot, please watch it a couple times and sleep on it.  Then watch it again.

Unfortunately the National Congress of American Indians did not have the funds to pay to air this spot. I wonder what the reaction might've been had it aired given the vitriol to hit social media over the Coca-Cola spot.

Take the time to read the comments. Then sleep on those, too. And read them again. I've included one below.

How does one reason with someone who's incapable of empathizing or acknowledging that by virtue of their unearned privilege they get to call the shots, so to speak? It's the very thought process (or silence) that has led to our country's history of racial injustice, not to mention the extermination of this land's indigenous people.

MIERCOLES MUDO: Es Importante Tener Sueños y Deseos

If I Had My Life To Live Over

Walden Pond (Concord, Massachusetts)

It's good to be reminded by someone who's lived a long life that our lives are finite. Yesterdays should stay where we've left them and tomorrows need not consume us with worry. What's important is what we choose to do in the here and now. Be in the moment. Enjoy family and friends. Make memories.

We read this poem in one of my classes last summer and it's stuck with me.

TED Talk: The Danger of A Single Story By Chimamanda Adichie

This TEDTalk by Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie has surfaced three times since I started school. The first time I came across it was while doing research, the second time it was shared by the administrators at my internship and the third it was shown in my Multicultural Counseling class. That it's surfaced three times in as many years is a sign that I should share it with you, too.

The Story of Solomon Northrop, TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE

Solomon Northrop's memoir TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE is heartbreaking. The fact that his story is based on real life events makes it all the more difficult to read. The abuse he endures in the South after being kidnapped from the North is dehumanizing and will shock any rational reader's sense of justice.

Anyone who's read Emma Donohue's ROOM will know what I mean when I say that the last act of the book evokes similar feelings of desperation. The reader knows that he's rescued from the beginning, but it's the unpredictable and cruel nature of his last owner, Epps, that stresses the reader. Anything could happen.

I saw the Steve McQueen's film adaptation over the weekend. It's unlike any other movie I've ever seen about slavery in that it doesn't "make-nice" on the topic to make it more palatable for the mainstream. It's unflinchingly honest and well-done, albeit, tough to watch at times and is true to the memoir in its depiction of events and description characters

There's nothing romantic about the institution of slavery as some of our citizens would have us think. It's not something to be "gotten over," either.

It Snowed Again

 

"Expect a dusting," the weatherman, said.

Instead, snow dropped from the sky in heavy chunks.

"I'm going to make a snowman," my son said.

So, he did.

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