copyright Bettina Network, inc. 2012
Such a discussion. We need to express sympathy to Larry Hagman’s family on his death. By all accounts he was a fun, lovely person who has done much good for those around him. We hope his soul rests in peace.
However, a breakfast conversation about Hagman was kind of different. Everyone was, at first, expressing what they had read in the media, heard from the media or saw on the internet. Somehow, the conversation turned to what Hagman was really about – looking at him from the perspective of the body of work he left behind.
The general expressions were about how skillfully and completely he had taken in an entire society and projected onto all of us a lethal kind of sexism, which influenced a generation of impressionable young people. How many are watching re-runs of “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Dallas?”
“I Dream of Jeannie” was a sitcom which I thought was cute, although I didn’t really watch more than one episode. It wasn’t described as “cute” around the table. Jeannie was described as a blond, Middle-Eastern belly dancer who was so into her inferiority and her role as fulfiller of this man’s needs, wishes and dreams that she even called Hagman ‘master’. It was a complete rolling out of a sit-com which fulfilled most mens’ dreams and which negatively paralleled the women’s movement – re-enforcing and making even worse, stereotypes which the women’s movement was trying to counter with an image of woman as equal. Was it coincidence that such a show was rolled out when the Women’s Movement was becoming an important force in American Society, Business and Culture?
“Jeannie” also parallels the stereotype of the Middle-Eastern male warrior dreaming about dying to reach his virgins. Jeannie herself, could very well be almost number one in that dream sequence – yet this was an American not a Middle-Eastern show. Hmmmmmmm!!
And then there was “Dallas”. Wow! This was the sit-com which made Hagman into a multi-millionaire on the backs of women – helping to make their lives difficult by depriving them of any vestige of equality, dignity, responsibility, etc., having to fight off other women falling all over themselves to hook up with the most machismo of men – looking to cash in on the power of the men in the show! It didn’t come in for any good comments. Nor did Hagman at this point. He lived well at a woman’s expense. May he rest in peace and the body of work he helped produce be buried with him.
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Poetry – Valerie Gillies
October 16th, 2012copyright 2012 Marceline Donaldson
We experienced a wonderful, brief, impromptu concert of troubador harp music by daughter accompanying her mother’s poetry recitation. It was a magical time. We thought we would share with you a small glimpse of Valerie Gillies’ poetry. She has several books of poetry, if you are interested and would like to read and know more about her work. “Her poems are rooted in an elemental world, and take from nature a lightness as well as a terrestrial substance. At the technical level her experiments with the musical dimension of poetry increase its diversity and resonance: she sees message and form as indivisible.”
They were in Cambridge for a Celtic Conference which brings in the most interesting, talented and gracious people. We look forward to their arrival every year.
copyright 2012 Valerie Gillies
FRUID WATER
Tune: “Logan Water”
“Fruid Water, furthest of all from the sea,
yours is the voice that means far more to me
than the salty wave flowing up the beach
of a great stretch of ocean I may never reach.
Little I care for foaming breakfers on the shore
or the surface calm that moves so much slower
if I hear your notes that are sweeter than the surf
of all the different waters of the earth.
I don’t need to see the whale or sea-wrack,
the flight of the gannet, the diving of the shag,
I long to watch your trout or your owl flying low,
on your banks I hear the sudden hooves of the roe.
Each of us finds that you can quench our thirst,
stream and surrounding terrain belong together from the first.
In the face of the light you become, through your quality,
like an eye reflecting us in transparency.
Huge masses of water roll in the oceans,
deep currents circulate, of gigantic proportions,
but where you flow freely and trickle over stones
you play with waves in rhythm, vibrate and sing along.
Out of vapour you have come back to liquid,
you return in your course every time to Fruid.
Evaporting, loop with air currents and precipitate:
between earth and heaven you mediate.
Your moving form issuing from the hills
twists in strands of water changed like turning veils;
they make a rope that spirals down the glen,
new water falling through it to refresh men.
I can tell by the current as it swirls along
where it comes from, what rocks cause its tensions,
and I praise your wave shape through which the water flows,
for they remain the same, and rarely go.
From “The Chanter’s Tune” a book of poetry by Valerie Gillies Published by Canongate Publishing Limited Edinburgh Scotland
Republished here with permission of the author/poet
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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!
[give_form id=”3763″]
______________________________________________________________
Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.
Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.
Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.
Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net
This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com
TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com
IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!
1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.
Tags: bed & breakfast, Bed and Breakfast in Cambridge MA, Bed and Breakfast in Harvard Square, Bettina Community Poetry, Harp and Poetry, Making Connections, Poetry, Valerie Gillies
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