May 09, 2011

Apologies

This in answer to a friends comment to my last post.

You said it was pointless to be writing about the minutiae of one woman's life in these turbulent and dangerous times, with North Africa and the Middle East in turmoil, and the forces of nature in wild tumult.

It is precisely for that reason that I do NOT add more doom and gloom to the world.

Therefore, friend, I skipped the opportunity to post that I am recovering gradually with the help of a friend that will be living with me until my trip to Paris at the end of the month.

However, this IS insignificant in comparison to the weeks dominated by the cataclysmic events happening around the world. As a friend noted, nothing in his previous experience of working in disaster zones could have prepared a staff for dealing with an earthquake, followed by a tsunami, rising radiation levels and a potential nuclear meltdown.

As I have watched these ghastly events with growing disbelief trying to find compassion in my heart but wondering what, sensibly and practically, I could do with it, I came to belief that the humorous take on the minutiae of one woman’s life might be an antidote. Perhaps I misjudged.

I DO know that people are going through hard and painful times. This weekend someone I love very dearly told me sad and distressing news and I have been wandering around in that place of ice and lead where shock dwells. Thank goodness for the balm of friendship, books, music and indeed a sense of humor.

In times of disaster and upheaval, I try not to describe individual and collective feelings by grappling to find words, phrases, or sentences that smack of clichés.

Respectfully,

18 comments:

Ms. Capshaw said...

Friends have a way to throw you a curved ball now and then, I have never understood why.
Please be assured, that I enjoy your posts precicely because they are humorous. And I know you post these for the reason you describe above. I do hope that you will not feel inclined to stop keeping me, and many others, from smiling.
Thank you.

Jane (Edinburgh) said...

I absolutely understand your friend’s sentiment about blogging when such turmoil is going on and people are suffering such huge losses.
We all matter though – and the sunshine that your tongue-in-cheek posts bring into our home brightens our days.

Tartanscot said...

'More and more it seems to me that whatever else we engage with in life, it is from the well of friendship that comes our most abiding joy.'
Peter Owen Jones, Anglican clergyman

Karen (SAG) said...

I have family guests staying. What have they been doing?
Reading your posts and having the time of their lives!
Don’t you dare stop posting.

your gaggle of fans (CT) said...

At every step, you make us digress.
And we love it so please do not stop!

Baldur v. O. said...

In a sort of asteroid belt of low-grade, narrow, and petty, blogs there was room for something really enjoyable to happen. THIS.
Thank you, don’t stop, please.

frenchtoast said...

Dommage! et Tant pis!‎

CandC Lake Tahoe said...

Your blog is such an amusing find to lighten what might otherwise be a world full of disasters, depressing wars and cruelties of all kinds.
Thank you, please continue.

Alistair said...

A Fanfare for my friend.
With much love.

Felix said...

SMILE Ms.Edna:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

I hope this cheered you a little amid all the gloomy and troubling news.

Anonymous said...

Well, that's just rotten. I don't understand why people do things like that. Grrrr.

rambling on said...

A couple of snarky comments of mine about "your sexy post"(now removed) went into the black cyberhole. No need to post them if they show up.

Unknown said...

One of the most positive aspects of blogging is the new dimension it has brought to the nature of friendship, as we, and many others have discovered.
Don't let the curmudgeon get you down.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this tribute to your friend and to online friendship.

Bill (SM) said...

My brain is too slow and my skin too thin for me to engage in those discussions, but I love to observe them! I can always think of something smart to say two or three days after - it was ever thus.

Anja said...

While criminals cannot plead stupidity as a defence, I wonder what the position of your lawyer friend is?

ucla meds said...

I salute this blog, and Ms Edna the lovely woman at the keyboard. You are a treasured virtual friend.

NO apology needed said...

In defence of Ms. Edna:
“Each human being has the eternal duty of transforming what is hard and brutal into a subtle and tender offering, what is crude into refinement, what is ugly into beauty, ignorance into knowledge, confrontation into collaboration, thereby rediscovering the child’s dream of a creative reality incessantly renewed by death, the servant of life, and by life the servant of love.”
-Yehudi Menuhin