I'm reading a riveting book, The Lost City of Z. It's nonfiction, about "Colonel" Fawcett, intrepid explorer of the Amazon. He was the first European to dig into the Amazon with an anthropological slant.
He nearly died on an expedition when they'd desperately left behind most of their food. There was nothing to eat - or so they thought - and he joined the "Amazon is a green hell" club. Later, he learned how to approach the Indians there. Verrry, verrrry carefully.
And what happened to Colonel Fawcett? Nobody living knows for sure, although it's likely that he was murdered by Indians. Did he find El Dorado? Maybe.
The fantastic thing to me is how for centuries, no one believed the natives of South America capable of sustaining a large civilization. I suppose they completely forgot that the Europeans had walked in on those broad stone boulevards leading to the many cities, covered with all kinds of fatal germs that killed off most of the population.
This is a ripping good yarn. Two thumbs up.
I also have a book waiting for me on Teddy Roosevelt's rumble in the jungle, his 1914 expedition to the Amazon. He didn't finesse it as well as the Colonel, but then again, he did manage to make it out alive.
---------------
Dylan, Dylan, Dylan, Dylan
He's sitting on the desk right now, giving himself a much-needed bath. He's 99% recovered from his illness and is more than ever the cat I love. He's gone back to a lot of his old habits - cuddling up with me at night, finding me in the morning, jumping on me and demanding affection. This is the Dilly of old and I can't believe how much I missed him.
I also realize guiltily that Katy had been sick for much longer than I initially thought.
Other cats act a little freaky when there's a dying cat in their midst.
But everybody's pretty much back to usual now. Boris wants up on the counter in the morning. Gus finishes his breakfast and sits next to the couch going meowmeowmeow until I go over, pick him up and we do Gussy Cuddle Time.
It's good.
-----------------------------
I make the NY Times
I commented as "Nikki".
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/your-open-house-horror-stories/?scp=1&sq=open%20house&st=cse
-------------------
Angry? Moi?
I'll probably be writing about this some more.
I have finally acquiesced to WolfWoman's diagnosis of me as an angry person.
A couple of weeks, I was talking about the rusted-shut iron box I lugged around with me. Pondering over the last couple of days, I solved the mystery. What's inside it is all kinds of anger, rage, and fury. And as it turns out, it was not as tightly sealed as I had thought.
Rest easy in the fact that I do not believe in the "go ahead and let it all explode! Get it out there!" school of thought. Now that I see it, I realize that throughout my life, it's been shooting out fireworks and stars and bullets. But now that I see it, I hope I will be better able to control it.
Yes, of course, I bought a couple of books about it. It isn't real unless there's a book about it in the house.
So far as I understand it, anger is (among other things) what happens when my expectations don't match what can reasonably be expected and what does happen.
I know that there are people who are addicted to anger, who like to pick fights, who don't care who they hurt as long as they get that adrenaline rush. My mother was that kind of person.
Conversely, despite hurting people and scaring the living hell out of them, she still expected people to love her. She needed a lot of loving but had managed to sabotage herself to the point where only people with tranquilizer guns would get near her. It makes me feel sorry for her.
What I haven't run into yet is an examination of baby rage. I imagine that I started to be really angry when I was less than a year old, because I think I was probably pretty scared most of the time. My parents split up when I was less than a year old and I have no doubt that I was a silent witness to a lot of loud fights and arguments.
Lots and lots to think about on this one. What I have learned is that exercise and meditation are good at releasing anger and also help keep it from even turning into anger.
Yep. Lots to think about on this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment