Understanding Through Lists?

Making lists is something I find very satisfying, though I don't tend to be an overly organized person.  But maybe that's why this article made some sense to me.  I really like the idea of itemizing every single thing that I do as a stay-at-home mom.  I get a lot of help and the roles in this family are definitely not typical (my husband does what a LOT of husbands don't), but a lot of what she said still rings true.  I don't think a list, or agreement, as she mentions, would really solve a lot of problems, but I think for me it might just help to clarify what I'm dealing with and help me to make sense of the life I now have and will have for the foreseeable future (with baby 3 on the way).  It's not what I expected, and I think that's a big part of what makes it hard.  Perhaps understanding just exactly what it is that I do all day would help me (and maybe my husband) understand how I feel about it...

Shape-shifting

After seeing a cousin's ten day old baby, I was reminded again of the magic of pregnancy and birth.  You look at a woman who has just given birth and you know that there isn't an empty space inside her where the baby used to be.  Her uterus has already shrunk back to its previous size and all of the organs have moved back into their normal positions.  But really, you can't help wondering how the baby you now hold was ever inside that magical body!  A friend just sent me this fabulous video, which shows how a woman's internal geography is dramatically altered as the baby grows and takes up more and more space inside her.  All of those organs that used to be comfortably spread out between your hips and your collar bone are now squished up underneath your ribs!  Not to mention the fact that in addition to growing a baby, your body is growing an additional organ (the placenta)! It's really just unbelievable!!

Making the Invisible "Visible"

I think I have always had an enormous capacity for wonder - there are some things that are just so wonderful and incredible and marvelous and (best of all) impossible that my mind just explodes when I think of them.  I just love that *gasp* feeling. 

We went to the AGO this weekend, which was completely fabulous.  There I saw a series of posters, and fell in love.  The artist, Janice Kerbel, works to make visible those things that can not be seen.  In this case, it is through words, graphically displayed and mind-bogglingly vivid, that she brings into your imagination, as plain as day, characters that are, quite plainly impossible. 

This is art I would LOVE to have on my walls, although I would have a hard time choosing just one of this series. I think that someday, when my library dreams come true, that would truly be the perfect place to hang something like this - printed as big as possible, of course.  Just to remind us that while a picture may be worth a thousand words, a few well chosen words can sometimes do more than even the most talented painter ever could.

I couldn't find a decent link to the whole series, so I just made a pinterest board with the images.  Hopefully it works that way.  The artist's name is Janice Kerbel and the series is called Remarkable.  Truly.

Lego as the Ideal Modern Toy

A very interesting article about the history of Lego and the role it has played in modern architecture and indeed the way we see the world as a whole.  It really does seem that Lego naturally expresses the modern philosophy really well.  The writer does a really good job of explaining this perspective in a few different ways and sort of telling the story of Lego through this lens. 

As a post-modern it seems to be my job to critique all things modern - what do I have to say about Lego?  Hm.  Perhaps that I was actually very pulled in to the argument and romanticism presented by this article - that Lego magically enables children to build without specialized tools, instructions or training.  The only limit is their imagination!  The recent photo featured in a Huff Post article (which I think I mentioned here, but here is that link) also embodies that idealized view of Lego.  Lego really is fabulous isn't it?

 

But I feel that I need to look through that shiny optimism to realize that that way of thinking isn't going to take us where we need to go, right?  I don't actually believe that the world is there to be recreated, made new, over and over again according to our personal and very limited ideas of progress and beauty.  I think of a certain oil-rich country, where money seems to be as plentiful as the sand in the desert surrounding it, which really does seem to allow for the realization of dreams.  There, you really can "make it new" as much as you want - when a road doesn't suit, or isn't standing up to wear, they just demolish it and build a new one.  It is very hard to see - SO much waste.  And this type of approach makes our needs, in fact, our whims, the determining factor, rather than any sense of what is actually good.   To see the world as a means to our personal ends isn't something I actually agree with.

 

 I DO believe in the taking apart part of the Lego process though - that we can look at what we've constructed, realize that it's something constructed and not something real (and I'm not just talking about Lego here) and let go.  It's not to say that the construction was a waste of time, or something fake and therefore useless.  I think that as long as I can see it more for what it is - as an expression of an ideal, as an expression of a way of seeing the world, I can still appreciate it as that - as something uniquely beautiful, valuable and an important part of creating meaning in the world.

And one last thought.  Here is a follow up article to the first about the Lego ad with the adorable little girl.  In this one they highlight just how much Lego has changed over the years, and it is problematic to me that the writer of the Walrus Lego article doesn't highlight this.  That Lego provides a "system of play" where, "equipped with imagination alone, the would-be builders were empowered to create, recreate, and dismantle anything", is not true of the Lego marketed towards girls today.  Instead, the pink versions of Lego involve very little building and even less creativity, where gender stereotypes are the limits, rather than the child's imagination.

Anyway, not sure I'm making any sense here, but thought I'd take a stab at it!  Probably overthinking it!  As usual...

Our Feminine God

Came across a really interesting article here - just a really brief reminder that the bible is SO wide open to interpretation.  "God is decidedly not an old man on a throne in the sky".  Woo hoo!

House Spouse - Mom or Dad?

As we continue to struggle through the land of gender roles and parenting, it's not hard to find an endless supply of opinions.  But there aren't too many that make me think the way this article did.  Last night on Modern Family, the mom is considering running for public office but worries to her husband about "who will take the kids to practice and recitals and keep them from burning down the house?!"  His response is golden: "Oh! It must be so hard to live as a single mom... I will take care of it!"  Not to make light of being a single mom, or a woman in a marriage with a husband who doesn't contribute to raising their children or maintaining the household, but his comment is exactly like something my husband would say.  Let's just remember that I have it pretty good - actually REALLY good.  We can't forget that each family is different - hen it comes to day to day life, it's less important what is the case statistically, and more important what is the case in my family.  But it's still very interesting, inspiring and indeed sometimes a huge relief to realize that you're not alone, and there is someone out there who is thinking about, and making sense of, the exact situation you find yourself in.

Paper Dresses Taken to a Whole New Level

WOW!  That's really all there is to say to this.  I find it inspiring in so many ways: a mom spending time with her daughter just for fun, taking a little girl's obsession with fashion and using it in a hands-on way to learn skills, encouraging creativity, craftiness, silliness... Pretty great.