Clarity, vision, and brilliance: A Mother's Love, A Tuscan Holiday

There is an intensely beautiful work, a short story by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, in the February 2008 issue of "Vogue."  It has one of my favorite new sentences of all time...

"We didn't have many things, but she is warm and we were happy." 

To have written this, about her mother, conveys such immense love...and in such a concise manner. It seems that Lisa has brilliance, vision, and clarity: gifts that her parents, surely, have passed on to her. I look forward to more remarkable work; I think we are seeing just the beginning of a wonderful career (and life!).

  

The Whole Kithouse and Cabana

Kithouse, Cabana, Backhouse, Shed:  I did some research on these a while ago (around the time I was planning to pitch a permanent porch/tent in the backyard...have the design completely laid out & ready to go...see early April "Summer Camp" post for quick musings on this. Personal reality check: summer camp in the backyard will probably have to wait 'til next summer).

Anyhow, this blog post from Dwell really covers the bases, and highlights several of my favorite links (found whilst looking for porch/tent inspiration) to backyard sheds and shelters.  Also, see Shedworking from the U.K.: absolutely fabulous.  Don't miss this amazing Beach Hut monument in Barcelona, either.  Sweet.

Imagine there will be more on this later, as I am currently extraordinarily enamored of this concept.  Hope to throw a few Boathouses and Lanais in, too.

Purple Onion Cafe: Los Gatos, California

Run, don't walk, to the Purple Onion Cafe on Main Street in Los Gatos.  

(Additional option: ride your bike...it's just off the trail...)

Lisa's Coconut Cake:  Best. Cake. Ever.

Steve's Sandwiches and Salads: To Die For.

Also:  coffee from heaven, good newspapers, delightful ambiance + 

lots of other fabulous sweets and savories to tickle your taste buds.

GO!  NOW!

(Sorry, don't mean to be pushy, I just feel very strongly about this...perhaps this sort of behavior is why my sister called me "the girl with the definite opinion.")

Bliss and the Right Brain

Seems, at the moment, that all roads keep leading back to TED, which I had never heard about until a few weeks ago.  Here's a fascinating rumination on the possibly temporal nature of left-brain dominance in English speakers. Even has a soupcon of nirvana thrown in.

Good stuff, courtesy of Dr. Taylor.

Nam Le: The Boat

This looks like it is a must-read, if only for "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice." Wonderful article by Michicko Katutani in NYT. 

Nam Le, it seems, has written the story that had to be written.  Growing up, after my father came home from the war, I marveled at the trials of the Vietnamese "Boat People," (as they were called by the evening news), and it was clear, to me, that many of these men and women and children must be heroes. 

From my cushy little suburban perch, comfortably (albeit not without the trials of the middle-American high school student) ensconced in Northern Virginia, it seemed apparent that the world needed, one day, to truly remember and honor to these heroes, and the nightmares they lived through.  

I have always hoped that someone would tell the story--the right way--and pay the appropriate tribute to those who escaped (or did not) the horrors of that sad, turbulent time, so that generations to come might rightfully pay homage to those who lived (or did not) through it all.  

Seems that Nam Le has done just that.  Seems that "Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice" is the story, told the right way.  Seems like we should all begin to recognize that there are heroes in our midst.