Deja Vu Blogfest

I'm participating today in DL Hammons DEJA VU BLOGFEST

This is a unique fest where we repost a favorite "blog offering from earlier in the year, or one that you believe failed to receive the exposure it deserved."

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Okay, I'm going back in time, back to 2009 to my post called

What is the Sound of One Heart Breaking?

(I have made a few editorial changes which are in blue.)

Listen.

As we peruse pictures of the president's dog, as we read the latest celebrity gossip, as we whine about how much we want this, that or the other, as people starve, as people make war, as people discuss the ramifications of global warming, as we chew our nails over swine flu....(Ebola) even as we write for children and hope for publication...

While all of that is going on and a million other things...

Listen.

In one place in the northern Pacific (and other places in the Pacific and in the Atlantic too) there is a mass of floating island of plastic debris. It is twice the size of Texas. It is growing. (And still growing.)

Listen.

I don't know what to do. I am ashamed of humanity. I am ashamed of our lack of caring, our blindness, our ignorance which is no excuse.

Listen.

This is the sound of one heart breaking.

She is weeping because she doesn't know what to do and she is ashamed.

http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2009-01-29-68584.113117_The_great_garbage_swirl.html#123

http://www.deepfried.tv/news/default.cfm?ID=1516

http://dannycoleman.blogspot.com/2008/07/great-pacific-garbage-swirl.html

http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com/2009/04/garbage-swirl-in-pacific-twice-size-of.html

Listen.

This is the sound of one heart breaking.

It is Earth's heart.

Listen.

Listen as she breaks.

Plastic DOES NOT biodegrade. It just gets smaller and smaller and smaller. It has been found in the bellies of whales. It has been detected in the stomachs of the smallest sea creatures, creatures that are food for larger creatures, who are creatures we may well eventually eat. It will kill them, it will kill us. We are shitting in our own nest and eating it too.

If you don't believe me, how about this little video from National Geographic?

Reduce, reuse, recycle. Fight against plastic.

Seven Deadly Sins of the Literary World

DL Hammons of Write Club fame (if you haven't heard of The Write Club you've been living in an alternate universe) has tagged me with this interesting "game." All I have to do is answer the seven questions! 

SO... here we go.

Greed – What is your most inexpensive book? That would have to be any and all books that have been given to me, particularly  books I got as a child. I still have quite a few of them. Here's a sample.

The bottom three, left to right are Grimm's Fairy Tales, Andersen's Fairy Tales, and Irish Fairy Tales.

Wrath – Who’s the author with whom you have a love/hate relationship? I can't think of any anyone. I'm one of those people where it's pretty cut and dry. If I like an author I'll read his/her stuff. If I don't, I won't. Although... I do remember, as a teen, throwing T. S. Eliot across my bedroom when I tried to read "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." It was way too depressing for my taste.

Gluttony – What book have you devoured over and over again with no shame? There are a few... Islandia, by Austin Tappan Wright, Call of the Wild, by Jack London, The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde's fairy tales... 

Sloth – Which books have you neglected reading due to laziness? I read all the time, but I'm a slow reader so it's more about prioritizing than being lazy. What's happening is that I feel guilty because there are A LOT of books by fellow bloggers I would like to read and review but they are languishing in my teetering stack of books by my bed or becoming buried in the extensive library on my Kindle. Help! Any suggestions?

Pride – What books do you talk about most in order to sound like an intellectual reader? Not that I do but I could say I've read a bit by Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and Joseph Campbell. I could also throw out names like P. D. Ouspensky and George Gurdjieff. Or how about Alexandra David-Neel, the first European white woman, disguised as monk, to sneak into Tibet and reach Lhasa way back in 1924. There are many others, but there's no point. I still don't consider myself an intellectual.

Lust – What attributes do you find attractive in a male or female character? I'll go with one name, Aragorn.

Envy – What book would you like to receive most as a gift? What about a signed first edition copy of Islandia, or The World of Pooh, or The Wizard of Oz, or Call of the Wild, or Lord of the Rings? Christmas is coming folks... email me and I'll send you my address. :)

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you'd like to answer these interesting questions, feel free! I'm passing it on to all of you.