Take me home, country roads

I have just finished my second Tom Robbin's novel, Still Life With Woodpecker.  Reading this book was like being on a cyclical-emotional and somewhat bipolar journey. Parts of this book elated me, impassioned me, and left me feeling like life had a purpose.  Other parts brought on feelings that were like polar opposites of those feelings.  I appreciate literature that has a demigod-like ability to reach feelings inside me that are beyond the ostensible.  

I would discourage a reader to read the next part of my blog, if the reader has not read the book and desires to read it without the ending being spoiled.

In the end of the book, the main characters end up going home to Seattle and find comfort in the blackberry brambles that have grown an entrapment around their home.  I have recently returned home after being away for a short while.  When I was gone I missed home.  Now that I am home I miss being gone.  Sometimes my thoughts begin to contrive a journey back to Pennsylvania.   Minnesota may be the keeper of my hometown and close family, but I think Pennsylvania is the current keeper of my heart.  

I am not sure where my future will take me, but I will remain cheerful and enjoy the ubiquitous opportunities for joy that surround me in my current home.  Only the future will tell if this itch to return to my heart cannot be cured with calamine lotion and time, so for now I will not spend time analyzing it any further.

The Tempest

I must admit that, prior to this summer, I knew of Shakespeare only through play titles like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet.  However, I have recently discovered a great appreciation for his august plays and sonnets.  Shakespeare does for language what a winter wren does for bird song. Let me take this moment to commit to writing sonnets about the love stories of the animal kingdom.  To begin this process I will first read and research the sonnets of Shakespeare and others.  Then I will attempt to write some of my own to share.

Why sonnets, why love stories, why am I doing this?

I am a whimsical being.  I am a passionate being.  I believe in the importance of love to help humankind bring more meaning to his or her life.  I believe that the link between humans and the natural world has been broken.  By bringing to light the trials and struggles that love has brought to the animal kingdom, perhaps mutual understanding can be accomplished.  And besides this, the love lives of animals can be tragic, shocking, humorous, and/or touching.

But back to the title of this blog.  Tonight I had the great pleasure of attending Caponi Art Park's presentation of The Tempest.  This play was humorous and it touched on the moral f forgiveness.  And, not to mention, it is considered to be one of Shakespeare's late love stories.  I got to view Shakespeare's work as it was meant to be viewed: in an outdoor, round theater in the woods.  It was a beautiful Saturday evening and tall oak trees provided cover from the busy street of Diffley and the fiery heat of the setting sun.  I highly recommend this theater to any who are looking for an authentic experience.