“Pattern Recognition,” by William Gibson

   I’m not a Luddite, but by the same token I’m not a technophile.  So, while Willaim Gibson has written his first book to be based in the current era, much of it is slightly “ahead” of me.   However, Gibson’s strength is in characterization, and that has drawn me to all his books, future or present.

The protagonist of “Pattern Recognition” is Cayce Pollard, a woman who “knows” what styles are going to be cool, and makes a living with this knowledge, advising businesses and people.  “What people take for relentless minimalism is a side effect of too much exposure to the reactor-cores of fashion.  This has resulted in a remorseless paring-down of what she can and will wear.  She is, literally, allergic to fashion.  She can only tolerate things that could have been worn, to a general lack of comment, during any year between 1945 and 2000.  She is a design-free  zone, a one-woman school of anti whose very austerity periodically threatens to spawn its own cult” (p. 8).   This means she has the logo ground off the buttons of her black Levi 501s.   Cayce is also a follower of “footage,” a movie (perhaps) that has been showing up on the internet, a few short clips at a time, which now has its own following and discussion groups.  Her life becomes particularly interesting when she is hired to find out who is creating this footage.

What I can relate to in this wonderful novel, is the place of the internet in her life.  Cayce has friends in other states, other countries, whom she has never met.  Very good friends.  And it is awareness of internet trends and current events that often help her connect with the physical people around her. 

I read this book because my husband ordered it for himself.   (Grad school pretty much broke me of the habit of buying fiction — no time to read it.)  Yet Gibson has reminded me again how fiction can mirror real life in a way non-fiction cannot always do.  This was one of those books I stayed up all night to read, and am glad I did.

[To read an excerpt from "Pattern Recognition," please go to http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/books/pattern  .]

Happy Autumn!

   In North America the first day of Autumn was on Sunday, 23 September.  That was the Autumn Equinox, when the hours of daylight and night are equal.  Now the nights are growing longer, and the days shorter.

This natural holiday is also called Mabon.  Mabon was a Celtic god, so ancient that only one story about him remains.  He was stolen from his mother when only three days old, and imprisoned until King Arthur’s knights rescued him.  At the request of the knights, he then led them on a hunt for the HUGE boar known as Tyrch Trwth (who figured in a linked story about a knight loving the daughter of a giant).  According to the book, Circle Round (authored by Starhawk, Diane Baker, and Anne Hill), this natural holiday is called Mabon because Mabon was hidden away from the light (like the growing darkness of Autumn).  I find myself wondering if it might have more to do with the traditonal hunting and slaughter of animals at this time of year, when the nights begin to cool and the meat can be hung to cure. 

I like to change various house decorations at the start of each new season.  So the night before I exchanged the Summer decorations and textiles (featuring suns, sunflowers, and pastels) for Autumn ones (featuring harvest fruits, grains, and Autumn colors).  The default incenses for the next three months will be rosemary, sage, basil, cinnamon, clove, apple, and frankincense.  I also have apple and pumpkin scented votives. 

On my altar, I’ve placed pieces of amber, citrine, copper, and a gold ring.  If I had them, I’d also add pieces of yellow topaz, peridot, bronze, and cat’s-eye.  I’ve also decorated it with cards from a tarot deck: Justice (for balance, harmony, and the ability to make adjustments), Judgement (to be aware of cause and effect, and for the harvest), Sun (to remember it’s warmth as the days grow shorter), and Three of Cups (for celebration at harvest). 

Many of those ideas above come from Christine Jette’s book, Tarot For All Seasons.  She also explains a fine tarot spread called Balance of Power, wherein you look at your strengths and weaknesses, are reminded about giving thanks, and examine issues about personal balance (which include finances and health).    While most of my cards were positive, issues were pointed out that I need to work on — the spread was very helpful.  The Ace of Rods (from the Hanson-Roberts Tarot) was one of the cards present in the spread.  I chose it to symbolize my affirmation for the next six weeks, which is: I have the power and creativity to get things done, while keeping my life in balance.    Am hoping I can live up to it.     

Do you celebrate Autumn?  What special things do you do for the season?

New Moon Card of Advice

I’ve written before about how I deal a tarot card at each New Moon to get advice about the up-coming moon-th ( http://judithornot.wordpress.com/2007/05/16/new-moondark-moon/ ).  While I’ve written about the process of dealing a card and deciding on its meaning for the month, I have not often reported the results.  Did the card have meaning for that month?  What happened?

In May I dealt the Five of Wands from the Herbal Tarot (Tierra and Cantin, U.S. Games, 1993).  The general idea was to push myself, not get too comfortable, and be ready for change.  Since it came just after classes finished for the semester, there was quite a bit of change.  For one thing, I got to sleep late again.   :-)   The potential was there for me to get started on my thesis, but it didn’t work out that way.  I played — doing yard work, learning to knit, exploring ideas about what to do around the house.  I also read some books for fun (GASP!).   :-)     Looking back, there was conflict about how to manage my time.  My partner works graveyard shift, and I shifted my biological clock to more closely match his.  That meant being creative about what gets done and when (because most banks and stores are closed at 10 p.m.).  It was not an easy month.

In June I dealt the Page of Swords (http://judithornot.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/new-moon-in-gemini/ ).  The affirmation I created for that card and month was, “I sweep away negative thoughts to clear the way for a new reality.”  That was exactly what happened.  My boundaries of reality were enlarged, and I played with new ideas, new parameters for my life, and new ways of thinking.  It was an interesting month (in the good sense of the word).

In July I dealt the Ten of Pentacles (http://judithornot.wordpress.com/2007/07/16/new-moon-in-leo/ ).  One of the ideas about that card is to encourage the use of talents and knowledge for the greatest good.  It was interesting that during that month a friend asked me to help moderate her tarot discussion list.  I’ve gotten so much from the list over the years; it seemed appropriate to give something back (in the form of my time).  It was also during this time I made plans for work to be done in our yard and on the house (very much in the area of the Ten of Pentacles).

In August I dealt (but didn’t write about) the King of Swords reversed.  When I work with this deck, I see reversed cards as suggesting inner work.  The King of Swords is very good at seeing the truth in a situation, almost to the point of being harsh.  He is a very good planner.  It took me a while to figure out it was suggesting I examine and understand my own motivations.  It was a month of inner examination, understanding why I thought the way I did, and using intellect to make changes in my life.  I also went through a short period of depression, and the St. Johnswort associated with the card may have helped me overcome that to some extent.  My student loan money arrived, so I gave careful thought and planning on how it should be used this semester. 

On the West Coast of the U.S. the New Moon was at 5:44 am on Tuesday, 11 September.  I could wax philosophical about the need for the U.S. to make a new start regarding the events of a previous 11 September, but this is not the entry for that.  On a personal level, I dealt the High Priestess as my lense for viewing the events and ideas of this new moon-th.  The High Priestess is like a “virgin” goddess, in that she is complete in herself, not needing anyone else to make her whole.  She is aligned with the Moon, very aware of the cycles of life and the power of inner reflection.  She pays attention to intuition or messages from the collective unconscious, and manifests creativity (though not in the same way as the Empress).  So the suggestion is that I pay close attention to my intuition, with the idea of trusting myself, rather than looking to others for affirmation.  Whereas the King of Swords reversed was a very sharp examination of my inner work, the High Priestess is more about looking within and trusting what I feel.   (She is more associated with the Moon, and the element of water and feeling.)  Being one of the Major Arcana, there is also the suggestion some sort of psychological process is going on, something that is greater than and encompassing of the physcial, mental, emotional, and spiritual realms.  I feel calmly excited about this coming month.

Heirloom Plants

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth;
One is nearer God’s Heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
          — by Dorothey Frances Gurney

My mom was a gardner.  She loved her plants.  The first gift I gave her that I knew for sure she liked was an iron garden plaque with that poem on it.  Mom kept that as long as she could have more than just a few personal things around her. 

The plant above is a jade plant.  When I was a kid in Southern California, we had one of those growing in the ground, just outside the kitchen door.  It was almost three feet tall, with multiple branches and lots of those thick, green leaves.  They are absurdly easy to start — I think this one was a leaf that had been knocked off, laid on the ground, and begun to sprout.  Mom gave it to me, I stuck it in a little pot — and that was about 33 years ago.  After moving to Northern California it lived indoors, so it grew very slowly.  So slowly, it was still in a smallish pot on a window sill until about two years ago, root bound but still alive.  When I put it in this bigger pot, it took off.  Am thinking of giving one of the pups (that have sprouted from its base) to our son.

Even after Mom sold the house and moved into a series of apartments, she always had the bevy of potted plants that moved with her.  Most notable were the night blooming cirrus, the plumerias, and the amaryllis plants.  The night blooming cirrus was in the ground at her house, and when she sold the house she dug out the cirrus and brought it with her.  I have memories of going out at midnight with a flashlight to see it bloom.  My sister brought her the plumeria from Hawaii . . . just sticks!  Mom planted them and coddled them, and was so proud when they leafed out and eventually bloomed.  They smelled wonderful.    When Mom finally moved into a place where she couldn’t have her plants, my nephew’s wife took them in.  I would have loved to have them, but they wouldn’t have done well in Northern California (too foggy and cool here), and they were too big to keep inside.  I hear they are doing well, and that makes me happy.

It is interesting how Mom being a gardner has influenced the way I am.  For one thing, I rarely kill spiders, because “spiders are our friends” — they eat the unwanted bugs.  So I learned to carefully coax them onto a paper towel and take them outside.  I don’t know a lot about gardening myself, but every once in a while when talking with friends about plants, some helpful fact pops out of my mouth, usually something I didn’t even realize I knew.  I notice plants in yards or parking lots, and their names pop into my head.  Mom’s yard was always so lush and full of plants, she could have stocked a nursery.  Am told our grandmother, Mom’s mom, was also a gardner.  Instead of a front lawn, they had rows and rows of plants, and when you came to visit, you spent an hour walking through her garden, learning how each plant was doing, before you ever got into the house.  So it seems appropriate that I should have such a love of nature, and be concerned with environmental issues.  Even my spiritual path is nature based, something I think Mom would approve of.

Most everyone I know has some heirloom(s) from their families: photos, or jewelry, or guns, or whatever.  Not many have heirloom plants.  Do you?

To go grey . . . or not?

   In the September 10 issue of “Time” (which has a great updated image of the “We Can Do It!” poster on the front cover), there is an article by Anne Kreamer, “The Gray Wars” (pages 71-74).  In the grand tradition of intelligent baby boomers, she has written a book about what began as her personal decision on whether or not to color her hair: Going Gray: What I Learned About Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Matters.  I haven’t read this book, but I think I’m going to. 

In the “Time” article, she writes about the research she did on how people perceive grey hair (yes, I spell it using the English version).  There are photos of six currently famous people, shown with and without grey hair, and the results of how people perceived them.  Are they more or less attractive?  Intelligent?  Believable?  Distinguished?  The bad news: they were generally found less attractive.  However, the results on the other three attributes were mixed.   In her article, Kreamer also writes about how defensive people can be about their decision to color or not color their grey hair, and likens it to the days of 1960s and 70s feminism, when women were debating whether it was better to go out and work or stay home with the kids.  The part that really encourages me, however, was the research she did on Match.com.  She did one posting of herself with grey hair, and then three months later a posting of herself with brown hair.  The grey won.  “…in New York City, Chicago and … Los Angeles, three times as many men were interested in going out with me when my hair was gray as when it was dyed … Maybe the men sensed that if I was being honest about the color of my hair, I’d be more accessible and easier to date.  Or maybe the gray made me stand out from the overwhelming majority of Match.com women my age who color their hair” (p. 74). 

Yes, I have grey hair, or at least 30% of it is grey.  And the other 70% is more brown than it was in my youth (when it was so dark it was almost black).  I read somewhere that lighter shades are more flattering to aging faces, so I take solace in that.  My dad and his mother went grey early; it seems I’ve taken after them.  I did try to color my hair when I was in my 40s, but I’m allergic to peroxide, and my hair won’t take color without it.  My body made the decision to go grey for me, without a lot of soul-searching and philosophical debate.  There is still angst, though.  When my mom died at the age of 83, she had less grey hair than I did at 48.  (On top of that, she always looked 10-15 years younger than her age — naturally.)  Going grey has been difficult for me, because I didn’t see my mom do it.  I have no graceful mentor to follow.   

On top of that, my hair is long.  Waist-length.  I’ve had short hair (twice) in the last 12 years, and it looked really good, but I finally decided I like it long.  Years ago there was an older woman with a long, grey braid of hair who rode around town on her bicycle (vigorously).  I saw her and thought, THAT’S what I want to be like when I get older.  For my mom’s generation, when you got older (and especially if you went grey) you cut your hair.  Yet I see more older women with long hair now (grey or not).  It looks beautiful.

Maybe going grey IS a political statement.  The Baby Boomers have had a huge affect on U.S. culture, and promoted the “cult of youth” as we moved through our teens and young adult years.  As we move into our silver years, perhaps it is time to reinstate the idea of respect for older people.  To be proud of our experience and knowledge (learned the hard way).  One way to do that is to let the world see how many of the people we admire have grey hair.  Grey hair is a part of life, and perhaps it is important to accept it as part of the cycle of nature.  Maybe I’m providing a role-model for someone else.  Maybe, as a therapist-in-training, it is easier for me to build a good relationship with my clients because I have grey hair, and am seen as someone with life experience.

In the end, it is a personal choice, and one we all make for different reasons.  I fully support any person who goes grey AND those who color their hair, just as I do the women who work outside the home AND the women who work at home with the kids.  It is important to make your own choices.  Meanwhile, it is interesting to think about the choices available, and to understand why we choose what we do.