'Night sky' southsidehappenings.blogspot.com
“Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.” Rita Mae Brown
I’m having a bit of a ‘Prof Brian Cox’ thing with the night sky at the moment. I keep stopping in my tracks, open-mouthed, and exclaiming, like a madwoman, about the moon, stars, clouds. In fact, I’m quite fascinated by the sky, day or night. Recent morning clouds have been particularly spectacular. Even today’s grey clouds steaming across the heavens are inspiring. Must be my age…
Take a look at The Cloud Appreciation Society website cloudappreciationsociety.org/ if you don’t believe me. There are clouds there to satisfy even the most jaded palate. Natural, harmless and free recycling at its best.
“At The Cloud Appreciation Society we love clouds, we’re not ashamed to say it and we’ve had enough of people moaning about them. Read our manifesto and see how we are fighting the banality of ‘blue-sky thinking’ “
No-one enjoys the company of the professional whingers, the emotional vampires who suck all the joy out of life. You know who I mean. But although I am a cheery optimist, a ‘glass is half full’ kind of gal, in general, I am also a realist. As ‘Noah and the Whale’ put it so poignantly:
“blue skies are coming but I know that it’s hard” (Blue Skies)
As the name of my blog suggests, I respect the light and the shade, the clouds and the silver lining. This may explain my somewhat late appreciation of Leonard Cohen. A friend at school was obsessed by ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’, whereas I found it far too gloomy. Nowadays, I admire Cohen’s sensitivity, honesty and insight. So thanks again to the inspiring gerryco23.wordpress.com/ for introducing me to ‘Anthem’,
“a reprimand to… life’s complainants, eroticists of disappointment, lovers only of what’s flawless and overwrought.” Howard Jacobson
Forget chasing “somewhere over the rainbow” for an impossible perfection; “There is a crack in everything”. But it is through these rifts, breaches and faults that the real beauty of the universe is revealed: a hopeful, tender and honest glimpse of our humanity, “warts and all”. It is the flaw that guarantees it is the genuine article.
So enough of wishing for blue-sky perfection. Sit back and relax, with Leonard and I, and enjoy the language of the thunderclouds…
sedsemperamor 