ego, Eggo, ergo, eager. Edgar

Keenly aware am I, that most people begin a blog entry with an IDEA. But I didn't have an IDEA, so I began with a title. I typed five words - ego, Eggo, ergo, eager, Edgar. Let's see if I can do anything interesting with those five words. You tell me how I did at the end.

Oh, the ego. Try as I might, I can not let go of I, me, mine. All through the day, all through the night, I think about (and dream about) how things affect me and what impact I have on others. I work hard to develop a generosity of spirit and I practise random acts of kindness and I think I'm being - or becoming - a better version of myself. But oh, my ego. It will step up and demand attention. "What about me," my ego whines. I pout and allow myself to sink into that pathetic place where I once again convince myself that I should be somewhere else, chasing dreams I allowed to slip away when a younger face smiled back at me from mirrors I surveyed. Reboot! The more I focus on people and things outside myself, the happier I become. Will I ever defeat this battle of will with my SELF? Probably not. But I will continue to try.

This morning I had Eggo waffles for breakfast. The toaster must be carefully watched because I have had it forever and if left to its own devices, it will burn those waffles. Every time I look at my Williams-Sonoma catalog, I drool over an All-Clad waffle maker they offer for sale for the reasonable price of $199.95. Now you know why I don't own one! But I would love to make fresh waffles in the morning. But then, wouldn't I need freshly squeezed orange juice? And real maple syrup? Never mind. I'll stick with the Eggos. A few months ago, my local grocer had signs posted indicating that there would soon be a shortage of Eggos. If a time ever came when there were no Eggos available, I never noticed it!

Since I had already decided to write about the word ergo, with no good reason as to why, I found myself with a serious case of writer's block. So I did what all bloggers claim that they never do - I Googled. Disturbing find number one is ERGO, which stands for the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Association. Their website has lots of publications about assisted suicide. I don't have a problem with assisted suicide, provided I am being assisted by people I know and trust. But I'm not sure I am ready to trust other people with this authority. Disturbing find number two is Ergot of Rye, which is not really fair since it is an entirely different word, but I can't control what comes up in Google now can I!?! Anyway, one theory behind the hallucinations that became the foundation of the Salem witch trials, is that the rye used to make the bread had been infected with a fungus. When people ate the bread, they hallucinated. Because the community was very religious, people assumed the visions were the work of the devil. Scary stuff!!! (I bet you believed that the girls were purposely making false accusations and the others were just caught up in the frenzy and followed along like mindless robots. Silly, mean girls! That is the standard story.)

I'm eager to go on my vacation, which is still more than a month away. On Saturday morning I am getting my hair done, which will be a mini-vacation. Maybe I will see if I can get a massage too. I can't afford to get too relaxed though because I still have a lot of work to get done at the school. I'm eager to cook something yummy this weekend. I would love to make that chicken-sweet potato-black bean stew that I made a while ago. It was so easy. Maybe I will. Right this minute, I am eager to eat some dinner! Here are some synonyms of eager: desirous; gung ho; fervent; agog. I love the word agog.

I meant to place another comma after the word eager in the title of this blog entry. I accidentally put a period instead. So - Edgar stands alone. Edgar Allen Poe stood alone. He was an American author who dabbled in the macabre and helped establish the beginnings of the science fiction genre. Edgard Cayce was an American who claimed to channel spirits while in a self-induced trance. There is still a current organization, Edgar Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment, which seems to encourage the study of many different subjects, including Atlantis, dream interpretation, the Mayan calendar (especially the year 2012) and lots of other odd ideas. So, Edgard Cayce definitely stood alone! Edgar Degas stood alone because even though he was one of the first artists to be called an Impressionist, he rejected the term.

I am done, but I don't feel like I'm done. Okay, I will leave you with this last thought, which has nothing to do with anything that came before this:

Zen is not easy.
It takes effort to achieve nothingness.
And then what do you have?
Bupkes.
(Zen and the Art of Jewish Motorcycle Maintenance)

bunnies and eggs

It is Easter Sunday and I am watching CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, which is easily one of my favorite shows on television. I love the short stories on a wide variety of subjects. It might just be this show that has inspired me to produce my variety blog entries here. I like the idea of dropping little tidbits of information about related - or unrelated - subjects based on a common theme. Today's theme is bunnies and eggs - a very Eastery subject!

I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons while my Mom and sister slept in a bit. Happily eating my bowl of Captain Crunch cereal - as much as I wanted, because nobody was there to stop me - I enjoyed the Fintstones, Top Cat, Hanna-Barbera (remember Pennelopi Pittstop?) and, of course, the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner duo. Bugs Bunny was (is) a wise-cracking smarty-pants who easily outsmarted any and all enemies. For a kid who was always picked last for basketball, I liked the idea of this independent character who casually handled any and all comers. Come to think of it, the Road Runner had a similar theme. I wonder if the creator of these cartoons was always last to be picked for basketball too?

I sent this image to quite a few of my work colleagues yesterday. Every time I look at it, I laugh again. Mom always looked for chocolate bunnies for our Easter baskets. She wanted white chocolate for herself. And she wanted solid chocolate - none of those hollow bunnies for our family! We had standards! When my son was little, I didn't have a lot of money, particularly during the years that I wasn't receiving child support. So, I bought a pretty basket and used it every year, adding new "grass" and lots of candy and small inedible treats like temporary tattoos and race cars. Sam was easy to please. As long as he could gorge on candy and Peeps, he was delighted. I still have his basket, even though he is almost 23.

Anne Geddes has a way of capturing the absolute sweetness of babies and young children. I love this baby in a bunny suit. The baby looks positively delighted. Wouldn't you like to have a bunny suit like this? Or is there some other costume you'd rather wear?


Because my family lived in Japan for ten years, our homes always contained multiple Japanese objets d'art. The image to the right really appeals to me because it is obviously Japanese, but also because there are dozens of bunnies hidden in it. In Japanese tradition, bunnies live on the Moon. The dark patches on the Moon are said to resemble a standing rabbit who is pounding on a mortar to produce mochi, a sticky rice snack. I like the idea of hiding things in conspicuous places. I always enjoyed Where's Waldo, for this reason. And I will confess that I frequently play hidden image computer games.

I love to read about artists or computer programmers who hide images or words in places. These are referred to as Easter eggs. (You were wondering when I would get to the eggs, weren't you!) Bruce Plante is a cartoonist who deliberately hid his mother Nina's name somewhere in almost every cartoon he drew. He later said that he regretted having done this because people seemed to look at his cartoons only to find the hidden Nina, rather than to absorb the message of the cartoon. Sometimes these Easter eggs are accidental. Can you spot the three actual Easter eggs that can be found in scenes in The Rocky Horror Picture Show? The crew had an egg hunt during the filming of the movie and a few eggs were missed! Then there are the hidden Mickey Mouse images that can be found on every Disney property. I took Sam on a Disney cruise when he was young and he and his friend spent the entire cruise looking for the hidden Mickeys on that ship. It was amazing how many of them were there! Can you spot the hidden Mickey in the picture on the left?

What bunny or egg thoughts popped (or should I say peeped) into your head while you were reading this? I hope your Easter is filled with the promise of rebirth and finding truths that have been hidden to you up until they are gloriously revealed to you today!