701!

Good grief, how did I miss that? This is my 701st post which somehow doesn't sound nearly as dramatic as my 700th! At any rate, here we are nearly four years into this thing I call Camera Crazy. Seriously hard to imagine isn't it?

Actually I intended to title this post, "Tremendous", the word Matt used to describe Let the Great World Spin. Yesterday afternoon I completed this amazing novel which I can't recommend enough. There are parts that are so heart wrenching causing me to lay the book aside for a day or so. Normally you think of a great book as one you can't put down; according to Matthew that's how he felt while reading this. I, on the other hand, just couldn't take it, which in this case is a good thing. The writing is such that you are completely transported to New York City and the lives he's intertwined. In a first for this little blog I'm going to quote the last lines of the novel, which by the way, give away nothing.

"Jaslyn thinks again of an apricot--she does not know why, but that's what she thinks, the skin of it, the savor, the sweetness.


The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough.


She lies on the bed beside Claire, above the sheets. The faint tang of the old woman's breath on the air. The clock. The fan. The breeze.


The world spinning."

Perhaps that will wet your appetite for this sensual novel with superb writing?

Lastly, and I'm almost done rhapsodizing about Colum McCann, I promise, his acknowledgement page was worth noting. The line I most liked was this: "The fact of the matter is that there are many hands tapping the writer's keyboard." Humble guy.

Normally I don't get all into artsy speak, however, on occasion I recognize inspiration when it hits me. Or maybe not.

After dropping off my entry for the annual calendar contest Wednesday morning, I stopped by our local Goodwill store looking for props. One never knows what one may come across for $1. Wow, that sentence is really crazy isn't it with all those ones? I digress....

I've been looking for a small cobalt blue vase for some time, still no luck on this trip. I did find this blue bowl, slighty the worse for wear but fine for my purposes. Now that I look at the image again, I'm making the connection with life is just a bowl of cherries, which according to Answers.com, the term  was first used in popular culture as the title of a song by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson in 1931. Apparently they were thinking cheery thoughts when they wrote it, although now that I think about it, how could that have been when the country was in the midst of the Great Depression?

Take from it what you will. Bruce and I thoroughly enjoyed those expensive Ranier cherries I'll tell you that much.

The first thing I picked up was a spool of colorful ribbons. I liked the colors and for a buck how could you go wrong? So, I went about trying to make something with them; tangling, playing with the light and backgrounds--you know the drill.

Here's where the arty speak comes in--I can hear the groans now. Seriously, when I was choosing something to go with this post it hit me right smack in the head and heart.

This is what the book was all about!! Although  these are all ribbons, their colors makes them unique, just like us-- just like the characters in the book. Furthermore, our lives are more interconnected than we often realize, especially with the World Wide Web. When they were shaped into a ball, I couldn't help but think of the internet. Each ribbon has a story to tell when used on a package, evoking a different mood or response depending on the color. Who doesn't feel calm when encountering shades of blue? Or vibrant when presented with orange? Pretty in pink? You get the idea. I guess that's why I bought the ribbons, trying to express the complex emotions I felt while reading this story.

Oy vey! Enough already of what I think. Anything come to your mind? Possibly that Gail has gone crazy? She's lost her marbles? How does she think a pile of ribbons can be art? I suppose because she can.