Just when I thought the more Sisyphean elements of this week would undo me, I tuned in to one of my favorite blogs, Surrender Dorothy. This week, Blogger Rita Arens introduced readers to Photographer Dina Goldstein and her extraordinary series Fallen Princesses:
Goldstein, who can write as well as shoot, love that, tells how new motherhood introduced her to fairytales she certainly wasn't seeing come to life around her:
Believe me, you've never seen Beauty, Cinderella, Jasmine or Rapunzel like this.
It's like watching Cindy Sherman take on pop culture for kids, in an accessible, reality-bites kind of way. Why are these images so powerful? The insight that cracked me like an egg was Rita's:
"In real life, happiness is the time spent being thankful you aren't going through hell anymore. In real life, we don't know happy unless we've been sad, really sad, or really angry, or really sick. Once we've been all of those things, we learn to appreciate moments when nothing is wrong --- and see them as happiness instead of the status quo."
Amen. We live, we learn, we grow up, we are thankful, we learn to find our happiness.
Unless, for some reason, we don't.
Rita nails that too when she describes Goldstein's image of a sumptuously pretty Belle going under the knife:
Which brings me to the tough part of this week, Sad Truth: The Story of Little One April. I won't repeat myself here, but you won't understand the rest of this post unless you go read that link.
I'll wait...
What to say? As someone working to develop credibility and respect for women who blog about every topic, from tech to table, I'm so frustrated and disappointed by this blogger. But my frustration is forgettable when compared with the fact that she cast a shadow of doubt on the many women and families who have blogged the loss of children and the early lives of babies with severe health issues -- some of whom have grounded me with their compassion for her.
And I can only imagine the hurt and confusion that led her down this path at all.
I'm not a bitter person, it's not the way I roll. But I do occasionally get frustrated. Reading Rita's post helped me remind me of my own paths from sad to happy, through divorce and loss, and to put this week in perspective. So thanks Rita.
Happy Saturday. Hope you all go find your happy.
dear lisa, i would really like to email with you, please would you email me? [email protected]. great to catch up and i have an event to talk with you about!
Posted by: anina.net | June 16, 2009 at 09:44 PM
I don't know how I ended up here today except it has to be faith because remember I'm 63 in July and I'm older and filled with too much of life's experience.
I've been thinking all day as to how fulfilled I've been on a personal inside mental and soul level since being able to blog. I've known I always like to write, and my family has always been my priority. However there always was some pang I never understood inside my head which was never right. I'd try here and there to write and I knew because I wasn't educated worked full time and loved to be with my family an education in writing was impossible. However then came blogs by accident and here I am and there you and your partners are fulfilling a need by helping others to be able to make their voices and hearts known. My blog grammology has been a life saver it's allowed me the freedom to be and do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. And for every other women who I've encouraged to start a blog or tell my stories too I think I've been often good for them.
Therefore, when you find a bad apple and they are always around you do exactly as you have done and you never look back. You are one of my heroes just like Robin Easton who I recently met on her blog and I even asked her to write her to share her post on forgiveness as we had something going on in our family which needed to be laid to rest. And then I head out to your site (which I've been ignoring, forgot or whatever) realizing I didn't even sign up for your conference and now your sold out so I tried out for the Ford contest to see if it was meant for me to still come. More importantly please read Robin's post, it so matches with life and this kind of betrayal and pain and it is all of those things for you and I'm wishing you recovery from this terrible incident and that it doesn't jade you in the future with other women and trust. Remember bad things are everywhere teach us how to be alert and what to look for so we can avoid it ourselves.
Hugs and much success to great ladies.
Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com
I'm so back from cancer and being tired..I'm so grateful for this avenue to tell, vent, read, enjoy what do they call this the blogoshere..I love it..
http://grammology.com
Posted by: Dorothy Stahlnecker | June 27, 2009 at 12:51 PM
Dorothy thank you! I love your blog. Educated, shmeducated. You share wisdom on your blog that comes from practicing living and being open and honest about it.
One of the posts you've written that I shared with my family is Your Self Portrait and Your Life where you ask a key question: Are you living the life you wanted?
A deceptively simple question. A dangerous question that can rock the boat. Or sink it. I asked myself that question at 30 and have never stopped, boat be damned.
So thank YOU for being one of my heroes too. Blog on, brave lady. I'm reading!
Posted by: Lisa Stone | July 01, 2009 at 10:01 AM