Yin and Yang
Monday, August 06, 2007
As I said yesterday, this idea of balance hit me out of the blue. I was thinking about heroines I like. My favorite heroine is the “fish out of water” type. An ordinary person in an extraordinary situation. I love those. But I also have on my bookshelf a number of titles featuring the “kick-ass” heroine. Those ladies rock. They take chances that I would never dream of, as an individual or an author. My brain doesn’t seem wired that way.
Then I started thinking about why I prefer some kick-ass chicks to others. Why some resonate with me and some make me cringe. And I realized that my favorite action stories have balance and it’s not all about the heroines giving up some vital aspect of themselves to be the “girl.”
Let’s take, for example, Eve Dallas. I’m a JD Robb fan, though fairly new to the stories. I’m sure I’ve skipped a few, but I’m pretty well caught up on her exploits.
Eve is not soft. Eve doesn’t know how to be soft. She never has been and she never will be. But JD/Nora was smart enough not to pair her with a man who is her equal in harshness. Roarke provides the balance to Eve. He is not, himself, soft in any way, but he provides the means for Eve to experience the yin to her yang. He understands the balance that’s necessary for her to be a whole person.
Another writer who gets it right is Marjorie Liu. Not all of her heroes are violently kick-ass, but she’s written her share. I love them because they’re often incredibly primal, but in that state, they instinctively understand that all of life is not about power and strength and beating the living shit out of the other guy. They find balance. My first experience with her writing was as part of the Crimson City series, A Taste of Crimson. Her heroine, Keeli Maddox, was a powerful player in the werewolf hierarchy that Liu built and she had several opportunities to kick ass in the story. Yet, for all her power, Keeli had things around her – not necessarily within her – to provide a balance to the harshness of her life.
So even if a heroine is completely focused on being tough, I think the best stories build in a set of circumstances that provide a cushion – some sense that this character can be a whole and balanced person, at ease with all sides of herself.
Labels: Random Questions, Reading, Writing
Thinking
Sunday, August 05, 2007
I'm brewing a post for tomorrow. An opinion piece on balance. I'll get back to you later.
And just in case you were wondering -- I was in the shower when the idea hit. Maybe it's the scalp massage from washing my hair that stimulates these ideas.
Labels: Random Questions
It Ain't Easy Being Green
Friday, July 27, 2007
Or is it?
This post has nothing to do with Writing and more to do with Life As I Know It. (psst, I'm finally learning how to use the labeling feature. I know. I'm slow.)
Today is Trash/Recycling day in my neighborhood and as I was hauling out the recycling, it brought to mind a post I read once -- heaven knows where -- that the poster didn't recycle. At all. And seemed really proud of herself, too. She refused to recycle, like it was all part of some evil government plot or something.
I've known people who don't recycle really vigorously, but at least they make some effort. Like, they might not recycle plastic, but they'll toss their soda cans in the recycling bin. I mean, if the city has arranged for pick-up of recyclable items, it doesn't seem too much of a stretch, y'know?
Then there are the recycling apostles, come to save the world from post-consumer waste. Ed Begley, Jr. comes to mind. I watched a show he did earlier this year about his day-to-day life called
Living With Ed. Wow. I felt kinda bad for his wife, but it was funny. You have to admire that kind of passion.
I fall somewhere in the middle. I recycle almost everything that my local ordinances allow -- newspapers, aluminumn cans, glass, paperboard, cardboard, some plastics. I rinse out containers and make the kids take them to the recycling bin in the laundry room. In SC, it annoyed me to no end that they didn't pick up glass or paperboard, like cereal containers. Do you know how much cereal this family goes through?!?
I'm not perfect, by any means. Plenty of stuff gets thrown away that I
could recycle, but it requires a certain amount of extra effort.
For instance, I just bought school supplies. Things like glue sticks come with the paperboard on the back and the little plastic bubble in the front. Since the city doesn't take the plastic bubbles, I'd have to separate them, toss the plastic and recycle the paperboard. Ummm, yeah. Now that I've written it all out, I might do it, but on a regular basis -- honestly -- it's probably not going to happen.
So let's talk.
Do you recycle?
Would you recycle?
Would you be the mom who takes the paperboard off the glue stick package?
Do you think recycling is a waste of time, effort and tax dollars? Why?
On a slightly different, but still green, tack:
What other options for energy saving do you currently employ, i.e. energy saving lightbulbs, you take public transportation by choice, you drive an energy efficient vehicle?
What options intrigue you?
I love wind farms. We drove past several in Europe and I thought they were very striking looking.
The local community college used
Green Roof Blocks to help cool the buildings. Nifty!
E-Books! Some pretty green technology there!
Labels: Life As I Know It, Random Questions
The Global Dinner Table
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Kristen brought this link,
What the World Eats, to my attention over at Romance Divas. So you need to go look at it first so what follows here makes sense.
Good. You’re back. Let’s dish.
One of my first impressions were that Westerners tend to make some wicked unhealthy food choices, particularly Americans and people from Northern Europe. All those snack foods. All that soda. Frozen corn dogs and pizza. Ugh. I feel bad – not just guilty, but physically ill – if I eat pizza twice a month, much less twice a week.
Mexico made some fairly awful food choices, as well, but then they had a large array of fresh fruits and vegetables, too.
The foods displayed in developing nations was typically heavy on rice, grains, and root vegetables. I felt great pity for the family in Chad, who had so little of anything. Was that bottle of water supposed to last a whole week? For six of them? I can hardly bear to think of it.
I’d eat with the family in Cairo in a heartbeat. Did you see all those lovely little white eggplants?
However, as I examine my own family’s eating habits, I wonder what would go on that table. And what better choices I could make. I tell myself we eat well – healthy foods, fresh fruit and veg – yet I know we could do better for ourselves.
The breakfast cereal that we go through in a week would feed that family in Chad for months. Unfortunately, they’d get barely any more nutritional value from it than what they currently display in front of them. It’s a weakness of mine. I hate making breakfast, but what we substitute is void of everything but chemicals. Added vitamins and minerals. Yeah right. I haven’t read the side of a cereal box in years. I wonder now if that’s just so I can pretend I don’t know any better.
And that’s just breakfast. Lunch is usually a sandwich of some kind. PB&J. Or PB&Banana. Or just jam. Yeah. I don’t really do lunch, either.
We do dinner pretty well around here. I’m roasting two small chickens tonight with cumin, garlic, potatoes, onions and carrots. There’s leftover pasta with tomato, basil and sausage for a side dish, and I need to hit the produce section for something else to go with it.
Later this week, we’ll have risotto with hoppin’ john. Yep. Black eyed peas. Not just for New Years anymore. *gg* Probably sauté some spinach to go with it. I like kale, but it’s more of a winter green.
So dinner is taken care of. But there’s so much room for improvement. I wonder what we’ll have for lunch today.
Labels: Random Questions
