Fighting Forms

Franz Marc 1914

He painted this work on the eve of World War I, when he saw the war as a horrific necessity that would purify Europe of the evils that had enveloped it - even his own beloved country, Germany.

In 1911 he, August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky - and a few others decided to break off from the accepted German arts hierarchy and form Der Blaue Reiter, the seeds of German expressionism. They used strong colors, modified cubist forms, and stark, nearly abstract compositions to convey the very strongest human emotions extremely effectively. In his eyes, colors had certain emotions that could not be separated from the pigments. I wonder if he had synesthesia - a type of sensory cross-over in the brain, in his case where colors perceived through the eyes stimulated the emotion centers in the brain along with the sight centers. We all have some sort of emotional attachment to colors, but his seemed most visceral.

I have had a hard time taking my eyes off from his works the last few days. Fighting Forms in particular seems to sum up, in a way words can't the emotions rolling around in my country, my family, and in my own soul.

Franz Marc was included on a list of culturally significant men who were in the Army that were to be kept out of combat - painters, composers, writers, and the like. He was killed in 1916 at the battle of Verdun before this edict could be carried out.

~M.E.

There are just 4 'working days' until the Halloween party that I SO GENEROUSLY offered to let Hannah, Amanda, and Nicole host here on Halloween night. I keep thinking of more things I need to do to get ready. The weather looks like it will be clear and cold, so the party will be partly out doors - but it will also be partly indoors. I finished off the costumes Hannah and Meredith will wear - Meredith has her own plans, including working at the Corkscrew on Halloween. I think I'll just plan on attending as a wigged-out mom. HHmmm. I'd better get to work.

~M.E.

Moving Back Home

Some homeschooling friends of mine are moving back to Tennessee. By the way Tessa talks when she's in a group, you'd think that this was something they had planned to do at this stage of their life all along. Truly a lady that has the proverbial 'stiff upper lip'. In our EMail exchange another picture emerges. She's a 28yo homeschooling mom of three whose husband has lost his job, and they are cutting their losses here in Illinois, and moving back home - literally in with her parents. She is selling everything she can and planning on moving 'lean'. Most sadly, she is letting go all of her homeschool items, and plans on putting her kids in public school after the move. Tennessee is a tough school to homeschool in, and with their money situation they will both be looking for work.

So, I personally know this one story about the economic downturn knocking a formerly middle-class family several rungs down the ladder. I'm sure there are dozens, even hundreds more just out of my hearing. It has me spooked just a bit. Not so much personally because at least so far our resource flow is stable - but for our kids, and their friends, and my friends and, and, and...

~M.E.

Saturday

It's a lovely day.

One of those days where the weather is good, the talk is frivolous, and the items on the agenda are all about ease and entertainment.

Our friend - and the best uncle my girls have - Garrett is here from Florida, and it always great to have him around. I hope to lure him back into Illinois as soon as possible.

We went to run some errands, stopped at the new place where Meredith is working for a visit during the '10 wines for under $10.00' themed Saturday tasting, and are planning on eating the best steaks I've saved from the 1/6 of a cow we purchased last summer for dinner.

Trouble is, the more I try and forget all of the little irritations that are rubbing up against my life right now, the more I think about them.

I need to have a stern talk with myself, and get a little perspective.

~M.E.

Check out my facebook for pictures from D.C.

Vermeer Spotting

Johannes Vermeer is one of the artists I admire most. His oeuvre is very small - only 35 accepted works exist. I've seen 13 of those in museums in the US and Europe in the last few years. I missed two when we ran out of time at the Louvre. There are 8 more in New York City. Some day I'll have to make that trip. I hope someday soon.

~M.E.

Sudden insight

Yesterday, our last day in the Washington D.C. area for this trip, we took a bus to Georgetown to do a little window shopping. It's a very interesting area. All of the very finest and most expensive of high-end of Generican shops have staked out a place along M st. NW or the surrounding cross streets: Black and White, Versace, 9 West, Sephora, Restoration Hardware, Lush, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Clyde's - there's all there. We saw some pretty neat things, and actually parted with a little cash in the Lush store (high end bath products)

One store, however stopped this hick mid westerner in her tracks. Dean & DeLuca. It's listed on the interweb as a 'Purveyor of fine foods, wine, and dinnerware'. It's the most upscale, exclusive, elite grocery store I've ever laid eyes on. They had Pavarotti playing over the Bose surround system. They had Prime cow for $40.00 a pound in the meat case. They had stacks of perfect fruit (out of season), cheeses from across the globe, only the finest Balsamic vinegars, oils, sauces and condiments, and blocks of several different gourmet salts they would sell you a chunk off from for your salt grinder. They had two (maybe more, I saw two) nattily dressed and name-tagged wine experts orbiting the wine section to help with the selection of the perfect bottle to go with that caviar you picked up to snack on in front of the TV tonight.

They were also very busy. People were hauling large arm baskets full of expensive edibles to the check outs, people with little kids in tricked out strollers and reusable grocery bags stocking up on tiny $12.00 jars of jam and artisan breads.

In the back of the store - near the confectionery - I suddenly had a thought: 1/2 of the world is starving. Many of the people who want me to pay more taxes and be more mindful of my own impact of the Earth are the liberals - politicians, bankers and lawyers, think tankers - who live in the rarefied air right here in Georgetown and places like it. And here they are doing their shopping at Dean & DeLuca.

I love little 'gourmet' treats occasionally. A trip to Chicago recently ended with a side stop at Whole Foods for some unusual cheese and a couple of bottles of wine I'd never tried, but Dean & DeLuca depressed me. I had a dollar in my pocket that I was saving for the bus fare. I covertly dropped it into the cup of the homeless lady in the wheelchair 1/2 a block up the street. It was a tiny bit of penance for living like I do.

~M.E.