PHILOSOPHY ~ Letter to a friend

By Sharlet Liebel ©2008

I think it's inspiring that you question and search for meaning as I do! Perhaps we're a special breed ~ LOL!   Let me say that I'll be driving along on the freeway with my daughter questioning the Edison windmills and how they connect to our power plants and she'll be amazed that I can think of so much to think about!!!

As children we had an enormous curiosity and then we became educated with information that was developed for our good. There are teachers that want us to learn from them and there are teachers that merely want an audience and they talk "at" us!  

Philosophy interested me very early in my childhood. I have to think it may go back to the days when my dad insisted that I read the Children's page and, for the life of me, I didn't understand a word of it.  Then he insisted that God was for people who needed a crutch and that contradicted all my beliefs and those of everyone I knew.

I was lucky to take my only Philosophy class from a professor who wished to share his knowledge and who had written the text we studied. He had humility and knowledge... what a great combination!  Still, I struggled through the entire class never really sure I would pass the course.

For the most part, the class was a class of inquiry and for every question one of us made the instructor asked another student to comment on the comment!

When I read the writings of the Great Philosophers and even the Minor Philosophers, I try to get in their heads. Think of the times they lived in. Experience the teachers they had. Reflect on the politics as they knew it.

Then I read the commentaries written about them by scholars of their day, and others that followed, which most of this is contained in one volume in most libraries.

My guess is that most of us can skip formal classes and jump right in and enjoy several journals on our own.

These are my suggestions for you, in earnest. And, if you venture to take another Philosophy l0l, check out the personality you're dealing with and move to another class if more compatible.

One more thing, you are totally in control of the mysteries that intrigue you. You are human so you then have reason, right? As for soul and spirit ~ these are innate and who is better equipped to search these miraculous answers about yourself than you are!   

God's blessings ~

Sharlet the Liberal Lass:

Defy Male & Female Chores  

Well, now, didn't you open a can-of-worms! I was raised the petite, feminine, little lady but with a feisty personality. Born in the South, I guess I saw "Gone With The Wind" every year that it was shown and grew-up thinking that I could do it all. My father was building and tearing-down at home and I loved playing in the curls of wood he planed. Lucky me, I married a man who could do like dear ol' dad.



Years into our marriage, I raised the kids, did the P.R. for school projects, joined PTA projects, typed the script for the church Xmas play, drove miles back and forth picking up kids to get to our roofing office for billing and thank you letters, routing slips, and collections - then after dinner chores prepared the huge expected dinner for the following evening - all was just something that I did. Cannot deny that husband was a good provider and work was his passion.



Not out of character, I designed a pool and new bedroom and half bath, redesigned the ineffective kitchen, closing doorways and opening others, redesigned the original bedrooms for the kids, and became contractor buying permits and hiring painters and workmen.



Chapter 2 - Divorce and ordered paneling and 2 x 4's to build a surrounding walled-in bedroom for myself to give the kids [ in an apartment I'd rented] their own rooms. Of course, no nails went into apartment walls. The wood and paneling became false structures as in a stage setting and dowels were strung to become clothes closets and sound-proofing between the living room and my bedroom.



Much later, bought an old house with bungalow that I reroofed hauling a bundle at a time of asphalt shingles to the roof. Back porch light had to be rewired and replaced. Built and attached porch--divider between main house and bungalow with temporary roof to house furniture (patio furniture for which I had started a business). Skill saw jamming was my downfall and halted progress when I broke-through a porch wall to enlarge the living room. Here, I also broke the ball-joint in my right shoulder.



Am into tearing-out and rebuilding to this day.. Latest project: hauled building blocks a few at a time to build a porch flush with the sliding front door.
7/25/09

Counting Granules & Lofty Dreams

By  Sharlet Liebel © 2008

Counting granules in the sand

In my hand today

Calling me are seagulls

As I edge their way

Browns and whites drink water

Grooming wings displayed

Jetty splashed with ocean

Mist and waves give sway

Sun is setting early nights and

Birds fly in again

They don’t mind that I’m around

And passers by begin

Lofty dreams do spin and weave

Hark, the distant fame

Dressing down my top and jeans

I’m swimming out again

Salt and sea have drenched my legs

Dewy eyes are near

Singing softly tunes of love as

Feathered friends appear

Foamy ripples, waves of blues

Brilliant whites and grays

Newby bathers dash about toward

Seagulls as they play

Counting granules in the sand

In my hand today

Dreaming of an Angel

Lifting me away.

LITERACY PROJECT (FFGOIL) HELPS FOSTER KIDS IN L.A.

The Curious Case of
BENJAMIN BUTTON
By
Sharlet Liebel ©2009

Fascinating is the premise that a father would run around the streets of old New Orleans with a newborn in his arms. Such is The Case of Benjamin Button. As he hesitates with the infant in his arms at the edge of the wharf on the Mississippi River,  a patrolman hollers out to him. He is chased several blocks and escapes. At least he didn’t commit murder. The man hides under the veil of darkness near a well-lit porch.  He looks around. Nobody is watching.  He reaches the decision to leave the lightly-blanketed child on the steps.

Earlier, we learn that this father is distraught over the death of his wife in child-birth. That their child is born old and wrinkled magnifies his dilemma.  Add to this drama an age when family doctors are discreet and unobtrusive into the personal lives of their patients and we are presented with the perfect setting for a child to disappear without question. 

Equally unquestioning is the appearance of a newborn to be raised by Queenie (Taraji P. Henson http://www.imdb.com/name/nm 0378245/bio ) a single, black, nurturing, young caregiver at an “old folks” home. This dear woman is heard only once to say she is curious. Her meaning is to describe her free spirit in trying to experience life rather than anyone’s appearance.  In the next scene, she beholds her child and sees his imperfection.  Her only thought is that God brought him into the world and everyone is entitled to his chance at life.  She names him Benjamin (Brad Pitt - http://www.imdb. com/name/nm0000093/ ). 

How fortunate for the child.  An unfortunate set of circumstances places Benjamin in an  unconventional setting among aging citizens who have traveled beyond the age of disbelief, conventions, expectations, and views of society. Here, relatives visit residents who live for a time, make friends, die, and are replaced by others.  It is the grandchild of one of the resident’s that plays with Benjamin and they become dear friends.  Her name is Daisy. (Cate Blanchett -http://www.imdb. com/ name/nm 0000949/ )

It is such a unique family into which F. Scott Fitzgerald introduces a person who arrives old and dies young.  In this household people live with dementia, repetitive phrases, physical and mental problems and no expectations of what should and should not be.  Living and dying is unchallenged. 

Somewhere in his imagination Fitzgerald must have considered that many people, even he, are saddened at the prospect of aging.  Daisy cries in one scene,  “I hate growing old.”  More than that, her dreams are shattered when she is struck  by a car and loses her career as a famous dancer .

Daisy is, at one time, performing in Paris and Benjamin is finally reunited with his father a manufacturer of buttons by the name of Button, just prior to his death.  He visits Daisy twice: once when he plans to propose marriage, and next when she’s in the hospital. On both occasions Daisy rejects him.  But upon recovering from her automobile accident she does return to find Benjamin.

Now, the two are in their 40s.  To their surprise, Daisy becomes pregnant. Their happiness together is short-lived because, as Benjamin reminds her, she cannot raise two children. He leaves to travel the world as he learned to do in his earlier years when he was a younger man in an old body . He returns years later when Daisy is married and his daughter is his present age.  He is now an older man in a young boy’s body. 

Three major events occur during this movie that are clearly defined and create an understandable storyline.  One is the gift presented to the community by the inventor of a clock that was mechanized to run in reverse.  Another is Daisy who is old and about to die, at any time.  She is telling her daughter the story of the only true love she ever had and never spoke about. The third is Benjamin Button who narrates his life from birth and throughout his relationships and adventures.

The viewer shares in Daisy’s tender care for her beloved Benjamin as his memory dims while he grows younger. It is a magnificent tale of living simply and loving as long as there is opportunity. Experience this movie with a friend or loved one. Nothing is ever sweeter.

The End.

Director  David Fincher

Eric Roth (screenplay)
Eric Roth (screen story) ...
 

WRITER'S MUSINGS

MY PUP MADE ME DO IT

By

Sharlet Liebel (c)2009

I set the alarm to go off early but the darn batteries went dead. I wake up as the garbage truck backs-up, giving warning sounds. Rushed, I dress and barely get a pot of coffee started. Grab a couple of slices of bread and slap peanut butter and jelly on them. Wrap the snack in a napkin and push it into the top of my purse. Open the kitchen door. Squeeze past the puppy.

At the car. Realize I’ve forgotten something. Open the car door and rush back for coffee. The door swings open and puppy runs past to jump in the car. Frazzled. I reach in to grab the pup with my left arm. Holding the cup of hot coffee with my right one. Splash! Mush! I dig my heel into the gravel, it breaks, and I lose my balance.  Going down, I attack a handful of peanut butter and jelly, and wipe coffee off my face. Now, I’m mindless on the ground with puppy licking my face.

My ankle doesn’t feel strong and I don’t think anybody will buy my story. I hobble up the steps, open the kitchen door, and puppy runs past me. I pour a cup of coffee and sit at the kitchen table dialing my boss. “Sorry I can’t get in today as I just slipped down the back steps and sprained my back.”

~Sharlet

Sharlet Liebel Writes

Looking over at my couch full of projects that I have an interest in and that need to be started. The Impressionists by Diana Newall reminds me that I appreciate art and paintings of Renoir 1869, Degas 1873-76, and others of the period. I am preparing myself to paint again. I read and admire but I procrastinate.

I see numerous paintings by Norman Rockwell on a couple of my favorite calendars. I have 1, 2, 3, of his paintings framed and on the bathroom walls. Why not? I spend a third of life in the bathroom. Well, maybe not so much as a third but some time there. I am preparing to draw a child or two for a friend's book and I think Rockwell's children are the best example of how children behave. I don't remember my behavior so happy as a child but I like his happy children.

There are any number of Writer's Digest and The Writer Markets magazines that I have strewn on one section of my rather long couch that is upholstered in an Oriental motif. How does that make me feel? I guess it makes me feel as though I have enough projects to do to keep me from boredom. Some one or another person will ask for advice about promoting their writing and I might recommend a publication to them, suggest a bright idea that they can write about, and get them excited and on the road to new directions. What am I doing for myself? At this point, not much, really. I am writing Movie Reviews. Today, my favorite thing to do was read pages of Plato's Phaedrus. Very interesting Greek lore. Some of my writings are philosophical. And now it's time to think of not thinking, so adieu and have pleasant thoughts..
 

CADILLAC RECORDS an Historical Drama

By

~Sharlet Liebel ©2008

You won’t believe the experience! Do you want action? You’ve got it. Booze and womanizing? Off the charts. Mood swings? Over the rainbow! Passion, history, reality, violence, bullets, death! It’s all there! The acting and direction are unflawed. Sound and acoustics are in surreal surround. Shockingly truthful and the story doesn’t spare the spectator.  It moves quickly. One thing, for sure, do not expect apologetics for the carnality of the supplemental facts as excitement mounts on wings of friends and foes. Look for an Academy Awards presentation to actors, directors, and the full gamut of contributors. At this writing, however, it looks like a sleeper but it’s about all the good new movies out for an explanation of this slow starter.

It’s Chicago in 1947 when bar owner Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) scouts the streets for musicians. Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) plays a mean guitar and Little Walter (Columbus Short) is incredible on the harmonica.  Little Walter becomes family to Muddy and his girlfriend Geneva (Gabrielle Union) who befriend him. Soon others are in competition to take center stage at the Chess Club. Big Willie Dixon (Cedric The Entertainer) is a gifted songwriter and talented bandleader. Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) has a huge ego as a blues singer and appears explosively on the scene. He is in everybody’s face but takes a particularly crazy dislike toward Muddy Waters, which is terrifying considering everyone is packing a pistol.

Promoter Leonard Chess has bigger ideas.  He sets fire to his Club, collects the insurance and thus builds the best recording studio in the South Side of Chicago. He treats his talent well but owns their celebrity. They become icons driving new Cadillacs and owning houses that Chess gives them under contract. But Chess gets rich and they don’t touch the money.  Except that there is the one surprise incident that you’ll have to see the movie to appreciate.

This is the movie bibliography that can now be told with scenes upfront and personal. Prepare for this movie about historical overtures and consequences of a different space in time. It is not for the faint of heart. Experience the personalities and inner circles of intertwining artists of the era when difficult living is exemplified in songs and in the music. 

What draws the audience to the scene and actor? Is it not the passion of language, the swearing, and the confrontation! Don’t tease me about fear unless you want to see me sweat – they seem to say. Yes. It’s all there! Beauty, passion, terrible depravity, coarseness! But, believe me, it’s real. It’s believable.

You don’t want to miss it because this is the history of those times when blacks and whites don’t mix. These are the times when celebrated musicians carry guns for protection like they carry their guitars for strumming music from a gut feeling. The pistol is visible hardware leaving the house. Oh, Yeah. Lookout! Here comes trouble! But it’s a way of life and everybody carries protection.

And what we hear on the airwaves is called soul music.  It started out Rhythm and Blues. Or jazz.  Scenes are dark and dangerous in nightclubs and dismal personalities perpetuate the atmosphere of intrigue and danger.

It isn’t until 1955 that music starts changing the way people go to concerts and dance to the rhythms.  The cross-over into mainstream (white) America begins with the exuberant talents of skinny Chuck Berry who marks the start of Rock-and-Roll with a lot of Country in his tunes and his trade-mark “duck walk.” This magical music is what you hear turning a generation of people from segregation to integration.

It seems about mid-movie before our celebrated Etta James (Beyonce’ Knowles) appears for her brilliant introduction.  She saunters with an attitude that about decimates her audition. Not to be dissuaded by this prima donna, Chess challenges her persuasively with words that kill to really make her give a passionate audition of the magnitude he knows she is capable of. Wow!  From then on, it’s AT LAST and nobody belts those words out greater than our passionate darling of song. Etta sings many more great numbers that flood the audience with memories.

Beyonce’ re-creates Etta’s dramatic stage presence, voice power, and range with uncompromising brilliance. Additionally, she performs as a seasoned actor over challenging scenes of passion that deliver a believable message about the diva.

Etta James, now a celebrated female singer, has crossed-over. Her songs are so popular that her words are articulated among lovers uniting and parting. It’s a time where none of the politically correct establishment could change the population before and until this music began to hit the sound waves. Marriages lived and died just as were the lives of these poetic geniuses. Harmonica and guitar carried with it the total man and woman when, it is said, musicians could rise above the din of depressed circumstances and become famous.

Muddy Waters survived the slums and he was invited to London where he was lauded for his musical accomplishments.  In the end, some lives were lost and some were found.

Go alone if you plan to pick-up on history and nuances among and between the musicians because every scene is moving-right-along. The idea is to cram as much reality and as many connected musicians as possible into the hour and fifty minute long movie. Believe me, it explodes with powerful action and dialogue that one might think this movie is more than two hours long.

 
                                            CHANGELING
                                      Featuring Angelina Jolie
                                     Review by Sharlet Liebel ©2008

Award-winning is the acting performance and many-faceted believability of the character portrayed by Angelina Jolie , of a mother whose young boy disappears without a trace. Added to this is the  direction  and music of Clint Eastwood; definitely brilliance is his mainstay trademark.  

This featured presentation is daring and provocative. Apparently, the title is derived by the exchange of one young person for another. In addition, it is enhanced by magnificent scenes featuring authentic vehicles and streetcars driving through traffic, as well as period street clothes, home décor, and hairstyles that transport the viewer through a time-warp back to the years beginning in 1928. Many of the street scenes take place in Pasadena and Mira Loma, California. 

The dark true story takes place in Los Angeles, California, at a time when the Police Department was corruptible to the extent that innocent women were thrown into abusive situations. Their fate was disappearance at the Mental Institution for uncooperative behavior solely dependent upon the whims of the Police Chief. This incarceration was without benefit of a Court Order to show cause.  

Our protagonist is a young mother whose life is interrupted by an unknown intruder who disappears with her son.  She calls for help from the Police Department who put her off. She persists and soon the Police Department brings her a child to appease the citizens of the community and the newspapers carrying headline news about her quest.  This is a set-up and the deceit is forced upon this young woman who insists that the boy is not her son and that all the time wasted could be crucial to finding her son. Unfortunately, the young boy who has learned to lie about his true name and insists this is truly his mom works against her and he cannot be persuaded by this poor woman to fess-up due to his own desperate need to stay out of foster care. 

This desperate situation is championed by an Activist Preacher played by John Malkovich who has heard of the mother’s plight and has his church pray for her. Additionally, he is very public about his support for the young woman by openly antagonizing the corrupt Police Department through his church broadcasts. 

Except for the Pastor and a later coincidental investigation by an honest detective, the mystery of the child’s disappearance would never have been discovered.

This movie is intriguing with shockingly suspenseful moments as well as the discovery of a killer-at-large.  I would recommend this movie as a documentary and worthy of viewing.

Life at Age Sixteen
By Sharlet Liebel  © 2008


How beautiful is life
At age sixteen, for some - Perhaps me.

As I recall, I dressed for the ball. A shoe caught the lace of my dress
I fell, embarrassed and disgraced.
I was an angry mess.

More encounters, I experienced, some were good and others not.
But, what of it, I thought.
Life’s not over yet.

Bravely living is genetic - Mom and Dad gave life a run,
She was a riveter, he a mariner.
Oh, what a year that was.

Seeking, hoping, praying, writing, coping, even as I winced, 
 My desire to be a mother, have a family,
Certainly, meet my handsome prince.

Little time I’d spend in knowing, thoughts allowed for philosophy.
Asking questions - ever growing
 Who  am I, where is the real me?

Please me, tell me I can do it! What does it matter - I love to learn.
Lead me to a finer future
Only, support in me the inner one.

 How beautiful is life
At age sixteen, for some - Perhaps me.