Mia Epsilon's Blog, page 3

Nature or Nurture?As an Early Childhood Education major,...

 

Nature or Nurture?

As an Early Childhood Education major, I must have heard this question dozens of times. Is it nature (genes and internal influences) that shapes a child into the adult he/she becomes...or is it nurture (environment and external influences)?

Several people have theorized on this and we had to study them all. From Piaget to Freud, and all those in between, the 'Greats' of what shapes us from conception to death developed and tested their beliefs and ideas.

For many of us, or at least for me, I believe it's both. 

Sure, we are conceived and born with traits like personality (shy or outgoing? brilliant at wordsmithing or brilliant at math...or both?) and hair and eye color, height, body type, how long our legs are, and whether we have dozens of freckles or none at all. But none of those alone make us WHO we become.

We have externals that influence, those nurture things like loving or distant parents. Did we grow up in a small town or a big city, in UK or US? Did we have siblings or only child? Do we speak English or Italian? Access to high-performing schools or poor areas of overburdened educators and over-stretched budgets? These add to what we are, shape us, guide us, and set a stage for later phases of our lives. But they alone still don't make us who we are.

A shy person in a small US town with four siblings and devoted parents with be a much different person than someone who grew up in urban Paris as an only child in a boarding school. See what I mean?

In today's world, especially in the country where I live, violence and deaths committed by young people are becoming more and more common. Is it their nature? Something in their genes? Or is it the environment? Have we created these seemingly no-remorse, mass murders by trying to create a better environment with tons of technology and a trophy just for breathing?

Or is it a bit of both?

I thought of my ECE courses and the 'Greats' so many times while writing 'When You Believe'. In this book (the sixth Weddings by C & C...and the first Abbeville series novel), Daniel is a man abandoned as an infant who grows up without ever feeling he 'belongs'. In direct contrast, Monica knows exactly where she belongs: the third of four children, in a small town, with tons of quirky neighbors and devoted parents. The difference between Monica and Daniel is nature AND nurture...but it's these very differences that draw them to each other and help create the miracle of lifetime love.

I hope you'll think of nature and nurture and what shapes us as people while you take the journey into love with Daniel and Monica.

When Living History Becomes Historical

On September 8, 2022, it was announced the UK's longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, had died. She "passed peacefully" with her oldest son and heir, Prince Charles, and only daughter, Princess Anne, with her. She was 96. She is survived by 4 children, 8 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
She was 'Living History'. 
Her reign stretched from 1952 until 2022, seventy years. Think of the things she was born without, because they didn't exist yet: the beginning and end of WW2, the birth of tv, of satellites & cable, of Sirus radio, computers, laptops, flat screens, tablets, internet, cordless phones, cell phones, smartphones, streaming services, social media, Yahoo, Youtube, Photoshop, email, text messages, video messages, GPS, drones, Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, minivans, convertibles, eco cars, electric cars, Siri, Smart homes, Smart appliances, this blog site and dozens of others, jumbo mega jets, super fast planes, skyscrapers, the London Wheel, the Twin Towers, malls, megastores, printers, camcorders, walkman's, CD players, VCR, DVD, color tv, casset players, MP3, ipads, iphones, itunes, credit cards, Barbie dolls, hula hoops, birth control pills, nonstick pans, McDonald's, KFC, Wendy's, LED, solar batteries, rechargable batteries, rockets for space travel, Space Shuttle, robots, hydrogen bombs, Doppler radar, infra-red, Vaccines, velcro, mass produced clothing, online shopping, microwave ovens, remote controls, nuclear bombs and tech, drip brew coffee makers, pod single cup coffee makers, expresso, Starbucks, WalMart, calculaters, Atri, Playstation, Gameboy, Nintendo, Pokemon, Harry Potter, Star Wars, auto cameras, pocket cameras, instant picture cameras, digital cameras, lazers, onlie banking and trading, bubble wrap, Campbells canned soup, super glue, tv dinners, Sharpies, liquid paper, lava lamps, go-go boots, smiley face, computer chips, floppy disks, emojis, chewing gum, Rubric's cube, fiber optics, Kevlar, MRI, DNA tests at home, home pregnancy tests, Pepsi, bagless vaccums, The Beetles, Evis, Michael Jackson, madonna, Whitney Houston, Beyennce, Rap music, liposuction, Stealth planes, Artifical hearts, DNA fingerprints, tazers, electric razers, 3d printers...


She witnessed firsthand these events: Stock Market Crash, Great Depression, World War 2, mass killing devices (atomic bombs and guns), the rise and fall of The Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall, the 9.11 attacks, the Korean War, invasion of Afghanistan, the Falkland Islands war, a female Prime Minister, a female vice president (US), the Civil Rights movement, tv ministers esp. Billy Graham, the assassination of a US President, attacks on France civilians, the first motorway system, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, the publication of Lord of the Rings, and The Stand, Suez Canal, Gulf Wars, US adds 2 more states, England men win the World Cup...England Women win the World Cup, IRA wars, including the assassination of her cousin, the thwarted (by Princess Anne herself!) kidnapping of her daughter, the discovery of the DNA structure, men land on the moon, creation of the country of Israel, the Israeli-Arab wars, the rise of terrorists and mass civilians bombings and killings at nonwar events (concerts, tourist areas, schools, churches, malls, restaurants), Watergate, Clinton-gate, 1st ever POTUS resignation, first organ transplants, plane hijacks, 3 Mile Island disaster, Fukushima, Chernobyl, 6 of her children's weddings and 3 divorces, 6 grandchildrens' weddings & 1 divorce, the birth of the first IVF baby, World Wide pandemics in AIDS and Covid-19, finding of the underwater wreck Titantic, Space Shuttle explosion, Hubble telescope, her Silver, Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilees, 2012 London Olympics, and record for the longest reigning female monarch in the world.


She met these people: Elvis, the Beetles, David Bowie, the Apollo 11 astronauts, all US Presidents since Hoover (not Johnson though), 15 UK Prime Ministers, Sir Winston Churchhill, the heads of almost every government in the world; all the reigning monarchs in Europe and Asia, Frank Sinatra, Lady GaGa, Elizabeth Taylor, Julia Roberts, Marilyn Monroe, Barbara Streisand, Lucy & Desi, Meryl Streep, The Spice Girls, members of Queen, Jennifer Lopez, all the James Bond actors (Sean Conery, Pierce Bronson, Roger Moore, Daniel Craig, Timothy Dalton, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bette Midler, Hugh Jackson, Sir Elon John, Angelica Jolie, Anna Wintour, Helena Bonham Carter, David Beckham, Alan Rickman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Ellie Goulding, the cast from 'The Game of Thrones' (she sat on THE Iron throne), Gene Kelly, Harrison Ford, JK Rowling, Joan Collins, Kirk Douglas, Billy Graham, Ron Howard, Sharon Osbourne, members of the group the Black Eyed Peas, Tom Hiddleston, Micheal Sheen, Simon Cowell, Jon Bon Jovi, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, David Attenborough, Bill Gates and Paddington Bear.And thousands of others.



She had the 'one great love', her husband Phillip, whom she met at age 13. She lost her father at age 57 to lung cancer, a man who called her his "pride". King George. She once said Ascension Day was a "celebration for all but me; it is, after all, the anniversary of the death of my beloved father."
She gave her first national speech, over the radio, when she was 14. Like thousands of children, she and her sister were evacuated to the country (Windsor castle for the princesses) to spare them from harm in the London nightly bombings from Hitler during WW2, separated from her beloved parents. Princess Elizabeth's speech was directly to these children, as one of them herself, urging them to stay strong and remember they would rebuild the country and world once the war ended. She joined the army and became a car mechanic, skills she would continue to use her entire life at age 18. At the time of her death, she was the only world leader who served in WW2, and one of its last living vets.



Married to Philip at age 21, she lived a quiet life as a navy officer's wife and loved it. She had the heart and soul of a country person, not of a monarch; she wasn't born as an heir, she never expected to be an heir. But upon her father's death, she became Queen and dedicated herself to the service of her people and her country and Commonwealth. And the world is better for it. She never complained of this heavy burden, and she never expected anyone to feel sympathy for her over being Queen or over the work she did. She simply did it.
She was 'Living History'.
Her Crowning as Queen, in 1953, was the first most watched event ever on the newly invented television, with thousands of 'street party picnics'. 32.27 million people, out of the entire 36 million population, saw her crowned. 37.5 million of 65 million watched her funeral in the UK. 4.1 billion people worldwide made her funeral the most watched broadcast event in history. 


She traveled the most of any reigning monarch, and at a time when women were NOT in charge, she ruled a nation that to this day, can't form a government without her okay. She strengthened the Commonwealth from 6 to 56 countries. She personally asked her changing of the guard troops to play the American National Anthem after the 9.11 attacks. She jumped out of a helicopter with James Bond to open the London 2012 Olympics (yes, a stunt double did, but we sure all wondered if it had really been her!). She saw the formation of the EU..and watched the UK vote to leave it. She lived through the Covid pandemic. She sat alone when her beloved husband of 73 years died, and had to limit attendance at his funeral to 30. No state funeral for this great man, her self-described 'strength and stay', and reportedly, exactly what he wanted, less than 2 months before his 100th birthday. She lost her beloved only sibling, Princess Margaret, and six months later, her mother. "Grief," she wrote to the US after the 9.11 attacks, "is the price we pay for love."


She danced with a POS Ghana ruler in 1961, a time when Americans still had laws against people of different races even touching each other. A woman of deep faith, she spoke of faith and God in every speech she ever made. She saw a world of radio give way to television; television to streaming. She saw pen and paper letters give way to email. She saw standing at the phone in one spot, to carrying a phone around the house and then, around the world. She witnessed the best and worst of mankind and the terrible, wonderful things we can do. She could tell you what the world was like in the 30s, the 40s, the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, the 90's, the new century 2000, the 2010s, the 2020s-- three years of it. She embodied living, breathing human history.

Now, we are left to ask...How do we live in a world without The Queen? How do we go from Living History to historical mentions in textbooks and photographs? We will never see her like again. 


The Queen has died and rejoined her beloved Phillip. She finally gets to rest, after giving so much to so many. May God be with her family and friends, who knew her as Mummy, Grannie, Gan-Gan, or simply Elizabeth.The Queen has died. Long live The King.

The Myth of the Disney 'Princess'

I saw on social media a podcast owner say, "Women have an inflated sense of what a real 'Princess' is because of how Disney always portrayed them." I won't call this person out, but did we watch the same Disney movies?

On a tangent (y'all should know me well enough by now to know I do these often), she's probably also one of those people who say Romance Novels and Rom Coms give 'biased' 'unbelievable' views of the 'real world' where Love DOES conquer all, and putting someone else ahead of yourself is deceptive and harming and sets back women 1,000 years in thinking they need some man to take care of them and aren't complete without one. I so dare her to tell Princess Leia that.

Please don't mistake my sarcasm for agreement. I feel sorry for people who think the above way. Who can't understand the basic human need for love, understanding, and acceptance, since THAT is the heart of any romance novel and rom-com. It doesn't get any more 'real' than that. We need romance books every bit as much as we need water and air. And it makes me sad some people can't, or won't, understand that.

Nor am I defending Disney's portrayal of Women in movies. Because let's face it: Disney's 'views' of its female characters is pretty messed up early on. Olive Oyl is skinny and unattractive, always needing Popeye to save her; Minnie is utterly dependent on Mickey, Daisy is little more than a prop to Donald.

The Princesses start out much the same way: Moms are usually dead; step-moms are always evil, the princess isn't a princess until she 'catches' the prince with her beauty, she ALWAYS needs a man to save her and has seemingly no ambition beyond getting married and being his wife. 

I don't buy the 'this is the way the times were then' because Disney had a worldwide platform to change that and be better (which, I admit, it does seem to be slowly trying to do...the 'modern' Disney characters are not all man hungry, marriage driven, always joyful singing chicks: they have goals that don't always include men). But Disney DID miss the boat early on in ways it definitely shouldn't have.

Women were fighting in the Revolutionary War and kept countries going in WW2 long before the first Disney Princess (Snow White, in 1952) appeared on the scene. 

Queen Elizabeth in Britain had her palace bombed while she and the King were inside in 1940 and went walking about visiting others who also had their homes bombed the next morning, making jokes about the destruction of her home. She refused to leave the country because the King refused to leave. Princess Elizabeth made her first speech to children evacuated from bombed cities at age 14 and worked in the army as a mechanic during WW2.

Jackie Kennedy, the closest America will ever have to royalty, appeared in photos covered in her husband's blood hours after he was murdered beside her to support a new president and led a nation in mourning its fourth assassinated president. Princess Diana hugged AIDS patients at a time when even medical staff were too terrified to touch them.

Disney missed the opportunity then to highlight these qualities with its movie princesses. It seems, maybe, hopefully, to be trying to 'catch up' now.

Back to the Pod Caster Statement:

First off, Ms. Pod Caster, you discredit women as being ridiculous and stupid. If anyone watched an animated movie and thinks real life is anything like that, you must be insane, immature, and living in a cave. 

Sure, I like these cartoons of a 'normal' girl finding true love and a Prince. But I don't believe the mice running about are going to help me sew anymore than I believe a man I never met or spoke 2 words to is my true love forever, kiss me and let's ride off to your castle for a perfect life where nothing bad happens and I never have to do a lick of work. Real life isn't like that. 

I could (and have) looked into a man's eyes and KNOWN he's my Prince, the one I want forever. But I didn't say, "Ooo, Prince, kiss me and let's elope." We got to know each other, establish a relationship, grow as a couple, etc. And never have I worn a crown or sat around in a ball gown waiting for the next ball, nor did I expect to. Love is about acceptance and growing. Not what material things someone can give me.

Sure, little girls (and boys) believe all princesses do is look pretty, wear the crowns and gowns, and wave at people from glass carriages. They are KIDS. They are epic awesome because they BELIEVE anything is possible: There are aliens who are good, the good guys ALWAYS win, life is fun and safe where evil doesn't exist, and chicken fingers and pizza are the only foods worth eating.

 There's a meme floating about of a boy riding his bike atop a fence. The caption is: "He will never fall until someone points out what he's doing is impossible and destroys his myth."

KIDS believe because they are KIDS. Adults know better.

(I'll interject here I also recognize some kids never get to believe or be kids, that we as a society fail them. Some kids know real evil from way too young and experience the worst of humans and life way too young. They don't get to be a kid.)

But also, kids are SMART. They aren't idiots. Don't believe that, give one a child-proof bottle and see them open it in 2 seconds flat. Or let them program your smart tv. They may believe in make-believe and fairy tales, but they also are way smarter than (most) adults.

I never watched an anvil fall on coyote and thought, "wow, that's so real, I better watch the skies every time I go outside"  any more than I watched Snow White wake from a kiss from a man she never met because of 'true love'. Not when I was six years old and certainly not as a woman. I don't know any women who do.

Ms. Pod caster, you are wrong.

If you think today's royalty is wearing ball gowns and lying about while mice and deer do all the work, again, what planet are you from? Heck, even the Disney Princesses didn't have a fairy tale life!

Disney FINALLY got the message. Look at the 'modern' Disney Princesses: Tiana, Merida, Mulan, Moana, and Pocahontas. These ladies are NOT pushovers for love: and something I adore most about Merida (besides her wild red curls I totally identify with): she's the first Disney princess NOT to have a journey for love or to get a man as her main story: she's saving her beloved mom.

But I digress. My point is, even the first (I was tempted to say older, but that's just wrong) Disney Princesses did NOT have a cushy fun life. For one thing, all of them have a dead mom and/or dad. I recall at 11 thinking Disney obviously hated all moms because the real ones were dead and the step ones were always evil. 

Plus, all the Disney Princesses had anything but a 'perfect' life (just watch their sequels to see all is not wearing gowns and crowns and going to balls). They certainly don't just laze about the palace. All of them worked.

There are 12 'Official' Disney Princesses on the website: The 12 characters in the franchise are Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, and Moana.

Here's my point:

Snow White: Orphaned, stepmom tries to kill her, forced to flee the palace, becomes a housekeeper to 7 dwarfs, (I envy the animals she had helping her, not the prince), gets poisoned, has to have a man save her;

Cinderella: Mom died, Dad dies, becomes a servant to evil stepmom & stepsisters, denied the ball bc she's too 'pretty', locked in a room, and finally gets the man to 'save' her;

Aurora/Sleeping Beauty: Hidden away, serves elderly 'grandmothers', denied her 'love', returns reluctantly to her family, cursed to sleep until a man saves her;

Ariel: Forbidden the 'human' world bc Dad is prejudiced, treasures destroyed by Dad, physically altered, loses her voice, finally helps prince save both worlds (she's one of the first who ever actively helps save her world and prince, and I was a grown woman when her story premiered);

Belle: Mom dead, ripped away from beloved father, locked in a castle with a Beast (okay, I admit I don't feel very sorry for her, bc BOOKS...yes, baby, lock me in a library forever with books and no worries about how to pay the rent or what's for dinner), has to fight to save both worlds, her father and the Beast;

Jasmine: Mom dead, has to see the 'real world' to believe what she's told about it, needs to grow and change her perceptions, has to fight to save her father, kingdom, and love;

Mulan: Has to physically alter herself, go against gender norms and fight in battles to save her father;

Pocahontas: Hard life preparing food, fighting to survive, and battling invaders looking for gold, is one of the first Disney environmentalists, risks her life to save a man;

Moana: Again not a man-focused story, an epic sea battle to save her world, village, and people;

Tiana: (I love her, she's one of my favs): Poor, working girl, dreams of owning her restaurant and is actively working for it, isn't man seeking, gets physically altered, and has to save her town;

Rapunzel: Stolen from her family, lied to, and locked in a tower, has to journey to find who she is and where her family are and fight the evil trying to overthrow her father;

Merida: refuses to do 'as tradition says', even battling her parents for it, makes a massive mistake (turning her mom into a bear), and then has to atone and make it right; another not man-centered;

These aren't 'official', but since Disney owns the franchise:

Elsa: Orphaned, gives up beloved sister to keep her safe; has to fight both herself, her terrifying gift, and evil trying to take over the kingdom;

Tarzan's Mom: She mated to the Ape king, but chooses to save infant Tarzan and gets the King's fury and rejection, gets caged and has to daily avoid predators and search for food;

Princess Leia: One of the few with an actual Princess title: Need I say more? This is one 'I ain't no lie around princess', I'm a rebel leader, fighter, get my hands dirty, fight and defy even my own father;

So exactly WHICH Princess do you mean, oh Ms. Pod caster blaming Disney for your own mangled views of life and royalty?  

Watch the movies again and decide if these are REALLY the soft, useless, gown and crown wearing tools you think princesses are. Because they AREN'T. While I don't personally know any, I doubt any real-life titled princesses are either.

ALL the examples above have a common theme: These women had to sacrifice something, had to work for something, and don't just lie around with candy all day expecting the whole world to love them and give them whatever they want JUST because they have a princess title.

It's not Disney that 'betrayed' you, Ms. Podcaster. You did that to yourself. Nor is blaming Disney fair; it's a cop-out to what you yourself want to believe: a fantasy even a child sees through.

REVIEW: THE SANDMAN......written by Neil Gainman; 11 episodes, shown on Netflix

 WARNING......WARNING......WARNING......WARNING......WARNING.......WARNING!!!!!!!!

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS, IN THE IMMORTAL WORDS OF RIVER SONG, "SPOILERS!"STOP NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL 11 EPISODES OF THE SANDMAN.
Okay, that said, let's begin. The Sandman.
The Sandman is a series based upon the comic books (which I admit I didn't read, but my sons and all their friends did) and is, I'm told, very faithful to the characters and the story. You don't have to have read the comics (though I'm told you should) to watch this series. There's a host of characters, so bear with me as we go through them. Also, there are LOTS of stories and characters I'm not including, not because they aren't memorable, but for the sheer volume.
The main is, of course, the title character The Sandman, also known as Dream, as known as Lord Morpheus. There are many, many legends and myths (we meet Biblical Cain & Abel, for example) and to me, all the names he is known by follow the traditional Greek/Roman Gods/Goddess with their multiple names.
Dream is a VERY flawed character. He's one of the Endless, those who aren't quite Gods, (he's the 'Dream Lord' not the 'Dream God') but definitely aren't mortals. Dream is, as one character (Death, more on her later) puts it: "The stupidest, most self-centered, pathetic excuse for an anthropomorphic personification on this or any other plane". He is, at the beginning, arrogant, unfeeling, and cares mainly for himself. He has one heck of a history in which he shows his selfish, unforgiving side, and seems to think of humans as 'lesser'.We meet him from the first moment, in voice-over, and let me tell you, he grabs your attention and never, ever lets it go. The actor portrays him so real, drawing you in with smokey (sorry for the pun) dreamy voice, depthless, expressive eyes, and tall, ultra-thin form. He commands the screen, and never relinquishes it (though Death does steal a bit here and there). We see MORE from Dream from his eyes and expressions than his words. He walks into an uncertain battle with a stooped, slow walk and leaves after victory with a swagger and a grin. It's memorizing and so well done, he will forever be known as Dream, regardless of what he does in his future.
Dream is captured, by mistake, by a man who is grieving the loss of his son in WW1. This man wanted to capture Death, and force her to return his son to him. When he discovers he has Dream, not Death, he keeps Dream a captive regardless, thinking Dream will somehow return his son anyway-- and egged on by The Corinthian (more on him later). While Dream is held, first by the man, then his son, for over 100 years, many humans 'fall asleep' in a not dead, not alive state while his realm ('The Dreaming') begins to disintegrate and those who inhabit the realm he created, the Dreams and Nightmares, leave until only the very loyal Royal Librianian Lucienne (another outstanding performance) remain.
Let me tangent for a moment...Lucienne is the best friend we all deserve and the most loyal, enduring soul ever met. She puts up with a lot from Dream, not the least is having to watch her beloved library vanish during the years of his captivity. The library, by the way, contains every book ever written and even those thought about but not written. THAT's where I'd like to spend eternity. But I digress...
Dream must go to Cain and Abel (Abel beautifully tells us why he must be murdered over and over by his brother Cain, the first victim, and the first murderer) and take the 'one creation that is still intact'. It's heartbreaking for everyone, including Dream, who has tears in his eyes as he does what he must to restore The Dreaming. He also tries to make amends with the brothers, with a cute little creature named Goldy.
Dream's visit with the Muses is also a stand-out... terrifying and even a bit humorous. Well played by 3 actresses who are maiden (beautiful, young, flirty), mother (plumb, older, and mommy-like), and crone (old, a bit mean, and scary). 
Dream has to go on a journey to reclaim his 'tools': His sand, his helm, and his ruby, which he believes he can't do without nor rule and build. He also has to locate all the Dreams & Nightmares who haven't returned, including mega bad guy The Corinthian (more on him later). The first five episodes are Dream's journey to reclaim these tools, from modern-day London and meeting the ancestor of someone he knew centuries ago (Demon hunter Joanna, played by DW's Clara, Jenna Coleman) to a mad man who wants to reveal 'truth' no matter how shattering (HP's Lupin, now a very bad, mad guy) to Hell, where he must battle Lucifer herself (absolutely brilliantly portrayed by GoT's Brienne). 
Another slight tangent: Lucifer, female, is utterly seductive, sweet, and terrifying in her evilness. She is a bit like a southern lady: all sweetness and light on the outside with darkness behind the sweet. She reveals herself in expressions: Even when 'pleasantly' asking Dream about his family, her eyes are cold, hard & evil. I hope we see more of her, even if she is one of the bad guys, because she is such a dream (hahaha) to watch on screen. Their battle deserves all the awards in the world for sheer memorizing talent, emotion, and unable-to-walk-away watchability.
Episode 5, where Dream fights for his last tool, his ruby, is also TRIGGER WARNING disturbing for how John (HP's Lupin) decides to use the ruby to make every human reveal and act on 'the truth'. It gets violent and bloody, unbelievably cruel, with the final battle between John and Dream one for sheer unpredictability. John's 'punishment' also shows how Dream has grown in his journey: Once he would have killed John without a thought, but now he picks a more fitting ending. We also see Dream's concern for humans, his determination that their lives are not 'just dreams alone', and how truth is not always black and white.
For me, Episode 6, 'The Sound of Her Wings' is the best overall episode. It is beautifully acted and written. This is Death's episode, Dream's 'big sister', who is determined to smack her little brother into shape, get him out of his morse depression, and knock some bloody sense into him. She's the Big Sister we all want: a bit bossy, compassionate, caring, and knowing just what to say and when to say it. She gently guides Dream to what he needs most to realize and shows him her work in a new light.
Let me say, for sheer utterly toxic, dysfunctional family, I doubt you find one more so than Dream's: He has 6 siblings: Delirium, Death, Desire, Despair, Destiny, & Destruction. He's the third born. We hear Destruction is 'the Prodical', the one missing for years. We meet three of them: Death, Desire & Despair. Desire & Despair are twins, and Desire is one evil little pissant you just want to smack (and revealed at the end, the 'puppet master' who set everything up in this entire season to try to destroy Dream).
As a TRIGGER WARNING: Yes, we see Death doing her job. It is beautifully done, and acted, with the sound of her wings and the briefest of glimpses of the shadow outline of them. There is a scene where she comes for an elderly man, and since I watched this 2 days after the 5th anniversary of my father's death, it was particularly poignant to me. Death also comes for an infant, a drug addict, a man robbed in the street, a woman dying in hospice, a man on his honeymoon, and a man playing football. Again, it is gently shown, portrayed, and we can only hope when the actual Death happens, this is the way it comes for all of us. Death also reminds Dream they exist solely FOR and BECAUSE of the humans, that their purpose IS their function, and they are there to serve them. "I need them as much as they need me."
In this episode, we see a 'bet' between Death & Dream, from back in 1389(!): In a pub, a man named Hob, who brags he doesn't fear Death & has seen it, since his whole village died in 'the Black Death', and determines he is not going to seek death or ever die. Dream bets Death "in a century he will beg for you to get him, he'll be tired of life". Death takes the challenge and allows Hobs immortality. Dream tells Hobs every 100 years they will meet at the same pub, for Hob to tell Dream how he feels about life. We then see this pub every 100 years (pay attention to the 'background chatter', the issues discussed in 1389 are very much the same issues discussed every century, and will be forever; the music, and the brilliant changing London skyline). To Dream's amazement, Hob loves life, even when he loses everything, even when his family dies, and even as the world changes beyond anything he could have imagined. We meet Shakespeare, hear about slavery, inventions, changing professions, and see Joanna's (from above) ancestor. It's a wonderful arch that teaches Dream some very valuable lessons about life, humans, and even friendship. We also have mentions of Dream's 'other activities' those off-screen, so to speak, which I hope we see in future episodes.
Episode 7 begins, to me, with a brand new arch...although it has ties to the first six. Rose, a woman looking for her brother, unknowingly holds a power that can destroy worlds, all worlds. We also see more of the 'missing nightmare' from The Dreaming, The Corinthian, and a very disturbing episode of an unconventional convention of 'cereal' (serial killers). TRIGGER WARNING: This is violent, gruesome, and very, very disturbing with descriptions of hunting victims, preying on and abusing children, and murder.  While Dream is victorious, and The Corinthian is destroyed, what Dream does to the serial killers shows his growth: Once he wouldn't have cared, but now he is determined they will be punished for their horrific crimes against other humans. It's a justified ending.
We follow Rose as she learns who and what she is, and prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice of herself for her friends, and the worlds. Yet her great-grandmother (she was one of those affected by the asleep not awake disease) discovers she is supposed to have been what Rose is, and saves her by switching their places. It's nicely done but didn't hold me as much as the first episodes.Stand out here includes 'Fiddler's Green', (Stephen Fry) the sweet, seemingly befuddled older man who tries to help Rose.
We also see the ruthlessness Dream holds inside when he confronts his sibling Desire over his manipulations. When Dream tells Desire, "mess with me or mine again and I shall forget we are family.. think you can stand against me, against Death, against  Destiny?" we completely believe Dream will utterly destroy Desire, sibling or not. And if Desire had any brains, he'd slink away and keep a big distance between himself and his big brother. But Desire isn't smart and is only more determined than ever to bring Dream down.In addition, again, we see the growth of Dream: He reminds Desire "we are the servants of the living, not their masters" and they exist "only because the humans know in their hearts we exist" and "we do not manipulate them....they manipulate us... you would do well to remember that" we see the change from arrogant Dream in Episode 1 to this more mature, listened-to-big-sis Dream. It's a big moment, not the least diminished by seeing him threaten and scare Desire, if only for a few moments.
And we see Lucifer, still smarting from losing the battle to Dream, plotting to bring Dream to his knees in a way that will "make God absolutely livid".
OOOOO GIMME GIMME GIMME SEASON 2!!!!!!
Episode 11 is Two shorts that stand-alone...Not really connected, yet the same characters. 'Dream of a Thousand Cats' is making me look at every cat I see a bit differently (and is the only one animated) while 'Calliope' is both angering and heartbreaking, especially in the bits we get of her history with Dream (and chilling performance by Doctor Who's Rory, Arthur Darvill).
Bottom Line:What I LOVED:* The writing is fantastic, with very few out-of-place or stilted conversations. There is so much told by actions and expressions it almost overpowers the actual spoken words. 
*The Acting: Top notch and each actor totally fits and is believable as his/her character. New faces and familiar ones mix and begin utter 'real world' elements to this series, breathe their characters into life, make us care or hate them, and want to see what happens next, making it one of the best I've ever seen.
* The filming/sets/views: Magical. No other word fits. From the 'The Dreaming' and various dreams to the 1920s, to each century for Hobs, to the present day, everything was flawless. Costumes are amazing, and Dream's long black coat is much like The Doctor 10 Tennent's, so much a part of him it also seems as alive as Dr. Strange's cloak. The camera angles, from Dream entering the massive gates of Hell with his faithful raven Matthew flying above him, to the way we see Lucifer as larger than life, to the gentle beauty of Death, to the mists, vortexes, 'mirror' skies of changing scenes, to the utter chaos of Desire's 'home' it is like, seriously, living in a dream. Every detail is immaculate: homes look like typical homes, nothing is out of place (no coffee cups aka GoT on the table), and exquisite detail in the bars of Dream's cage, the family pictures, the books, and the difference between wealthy and struggling.
* The overall tone is one of hope (a word that figures VERY prominently), even in the darkest. 
What I Didn't Like:* There's only 11 episodes and I want more NOW.* The trigger warnings above were a bit hard for me, and the level of violence is a bit tough. This is NOT a children's story and I wouldn't let a child watch it.
Binge this. You will NOT be able to stop at one episode, especially in the first 5.
I'm off to find some comic books....

I'm Not a Condenser...

 I'm not a Condenser. It's not my fault. Really, it's not. It's just not in my genes or in my blood.  I'm Irish, 

Scottish, 

and UK (and I have the DNA results to prove it!) PLUS I'm southern American. It's just ingrained in us to ramble and be story-tellers. The GOOD kind.

We LOVE to talk. And talk some more. And talk more and more. As my Daddy used to say, "She (me) has to build the clock before she can tell you the time."
PLUS... I love words. I just adore them. Who doesn't? Especially English words, which I'm told make it a very hard language to learn because the same word can mean something different and be said a different way, like rain and reign. 
Words are fun. They are beautiful, and hard to spell, and can say everything we can't seem to say from our heart, and they go together well or don't, and they are just magic. And I like to use many, so I don't hurt any feelings (yes, that's a stretch).

So HOW can I be expected to condense a whole 85K words into a 300  or less summary? I have to give up all my beloved four words describers. 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👺👹💀💔😞😟😠😡

It also explains why it's taking me three whole days to write a 200 word blurb*for the new book. I have to go against my upbringing, and my speech, and my natural tendency, and my blood, and my genes and everything!

* Blurb is the name of those teaser things on the backs of books or in sell pages to see if we want to buy and read the book. They are supposed to be witty, short, and encourage a reader to buy the book.

So just know...I usually have a LOT of help writing my books' blurbs. And be kind when you read them. I promise the story is MUCH better!

Speaking of...let me introduce you to Daniel, from "When You Believe'. This is the inspiration for him:

Have a great week everyone! I'm off to battle deleting ...I mean, I'm off to write this blurb!

It's Been a While...... and now I'm back! Life tends to ...

 

It's Been a While...

... and now I'm back! Life tends to move at a race or a snail...there doesn't seem to be an in-between does there?

So...we had a pandemic we still aren't completely out of (and may never be) and by all signs, another one fast developing. We've had 2 presidential elections (in the US) and a deeply divided country I'm not sure will ever find its way back to the United. As I write this on this August day, the world is in drought with record-breaking heat all over the globe. We had metoo, BLM, school shootings, world violence, and hundreds of other things.

For me, personally...We lost my beloved father to heart disease and I have fought 'the big C' harder than I ever thought I'd have to. I sold the home where I raised my kids and downsized to a home 1/4 the size...and right in town! Country comes to town alright! I've lost 3 very close, funny, beautiful friends to this horrible disease, and I'm dealing with a boatload of survivor's guilt. I'm also now in (omg, was I insane?) Grad school.

So my characters had to take a seat (and some were NOT happy about it). I promise not to be away so long again and have some wonderful new stories to share.

Here's to the future, whatever it may be!

Rededicated and Reopened in Memory of Sophie, Riko, and Paula. I will forever miss you.

Learning Never Stops

A bit of a change of pace...A real-life Lesson I learned today. Hope you enjoy and comment. :)


Never Stop Learning
Our local news station does a segment every week called, "Never Stop learning'. As an Educator, I understand that phrase perhaps better than some. When I was a kid of maybe five, I heard my (at the time) favorite teacher say, "When we stop learning, we stop growing. When we stop growing, we stop living. It doesn't matter if your heart beats and brain functions. You are dead the minute you stop learning."I pondered that and remembered it. I still do. I believe it. I try to live by it.As a young teacher, just fresh out of the house from being a full-time mom, my mentor teacher gave me charge of a boy with autism. He was 'different', and twenty odd years ago, the research into what made him different and not the dreadful 'r' word had barely begun. But he taught me more in that year than any experience in my life. He taught me to grow, to see people not as society demands, by as he/she really is. 
In the times I grew up, in the South, racial tensions were high, feminism was just budding, and everyone was coming off the glow of the wild sixties into the volatile seventies. No, I'm not THAT old. The seventies, to me, were my older sister fighting with my parents to wear miniskirts and go-go boots and stay out past ten o'clock while I played with dolls under the dining room table. It was the last, perhaps, gasp of the 'innocent' age, when kids left the house at dawn and mothers never worried, because they knew, with certainty, their child would race home seconds before the porch light flipped on.I learned, in those growing up years, and the eighties that followed, all the 'academic' things kids learned and the values of my parents, staunch conservative Baptists. My father was known for being even-tempered and honest; in all my years with him, I saw him in a temper only twice. His best friend, from childhood, was an African American man.We lived in Southern Small Town America. It doesn't come much smaller than a one stop light town only on the map because of the railroad which ran through it. Men were very much 'Sons of the Confederacy'. My family roots grew deep there, nine or ten generations back, depending on who you asked. I watched, at the age of eight, the KKK, known as 'The Boys', burn a cross in my Father's Best Friend's yard one night, and try to hang him in front of his wife and children. I saw my father step between them, push the guns away, and quietly say, "Get out of here. And may God send you back to hell for this." I learned Courage that night. I learned Honor. I learned how to Stand. And I learned how to use nonaggression against aggression.I learned it again a few years later, as the Klan marched through our town. Amidst the hate and unbelievably vile shouts, an African American policeman stood guarding those very ones calling for his death simply for the color of his skin. He was the son of the man my Father saved. I decided to never let hate win. It's been hard, and that determination has been tested numerous times. Fate laughs at humans who make determinations. Ever notice that?
But today....today I learned To Never Stop Learning.
I teach children with autism. Or rather, they teach me. I have students across the spectrum, from you would-never-guess to you-know-right-away. Each has touched something in me I didn't know was there. Each has taught me something, and more than I feel I teach them.
I don't have favorites. Really. But one, I'll call her 'Amy'. Amy is on the lower end of the Spectrum and rarely uses conversational language. She speaks, clear and often very LOUD, just not in the way others do to communicate. She uses 'cues' and songs, game and words that represent other things. English that's a foreign language, in the world where she lives and we don't. She's sixteen, as tall as me, almost as big, and adores Sesame Street. Amy will never live independently, a very hard fact her family had to accept. But Amy has a laugh that makes a room glow. That makes everyone around her smile. 
And she has a huge chunk of my heart.
Her mom told me, when I arrived for our private session, that Amy's PT (physical therapist) had told them yesterday, "She's as far as she's ever going to be. I can't help her. So I'm releasing her." In essence, the PT gave up on Amy making further progress.(Let me add, I don't know this PT. I'm going on what Amy's Mom said. PT is different from learning. I understand that. But from the tears in Mom's eyes, she felt deeply betrayed people who should help her child aren't willing to accept painfully slow progress and prefer to release (or as Mom sees it, give up).The PT claimed Amy had stopped learning.
Afterward, my heart heavy, Amy and I went on a walk around the town. I pointed out the different flowers blooming, the men working on a roof, the airplanes in the sky. Amy responded by not responding, by being in the place she dwells: in her world. But as I watched the gray clouds in the sky, beside me, she spread her arms, laughed joyously, and spun in circles. She laughed and laughed, uncaring if people stopped and stared. She loved the air, the scents, the feel of the breeze, the warmth after the cold winter. She was demonstrating, at least I believe, her joy in being alive. I envied her that freedom. That absolute confidence to simply LIVE and BE and to heck with what anyone thought. No boundaries or constraints. LIFE. JOY. 
I wish so much all of us could live that freely, that joyfully, that open.
On impulse, I started singing, 'Frere Jacques'. I've never sung this song with Amy before. She stopped, stared at me. I kept singing and she listened intently.And after almost 4 years of working with her, when I stopped singing, Amy looked me in the eye (something few children with autism will do), smiled, and said my name. "Sing more. Please."
CONVERSATIONAL SKILLS! AND MY NAME!!! I almost cried. But I sang it again.And Amy sang it with me.
She was growing. She was learning. Never Stop Being Alive and Never Stop Learning.
I grew today. I learned to stop caring so much what people think and LIVE. I learned to take time to see the flowers and watch the birds. I learned, most of all, sing a song when I feel like it and smile for the sake of smiling.When we walked back to Amy's house, I told her Mom what happened. I added, "Amy won't ever give up on me. And I'll never give up on Amy. Neither of us will ever stop learning."
Never Stop Learning. So you can Live in the World you create. 

COMING SOON: Let Me KnowWeddings by C & C: Book 5

COMING SOON: Let Me KnowWeddings by C & C: Book 5

I was interviewed! Check it out HERE:https://authorsinter...

I was interviewed! Check it out HERE:

https://authorsinterviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/here-is-my-interview-with-mia-epsilon/

One of the most important things a writer can do, to me, ...

One of the most important things a writer can do, to me, is to create characters we care about, that we want to see more of, and read more and more about long after their story ends. In that vein, I'm reviewing a movie that does exactly that and helped me inject more life into the series characters I created for Weddings by C &C. Enjoy!

Review: Mamma Mia!!! Here We Go AgainWARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE! DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW!
My daughter dragged me to see Mamma Mia 1 way back. She literally came to my workplace, where I was putting in dozens of unpaid hours for an upcoming huge monitoring review and said, "We are going to the movies. Now."
I'm glad she did. It was fun, silly, and just what my overworked brain and body needed at the time.
So when Mamma Mia 2 was announced, there was no question my daughter and I would go see it. Only this time, with my granddaughter, too. Three generations, just like in the movie.
I'm glad we did.
Let me also say we were the youngest in the theater. It was filled with senior type couples. A group of senior ladies, obviously doing a 'girls afternoon out' sat about three rows behind us. They were almost better than the movie! The SANG (one was WAY off key, and made me feel better about my shower-only singing) and laughed, gasped and cried. I loved their reactions.
But to the movie...which upfront, is fluffy, fun, and not plot heavy. It's not going to win 'serious film' awards. And it's not meant to do that. It's meant to reunite us with our favorite ABBA performing megastars. And give us a whole lot of fun.
And damn if it didn't make me also sob like a bloody baby and leave the theater with my face a mess.
There are several inconsistencies from the first film, such as the order in which young Donna meets her three young lovers. There are definite variations from the pictures MM1 Sophie was shown of the three men in MM1. 
The young Donna, Rosey, and Tanya are PERFECT. They play the roles so well they could actually BE themselves 20 years younger or older. It's truly incredible and a delight to see.
Many characters return, including the stick bearing older woman from MM1 and the cameo piano playing actual ABBA band member. Almost all the main characters are there, in their 5 (actual 10) yr older appearances but I missed Tanya's young suitor, Harry's Greek paramour, and especially Sophie's two best friends from MM1. And I missed the 'big' hits...though I do love how the movie plays the instrumental songs from MM1 in the background as we see the older versions.
The 'present day' story picks up around five years after the ending of Mamma Mia 1. Sophie and Skye have traveled the world and now she's back on the 'little island'. Skye is in New York, training at the 'finest hotel' available (it's not named, probably a wise diplomatic intentional move). Sam lives on the island as well. Bill is in Sweden receiving and award and Harry is contract negoiating in Japan. Sophie has worked hard to make the hotel Donna bought with money Aunt Sophia (and Sophie's namesake) left her. She's made it the perfect 'romantic getaway' discussed in the first film. It's really gorgeous and made me want to take a Greek vacation.
And during a breakup phone call between Skye and Sophie, we learn a shocking twist that literally made our entire theater scream, "NO!" MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD>>>>>
Sophie and Sam especially, are in deep mourning. Sam plays this so very well, to the point you feel his pain. Sophie plays her grief and reasons for staying on the island forever, fulfilling her mother's dream, also very well. Some at the start, in the middle, and particularly at the end. We see Tanya and Rosey experiencing and dealing with their sorrow with Rosey crying anytime a certain name is mentioned.
Donna, you see, has died about a year ago. And Sophie is determined to make her proud and finish the work Donna began making the hotel all Donna dreamed it could be. As Sam recalls his 'dancing queen', we go back 20 years, to the very young Donna, Rosey, and Tanya at their college graduation.
The ceremony is a HOOT. Shocking, surprising, and would never be allowed now. We hear the song, 'I Kissed the Teacher", a lesser known (at least to me) ABBA hit. Then Donna decides to go off and see the world, with a bit of reference to finding places for the girl band to perform.
Paris is first, where she meets young Harry. The scene where they perform 'Waterloo' in the middle of a Paris cafe made me giggle. Waterloo didn't go so well for the French as I recall, so singing a song about it in Paris...well. The inclusion of all races, genders, and abilities is shown in the dance scene, with a solo of a woman in a wheelchair (which to me looked way too modern to be in a 1970's cafe, but that's nitpicky). 
Second is Greece and the 'little island' where Donna finds the 'old farmhouse' (which is literally falling apart) that will become the hotel, a trapped horse, plus Bill and Sam. Bill she meets after she misses the ferry and he sails her to the island, doing his best to 'score' and failing. There's an adorable scene of 'true love' with another couple who come back later in the movie.
Donna and Sam have instant chemistry, and she ends up spending his week with him. Then Sam leaves to fulfill his engagement and she's broken. In every way. She finds Sophia, Sophia's bar & band owning son,(they are...not great, and funny as heck) and wrangles a gig for the girl band. 
Rosey and Tanya arrive for the gig and do their best to cheer up broken hearted Donna, including Tanya shoving her toward Bill (who has returned) even as Rosey lusts after him for herself. We learn here Rosey wanted Bill from the start, and only stepped aside for Donna. THAT's a TRUE friend. Rosey solution to disappointment and heartbreak? CAKE. 
Did I mention I most identify with Rosey? She's a writer, after all, and she thinks a cake is an answer to everything. I love that woman.(See, I think of them as people, as a reader/viewer should, not as a 'character' even as my logical mind tells me they are simply characters, I still feel I KNOW them. THAT, my dears, is the mark of great writing).
Bill is her 'rebound'. It's obvious, but she also likes him, in a friend type way. I was disappointed Rosey didn't get her chance, to be honest, but then that would have been a huge deviation from MM1.
Donna learns she's pregnant as Sophie, present day, learns she is, too. Present day is a mess, with the planned huge re-opening Gala for the hotel canceled and ruined by a huge storm. All seems lost...then Bill and Harry arrive with dozens of local fishermen. The scene with the two of them recreating the iconic scene from Titanic is one of the funniest of the movie.
Here is 'Dancing Queen' and it's spectacular. The hotel folks are bobbing and dancing and the those in the ships are moving and grooving. Those in the hotel join those from the boats on the dock, where Sophie and Sam reunite with Harry, Bill, and Skye. Rosey and Bill are on the rocks: she just can't abide his roaming eye any longer.
The party is on...and an unexpected visit from Grandma (Cher) makes it complete, with tons of music, a lost love found, 2 characters on the rocks achieving smooth sailing again and Skye declaring Sophie is more important than anything, and the announcement of Sophie's pregnancy.
As Sophie gets her lifelong chance to be part of 'Donna and the Dynamos', we see young Donna giving birth aided by Aunt Sophia. It's powerful, tear-jerking, and really makes the movie more special and less 'fluff'.
Cher performs 'Fernando' aided by epic fireworks.
But the best scene to me, though I sobbed through it....
As Donna in the past walks to the little chapel on the top of the hill to christen baby Sop, Sophie and all in the present do the same for Sophie's son. It's powerful and absolutely heartbreaking as Donna, from MM1 appears seen only by Sophie. She and Sophie sing together as mothers.
Oh. My. God. Tearing up again as I type this.
Stay for the end scene song, with the whole cast, including Cher and Meryl S. There's also an end fo credits scene that is cute and funny.
So all in all, go see Mamma Mia 2, and take tissues. 
Now I'm off to create characters who make my readers feel they are real.....