Today would have been my mother’s 84th birthday – a milestone that would be unimaginable to you, had you known her.  It certainly is to me.  Ann Evans Murphy – born July 2, 1925 … Ann Murphy Cornog – died January 19, 1975.  For anyone Googling that name … she was not what she appeared. I learned from her to hate hypocrisy – both because she hated it and because she was one of its more adept and crazy-making practitioners.  Mark Sanford’s got nothin’ on Ann Cornog!

She died at age 49, a woman of beauty, creativity, intelligence, wit, and gargantuan destructiveness.  The effects of her life are like glass shards after an explosion.  Embedded in the skin … you want to get them out so that they don’t work their way into your bloodstream and eventually, lethally, to your heart.

She had her pain, and her story, too – we were pretty much indoctrinated in their intricacies from birth. Big, noisy victim, though.  That’s pretty much what it boiled down to.  Had she lived to be 84 … well … let’s just say JordanCornblog would be a significantly less coherent blog than it is.

So, while the rains continue to fall here, I remember … celebrating the places where I have learned to be different from her … and working to see clearly what I have assimilated and still carry.  It’s a journey, that’s for sure!

Oh … and did you see that the Red Stars beat the Freedom last night?  Good work Stars – nice to see you turn things back in a winning direction.  It was the first ever come-from-behind WPS victory, with the Stars scoring twice in the second half to negate an Abby Wambach tally in the first.