… the Phillies were about to send the World Series back to NY for Game 6 … and the Eagles hadn’t lost to the Cowboys … and the House hadn’t capitulated to the dastardly religious right and made “choice” an even less meaningful word than it already is … and many of us had never heard of Fort Hood … and oh, my, life was looking good.  Nostalgia!

Here’s yesterday’s November sunset at the lake, courtesy of HollyCornblog.  How different the light looks!

Today is Anne Sexton’s birthday.  What a revelation she was to me … a little like Joan Crawford … who in turn was a little like a mother I knew once.

Ah, here’s to those mothers who could dazzle with their smiles, and whose egocentricity and entitlement (often spiced with expletives and violence) pretty much laid waste to the world around them.

Thankfully, some of those mothers, like Anne and Joan, had daughters who wrote books that shone bright lights on them … helping others to see more clearly, perhaps … and realize that what they experienced as “normal” just maybe wasn’t!

So, in honor of Anne Sexton’s birthday … and in honor of survival … and complexity … and of exploring as much as you can while you can … and maybe even sharing it so others can gain some perspective … here’s a snippet from “Flee on Your Donkey.”

It’s a passage that haunts me for reasons I don’t really get.  Sometime, I’ll understand … but for now, I’ll just share it …  ;>)

Anne, Anne,

flee on your donkey,

flee this sad hotel,

ride out on some hairy beast,

gallop backward pressing

your buttocks to his withers,

sit to his clumsy gait somehow.

Ride out

any old way you please!