Sante Fe

an adobe in Sante Fe

I have a cat named Isabel and I love her very much. She is a Calico cat that my granddaughter found at the UCO football field over two years ago. Something is wrong with her this week however and the vet can't figure it out. Something has been wrong for over three weeks and still no real improvement. My youngest daughter's two year old cat almost died last month from some weird kidney infection. She lived however and is now doing just fine. People think that cats and dogs are tough and can take care of themselves. They are not tough; they are really quite fragile creatures that can succumb to some terrible disease or injury or illness within a very short length of time. I don't really have a point to make with this except that it helps me to talk about it. You get so caught up in the lives of these little beings and really they don't get to stay around in your life for all that long a time. You think, oh fourteen years is a long time to have a pet (I had a cat named Kitty that recently died at age fourteen), but when the animal has been your best friend for that long and then he just suddenly isn't there anymore, something in you dies too. Or maybe this is true only with certain people, maybe not everyone gets so attached to their pets. Anyway, for me it has certainly been true and will continue to be so. I guess our pets are friends we are blessed with for only a short while, that they are supposed to come in and out of our lives like a flash of beautiful, bright sunlight. Most assuredly, we are forever enriched from having known them.

I think that I would enjoy a photo blog. A blog with nothing but photos and an occasional bit of poetry. I remember a poem that I had on an essay test back in Brit Lit and the poem was about how people talk and talk and oftentimes really say nothing at all that contains any degree of importance. I remember liking the poem a lot because the poem was written as if a bird (I think it was a bird or perhaps it was some other creature) were telling the tale about how he always wondered why people talked so much, and that he was glad that the lower creatures such as himself did not talk at all. I wish I could remember who wrote the poem because I would like to reread it. It was a very good poem. Today in Lit Crit I read something that Goethe was supposed to have said and it went something like this -- the best thing about man is that he has the ability to shudder with awe -- I thought that statement was very profound, afterall I am a true Romantic. I also believe that the door to my mind was opened up a little bit more in Lit Crit today -- one of my greatest fears is that I might be thought of a closed-minded. I would like to be always open to new theories and new possibilities. Living among the young as I do each day at school is a very good thing for this old relic.

I was just watching CNN and noticed the debate over whether the government should be legally allowed to monitor the searches on Google (both in the private and commercial sector of our country). The journalist asked the viewers whether they thought this type of surveilance was a good idea, or yet, another invasion of the U.S. citizen's right to privacy. In this age of increased threat of terrorism, do we need the government to be digging into every aspect of our communication? You know, the government, along with every other Tom, Dick and Harry out there in our society, knows far TOO much about each one of us. We get a social security card the week we are born, we have driver's licenses, we have credit cards, we have rental leases and house mortgages, and accounts with Internet providers, and purchases on the Internet, and searchers on the Internet, and Blogs on the Internet, and who knows what else and the paper trail is now very much ENDLESS. ANYONE can find you or impersonate you and there is not much way to avoid it. There is absolutely NO place to hide from being monitored and watched and recorded unless one becomes a MONK. And so I guess I am saying what real difference does it make if the government looks at my search for Victoria's Secret underwear online! They probably know I shop there already!!! Maybe we can even stop another Timothy McVay or another Osama Bin Laden from carrying out his plan. Furthermore, WHAT is REALLY private on the Internet anyway??? Thanks,

s hamilton
Amendment 8/16/06 Well terrorists were planning to blow up at least ten jet planes coming from Great Britain this past week. Perhaps constant surveilance in every sector of our society is going to have to be a way of life in this very confusing, every more perilous time. s hamilton

I hesitate to even go into this topic for fear that it may offend someone, but it bothers me and I am not exactly sure of all the reasons why. Have you noticed all the new churches that are constantly being built in Edmond? They are all protestant, non-liturgical churches, but that issue is not what bothers me. What does bother me is WHY are so many new churches being built when there are plenty of existing ones to serve the current population of Edmond, OK. It would seem that in each case there are a hand full of people representing a small group of disgruntled members of a certain congregation (these unhappy souls are already going to the church right down the street from the site of the NEW church). This group somehow gets the funding for a NEW building and in no time at all another church has sprung up with a newer, better, more innovative way of worshiping God. How many ways can a protestant worship God and how is the NEW church going to minister to its congregation any better than the church down the street. People are imperfect, preachers are imperfect, and churches are imperfect...and so the New church will prove to be imperfect too. So will yet another group of people from yet another already existing church break away looking for the perfect place to pray? I think this phenomenon must definately say something about our society...I am afraid that the people that are building these NEW and better churches are also searching for a new and better self...I must think that their actions are in the interest of self and not in the interest of worshiping God. Can't we be happy simply worshiping (no matter where it is), happy that we live in a country where we are allowed to worship any God we choose. Am I being overly sensitive to this Holy phenomenon or are others wondering the same thing I am? You don't see a new Roman Catholic church going up at every street corner and you don't see a new Greek Orthodox church going up in every cow pasture. Maybe we protestants need a stronger, common thread of tradition and ritual. Maybe if we did then we would be able to stand together in worship, in peace and harmony, instead of in suspicion and discord.

s hamilton

You know I have begun to realize that I think about getting old far too much lately. I don't know why cause my health is good and I believe that I look pretty good most of the time. But I constantly find myself thinking like an old person, WHY! It could be because my three children are grown and gone and have been since 2000 (even though they were in college up until this last May). It could be because I lost my favorite pet -- my cat named Kitty who had lived with me since he was 6 weeks old. He was a diabetic and required two insulin shots each and every day of his life for the last seven years of his life. But I didn't mind and I miss him everyday! It could be because my hair is turning grey and I have lines in my face now (but not too many!). It could be because I go to college and am constantly around women who are less than half my age...although I find them very interesting, energetic, and accepting. It could be because we have moved around so much these last ten years and I can't call anywhere HOME anymore.
SO why do I constantly feel and think like I am older than I am?? I am now running again (I used to run some 42 miles a week) and I am very excited about this cause running is the best upper in the world (it is addictive however). I try to have a cute hairstyle and even started highlighting it to conceal some of the dullness. I am about to graduate this May with a degree in English -- a feat which I must admit makes me very proud. All of my children love me and admire me and they truly are the best part of me. I have three other cats named Torti, Kiev, and Isabel who I adore (almost as much as Mr. Kitty). And I have lofty aspirations of becoming a famous book editor or publisher sort of like Jackie Kennedy. So Why am I sitting around feeling like some old person who has nothing to look forward to? I DON'T KNOW...BUT I AM GOING TO STOP IT!!!

s hamilton

Recently I have had ideas of becoming a book editor. I have visions of working for some big publishing house such as Doubleday, Random House, or MacMillan, or even OU press or UT press. I have no idea how to get into the business however -- do I need a Master's degree or do I just need to make more contacts with people in the business in hopes that I might get my foot in the door. I love books; I love being around books and smelling the books and wondering where the books have been and who all has owned them -- especially if they happen to be very old books. Just the other day, while contemplating whether or not I really wanted to stay in Ethnic American Literature (do I really need this class? and WHAT am I going to do with yet another literature class...not that I don't see the value in these classes), but what good is Ethnic American Literature out in the real work world, unless I am going to teach...and I am not planning to be a teacher. Well anyway, I happened to be in Dr. Rice's Capstone class and he said if anyone was interested in book editing that Dr. Lewis had a class going on called Publishing the Literary Journal. WOW I thought. Maybe this would be perfect for me!? In the very least, the class would tell me whether or not I would like the world of editing and publishing or not. Well, to make a somewhat long and boring blog posting come to a welcomed point, I checked on the class, talked with Dr. Lewis, and am now enrolled in Publishing the Literary Journal (The New Plains Review). I am excited and a little bit apprehensive since I don't know what to expect out of the class and the practicum, but I have high hopes that this one class will lead me down a path to eventual success once I graduate in May. Wish me luck!!!

Sylvia Hamlton

Big Sur

Cat on a Balustrade:Summer, 1896 by Theophile A. Steinlen, The Art Institute of Chicago.Steinlen loved cats and used them as subjects for a great many of his posters. He began as an apprentice in a textile factory and later took up graphic arts and created a great many posters both for consumer goods and political statements.