Did I Hear You Correctly?

“Halibut ears,” he said.  “What?” I replied “Did I hear you correctly?  Did you say halibut ears? as in halibut the fish and ears you hear with?”  “Sure,” he replied, “check it out on google.”  And I’ll be darned…turns out that halibuts do have ears. 

He’s a respected artist/jewelry maker in the Denver area and he was very excited to get some halibut ears, some from fish as large as 200 lbs.  The ears (or otoliths) are bones located behind the eyes of the fish.  Once the bones are cleaned, the rings can be counted to determine the age of the fish …and some fish are 40+ years old.  Halibut use these bones to transmit the sound waves they receive sort of like sonar receptors…and other fish have ears, too, but halibut make beautiful jewelry.

Ohmigosh, is it not a truly amazing world when fish have ears…and they can be bezel set in silver?

Disappointment

I know I am among millions but I am quietly, sadly, deeply disappointed by John Edwards.  He seemed to me to be the perfect candidate….working class family background, educational bootstraps step-up in life, effective lawyer, family man with devoted wife….  And I thought he was sincere and maybe he was.  As Mae West said, “I used to be Snow White…and then I drifted.”  But this is more than that.  Elizabeth Edwards is a woman I look up to.  When we lived in NC, I twice heard her on the radio, once I even sat in the car in a parking lot to hear the end of the interview with her.  She is a woman with a huge heart and amazing dedication.  If I understand correctly, she underwent fertility treatments knowing she could one day experience cancer.  She gave birth to Emma Claire and Jack and now has the terrible disease….I believe “living with cancer” is the term.  She stumped for her husband….and now we learn that when he told her of his affair, she felt she did not have the time left in her life to separate from him and work things through.  Because of her disease, she had to come to terms with the infidelity right quick.  She had to decide that her 30 year marriage was worth saving in spite of a blonde party girl who had come into the picture.  She had to value her family and the enormous sacrifices she had made for it and forgive her handsome, winsome Johnny.  Elizabeth Edwards is on my list of sheroes and always will be.  John Edwards is toast.

Loss of Control

Recently, my daughter said to me, “Mom, you’re not nearly as controlling as you used to be.”  I took it as a huge compliment…but did not share with her that when I was a single mother of two teenagers, I felt control was my responsibility.  Fortunately, my two children grew into wonderful adults, probably in spite of me and not because of me.  But I am happy to give up control…and find myself doing it in all kinds of situations.  Often in the last 15 years, in discussing business or real estate matters with my husband, I’ve silently congratulated myself when he agreed with me and we made wise investments;  I felt my intelligence (read control) paid off and we benefitted.  Then we disagreed on an invesment and it remains to be seen how it will turn out.  At first, I felt angry….and then I thought “What if I’m not right?  What if, in the greater cosmic scheme of things, my perspective turns out to be skewed?  What if I tossed in my pebble of control and opinion and the widening ripples serve to create a different wave in the unfolding river of life?”  What a thought!

Today, a friend and I were talking and she said that as she develops spiritually, she often thinks of a favorite quote:  “I’ll work like hell on what I believe in but I take no responsibility for the results.”  How freeing to think this way!  I’ll put effort and enthusiasm into my life…but the way things turn out is up to the universe!  How relaxing!  I can exhale and slump into life…no more ramrod straight posture and piercing looks in an effort to control……obviously, a posture noted by my offspring.