A Horse of a Different Color

1867 Stabben Lighthouse, Florø, Norway.

Every so often something comes across the radar that is so totally unexpected, my jaw drops to the floor.

As you know by now, I love to collect things...weathervanes, water towers, gable stones, windmills and...lighthouses.  But this one I didn't expect.

There she sits out in the middle of the fjord (the last day of our Hurtigruten mail-boat sea voyage).  She's not on the rocky coastline.  She's not tall, sleek, or striped.  But she's a lighthouse, nonetheless, in what can be treacherous waters, which is the point.

In Dutch, when you talk about a horse of a different color, you're talking about een vreemde eend in de bijt = a strange duck in the pond.  You can say that again.

That got me thinking about all those things that are stranger or more different than what we expect.  We met 3 of our blogging couples while in Norway and told them they were better than we expected.  Not different.  That was fun.  Sometimes, however, we 'see' things in our mind's eye and think we know ahead of time what something/one is before we see them.  In those situations reality can throw us for a loop.  We've made assumptions that simply aren't true and really mess ourselves up. Hopefully we grow up and learn from the error of our way.

In fact, when we give our minds the space for anything but assumptions, it's amazing how big our world becomes with all its wonderful variations.  Variations on a theme are there to make us better, 'bigger' people, I believe, more open to all the creative options.  More capable of accepting what's different.  Accepting what's not like us.  Would there have ever been an 'ugly duckling' in that pond if we had learned to be more open?  Or a Muslim.  A Jew.  Gay.  Single mom.  Or whatever distinguishes something/one as 'different.'  We name things that are different from us, you know.  Especially if we don't understand them.

Remember when President Kennedy almost didn't get elected because he was Roman Catholic?  Or how devasted we were the first time we heard of someone famous getting divorced?  Sometimes it's not who we are but what we do.  The first time I saw Astrid eat every part of her apple except the stem, I stared at her with my mouth wide open.  Do people really do things like that?!

Funny thing is, I had a hundred things to tell you about our fabulous sea voyage along the Norwegian coastline.  Six days in and out of the fjords.  Where would I start?  HOW would I start!

Other things will come out over time, of course.  Fun things.  Glorious things.  But for right now, THIS is what rocked my boat.  A strange duck in the pond.  A horse of a different color.

[Speaking of color, you can see more of that here.  It's what Norway is known for.]

On What Rocks Your Boat

Tot Ziens = See You Later
Outside our old city hall, now a museum, in Gorinchem, NL.

As we speak, Astrid and I are boarding a mail-boat in Kirkenes, Norway, for a 6-day Hurtigruten cruise down the coastline, in and out of the fjords, to Bergen.  North to south.  Monday to Saturday.  500 passengers.  No entertainment/activities.  Just good food and fantastic sights.

We have just spent a fabulous long weekend in Oslo, since last Thursday night, with long-time blogger friends, Renny and Tor, along with their wives.  [Meeting virtual friends in real life, remember?]  We've had a blast.  Astrid and I had both been to Oslo before in our separate past lives, but we've seen it again with new eyes, together.

You can just imagine how excited we are.  It's our first real vacation since we flew to Atlanta last October (I'm retired but Astrid isn't!).  We're so ready.  But we're not counting on internet access.  That's why I'll be commenting on your posts later, once we get back home a week from now.  I promise.  I miss you already.

In the meantime, I wonder what rocks YOUR boat? Where will you go on your next vacation?  Do you already have it planned?  We've been planning ours since January, after scrapping initial plans to fly to Michigan in July.  Is planning half the fun for you or a big headache?  Is your vacation more than just the destination, in other words?  Are you already excited?  Or do you need something to kick-start you!

Astrid always jokingly says she hopes we don't die before our big trips start/end so that we don't waste the money.  HA!  Afterwards we can die and go to heaven.  I'm sure that's exactly how we'll feel.  That good.

Go ahead.  Rock our boat.  And then yours, too! 

The Lion and the Lamb

"March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb."

We've all lived through enough years by now to know exactly how March works.  Totally unpredictable except for knowing there's always in it a lion and a lamb.  Both.

No one knew, of course, that this year's lion would roar so voraciously, taking the entire world by storm.  The unforgiving lion of winter.

Now that the lamb has gingerly entered the scene, I wonder if the lion will lie down and cry "Uncle!"  Surely he knows he's been defeated.  Surely he knows the havoc he's wreaked will be relegated to the history books and photographers' blogs.  Will he gain any satisfaction in that, I wonder?  Or will he whimper away with his tail between his legs.

The 'liddle lamzy divey' could hardly wield that kind of power, right?!  Make the lion cry "Uncle?"  Are you kidding me?

In his Marriage of Heaven and Hell, I wonder what English poet William Blake meant when he said "The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God"?  Surely it's a bit simplistic to say something good will come out of an earth shaken loose on its axis.  That there's a reason for everything.  That a phoenix with arise from these ashes.

Let's say, as does the ancient writ, the lion does not whimper away but lies down with the lamb.  That the two reconcile and enjoy a marriage of sorts.  An understanding.  I'll do the roaring and you'll do the 'lambing.'  I'll wreak havoc and you'll clean it up.  I'll take life and you'll give it.  Death and resurrection.

I have no clue how these things work.  Several years ago, shortly after my divorce, a fire in my condo building the week before Christmas destroyed all the units and rendered us all homeless...we thought.  The Red Cross was Johnny on the spot, as were our insurance companies, quickly getting us housed, clothed and situated during the next 6 months of rebuilding.  How it happened, I can't explain, but after all was said and done, I was in a better situation than before.  I lost a lot, yes, but gained even more.

The wrath of the lion.  The wisdom of God.

When there are no answers to the Why's, do we give up?  No.  A few days ago Kath said we dare to hope.  And why don't we give up?  Why do we hope?  Because we know every March has a lion and a lamb.  We have lived long enough...we don't even question it any more.  As surely as there is death, there is resurrection.

Soon after the lion roars, the newborn lamb wobbles to life.  It's like an Eternal Spring lives inside our collective psyche.  And here it is now before us.  Spring has sprung!

A Little Good News

Back in my early memories of "the news" in high school, what I most remember was listening to Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News with Mom and Dad, sitting in the living room around the TV.  Religiously.  Every evening.  Years later, when Dan Rather took his place, we all lamented that no one could ever replace Walter Cronkite.

I don't remember when I switched to ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, but it was soon after reading that ABC's coverage was supposedly "less conservative."  That caught my ear, so I switched...until he died in 2005 at age 67, of lung cancer.  [My dad also died of lung cancer but hadn't smoked a day in his life.]  Wiki says Jennings "was known for his ability to calmly portray events as they were happening...."

But what I liked most about Jennings, to be honest, was how he invariably would end the evening with a positive, touching, up-beat, inspirational, people-story.  It helped you forget about all the bad stuff you had just heard.  It actually gave you hope for a world not going to hell in a hand basket.

Today I live in a country whose language is still not 'mine' enough for the local news.  I rely on CNN Int'l in English to help me keep tabs on the world as we know it today.  What's happening now in the Middle East steals the show, of course.  Did any of us believe the Egypt fiasco would end with some semblance of Victory?  And what about Libya?

To get the full impact of this post today, and if you would indulge me, I'd love you to click on the following YouTube link and listen to Anne Murray sing the following:

A Little Good News

Little Good News (1983)
I rolled out this morning...kids had the morning news show on
Bryant Gumbel was talking about the fighting in Lebanon
Some senator was squawking about the bad economy
It's gonna get worse you see we need a change in policy

There's a local paper rolled up in a rubber band
One more sad story's one more than I can stand
Just once, how I'd like to see the headline say
Not much to print today can't find nothing bad to say

Because...

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'd, nobody burned a single building down
Nobody fired a shot in anger...nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evening...I'll bet that the news will be the same
Somebody takes a hostage...somebody steals a plane
How I wanna hear the anchor man talk about a county fair
And how we cleaned up the air...how everybody learned to care

Whoa, tell me...

Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today
And in the streets of Ireland all the children had to do was play
And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA
We sure could use a little good news today

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town
Nobody OD'd, nobody burned a single building down
Nobody fired a shot in anger...nobody had to die in vain
We sure could use a little good news today.

Astrid and I often dance to this song from 1983, as though dancing it will make a difference in 2011.  When we get to Nobody was assassinated...and Nobody had to die in vain...something happens inside of me.  It's like I hear another feel-good Jennings' story.  And I smile.

A little good news goes a long way, doesn't it!