“I walk across the dreaming sands under the pale moon:
Through the dreams of countries and cities, past dreams of places long gone and times beyond recall.”
Dream, in Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman”
Portrait shot in Eindhoven, Netherlands. Click for full view.
My Friend Andee brought up a very valuable question in her (fabulous) Blog:
She asks THE question:
It brings up this question: In a day and age with no Little Yellow Birds and no Expectations of behavior, do I continue to try and instill these old-fashioned values in my kids, or do I throw in the towel and give them a fighting chance amongst peers who have no respect for others, much less, themselves?
And this brings me to a topic that is eating at me since some time now (since it happened, actually). Here is the story [rant on]:
I have the same problem. Here is our personal conundrum:
We have 5 sets of direct neighbors (as we are in the middle of a settling). One family has one kid, Mark, who is 4. The other family has two kids. Their smallest, Alice, 5, plays with Mark. Their older boy, Peter, 8, plays, well, not with many kids, it seems. (Btw, I changed the names. They’re not their real names).
I cannot say I initially disliked them. They are very different than we are, rather uptight and closed. But I remained friendly and did all the necessary neighbor stuff: Invited them to garden parties, wrote them Christmas cards, gave them an Easter basket and so on (although none of this was ever reciprocated, but these are things I do not measure, so I don’t care).
The kids are EXTREMELY well behaved. As far as mute counts as well behaved. You seldom hear them talk at all, and surely not in the presence of adults. But. I am continuously finding out they are… mean. Just evil. I mean it. (more…)
I just read in a book: “If you were half as clever as you think you are, you’d be twice as clever as you are.”
I liked that. There are quite some people I’d like to tell that. 
Ich fürcht mich so…
Ich fürcht mich so vor der Menschen Wort.
Sie sprechen alles so deutlich aus:
Und dieses heißt Hund und jenes heißt Haus,
und hier ist Beginn und das Ende ist dort.
Mich bangt auch ihr Sinn, ihr Spiel mit dem Spott,
sie wissen alles, was wird und war;
kein Berg ist ihnen mehr wunderbar;
ihr Garten und Gut grenzt grade an Gott.
Ich will immer warnen und wehren: Bleibt fern.
Die Dinge singen hör ich so gern.
Ihr rührt sie an: sie sind starr und stumm.
Ihr bringt mir alle Dinge um.
—
Sorry, it’s not the same in translation, it has to stay in German.
Even if it is a belated one, due to PC breakdowns!
For my beloved husband.
(Click for full view, as always)
So the 30 Days of Photo are over. My last picture is belated because my PC broke down only hours after I had submitted it to the final contest.
Thanks to everyone for playing, it was a great experience.
Click thumb for large version.
The triptych is dedicated to
- Meerkat, The Smile (to the left)
- Kookaburra, Reading To The Crocodile (to the right)
- The whole bunch of you guys: It Was So Much Fun (middle)
- And Eurydice: It is a triptych!
