Stan Herd Crop Circles of Amelia

Taking a break to rant, with a bow to Amelia Earhart

Perhaps it's the perpetual snow. Perhaps the realization that despite the endless snowdrifts accumulating outside my window, the tornadoes that we experience here on a
regular basis now, the torrential rains in the summer, the crawl that CNN provides while I row at the gym announcing Extreme Weather, despite all of this we still have idiots who tell us that global warming isn't coming, or isn't here, or doesn't exist, or isn't a problem. They are the same idiots who have decided to forgo any sort of meaningful regulation. No credit protection for consumers. No banking rules. They are the same morons who think our health insurance system is working out fine for us, perhaps they'd like to pay my ever increasing bills for an insurance that doesn't provide me coverage for much of anything.

I'm sick of them, I'm sick of all of it. I wanted to believe that we could change because despite all appearances to the contrary, I am an optimist. I wanted to believe that this government could provide something for its citizens besides hot air. Do I sound pissed off? Well I am.

What would Amelia Earhart think of this? I have some ideas, and since she's not here to speak, I'll offer them. She would wonder what was going on, she would ask that question, she believed in equal rights for women and worked hard to promote equality. She questioned war, in all its forms. Lady Lindbergh? Not as far as her politics went. She was friends with FDR. I have an old portrait that my father kept in my own office. Roosevelt was a great president, true I had quibbles, but boy are they quibbles now. I can live with quibbles, I can't live with cowardice. Yet that's what we get from our elected officials.

Amelia Earhart was the epitome of courage. Courage is standing up for whatever you believe in. Courage is having a belief, not trying to figure out what will be politically expedient for you.

ESP and Amelia Earhart

I've just read a biography discussing Amelia's fascination with ESP. Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray anyone? I find it so odd to think of someone who was innately practical believing that they could communicate with the spirit world. On the other hand, I'm not above making use of it in my novel. What could be more apt, a ghost who believes that she can communicate with ghosts has to discover she, herself, is a ghost. It is, at the very least, ironic.

It seems that it's hard to let the dead go. I find myself thinking of my father at the oddest times. And that was a fraught relationship. I had one particularly vivid dream where he was dying in it, shrinking away and I woke sobbing. I thought, that's it, I've let him go. But then, he returns. I can't quite let him go, I can't forget him, he's part of me, he's why I am the way I am. I wonder if that was part of what Amelia wanted? She'd lost her own father and good friends who were aviators. Did she think it was a way of continuing that connection or was she fascinated by it, imagining there was science involved?

According to the biographer, Mae West was at one of these seances complete with knocking table. When I was growing up the idea was still being investigated, but we settled for Ouija boards. We'd make sure the letters moved to spell out something truly embarrassing.

What was Amelia searching for in this? Was it a way to come back herself? She chose to do dangerous things, knew that she stood a good chance of dying, was this her way of reassuring herself there was something more than the here and now?

Being Amelia Earhart . . . is it ever too late to learn?

She comes in for a landing, hard. I suppose I've picked a theory for my novel, though it's the bleakest of all. It has her overshooting Howland and living as a castaway. Certainly it was done before in a more romantic vein, see I Was Amelia Eahart for details on that one. My book is completely different. No romance on the island, or off for that matter. She's Amelia and as such, she will have two competing concerns. She wants to complete her flight, but she also wants to understand what she's been brought back for.

More on that later, anyhow now she's in her sister's living room, and assuming it's a fever dream. One that shows a whole lot of depth. She's got visions of a future that are uncannily accurate. Slowly but surely she learns the limits of this place, and this fantasy . . . for the moment she's stuck in Mudford. Would she stay put? I vote no. I think her whole life was an attempt to leave this behind. She would want to do it again. But with second chances, there's a learning curve. You won't make the same piloting mistakes. You won't let the sun blind you, or run out of fuel, or overshoot the mark.
And psychologically I hope that's also true. I want to believe that it's never too late to learn. . .

If I were Amelia Earhart a few years later

Well I'm not, and yet I have to be. I do wonder why I set myself this particular goal. But that's what blogs are for I guess, musing on the absurdities. Amelia sets down in her sister's living room tomorrow, well if not tomorrow Friday. First Muriel gets to say her piece. And by god, she does have a lot to say. I like Muriel, and have a feeling I would have liked her if I'd met her. However my character is of course imagined, still she's a crusty lady of eighty or so. She's got her opinions and sticks to them. And she's got a fine sense of humor. She's also got this sister who won't let go. Or maybe Muriel won't let go of Amelia.

Then Amelia finds herself back, back in the living room in Medford, the place she wanted to escape from so long ago. The horror! And the pleasure of course because before this, she was pretty close to having had it. Is it a dream? Is it reality. Whatever it is, it's familiar, imagine getting to fly round the world or almost and ending up in Medford forty plus years on. Trapped in a living room of a house you basically paid for but never really wanted to visit, and certainly had no intention of inhabiting. Well there we go, off to channel Amelia. . . and her astonishment, and her chagrin.

Amelia Earhart, or when our bodies betray us

I've been reading about Amelia's issues with physical discomfort; she had an infection that caused tremendous pain, eventually having to have surgery. One writer talks about headaches and sinus pain continuing, deepening after long flights. Chronic pain is something many deal with, physical pain is something most of us experience at some time in our lives. It seems a small thing really, yet it often takes over. Watching Olympic athletes perform and listening to the commentary I am reminded of how pain stops some from doing anything, while other people fight right through. So many of these athletes have to come back from massive injuries, yet they do it gladly. They do it because they can't imagine not performing, or competing, racing down a mountain at breakneck speeds, cutting figures on the ice and making leaps that defy logic. What they do isn't normal. But then what is normal? Why do we cling to it, when joy comes from other things?

I think of how much we can complain on an off day, a day when something as simple as a cold fells us. I feel lousy. I feel crappy. I want to lay in bed and watch a double feature and give in. These people never give in. Neither did Amelia. It takes a certain kind of ferocious determination to succeed, it's not something that's easy to come by, and surely she doubted herself early and often. Some would say that extreme athletes, and those who willingly put themselves in harm's way are different from most of us. That's true, but it doesn't mean we can't learn from their example. They have passion, and they don't let physical pain get in the way of it. I'm not saying that I would ever be able to ski down a mountain. I'd be more likely to fall down and cling to the slope. Still, there are things we all do that take courage. Amelia's life was writ large, mine certainly much smaller. Still I hope I can follow her example in some small way. I'm not about to take up an extreme sport, there are other difficult things one faces, I don't think I have to enumerate. Everyone copes with loss. Getting through that is something that takes as much courage as flying down a mountain.

guilty pleasure, project runway, and Amelia Earhart

Well, I'll admit it. I watch Project Runway and have since the very first season. Jay stole my heart then. It's something we do as a family, both my sons are fashion forward while I am fashion well . . . backwards might be a kind way of describing it. I do have moments though and I can appreciate when someone else basically pulls it all together in an engrossing delicious and absolutely astounding way. Back when, I veered between dressing like a woman in men's clothing complete with button down shirt, vest and tie and mini skirt, and dressing like a Victorian bride, albeit one who preferred hiking boots.

So here's my current ode to Amelia, found via the Internet, a great blog piece, and a great blog that I just discovered.I did feel Irina deserved to win, these pieces confirm that view. Frivolous, perhaps. But fashion does make the man, or woman.

http://therecessionista.blogspot.com/2010/02/tupperware-takes-flight-irina-shaybayas.html