I’ve put Kelly Green and Gold on my Google Reader at this point because she’s an excellent source for staying up on the Badman Review situation playing out in the UK and an inspirational international advocate for home education freedoms worldwide. She had a very reflective post this week that has me thinking deep, like she did, about my own experiences in high school and college and my own observations of our local home educating community. I felt like it was well worth sharing.

There’s this saying I totally love about political parties. “I wasn’t born Democrat, Republican or yesterday.” Ain’t that the truth! The Left and the Right are just getting increasingly absurd with every turn and I don’t foresee myself ever signing on to a political party in particular. They are all nuts.

For your daily dose of leftist insanity, check out PETA’s new beef– Punxsutawney Phil. The idea of a robotic groundhog made me snort my tea this morning. Of course, that was after I’d spewed a previous sip all over my pajamas just a few minutes earlier reading about the important far Right victory that has led to the banning of Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? from Texas classrooms. Oh. Wait. Not the right Bill Martin? Ooops. Our bad. We haven’t really read either one, so we don’t actually KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!! Not like the State Board of Education should be, oh, I don’t know…… EDUCATED OR ANYTHING!!!!! Ridiculous notion.

To the shock and consternation of several friends and relatives, I’m actually thinking of voting in the Republican primary before the General Election around here. “Have you lost your marbles?” a few friends asked. Nope. Two crucial races for Governor and for my district’s State Board of Education seat have solid Democratic candidates already. I’d like to hedge my bets and vote for the least crazy Republicans in the primary so that if the red state does what red states do, I’ve said my piece about advancing the cause of sanity and rationality in Texas public office.

If you are in District 10 for the Texas State Board of Education seat that is being thankfully vacated by that bastion of insanity, Cynthia Dunbar, please check out the nonpartisan website set up by Education First to get a look at the candidates. No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, there are actual intelligent citizens with good intentions towards Texas schools, teachers and children who are attempting to change the way the SBOE does business. If you’re not in District 10, please, please, please (yes, I’m begging here) double check in advance of the election to see if your District’s seat is up for grabs. Check all the candidates out, weed out the crackpots with clear political agendas to push into our public schools (I’ll give you a hint- In District 10, one of them is endorsed by the exiting Dunbar) and make an informed decision this year. For the sake of all our kids, left, right and in between.

One particular image stuck with me after watching the national news this evening.  Illuminated only by the light of the news camera filming them, Haitian Christians filled the Port-Au-Prince night air with haunting hymns of praise.  Eyes closed, faces upturned and arms raised, they sang and swayed as their faith filled them with strength during a time in their lives more trying than anything most of the rest of the world will ever struggle with.

And then there are the conservative American talking heads.

What I cannot understand is the fact that American Christians continue to allow these idiots to do a bang up job of completely misrepresenting their faith.  Now I’m not naive enough to think that no one out there buys into their garbage.  Plenty of folks who claim to be Christians believe every word that’s ever come out of Pat Robertson’s two sided mouth.  But I also have faith that there is a large body of Christians out there who are just as disgusted by his outrageous trash as I am and are just as much of a testament to their faith as the Haitians pouring out their souls in midnight song.  I know this to be true because I’m friends with a few of them.  I’m grateful for their presence in my life or I might completely lose faith in the potential for good in Christianity all together.

May we all, of any or no spiritual tradition, focus on that which is good and precious in each other.  May we all learn to sing in the darkness to fill each other up.  May we all become, in our own way, testaments to our faith in humanity itself.

It may be awfully cliched, but this peculiar window that opens between the crescendo of the Yuletide holidays and the boisterous finale of New Year’s Eve, always triggers a period of deep reflection, introspection and all sorts of other -ection in me.  I find that in this space in between I am able to stand still for a moment and just breathe.  As I breathe, I’m gifted with a temporary clarity that often escapes me during the rest of the year.  I can look over the year about to pass and into the year about to begin.  I can see all the gifts this year brought that would never fit into a stocking or under a tree.  And I can see the seeds of growing gifts to come.  It triggers an absolute laundry list of emotions; hope, wistfulness, joy, frustration, amusement, determination, pride, motivation, restlessness, mourning, optimism, rejuvenation and on and on.

I wrote a freakin’ novel this year.  A novel.  Insane.  I’m now deep into the editing process and enjoying the ruthless nature of my Inner Editor.  She’s terribly different than the Reckless Writer I was spending every waking hour with  just five to eight weeks ago.  But I have to confess that I adore them both in drastically different ways.  I’m also working on fulfilling an accepted magazine query now that is challenging me in a fantastically personal way and polishing the kerfuffle between yours truly and the legally blonde professor for submission a few choice places.  Between the Reckless Writer and the Inner Editor, I’m getting down to business this year.  If you want to track my journey as a writer, I’ve got a new spot to keep all those fun adventures at The Year of the Writer  I’m working up my official 2010 writing goals this week and will post them there on New Year’s Day.

Today, the first of what I am sure will be many, seed catalogs showed up in the mailbox.  It completely mystifies Patris Maximus how I can take a seed catalog and spend a good three hours flipping and sighing my way through it.  The last year I had an honest to goodness garden was the summer before Athena turned two.  I have sweet, fresh, glorious memories of that garden.  Athena eating sugar snap peas straight off the vine and startling a tiny bunny with her own rabid appetite.  Poking fingers around the tops of carrots and radishes, before deciding it was time to give them a yank.  Fresh, sun-warmed tomatoes and basil, purple green beans that turned green when you steamed them, the Aztec spinach plant that got totally out of control, the pickle and lemon cucumbers that cross pollinated and made lemon pickles, our wacky neighbor’s melon plant that stretched all the way across the backyard, fruited and then mysteriously disappeared in the dead of night.  And countless other simple, vivid memories that to this day have the power to make me smile.  The next growing season, all my cultivating efforts were internal and at just past the peak of the Summer Solstice I gave birth to my fiery, feisty twins.  Needless to say, I did not get back to the garden.  After that, we took a leap of faith and left the DC Metro area.  A listed house in a faltering real estate market meant the total destruction of the remains of my once fertile garden.  Our first year in Houston, we were apartment dwellers and last year we decided to forgo the garden for budgetary reasons.  But I had begun to plan for our Houston garden at any rate, with visions of the outrageously long growing season dancing in my head. 

Alas, my lush dreams of a semi-tropical gardening bonanza are once again, most likely being deferred.  With each day that passes, it is looking more and more like Patris Maximus will be working out of state very soon.  This is good and bad.  Good for us financially.  Good for Patris Maximus career-wise.  Bad for the pesky not-living-under-the-same-roof-all-together thing.  But we’re resourceful types and we’re working out details a bit more every day.  One of those details involves the potential for a considerable amount of travel for Crunchy Mama and the Triad of Chaos.  These would be the kind of travel plans that really preclude the establishment and maintenance in the type of garden I’m longing for. 

This travel thing could be interesting though and in the last day or so, I’m allowing the window of possibility to swing open just a bit wider on this idea.  It would mean a pretty severe reduction of our locally based extracurricular activities, for one thing.  We would basically cut down to our one weekly co-op and our Girl Scout troop.  Even with those, we’re likely to miss chunks of fun here and there.  It is possible that we will be splitting our time between Houston and travel.  At first, my gut reaction to this idea was actually not very attractive.  But the more I reflect on it, the more I can see a landscape frock with possibility.  There are plenty of long distance friends we could work visiting with into various itineraries.  Also, as we continue with our four year romp through world history, the discovery, founding and development of the United States will crest our historical horizon sooner rather than later.  And what better way to learn about it than to see it for yourself?  It is as if we will be building in ready-made adventures that have the potential to bring all sorts of new experiences into our lives and that is something to embrace.  Not to mention, it is something that would be literally impossible to embrace if we were tied to an institutional school schedule, so it’s also yet another opportunity to express gratitude for our homeschooling lifestyle. 

So what awaits the Maximus family in 2010?  Adventure, exploration, learning, growing and all sorts of other wacky hijinx, I have no doubt.  Wanna read about it?  Well, stick around and I’ll see what I can do.

I was reminded today of the irony involved in being a family that chooses home education because we feel there is too much religion in our state’s public school system.  A friend who is exploring the possibility of moving to homeschooling asked me for a few resources that address this issue, so I wrote her an email.  Then I commented in a public forum about having written said email and got several requests for a copy.  I figured, instead of forwarding it a dozen times, I would just tweak it a bit and make it blog ready.  I’m probably going to make some folks mad with this, but aren’t bloggers supposed to be controversial on occasion?  So what the hay, here goes.

The basic issue is the manipulation of Texas state education standards and the impact that can have nationwide, especially in the textbook market.  This is what, in my opinion, an informed citizen ought to know about.

As a beginning foundation to understanding the intricacies of this issue,  this is a good article that gets you started understanding how state governments and pressure from lobbying groups affect state standards, approved textbooks, and therefore- textbook authors and publishers.   Texas has A LOTof pull because of the sheer volume of textbooks they buy.  Textbook publishers are always more likely to focus on publishing exactly what Texas and, to a slightly lesser extent California and Florida, want.  Because of that, the preferences in Texas usually determine what is more widely available for the rest of the country to buy.  Vermont, for example, would have a really hard time getting their hands on more progressively oriented textbook resources because they just aren’t going to order that many, so it just isn’t as profitable for the textbook publishers to publish what Vermont might be looking for versus what Texas is looking for.  Anyway, the article is a bit of an oldie, but a goodie and explains this and other major issues with American textbooks well.  
 
The battle that is playing out in Texas right now has been raging in school systems across the country for some time.  When it comes to science standards, the lynch pin issue is evolution.  The Creationists don’t want textbooks or science standards that teach evolution.  They either want them severely watered down or even better, removed completely.  Or else they want Creationism (Judeo-Christian God created the world in six days, man came from dirt, there were dinosaurs on Noah’s ark, end of discussion) taught in schools.  This is Ken Miller’s site that outlines the battle scientists are in about this all over the country.  Ken Miller is a textbook author.  He wrote a biology textbook that was highly criticized for addressing evolution.  They placed these crazy stickers on his books in some school systems in 2005.  He eventually had to go to court over this whole thing.  Anyway, his experience is a prime example of the crux of the debate ongoing, nationwide debate. 
 
Last year, Texas public school science standards came under review.  The Chair of the State Board of Education was an ardent Creationist– Don McLeroy.  This guy is seriously scary  He’s very open about his goals for Texas public education and they are not even remotely tolerable when compared to the goals we have for our children’s educations.  He’s no longer the Chair.  Now it’s his protege, Gail Lowe  who is in no way an improvement.  Anyway– he and Ms. Lowe and many other State Board of Education (SBOE) members helped to effectively weaken science standards in this state.  I’m going to link to the Texas Freedom Network for you for their synopsis of the damage done.  TFN is clearly a liberal organization, so their bias is clear and they are honest and passionate about it.  But they are a very effective watchdog organization when it comes to keeping an eye on the SBOE and their actions lately.  Here is their summary of what happened in the science standards battle.  Scroll down and you will see where it says Science Curriculum Revision Recap.  You can read through those links or take a look at the video. 
 
Now the SBOE is at it again.  This year it is the social studies standards.  Recently, they listed several notable American historical figures that they felt should be cut from Texas social studies program.  The list included Thurgood Marshall, attorney in the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case and later the first African American Supreme Court Justice– but Texas children don’t need to know about him.  Or about Cesar Chavez, major figure of the modern labor movement.  Why?  Because these individuals are not representative of a good conservative education and the current standards contain way too many references to minorities, apparently.  However, Rush Limbaugh should be included.  It’s insanity.  Again, TFN is the easiest place to go to read up on this to start with, but keep in mind they do have a strong liberal bias.  You can just go straight to their homepage because it is one of their top lobbying issues right now.    Right at the top it says “Far Right Moves to Rewrite History in Texas.”  So take all of this insanity and then go back to the issue of textbooks.  If Texas rewrites its science and social studies standards to reflect an ultra-conservative agenda, that is what the large textbook publishers will cater to and the entire nation’s public education systems will feel the effects.
 
Combine all of this with the 2007 legislation that encouraged public schools in Texas to teach Bible classes but without an specific guidance on how to do that, plus statements by the Texas Attorney General that require high schools to teach the influence of the Bible in history and literature (again with no guidance on how to do this in an appropriately academic manner versus a religiously dogmatic manner) and we have a whole lot of political and religious propaganda being fed daily to public school students.  It has been a very effective backdoor campaign to create a politically and religiously motivated education in government funded classrooms. 

Basically, it’s enough to make my skin crawl and convince me that my kids are better off homeschooling.  Funny that, unlike the popular cultural image of home educating families,  we homeschool because we believe there is too much religion invading my state’s public education system!  At least when I’m homeschooling, I am the textbook purchaser.  I can look for what I judge to be objective, secular resources that provide us high caliber materials for science and social studies– no radical bias needed from any political or religious agenda in my classroom.

Just a quick NaNoWriMo update!  Things are going splendidly this year, I must say.  I’ve already cleared thirty thousand words.  For my dear, encouraging friends who have asked discreetly and not so discreetly for an update, here is an excerpt from Chapter Three.  I don’t know if I’ll post too many more of these as I don’t want to give too much away from those who will eventually, hopefully, get a chance to read the whole thing!  But enjoy this one and happy NaNo-ing to any fellow NaNo-ers dropping by!

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Excerpt from Chapter Three of Lost and Found, the first book in the Goddess Bless series:

Lilith paced back and forth in the stone hallway outside the imposing chamber doors, her soft shoes moving inaudibly across the slate floor.  Kali had assured her, she would be called when the time came for her to enter the chamber.  Meeting one Goddess had been intense enough.  Yet here she was, about to walk into a room of nine, No wait she corrected herself, Nine minus one.  It was just beyond peculiar.  A part of Lilith was confident she had indeed lost her mind and was actually trapped in her head and had most likely been institutionalized in some sort of special hospital for the post-divorced insane-o ladies.  She wondered what her poor deceased mother would think of all this.  She’d probably pray about a hundred rosaries for my immortal soul or something. Lilith thought bitterly.  Just like she did the day I told her I didn’t believe in God.  Lilith wondered which would have freaked her mother out more, Lilith’s adolescent atheist declaration or her announcement that a decade and a half later, she had been chosen to join a sacred council of actual Goddesses.  She stopped pacing long enough to tuck a stray wisp of hair behind her ear and caught a sudden rise in volume from behind the closed doors.  It sounded a great deal like a lot of upset deities which Lilith was going to go out on a limb and say, was probably not a good thing under most circumstances.  It occurred to her that once she was inside that chamber, The Council of Nine was going to want an answer from her, unless they just assumed she was going to take the job.  Was she going to take the job?  She had been so focused on there being a job like this for her in the first place, and then with Devnath’s insistence that she follow Kali’s bidding that she had yet to actually stop and think for a minute.  Did she even want to be a Goddess?  Could she even say no?  She stopped pacing.  Was saying no an option?  She suddenly realized she wasn’t even sure she had an option.  It was all too fast.  Too fast and too extreme.  She needed to regain control of this situation somehow.  But how? 

The door to the Council chamber began to open.  A striking young woman with hair the color of orange blossom honey stuck her head around the edge.  “You ready?” she asked cheerfully.  Lilith managed a weak nod and tried not to stare at the dazzling Goddess.  She looked incredibly young, barely in her twenties perhaps, but remembering what Kali said, even if she was Persephone, the youngest Sister on the Council, she was still at least eighty two years old.  She pulled open the door and crossed the Council’s threshold.

Stepping into the chamber was almost sensory overload for Lilith.  A ripple of pure golden power washed over her as she passed under the lintel of the doorframe.  She tried to take in the whole room, but just couldn’t.  The room was balmy to Lilith, but none of the Goddesses seemed to notice.  Every woman in the room seemed to Lilith to be radiating humid energy.  She watched as the woman who had beckoned her inside, moved around the circular table and settled into her seat on the far side of the room.  Scanning around the table, she saw Kali waved her closer to the group. 

“Come in Lilith.” The woman seated in the largest chair to the right of the room, in front of a series of tall narrow windows called her forward. 

“Where should I….” Lilith’s voice sounded hoarse and uneasy.

“Seeing as we are fairly unaccustomed to having guests at our full moon gatherings, take the empty chair at the table.  It is Demeter’s, but since she’s declined to join us this evening, I see no reason why I cannot simply loan it to you this evening.  I am Cerridwen, Goddess of Magick and High Priestess of The Council of Nine.  Thank you for joining us tonight.”  Her voice was equally uneasy, but with dramatically tense undertones as if she did not actually mean the last sentence she had uttered.  Lilith did as she was told and sat down between Kali and the Goddess she had correctly guessed must be Persephone.  Cerridwen began introducing the rest of The Council of Nine to Lilith.  “This is Freya, Goddess of Love and War, who is in her second millennium of service to the Council.”  Freya’s warrior ethos vibrated clearly as her gaze connected with Lilith’s.  She nodded in cool acknowledgment of Kali’s invitee.  “And Isis, Goddess of Motherhood and Protectress of Children, who has held her post for over four hundred years now.  Sarasvati, Goddess of Wisdom and Learning, also a Sister for over four hundred years.  And Brigid, Goddess of Healing and the Hearth, who is about one hundred years their junior.”  The three Goddesses gave her smiles of varying temperatures and nodded in turn. 

“I’m Persephone” the woman next to her said cheerily, turning to extend a hand.  “Goddess of Fertility and Queen of the Summerland.  I’m the baby of the group.  Well at least for a tad longer, I guess.”  She winked at Lilith.  “Pleasure to meet you!” 

All my typity-type-typing from now until midnight November 30th is all for the 50,000 word novel slowly spiralling out of my head and onto the computer screen.  My current word count stands at aroun 15,000 and counting.  In case anyone’s curious, here is the synopsis and excerpts from Chapters 1 and 2 of Goddess Bless Book One: Lost and Found.

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Lilith Stevens didn’t know what she had been expecting now that her divorce was final, but she knew for sure it hadn’t been the imposing woman who swept into her restaurant, annouced herself as the Hindu Goddess, Kali and demanded Lilith become her replacement as a Sister of The Council of Nine.

Not only did Kali expect Lilith to assume her post when she officially retired, but she also expected her to help the Council locate a missing Goddess as part of her initiation. Lilith had never believed in God, much less had any idea about Goddesses or where they might go when they went missing. She liked her life in control, orderly, neat. She had just gotten everything just the way she wanted it and couldn’t possibly take on such a ridiculous quest.

But with the help of the gentle Kwan Yin and rambuctious Persephone and under the watchful eye of the Council’s powerful High Priestess, Cerridwen, Lilith will indeed set out on the quest demanded of her, whether she likes it or not. Can she help The Council of Nine locate their missing member before Samhain, the last harvest festival of the year? Will a seat on The Council of Nine be her destiny? Or can she just get through this out of control adventure as quickly as possible so she can simply have her life back?
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Excerpt from Chapter One:

The Saffron Lotus was a fifty-four seat vegetarian grill with a lavish, mostly blue interior that gave it a crisp, yet simultaneously warmly comforting feel. Devnath, Saffron Lotus’ executive chef, had created something fairly unique with his menu, using fundamentals of Gujarati cuisine, blended with enough Western influences to make it approachable and eventually quite popular with the Portland theatre crowd. Between his culinary gifts and Lilith’s outstanding business sense, the restaurant had gained in popularity over the last five years and despite the odds stacked against successful restaurant ventures, had really begun to thrive. Although Lilith often preferred to stay out and about in the main dining room, she did maintain a small office off the kitchen where she kept a simple metal desk, a few filing cabinets, a phone, and a fax machine. The walls were the same shade of white they had been when she had the contractors frame out and create the space. She had never seen the need to spend funds on painting or decorating the office in any way. She never met business contacts in the space and only retreated there to make phone calls when the dining room was too busy to be a professional level of background noise. Devnath found her in her tiny office, flipping through vender contract files.

“I didn’t see you come in.” he remarked, his warm Indian accent still framing the edges of his words even after more than a decade in the United States.

“Got your message and one from Sarah about Sam Relagy wanting to host her husband’s retirement party here. Figured I’d just come on in and get a few other items taken care of as well.” She pulled a file folder from the drawer and handed it to him. “Here’s Wes’ contract. You can handle it from here?”

“Yes, I can take care of the matter.” He looked at her intently.

“What Devnath?”

“There is a woman here to see you. When I told her you were off today, she said she knew you were in.” he looked like he wanted to say more, but paused there instead.

“We don’t even open for another hour. Why did you let her in?”

“I didn’t.”

Lilith looked at him quizzically. It was unlike Devnath to be cryptic in any way. “You didn’t?” she questioned.

“No. I didn’t. I walked into the dining room and she was seated at eleven with a cup of Darjeeling. She asked if I would fetch you. So I am.”

“Did you even ask what she wanted?”

“No.” Devnath said simply. He smiled and slid back behind the door as it closed.

“Well that was odd.” Lilith said aloud. But her curiosity was indeed aroused. She checked her appearance quickly to be sure she presented a professional one and once composed she headed out to the dining room.

The moment she caught sight of the woman, her carefully crafted composure flickered for a moment. She paused ever so slightly in her gait and almost stumbled. The woman at table eleven was positively striking. Clearly Indian, her thick dark hair framed her angular face perfectly before falling past her shoulders. Her frame however, was more Amazon than Indian. Broad, strong shoulders, a full figured bosom, gracefully muscular arms and legs and smoothly curved hips where stunningly silhouetted underneath a cobalt blue sari, sprinkled with gold geometric designs that looked vaguely familiar to Lilith. Gold bangles adorned her wrists and a single blue gemstone bindi, the same shade as her sari, shone from her third eye chakra. No wonder Devnath did what she asked. She is breathtaking, thought Lilith.

Lilith reached the table, extended her hand and opened her mouth to speak.

“Sit down, Lilith.” The blue woman commanded.

Lilith paused for a moment and then chose to do as she had commanded. She sat opposite the woman. How did this woman manage to seem so familiar with her? She tried once more to speak.

“We have much to talk about Lilith and a limited amount of time to do it in. I do not have time for those questions. But please have faith that they will all be answered in good time.”

Now the woman had Lilith’s complete attention. She found herself mesmerized by the woman’s gaze and many of the questions that had been flooding her mind, such as how she had known what Lilith was going to ask or whether or not this was some sort of prank the kitchen staff was in on just evaporated before they ever made it out of her mouth.

“Do you know who I am?” the woman asked.

How am I supposed to…”Yes.” Lilith found herself saying. And she did. All at once she knew she was sitting with Kali, Goddess of Time and Change, Bringer of Life and Destruction, Sacred Mother and Fierce Warrior. Devnath recognized her too. Lilith realized.

“Good. That confirms my impression that you are a quick one and I will not have to waste extraneous time explaining easily graspable details to you.” Kali set down her tea cup, reached across the table and took Lilith’s hand in hers. “Ordinarily, there is a much different and much more lengthy process for this. But circumstances have changed and I have been forced to take accelerated action on my own this time. Lilith, I am going to need you to accompany me this Friday evening. Your presence will be vital at the Harvest Moon meeting of the Council of Nine. You will be able to review our full proposal at that time, which I strongly suggest you accept. Much more than you realize hinges on this moment.”

Lilith blinked. She was still absorbing the concept that the figure before her, who was solid flesh, since she could feel her gentle, yet firm grip on her left hand, was a Goddess. A Goddess, from myths and legends she was somewhat familiar with, was sitting in her restaurant. A Goddess. Lilith mentally shook herself.

“Um. Friday?” she repeated questioningly.

Kali looked amused and annoyed all at the same time which somehow managed to make her features more terribly beautiful than before. “Friday.” She said firmly. “Be at your apartment and ready to go by moon rise. I will escort you.” Kali stood, kissed Lilith on the forehead and swept out of sight.

Lilith was not sure how long she had been sitting at table eleven by herself when a hand came to rest upon her shoulder. She looked at the calloused fingers resting near her right collar bone with puzzlement. Following them up the arm they were attached to, her slightly blurring violet gaze came across Devnath’s face. She shook herself and refocused.

“She is gone.” Said Devnath. It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes.” Whispered Lilith. She cleared her throat. “She was…..” her voice trailed off as she realized how ridiculous what she had been about to say sounded.

“She is.” Devnath confirmed. “And she sought you out, Lilith. Whatever she asked of you, you would be a fool not to do her bidding.”

Lilith stood and looked him square in the face. “That is absurd. I don’t believe in God, much less Goddesses.”

Devnath laughed “Just because you don’t believe in them does not prevent them from existing anyway. She is who she says she is. What did she ask of you?”

“Uh, it happened quickly. I was sitting here still trying to decide if she was real or if finalizing my divorce pushed me over the edge of sanity.” Lilith paused. “Friday.” She said, “She wants me to go somewhere with her Friday. Some sort of meeting I think.”

Devnath sucked in his breath so sharply, he whistled. “The Council of Nine!” he breathed reverently.

“Wait just a minute.” Lilith said, not believing what she had just heard him utter. “How do you? I mean, what is going on? The Council of what? And how do you know about any of this?”

He smiled at her understandingly. “Let me make us some tea. The staff has everything under control in the kitchen and I can spare a few minutes before our first table arrives. I’ll do my best to share with you what I know. But, Lilith.” He looked at her. “Lilith, this is epic. You’ve stepped into something here and you’re barely going to believe me, but you shouldn’t share this with anyone else. The Council of Nine keeps their presence shrouded in myth and mystery for a reason.”

Lilith sat back down. “Who would I talk to about this anyway?” she said with a slitghly bitter edge she hadn’t meant to let creep into her voice.

“Indeed. I’ll bring the tea.”

Once the two of them were settled at the table with two steaming cups of dark tea, Lilith cautiously asked Devnath to begin with The Council of Nine. He started to speak, but she then changed her mind and interrupted him.

“No, wait. Explain how you knew who she was first. You’re not much more than culturally Hindu, right?” she realized how that might sound insulting and reworded her question, “I mean, you don’t actively observe the traditions of the Hindu faith these days.”

“You are correct.” Devnath replied with a soft, patient smile. “I’m not much of a Hindu these days. But I knew Kali by sight because I have met her once before, many, many years ago as a young boy in India. It was a brief encounter, but it was she. The same she, in fact.”

“The same she?” Lilith repeated, puzzled.

“Hmm. Let me see if I can put this all together as logically as possible. In the world of mysticism, there have always been rumors of a council of goddesses that was composed of cross-cultural archetypes, goddesses from a variety of world cultures and religious traditions. They attend to many world affairs and do what they can to keep the human race moving forward in the direction of spiritual development.” He sipped his tea, “Not that we make it easy for them.”

“So that’s this Council of Nine?” Lilith asked.

“Yes. The Council of Nine. There are nine Goddesses that serve at any given period of history. Not always the same nine and each Goddess chooses her aspect when she accepts the post. I heard stories of the Council and their works as a child.”

“But why did you hear stories of them? I mean, if they keep themselves, well, to themselves, why did your family tell you stories of them?”

“Because Kali is my Great, great, great, well, let’s just say, a lot of greats Aunt.”

Lilith just stared at him. Now she was beginning to lend credence to her whole insanity theory. Had Devnath just claimed to be directly related to a…. to a Goddess?

“Crazy, I know. As a child, I took them for silly stories until the day I met her. And then when I saw here sitting in the dining room, I approached her because I thought she was here for me, for some reason. But she asked for you. So you see why I did her bidding without asking. Lilith, you’ve been asked to attend a Full Moon meeting of The Council of Nine. You must attend.” He said firmly.

“What should I wear?” Lilith said laughing at the absurdity of the notion.

Returning to his tea, Devnath reciprocated the laugh, “I have no idea.”
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Excerpt from Chapter Two:

Persephone reached the Council Chamber before any of the other Sisters. Slipping through the heavy doors, she stood, hands on her hips and surveyed the room. The lanterns were all already burning and the scent of spice filled the air; nutmeg, clove, and sandalwood. Must be September, thought Persephone. Cerridwen was a very traditional High Priestess. Colors, scents, stones, etc, all had to correlate with the most recent Sabbat for her. Everything had to match up perfectly. In a few months it would be time for Persephone to fulfill her duties as Queen of the Dead and the scents of the Autumnal Equinox reminded her that time was once again close at hand. Persephone actually didn’t mind that half of her duties. It gave her a break from Avalon for one thing. And from Demeter’s watchful eye. Actually, from the whole Council’s watchful eyes. Occasionally, Kali would pay her a visit in the Summerland, but for the most part, she got to be on her own. And the dead were actually great company. I’ll be glad to head out this year. It’s going to get rough around here once the other Sisters find out what’s going on. She found her chair and plopped down in it. Persephone had traded her pony tail and jeans in for a simple, burnt sienna smock cut in a somewhat traditionally Greek silhouette. Persephone knew it would please Cerridwen to see her attending Council in formal, traditional attire. The shoulders of the smock were bound with gold ribbons. The material criss-crossed across her breasts, was bound by another stretch of gold ribbon and then fell stylishly to the floor. Her ratty black flip flops had been replaced by gold thong sandals with laces that wove their way around her perfect ankles and vanished underneath the swaths of material that were her skirts. She hung her legs over the arm of her chair and leaned her head back over the opposite side. The Council meetings convened at moon rise on each full moon, but once convened, they took place outside of time and space and could last an absurd (in Persephone’s opinion) number of hours. During the meeting, she would be expected to sit up straight and pay attention, so goofing off now was they only time she could get it in. The doors of the Council chamber swung open and Persephone scrambled to right herself.

“You’re here early.” Scoffed Cerridwen.

Persephone ignored her. Speaking of traditional… she smirked internally. Cerridwen set down an arm load of scrolls, The Council of Nine’s agenda for the evening, and began to organize the paperwork. Like all the Sisters, Cerridwen cut a charismatic figure. She was striking in her plum wine garment; a medieval dress trimmed in brocade embroidered with tiny images of autumn foliage. The long sleeves skimmed her thin arms to just past her elbows and fell away in elegant folds that hung past her finger tips when she straightened her arms. A stretch of the brocade trim circled her brow and tucked under her impeccably straight, deep chestnut hair.

“You didn’t arrive with Demeter today?” Cerridwen asked, without looking up.

Persephone opened her mouth to shove a hastily concocted dodge out of it, but was saved by the arrival of another Sister. Freya always made an entrance. She just couldn’t seem to help it. Or she didn’t care to help it; both were equally plausible possibilities. Persephone loved Freya’s hair, which hung down past the Goddess’ hips and almost always contained at least two braids, tying up each side neatly underneath her headdress which was equal parts crown, helmet and adornment. Her brown leather chest plate was studded with impressive brass metal work and extended in a narrow apron all the way to the floor over her deep green velvet gown. She removed her sable cape from its shoulder clips, released the sword belt at her waist, wound them around her shield and threw the whole bundle of them, wrapped up together into her seat to the left of Cerridwen’s chair.

“Are we ready?” she said addressing Cerridwen.

“I believe so. Starting the replacement process is always so time consuming. Why can’t we all be more like Kwan Yin?”

Freya let loose a hearty laugh. “It takes us all to turn the Wheel, Sister. Besides, can you imagine me as the Goddess of Mercy! Ha! Outlandish notion. I’d fail miserably at that job.”

Even Cerridwen had to smile a bit at that idea. “I just mean that she’s the only remaining original Sister. No one’s ever had to replace her. I’m just not looking forward to this process.”

Persephone made a sort of choking noise across the table from Cerridwen which garnered her a puzzled glance from both elder Goddesses. As the last embers of the sun slipped from the room and the fertile moon began to rise, the remaining Sisters arrived and took their places around the glossy, round table. At Cerridwen’s right, sat Kwan Yin, quiet and demure as always. Next to Freya, on Cerridwen’s other side, Isis, Sarasvati, and Brigid closed the gap to Persephone’s seat. To Persephone’s left, Demeter’s chair remained noticeably empty. Persephone realized she had been hoping against hope that five days would have been long enough for Demeter to feel she had taught the younger Goddess a decent lesson and that she would have appeared to take her seat at the Council table. Tonight was indeed going to prove to be bizarre even by normal Council standards. Kali’s seat between Demeter and Kwan Yin also remained open. Persephone wondered what was keeping her.

I don’t do it well.  I once wrote a poem about it that won a prize in a poetry contest actually.  I’m pretty sure I wrote it while waiting for something.  I have a hard time just sitting around doing nothing but waiting.  Hence, the blogging while waiting today.

Today, I’m waiting for a phone call from the pediatrician’s office about Artemis’ x-rays.  While they were playing on Wednesday, Apollo fell on her arm and she is still favoring it.  We saw the doctor yesterday and missed getting into the imaging center before they closed, so we headed in early this morning to get the films done.  Now we’re in a holding pattern, waiting to see if she just needs rest and maybe an ace bandage or whether a trip to a pediatric ortho is in our near future.  Why is it that they always seem to do this on a Friday? 

When things like this occur, it occassionally makes me miss the military.  We would have been able to do the pediatric consult, the x-rays and the ortho in one day in one building if we were still active duty.  Of course, it might very well have been my parents doing it since it is more than likely that, had we stayed, Patris Maximus and I could have both ended up in the same or different deserts without each other or our children had we chosen th remain in the service.  So from that perspective, I’m grateful that we are out.  I don’t know if anyone in the country has a decent idea how to fix the problem really, but there really is no denying that our health care system on the whole is majorly lacking.

So we wait.  And goodness knows how many things I’ll find to occupy myself with while we do because I am just no good at this waiting thing.

ETA: We’ve confirmed that she does not have any breaks or fractures and as of Sunday the 13th, she’s beginning to use her hand again so it looks like she is on the mend!

I don’t do this too often here, so bear with me.

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This so-called “joke” came across my radar today:

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth…..

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, ‘How is your friend Audrey doing?’ She replied, ‘Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show up for classes because she’s too hung over.’

Her wise father asked his daughter, ‘Why don’t you go to the Dean’s office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA.’

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion, angrily fired back, ‘That’s a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I’ve worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!’

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, ‘Welcome to the conservative’s philosophy.’

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I’d like to offer the following epilogue for consideration:

And then there was the girl’s two friends.  Becky was lucky enough to be born into an extremely wealthy family and never worried about the expense of going to college.  By the time she was 18 she had held a total of zero jobs and had every material possession her heart desired.  Her tuition and books were paid for in full by her family and she received unlimited amounts of spending money with which to enjoy herself outside of class.  She cruised through college, barely studied, graduated with a C- average and landed a 6-figure job with a corner office in the corporate family business upon graduation.  
 
Alice, on the other hand, worked two jobs in high school to help her parents pay the bills and save a little money for college, took out loans to pay her tuition, continued to work two jobs throughout college to cover books and living expenses, managed to occasionally spend time with friends and made it out of college with a B+ average.  Because of the *outstanding* job Becky’s family did running their financial corporation into the ground while amassing obscene amounts of personal wealth, the economy took a nose dive 6 months before graduation and Alice was lucky to land a $30,000 a year job at all.
 
Bless our fantastic meritocracy.

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I wish both sides of the aisle would stop trying to make everything look so black and white.  It is shades of gray.  Many, many shades of gray.  It would be great if elected officials and pundits alike would remember that those shades of gray are real human beings with real lives, most of whom are just doing their best to make their way in this increasingly polarized, paranoid, hysterical culture we call America today.

Obsessive Consumate planner that I am, I have been working my picks for the fall television season into my planner and programing my handy DVR for September.  It is halfway through August after all.  I must say that I really detest the trend these days of breaking the year up into shorter seasons.  This started back when I was in college and my favorite shows began that mid-season hiatus crap and it’s just gotten worse.  I blame the tv execs.  Too skittish or cheap to take a chance on a show anymore, they will only commit to funding a concept for a handful of episodes.  I can’t imagine this is really great for the casts and crews of these shows, never know when the floor is going to drop out from underneath you.  Nevertheless, I do plan to enjoy a few programs this autumn with the hopes that I’ll see more of them than just a few weeks of episodes. 

Here’s my starting list this autumn.

As far as returning shows go, I am looking forward to Heroes on NBC, 90210 on The CW, Dollhouse and So You Think You Can Dance (OF COURSE) on FOX, but as usual, ABC has the largest number of shows that I want to see.  I’ll be tuning in to Castle, Brothers & Sisters, Grey’s Anatomy and maybe Private Practice.  I say maybe because I’d like to see what happens to Violet, but many, many of their plot lines last year really turned me off.

There are a few new shows I want to check out.  I’m going to give FOX’s Glee a shot based solely on the recommendation of a friend of mine who shares my odd sense of humor most of the time.  ABC has piqued my interest with Cougar Town (because of it’s lead actress, naturally) and Flash Forward (because I’m a sucker for a sci-fi/fantasy pitch.)  And for the first time in a long time, CBS has a show I’d like to check out, The Good Wife (also strictly because of the lead actress.)  

Not that I’ve kept copious records or anything, but it feels like there are less shows I’m interested in this year.  I’m not sure if that’s a result of our busy non-television related schedule or a dearth of quality television.  Perhaps a bit of both.  At any rate, I’m sure to mention what I think of my own personal line up later in the season.  We’ll see who makes the cut.