Birthday
Posted in ashtanga yoga, dog!, poetry on 11/06/2008 09:04 am by karenLovely birthday morning.
Started with a great poem on Owl’s blog. (Listen to the audio — she has a nice reading voice.)
Then, because I decided I’d treat myself to a leisurely morning, practice started a little late. Amusingly, Tyler knew when it was time for yoga practice, so he climbed into his playpen in the yoga room and settled down on his little mat. How funny that my practice is now being initiated by the puppy??
After practice, I called My Gift (which I do routinely on Tuesdays and Thursdays this semester — to help her wake up for an early art class). We had a lovely conversation about Freud and psychoanalysis. She is coming across lots of references to psychoanalysis in her readings for her Feminist Literary Theory class. We had a chat about how she can read any writing as metaphorical — this conversation was reminiscent of the conversation we had when she was in pre-school and I told her she always had the right to color outside the lines, and the conversation when she was in high school about how literary critics don’t have authoritative understanding of what a poem means. And I sent her a copy of The Words to Say It, an amazing novel about a woman’s psychoanalysis.
After our chat, I felt a little guilty for not bringing her up to be a scientist, but c’est la vie. I do the best I can with the poetry and novels at my disposal. 
So now I am taking time to write a blog entry, considering buying myself a Kindle, and listening to Tyler eat the pinecone he discovered at obedience class last night (& which I brought home in my purse for him).
Nice morning. 
11/06/2008 at 9:45 am
Happy happy birthday! Had I known I would have left you a cupcake!
Your relationship with your daughter really IS a gift. It always makes me smile when you talk about her. And Tyler is adorable!
Wishing you a wonderful year.
11/06/2008 at 10:32 am
Happy Birthday! Hope someone kept a pinecone for you.
So, you and Owl have the same birthday? no way.
11/06/2008 at 10:49 am
Happy Birthday!
11/06/2008 at 12:19 pm
happy birthday!!!
11/06/2008 at 12:26 pm
Just adding my happy b-day wishes. Woo hoo! Celebrate all week!
11/06/2008 at 12:34 pm
Wonderful!
Warmest, happiest wishes today. Happy birthday.
I am glad you liked the poem. It reminded me strongly of you.
(Liz, I am three days ago now. But all of November is one big holiday in my book.)
This book you mention–I still look forward to reading it. Pretty sweet that you give your Gift gifts on your birthday.
BTW, re: Freud and other modes of knowing (i.e. psyche and science), does Gift know about the correspondence with Einstein on the eve of the Nazis’ rise? There’s a felicity (and equanimity) in the way they come together over a tragic question, and toward the end Freud queries Einstein as to whether it’s all myth in the end anyway.
http://www.cis.vt.edu/modernworld/d/Einstein.html
11/06/2008 at 2:07 pm
Happy Birthday!
11/06/2008 at 2:22 pm
Happy birthday, lovely!!!
11/06/2008 at 5:13 pm
Happy Birthday, sister!
11/06/2008 at 6:10 pm
Thanks for the well-wishes, you guys! The cybershala really is a gift!
11/06/2008 at 9:33 pm
One more just before midnight: Happy birthday.
11/07/2008 at 7:37 am
Happy Birthday one day late! And, really, we need more pictures of Tyler. Sheesh.
11/07/2008 at 1:33 pm
Hi Karen
Happy Birthday (belatedly)!!
hugs
Arturo
11/07/2008 at 3:21 pm
And one more. Happy birthday!
11/08/2008 at 3:45 am
Happy belated, Karen! Many happy returns…