MTV Moscow

Thanksgiving came early this year for me. I was in Moscow 11/20-23, and of course, it was a fantastic weekend. I may have mentioned all this in a previous post -- enormous amounts of delicious food, good times with Mom and Dad by the fire, even some snow.  ...And all of that is wonderful, yeah, sure, but kind of par for the course as far as Thanksgivings go. But make no mistake: this wasn't just your run-of-the-mill 'early Thanksgiving' weekend. It was also an extraordinary weekend-long cultural celebration of elaborate song and dance rituals. 

Thanksgiving in Moscow 2009

Three poems

Hi, all! Wanted to share three pretty cool poems (I thought) from our November poetry gathering. A friend brought the first two. I brought the third one (read it in Jan. '08 "New Yorker"). I tried to post the poems here in a different form--like an embedded attachment you could open or a link, but no luck--this will have to do. Sort of unwieldy. Any suggestions? I guess these would be better sent as attachments to an email.

If you care to, I would enjoy hearing your comments on both/either the form and/or the content. I really like the first two--whether or not the "news" story is factual or mythical . . .

FIRST POEM:

FROM UNDERNEATH by STEPHEN DUNN

A giant sea turtle saved the life of a 52 year-old woman lost at sea 
for two days after a shipwreck in the Southern Phillipines. She rode on the turtle's back. 
–Syracuse Post-Standard





When her arms were no longer 


strong enough to tread water 


it came up beneath her, hard

and immense, and she thought 


this is how death comes, 


something large between your legs


and then the plunge. 


She dived off instinctively, 


but it got beneath her again 


and when she realized what it was

she soiled herself, held on.

God would have sent something winged, 


she thought. This came from beneath, 


a piece of hell that killed a turtle 


on the way and took its shape. 


How many hours passed? 


She didn't know, but it was night 


and the waves were higher. 


The thing swam easily in the dark. 


She swooned into sleep. 


When she woke in the morning,


the sea calm, her strange raft 


still moving. She noticed the elaborate 


pattern of its shell, map-like,


the leathery neck and head 


as if she'd come up behind 


an old longshoreman 
in a hard-backed chair. 


She wanted and was afraid to touch 


the head – one finger 
just above the eyes –


the way she would touch her cat 


and make it hers.

The more it swam a steady course 


the more she spoke to it 


the jibberish of the lost. 


And then the laughter 


located at the bottom 
of oneself, unstoppable.

The call went from sailor to sailor 


on the fishing boat: A woman 


riding an "oil drum" 


off the starboard side. 


But the turtle was already swimming


toward the prow 


with its hysterical, foreign cargo 


and when it came up alongside


it stopped 
until she could be hoisted off. 


Then it circled three times 


and went down. 


The woman was beyond all language, 


the captain reported: 


the crew was afraid of her 


for a long, long time.

SECOND POEM:

ESSAY ON COMPASSION

After Stephen Dunn's "From Underneath"

The cat wound tight against my foot idles himself

to sleep

I tell myself he loves me past food and shelter

past my fingers' rough massage

I think I know this to be true but I say I tell myself

to show how carefully I assume nothing

to prove I am no sentimental fool

When I cut my hand this same cat lapped

the blood that pooled like cooling grease

but when I cried for what I thought was loss

of what again I'd thought was love

he touched my cheek with one dry paw

stared into my eyes until I looked away

The newspaper says a giant sea turtle

carried a shipwrecked woman most of two days

before delivering her up to a fishing boat

How to explain the turtle's choice

that it rose beneath the woman twice

before she let herself ride that cold back

that in two days the turtle did not once dive

How would a biologist dismiss this as

some odd coincidence of instincts

the woman saved without the turtle caring

I say and mostly do not trust that the turtle

saved her life because it wanted to

I say too with all the certainty of one

who never made or saved a life

this must have been compassion

that well fed in calm salt water one turtle

had no stronger thirst that day than to try on

a cast off human goodness to see if it would float

When this deaf and aged slack ribbed cat

gets up to walk his bones across the room

stops and seems to slowly reconsider

then limps back to where he'd started

I think it better for us all that I assume

that when he seems to think he thinks

that when he seems to love he loves

that the turtle knew exactly what it did

and what would happen if it didn't

-Richard Lehnert

THIRD POEM:

SCIENCE FICTION

I can travel

faster than light

so can you

the speed of thought

the only trouble

is at destinations

our thought balloons

are coated invisible

no one there sees us

and we can't get out

to be real or present

phone and videophone

are almost worse

we don't see a journey

but stay in our space

just talking and joking

with those we reach

but can never touch

the nothing that can hurt us

how lovely and terrible

and lonely is this

-- Les Murray

So glad I am able to travel by plane (and train?) to come see you all sometimes, and that you all are able to travel sometimes to Moscow or a mutual meeting place so we all can be real and present! : ) --Love, Mom, MaMa, Gret

Pictures

If you would like your picture to be on the Family tree please email it to me at foresstguy@yahoo.com!

See ya,
Forrest

New Family Tree!

Hey guys, wheww, it's been a while since i was on Blogger... Justin and I Made a Family tree I think i sent out invites to most of ya'll, but if i didn't please email me at foresstguy@yahoo.com and tell me your email address. If you see that i left out info on your card, i don't know it! Please email it to me if you would like it to be shown. Also if you know info left out for others! I am having problems, mostly with maiden names... I decided not to use middle names because that would be totally overwhelming! If you notice, i already have notifications from the site saying they've found trails(Mostly in grampy and his dad, and grampa.

Arcane Stewart Trivia -- Audio edition

Rogers Street crew,
Here are some gems you should recognize from back in the day that made me smile to hear again. I dug these up out of curiosity of how they would sound now after not hearing for 20-30 years. Maybe you’ve heard these since the olden days, but hope it’s fun for you too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af2j59zzX3Q "All right girls, you're in this too!" at 2:21

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyGGvpUoF6k Those saxophones at the beginning used to scare me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIQL4MH-lJ0 My favorite is “watch out watch out for Lukie!” (the way we used to sing it) at the 1:00 minute mark of the video. Didn’t Luke get really sad/mad when we sang it that way?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywz7vN0GF_Y “Top that!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qSNcgJtqzw Wait till the music starts, then from the first note, I’m instantly in the yellow car, driving down to Cincinnati for lessons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66aqcOsnP2E What to do now that we have an 8-track player in the new yellow car? Stop by Rinks and pick up K-tel “Hit Explosion”, duh!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4D40r-E7yk&feature=related I couldn’t press the button fast enough to skip to the next track as a kid, but on first listening as an adult, it actually brought a tear to my eye!

Thanks, also for the easy link to the set of 39 Moscow photos!

Yep, I really enjoyed seeing your photos so easily--once I noticed they were there via the link below the "Over the River and thru the Palouse" photo -- (I missed seeing the link the first time because the font was so tiny?!) Anyway, thanks a BUNCH for your efforts to keep us in touch. Feels very good and is so enjoyable. I promise I'll be attempting to post some things of interest very soon.

Thanks to you and for you all at Thanksgiving.

Wow, Luke! You've outdone yourself. And what late hours you were keeping on Thanksgiving Day! Thanks for the gorgeous "over the river and through the Palouse" photo you took on our way to the Spokane airport last Monday morning. So glad you posted that cute piece of memorabilia regarding our house on Rogers Street! Everyone see where our roots are planted and what amazing amenities we had? Also, thanks for your compliments, Ly, We absolutely loved having your sweet company (and help with dishes as well as design help in the living room and dining room.) Dad sent you the photo showing our changes since your departure. Maybe we ought to post it here so the rest of the fam can see what our home looks like now. How about it, all, does Luke's idea about getting the "small" branch of Stewarts (the beyond Rogers Street Stewarts) generate some creative ideas? Hope so. Love to All . . . from Grandmother Graywolf, Mom, Gretchen, Grandma Stewie.

Over the state-line and through the Palouse...

originally uploaded by lukewho. click on the photo to see more pictures from this album.

...back to Spokane airport we go. Thanks for a great weekend Dad and Mom! You guys were great hosts. I'm really glad I got to hang out with you both for a long weekend of thanksgiving-y activities. My bed was cozy, each meal was delicious, Moscow was charming, and the snow was just an added bonus.

As for the rest of you, Beth and Ben, Forrest, Justin, Wendy and Jake, Bjorn, Jackson, and.... Hope we all get together soon. Let's figure out when that can happen. Summer?

Happy Thanksgiving, peoples! Good night. :)

Luke was here in Moscow for a pre-Thanksgiving weekend. You can see (in the picture above) the late-night snack of homemade pumpkin pie and whipped cream that Luke and Deano (and I) are enjoying! This was following the concert by Josh Ritter at the local junior high school--A benefit for his former junior high school science teacher who's a youngish, active guy with a wife, kids, and inoperable brain cancer.

Luke's visit was totally fun. Complete with massage, coffeehouse time, beautiful all-day snowfall, playing Blokus, a good service at church, our cooperatively created Thanksgiving dinner at home late Sunday afternoon, Josh's concert after that, and lots of leisurely time throughout the two days just sipping wine by the fire. I'll post more photos later this week.

Birthday Bash & video discouragement

Guys, I tried twice to attach a 20-second video here on my birthday, but got error messages when I was trying to upload it.  Rats.  Any help out there?  I wanted to show you all the video Luke took of Dean and me at the ocean at Steep Ravine near Mt. Tamilpais close to San Francisco.  It was part of our 4-day birthday bash.

Love, Gret/Mom/MaMa/Grandma Stewart

Couple T'ings

Well, Yah, my pop has started to teach! Mostly if you REALLY want to acess the Forrester Gazette ANY Time, then Go to the NEW site "www.forrestergazette.com" 

Here it is!!!!

I am not sure I will be able to post such a long message here. I see it goofed before. I promise to try to keep these messages shorter in the future.

Luke, it was great talking to you and receiving advice and encouragement in my job application process. Ditto, Jake. Good to hear from you as you lay in bed with Jackson and told us of the perils of the job-layoff day at Target. Very sad. The people with jobs now are quite lucky, I'd say. Also good to know, Wendy, that, as Jake said, you two are trying to cope with a good sense of humor through these tough times at work and in business. Beth, was also good talking with you and catching up on all the Stewart Western Springers. Forrest, sorry about your cold. Hope it is all better now! Justin, we heard about the fabulous, fitting words your teacher wrote about you. Jackson, are you using your snowshoes lately? How is little Bjorn? We would love to know what he is doing and saying now. So excited for you, Ben, that you are beginning your professorship gig tomorrow!

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend. I am enjoying mine. Friday night after another good Peace Vigil, Daddio and I danced the night away to two bands, the local opener, The Holiday Friends , and Finn Riggins , who used to be from here but now live in Hailey, Idaho. The event was the Friends of the Clearwater Benefit party at the 1912 Center. (we stayed from 8 to 10:30). It was full of young people (including the great high schoolers), people in the 21-40 age group, and then those older than that. The energy was high and it was very fun music to bounce around to!

Then, last night the Chinese family, Yeng Chen (the dad, your age), Hui Fang (also 33), and their daughter, Yue, invited us over to their one-bedroom apartment for a fabulous, lovingly-prepared Chinese meal of "common" foods they eat both in mainland China, where they are from, and that she prepares for their meals here. They've lived here just three months. He's a post-doc researcher in chemistry and they will be here about 2 years. They walked to our church about 3 weeks ago to "experience the culture." Very wise of them. Many people have befriended them, and the worship services and the interactions, both at church and outside of church, are helping them improve their English. One other thing we did last Monday night was go out to a great, newly-owned and managed Chinese restaurant, operated by a youngish ethnic-Chinese man, who left Vietnam as an orphaned 17-year old about the same year the Pham family did. So, I guess he's about mid-40's now. Anyway, we were part of a wonderful group of about 10 or 12 people celebrating the Chinese New Year. It included our dear friends, neighbors, and fellow church member, Walter Hesford (English prof who also comes to our poetry nights and he and Elinor had lived in China for one year). We invited the Chinese family to that, too. What a rich life we are leading!

I think I might ask Hui Fang if we might exchange English/Chinese lessons for a while. Remember when I tried to learn Chinese back in Xenia??!!

Yesterday and the day before I washed and waxed our whole living/dining room wood floors. They look wonderful! Today, the same for kitchen. And we will try to create a party postcard invitation to send to about 25 people for a Mardi Gras party here at our house (hoping we get about 15 or so). This was Dean's idea. He wants to make jambalya from Jen's recipe. He has made it before. We will also make Nan's fas nachts. Hope you all can, too. I will post the recipe here on our blogspot.

I will hear whether or not I got the job in the Admissions Office at the Law School by Wednesday afternoon, I'm thinking. I think I will not get it. I interviewed quite poorly. Made mistakes. Ugh. Now I feel embarrassed. Shades of Sarah P. ? ? ? ? Oh well, the only real damage will be to my pride. I will still be happy to work at George and Becky's Mom and Pop Hillcrest Motel. I've gotten them to reduce my hours to only 14 (that's over Mon., Tues., and Wed.) and bump my pay up to a respectable amount. So, I'd continue to happily work there and count my blessings and also look more intensely for tutoring students.

That's all for now, folks. Love, Mom/Gret/MaMa

Feb. 1 Weekend Update

Tomorrow is Ben's first day of teaching at LSTC.  How do we add that to the calendar on the right of this blogspot?  Pretty darn cool event!!!!  Worth celebrating!

Inaguration Day FOOFY!

Well, I stayed home 'cause we weren't watching it at school... So we watched it on the stewart family jumbo-tron! (A laptop connected to another moniter....) Also, you can go to my spoof newspaper from school! At www.moutvic-times-forrest-stewart.blogspot.com! Check it out!

A few thoughts on the Inauguration

Hey, everybody! Luke's descriptions and photos from Inauguration Day were great! Thank you so much, Luke. How long were you able to be at the Civic Center? I loved the kid writing on paper. Reminded me of you three boys' grade-school handwriting. That was probably HIS mom who was doing the weeping.

You bet I did cry a few times during the viewing of the whole event on a large screen at Daddio's preaching conference at Canon Beach in a room full of supporters. I was overcome a few times. How about you all? Did you have a tear or two?

I watched the rest of the day off and on on my computer. We did not have tv's in our retreat center rooms or even in a common room. Just that one big one for use for about two hours during the actual ceremony.

Dad and I had a glorious time walking along the beach several times a day--sometimes at night. The stars were outstanding! We think that would be a fabulous place for a Stewart get-together, or just individually whenever you each could join us there. Love, Mom/Gret/MaMa

What were you up to Tuesday morning?

Neighborhood bars all over town opened up early this morning to provide places for people to gather and watch, but I walked down Leavenworth Street to the Civic Center/City Hall. They had a jumbo TV thing set up, hoping that it might draw a crowd.

On the way down there, we spotted this home-made, low-tech booth which was put together by a group organizing a pro-peace letter writing campaign to Obama. It provided some fun and public catharsis early in the morning. People giddy with excitement on their way to City Hall were able to let off a little steam. Here, a Philipina grandmother who's not-gonna-take-it-anymore lets loose. :)


SF's Civic Center was packed with people on their way to work, and people were in genuinely ECSTATIC moods!








this kid in front of me was writing it all down for posterity. (click on any of these photos to see them bigger). awesome:



and mom, i almost felt like you were there beside me -- thanks to this helpful weeping stand-in to my left!



i hope all of you got a chance to participate in some way! miss you all!