Dear Susan Boyle

So I know this clip is making the rounds in a major way. And I couldn't be more thrilled.

Susan, you are simply incredible. Thank you for your talent -- and for reminding us where REAL beauty comes from.

And thank you for doing what you're doing, from all of us who wish we had the chance.

You are bliss. You are inspiration.

xoxoxo

-d.s.

Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon--don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon--you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind--
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

Vermont Love

(John and me in Vermont)

And the lovin' continues!

The universe is clearly trying to tell me something. If Iowa is my true home, then I've long considered Vermont to be my adopted home. Even though I live in the cesspool known as Boston, I long to move to Vermont.

And today, gay marriage was made legal. John and I could move there and not be second-class citizens.

Hooray, Vermont!

Iowa Love

I have never been more proud of my home state as I am at this moment.

And I hope this sends a message to all those who think Iowa is some hick backwater full of rednecks. It isn't. I put up with more homophobia in San Francisco than I did in rural Iowa, and that's no lie.

To quote the Iowa motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." Today's ruling proves this motto is more than just lip service.

It is Truth.

Way to go, Iowa!