fanciful devices: Happy Yule-nnuk-kwa-stice-tide.

A Stone Is Nobody's

A man ambushed a stone. Caught it.
Made it a prisoner.
Put it in a dark room and stood guard over it for the rest of his life.

His mother asked why.

He said, because it's held captive, because it is captured.

Look, the stone is asleep, she said, it does not know whether it's in a garden or not. Eternity and the stone
are mother and daughter; it is you who are getting old. The stone is only sleeping.

But I caught it, mother, it is mine by conquest, he said.

A stone is nobody's, not even its own. It is you who are conquered; you are minding the prisoner, which is yourself,
because you are afraid to go out, she said.

Yes yes, I am afraid, because you have never loved me, he said.

Which is true, because you have always been to me as the stone is to you, she said.

Russell Edson

FAQs

1. Are you a Southeast Asian dancing girl from the 1800s?

No, sorry to disappoint. My avatar and banner images are from an ancient book I found in the depths of my grandmother's cabinets. More on that here.

2. How do you make everything look so old?

First, you need a good oxidizer to brush on every bit of metal you can reach. I'll tell you all about it here.

Then there's this wax. I first mentioned it here. You'll have to scroll down a lot.

3. How can you be so productive?

I'm insanely obsessed and I have no offspring. I do nothing else- I don't have a day job, I don't clean my house or cook, I spend all day in pjs, often completely abandoning personal hygiene... I only interact with other humans when I walk my dog. And I like people! But I prefer dogs.

And I'm sloppy- but I make that sloppiness work for me.

4. Any tips you'd like to share?

No! Except for these 16 posts about techniques and this one about how to find your aesthetic.

5. Would you be offended if I took some inspiration from your designs?

Well, I'd be happier if you outright copied them.

No really, imitation is how we learn. I have enough ideas to go around. And even if I don't- please. No one's going to do this obsessively enough to threaten my business. (Probably.) I learned by copying others and I've seen others copy me as a step toward developing their own voice. So feel free. (I'd love if you tossed me a link in my comments, so I can feel like a proud momma.)

6. What do you look like?

Why, what have you heard? Really? Wow.

12/24/12

Happy Yule-nnuk-kwa-stice-tide.

Now for today's history lesson.

Saint Nicholas (270 –343 AD), also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a 4th-century Greek Bishop of Myra (Demre, part of modern-day Turkey) in Lycia. Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. Orphaned at an early age, he was especially giving to children and used his great wealth to open poor houses, hostels and a hospital. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, itself from a series of corruptions of the transliteration of "Saint Nikolaos". His reputation evolved among the faithful, as was common for early Christian saints. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children, pawnbrokers and students. His feast day is 6 December. (I tell you this so next time you come across any 'war-on-christmas' types you can say, "Do you know when Saint Nickolas' feast day is? ... Didn't think so.")
Merry Xmas bitches!

A Western and Eastern Sinterklaas.

6 comments:

Sharon Driscoll said...: And a Merry Christmas to you too Marina...I love the history lesson and am sending it to my granddaughter. Her biology teacher told her that St. Nick was a "dutch thing" and they made it up because they hallucinated from eating mushrooms that had red tops with white dots (hense the red and white clothing). LOL - Think about that, the Dutch on an acid trip...you got to love this holiday.; 12/24/12, 10:50 PM
Beatnheart said...: Merry Christmas...warm loving times with your family and to the rest of the Fanci crew of beeches...the very merriest to you all.; 12/24/12, 11:18 PM
La Fileuse said...: Merry Christmas, Marina, and everybody here ! Saint Nicholas has such sense of fashion... ^^; 12/25/12, 5:41 AM
betweenreader said...: Merry Christmas, all!

PS I love those tin whistle earrings that you led off griping about. I'll bet it's pretty hard to blow yourself away, but the rest of us are pretty easy. XO; 12/25/12, 9:38 PM
Louise said...: Merry Christmas Marina, hope you have a wonderful one! Looking forward to more blogreading in 2013. xox; 12/26/12, 2:17 AM
Juliette said...: Happy Christmas from me to all of you. Just got back up the mountain from the wackiest Christmas I've been to yet, in all of my years. First up it was going with my Welsh husband and many friends to the most hilarious gay bar in San Francisco I've ever been to. COVERED from ceiling to bartender in Santas, elves, angels, you name it (I mean decorations, not the people). THEN, the people - a huge drag show on the stage with everything from carols to rap, blues to country. We had a few drinks and then walked down the street to - I kid you not - High Mass at Midnight. We have two of our dearest friends who are Episcopalians, two beautiful married gay men. It was incredible. All sung, the big frankincense burners, everything. Took me waaaay back to when I had to go to midnight Mass (Catholic, but damned near the same thing).

Love you guys! THink maybe I should tell the whole story on my blog, ha! xoxo; 12/26/12, 2:51 PM