Pic of the Day

It’s Monday

Oh well, it’s Monday again. I had a very unproductive weekend. There were a few things I’d wanted to accomplish, but I never did. Yesterday, I was feeling blah both mentally and physically. Saturday wasn’t much better. I wish I had one more day to this weekend.

Pic of the Day

Mothers

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.” 

—Isaiah 49:15

 

What the Bible is saying in this passage is: that while a mother can forget the love she has for her child, God never will. The design of this passage is apparent. It is to show that the love which God has for his people is stronger than that which is produced by the most tender ties created by any natural relation. The love of a mother for her infant child is one of the strongest attachments in nature. The question here implies that it was unusual for a mother to be unmindful of that tie, and to forsake the child that she should nourish and love. With that being said, in the passage above, Isaiah was asking a theoretical question when he said, "Can a woman forget her nursing child?" This passage praises mothers as symbols of amazing compassion, never forgetting their beloved children.

 

Mothers are not perfect. Mine sure isn’t. Every mother is flawed, just as we are all flawed. However, no matter how flawed we may be, God's love for us is unchanging and unchangeable. He gives us generous grace and great compassion for all time and throughout eternity. While my mother and I may have our disagreements, we have a strong bond, though not nearly as strong as it once was. While it is not as strong as it was before I came out, it is still there. She is my comfort, even when she is not comforting. That may sound odd, but when I was young, my mother often sang to us. Sometimes it was silly little songs like “Fishy in a Bowl,” “Do Lord,” or "Yes Sir, That's My Baby," though she had her own versions of each one. However, the one I remember most is “You Are My Sunshine.” Even today, when I am sad and lonely or having anxiety or even a full-on panic attack, I can remember my mother singing ‘You Are My Sunshine,” and I am comforted. Part of it has to do with the rhythm of the song helping to slow my rapidly beating heart, but it’s also because I remember the good times when my mother would sing this to me. For the most part, my mother has always been there when I needed her. 

 

As she has gotten older, she tends to focus more on herself, but she was a nurse for most of her life and spent her life taking care of others. Deep down, she is a caring woman; she just shows it a little differently these days. I want to leave you with a different verse because while we may see things very differently, my mother does still love me. I firmly believe that she always will. She can’t help but love me. (Who couldn’t? I’m quite loveable. LOL)

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

—1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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Moment of Zen: Breakfast

Pic of the Day

Anticipation

Sometimes, we can describe things as "highly anticipated," i.e., an event we eagerly anticipate and expect will be very good, exciting, or interesting. Sometimes, those highly anticipated events live up to their hype. Sometimes they don't for one reason or another. I anticipated seeing Firebird, as was apparent in yesterday's post. Then, yesterday morning while I was eating breakfast, an aura (flashing or twinkling lights or zigzag lines, which typically precede migraine headache) appeared in my vision. I usually see twinkling lights, and this is what I saw yesterday. While I don't always have an aura before headaches, I always have a headache beginning in the next 24 hours after I see an aura. Today's was a particularly dramatic aura that went on and on for about a minute. They usually only last a few seconds. By the time I got to work, I had a progressively worsening migraine, and it progressed throughout the day. I went home at lunch. I knew if my headache did not improve, I would not be going to see the highly anticipated Firebird, no matter how much I wanted to see it. Eventually, it will be released on one of the streaming services, and I can then watch it on the small screen. So, bummer number one, I did not get to see Firebird.

 

Another example is my post-op appointment with the doctor who did my endoscopy. It was supposed to happen this week to discuss our next step since I was not an ideal candidate for the Inspire device. I had still not heard from my doctor's office by Wednesday, so I called. They could not schedule an appointment to see the doctor until May 26, not exactly this week, is it? Anyway, I am anticipating what I will hear from her when I can have the post-procedure conversation.

 

Those two highly anticipated events proved to be disappointments, not because the movie was terrible or because I got bad news from the doctor. They were merely disappointments because they did not happen. Two other events were highly anticipated: the second season finale of Star Trek: Picard (PIC) and the series premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds(SNW). Since I first saw Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike and later heard rumors that he would be given his own show that would feature him as the captain of the USS. Enterprise. If you know your Star Trek lore, you know that Pike was the captain of the Enterprise before James T. Kirk was captain of the famous starship. I was excited to see what they might do with the Enterprise in the years before Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and I was also excited to see more of Anson Mount as Pike and Ethan Peck (the grandson of actor Gregory Peck), both of whom I have major celebrity crushes on. Both men are very sexy and handsome and play to both types of men that I find myself most attracted to.

 

I will not give anything away about the series premiere, but I do have a few things to say. Sometimes, highly anticipated events, especially movies and television shows, turn out to be highly disappointing, and sometimes, highly anticipated events exceed all your expectations. Of course, there are also times when it does neither or is what you expected or not as bad as it could have been. SNW exceeded all my expectations. To say it was phenomenally good would be an understatement. The only time I have enjoyed a Star Trek series more than the first episode of SNW was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9), which I have watched the complete series numerous times. 

 

Rod Roddenberry, son of Gene Roddenberry (creator of Star Trek) and CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, said of SNW, "Saying nothing bad about the other shows, but this is the one I'm most excited about. It's going to go back to the formatting of the original series. It's the kind of thing we need to get out there to give us hope" I hope SNW does get back to the hope and spirit of the original Star Trek. Discovery and Picard have often shown us a darker version of the future, and while I still enjoy them, I love DS9, and it was the darkest of all the first generation of spin-offs, I think at the heart of Star Trek is a message of hope.

 

This brings me to my last highly anticipated event, the season finale of Picard. The finale of season one left me unsatisfied and maybe even a little upset or disturbed. It had some great parts, but the very end just did not sit well with me. The second season has been more entertaining and, I guess, less heartbreaking. Season two's finale lived up to the expectations we've seen throughout the series, and I found the finale interesting and satisfying. A lot happens in the episode, and there could have easily been two additional episodes, as they crammed a lot into the 45-minute runtime. I'm interested to see where the third and final season takes us.

 

I guess two out of four ain't bad, especially when the two exceeded my expectations. The other two were just disappointments that will resolve themselves in the future. Right now, I’m just looking forward to where Star Trek: Strange New Words takes us. Hit it!

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Firebird

I’m not sure when I first heard about the movie Firebird, but it was sometime last year around the time it was first released. I’ll be honest, what I noticed first was the two main actors, Tom Prior (left) as Sergey and Oleg Zagorodnii (right) as Roman. Both men are incredibly handsome. Prior co-wrote and produced the film. So, yes, the first thing I noticed about the film was how attractive the two main stars are, then I read what the movie was about.

Synopsis: Sergey is a troubled young private, counting the days till his military service in the Soviet Air Force ends. His life is turned upside down when Roman, a daring fighter pilot, arrives at the base. Driven by curiosity, Sergey and Roman navigate the precarious line between love and friendship as a dangerous love triangle forms between them and Luisa, the secretary to the base commander. Sergey is forced to face his past as Roman's career is endangered and Luisa struggles to keep her family together. As the walls close in, they risk their freedom and their lives in the face of an escalating KGB investigation and the fear of the all-seeing Soviet regime.

I have been desperately wanting to see it since then.

Firebird had its world premiere at the 35th BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival on  March 17, 2021. The film also screened at the 45th Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival on June 27, 2021, where it won an honorable mention for Best First Feature. I have been waiting for it to get a wider release and expected that I’d have to wait until it was released on one of the streaming services. Then, I saw last week that the film was to be released in cinemas internationally on April 29, 2022. I went to the website to see if it was playing anywhere near me. I’m in Vermont, so I believed the likelihood was slim to none. But, lo and behold, it opened last Friday at the Roxy Theater in Burlington. I already had plans last weekend for Saturday night (seeing Matteo Lane) and was not keen on driving back to Burlington on Sunday.

The schedule for the theater only ran through today, so a friend of mine who was also interested in seeing it once I told her about it, called yesterday to see if it would still be playing this weekend. Tonight’s 7:00 pm showing will be its last showing in Burlington. So even though I have to work tomorrow and would not normally go to Burlington during the week, we are going tonight to see it. I am not about to miss my opportunity to see this film. I’ll let you know tomorrow what I thought of it. I hope it lives up to its hype.