I always wanted to read minds: didn't you as a kid? Did you ever concentrate, trying to "pick up" thoughts given up by others, fed by the ESP findings of the Rhine institute. I suspect I'm not alone...
Yet the best way to read one's mind---is to read what they've written.
Welcome to the April 2002 edition of Lives On-Line---where we look at the best of the on-line journal community for the past month. I do this once a month---usually giving preference to those I haven't linked to before. This one, however, is more like returning to some good old friends.
All the excellencies are the individual author's---all the deficiencies, if you've not read it before, is mine as editor for picking them out.
I'm not too worried.
Enjoy.
Humor:
"It's Not Used"---serial embarassments with feminine hygiene products on display. That's from the ever-entertaining RANDOM RAIN.
"Ode to an Adorable Fuzzy Fur-Person" is not to be read by the cat fanatic, or those who are eating....the drawbacks to having a cat, in a truly delightfully disgusting rant by the author of MIGHTY LIKE A ROSE.
"Buffalo Dicks" is about a rather ...unique... walking cane...and the tricks you can play with it on your friends...from GROUSIN' IN THE SAGE. Beautiful opening description, too.
Drama:
There is nothing more dramatic than the birth of a new child..."Aidan's Life Story" from PUPPY VAUGHN. Congratulations, and you're right---with a name like Dr. Love, your doctor had to go into obstetrics...
"The Writer and the Child"---a fable, in a way; when to write and when to rescue; and a child's trust in his father. That's from ...AND IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE...
An annual ritual of sobriety---and for an alchoholic, that is as dramatic as it gets...and a letter to those she harmed before she took the pledge---in "For Your Love" at SUNSHYN'S DAYDREAMS.
Another dramatic revelation: "Lines" from BACKGROUND NOISE.
And a final dramatic revelation, right in the middle of something that sounds like a travelogue...congratulations, Columbine! Read "Field Trip" from ECCENTRIC FLOWER.
Slice-of-life:
In "Career vs. Job" the author of EVERYDAY REBELLIONS comes to a startling and liberating conclusion---you are not defined by what you do.
"On Not Wanting To End Up as Purina Never Chow" reflects on the dangers of living alone ---and dying alone---from NOISE.
"It Didn't Want to Be Eaten Anyway"---all of us have foods we hate; with the author of A CAT BY ANY OTHER NAME it's squash. But at least she found one that was...semi-edible.
Also check out her "Baby Fix" about reflections on newborn kittens and their responsibility.
Miscellaneous:
"Sermon on the Edge" reflects the passing and insignificance of individual lives...and what, in her opinion, should be really important. A wonderful journal, if nothing else for its sense of peace and spiritual insight, called ON THE EDGE.
Read the 3-21 entry, "Drug Holiday...Celebrate?" about going on a "vacation" from the drugs that are helping him through his AIDS infection, in POSITOID.COM'S (STILL TAINTED)'s ONLINE JOURNAL.
A series of days, colored in exuberance: "Viva La Gaygas" from photostickers with hamster frames to getting up at the crack of dawn(i.e., noon) to gay porn to meditation on past rides to bike rides...a visit by her best friend, male but gay and totally simpatico. That's from ANYONE'S AMY.
Karaoke and tribal identity; an odd mix but definitely worth reading, "The Tribe" from BLUEBERRY HILL.
That's enough for now. Be here next month, for our next "telepathic" transmission---as we sample various minds. But we do it in a non-Hannibal Lectorish way, I promise.