Received another entry for the contest today (for details, press here),  and it’s another beauty!  These two photos and the poem are  from Jess Swinburne:

Clouds…
My eyes are closed.
I’m lying flat on my back.
My arms stretch out on either side of me, grasping tiny green stalks of grass.
The grass is cool against my arms and neck…
My eyes open, the sky looms over me,
And the clouds release their heavy burden onto the Earth.
Thick drops splatter the ground, who hungrily soaks it up;
It has been parched for far too long.
Torrents of water quickly drench my hair and clothes, but I do not move.
The Sun soon breaks through an opening in the flow of the clouds…
As it hits the rivers of water in the air,
It produces a kaleidoscope of colour
So beautiful, so ever changing,
It is incomparable.
Soon the clouds drift away to state the Earth’s thirst elsewhere,
And the Sun lays claim to the land…
I turn my face toward it, and it warms me,
Where the clouds found their way into my soul.

© 13th January 2011 ~ Jess Swinburne

 So far, so great, my dear Gentle Readers (a/k/a writers)!  Keep them coming!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m not letting myself off the hook entirely with this post.  Here’s a rumination about something I watched on TV last night:

I’D LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT YOU LOOKED LIKE

 OK, I’ll start out with a confession. . .*gulp*. . .I’m a Trekkie.

I have been a devoted fan of “Star Trek” from its very beginning. The original series started when I was in high school and ended when I was in college. I have fond memories of being part of a group of eager fans faithfully gathered around the TV in my dorm’s common room to watch the latest episode in the journey to ” where no man has gone before.” Enjoyment of the series and all its permutations is as far as my devotion goes however. I assure you I have never attended a conference or purchased any memorabilia related to the show. But I do love all the different ST series, especially “The Next Generation,” and all of the feature length films that have been issued. Lots of fun.

Late last night I happen to catch a rerun of an episode of “TNG.” I was wide awake because of a bad cough that has come on the tail-end of a cold that decided to attack me last week. I can’t complain too much as this is the first one I’ve had in many years. Anyway, the episode I watched centered around the character of Dr. Beverly Crusher. She had fallen in love with a visiting diplomat who on board the Enterprise on a peace-keeping mission. She was not aware that this man (I cannot recall the character’s name, but for now I will call him “Rashan”) was a member of a species of beings who lived in symbiosis with another. The two species had evolved over millenia into a paired existence. The dominant essential character and personality of one existed within the vapid and passive external body or “shell” of another. The “internal” half was far longer-lived than the “shell,” so it was not unusual for the interior personality to inhabit a number of shells in its lifetime. Dr. Crusher is not made aware of this until the shell of the man she in love with dies. There is a lot of plot action that goes on in this episode that I won’t take the time to synopsize. For my purposes now it is enough to tell you that the shell that is sent to replace Rashan is female. Even though Dr. Crusher was still very much in love with Rashan, she found that she could no longer continue her relationship with him because she was too uncomfortable with the appearance of a homosexual relationship.

So it got me thinking. With what part of a person do we fall in love? Is it the personality, the interior person? Is it the appearance, the exterior? Or is it the whole package? If only a part of the package were to change, how drastically would that affect your relationship? I asked the question of myself last night because as I watched the episode I remember feeling annoyed with Dr. Crusher that she could not get over the fact that Rashan’s appearance and voice were now female. But the more I thought about it the more I began to wonder about my own reaction if I were in a similar situation. How much of our relationships are built upon what we physically see in and hear from the other, as opposed to what we know about the true essence of the other? With whom or with what do you form your relationships?

The thought intrigued me. How about you? Let me know what you think!

That’s all for now. Sonya is having too hard a time understanding my cold-congested voice. Don’t forget to send in your contest entries. Dear Gentle Readers, I wish you all enough. . .