Poem for Monday and Riverbend Park

Are You Jealous
By Jalaluddin Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?
Why would you refuse to give
this gift to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups.
They swim the huge fluid freedom.

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We had beautiful weather in the area on Sunday, so after a slow morning in which we tried to get organized for Daniel's college orientation on Monday (there's also an all-day parent session before the students stay overnight in the dorms), we went with my parents to Riverbend Park -- our original destination was Great Falls, Virginia, but the line of cars to get into the parking lot was so long that we went further up the road to the wide Potomac River bank far above the falls. Though there were a lot of cars in the lots there, too, the trails weren't crowded at all, and there was a gorgeous breeze in the woods. The coots were hiding on the rocks in the river, as were a couple of great blue herons, but there were plenty of insects and some summer wildflowers.

















We had dinner with my parents, who ordered pizza, then we came home and watched Animal House on the theory that Daniel really should see it before his college orientation. Wow, has it dated; I had recalled that it was pretty sexist, but I had forgotten the staggeringly racist sequence with the girls from the women's college, which is almost unwatchable given how it's played even taking into account that the movie is set in the early '60s. "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" is still funny, at least. I have to get up very early for the orientation, so here are belated memes from Friday:

The Friday Five: Travel
1. What is your favorite way to travel (ship, plane, car, train, etc)? Depends where I'm going. Plane if it's overseas, ship if it's leisurely, car if we can stop lots of places on the way.
2. Who is your favorite person to travel with? Paul and my kids.
3. What is the best vacation you've ever taken? I can't pick among the three times I've been to England.
4. Where will your next vacation be to? North Carolina in August.
5. If you had the time and money to go anywhere you wanted, where would you go? Around the world. Would settle at present for all over France.

Fannish5: 5 best or worst mothers (that have a designation other than "evil stepmother").
Best:
1. Niki Sanders and Sandra Bennet, Heroes
2. Martha Kent, Smallville
3. Jackie Tyler, Doctor Who
4. Sarah Connor, The Terminator
5. Gail Leery, Dawson's Creek
Worst:
1. Corrine Dollanganger, Flowers in the Attic
2. Atia of the Julii, Rome
3. Mom, Futurama
4. Helen Ryan Lindley Dawson's Creek
5. Lucille Bluth, Arrested Development