Magpie's Nest

Wise Old Women of the Tribe - P.D. James at 90 - on Writing

"I have lived a very happy and fulfilled life" says crime fiction writer P.D. James at age 90, and still writing and publishing.

How I wish that was me at that age, and there is time yet. I've discovered that writing is my happy place at 59, so writing and publishing at 90 seems such a wonderful thing to be aiming for.

I've created a new blog category here in homage to the women who go before me. I call it 'Wise Old Women of the Tribe'. It's about looking up in awe at the greats, those psychic mothers who have battled ahead on the path so that we may tread more gracefully and joyfully, and dance in the light.

I feel a lot like a first former (GenY translation - Year 7) gazing in awe at the sixth form prefects (trans - Year 12)  and thinking that I'd never get to be where they are. I accept that I will age, but I am daunted and humbled by the achievements of some very special women.

I think I may have even created a whole blog based on that at some stage in my bloggy evolution. I have a whole list of women who qualify.Margaret Whitlam was surely one. Germaine Greer - definitely. Ditto Simone de Beauvoir. P.D. James is definitely on my list. Who would you choose?

To an aspiring-as-yet-unpublished middle-aged writer, P.D. James is simply and utterly inspirational. I have loved her forever. Now that I am nosing 60 I love her even more. If you view the video link below you will see that crime fiction used as a structural vehicle to explore the big questions in life amalgamates the joy of genre reading with the philosophical weightiness of life's more intriguing questions and issues.
P.D. James is such an erudite writer. Teaching her novel 'The Skull Beneath the Skin' after reading Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi' was one of the joys of my teaching career. She has done the same with Austen. Her intertextual links give the original texts greater resonance in a contemporary reading context. The pleasure in reading thus is exponentially increased.

I've just finished her crime fiction novel 'Death Comes to Pemberley' published in 2011. It has integrity. I fell in love with Darcy and Elizabeth yet again.I love it totally. I was blogging about it on my crime fiction blog called 'Lost in Crime' and thought that I'd blog out my enthusiasm here whilst carefully composing and drafting my literary analysis there. Keep popping over there if you want to read my literary thoughts when they appear; these are my unabashedly emotive fan ravings.

The UK paper, 'The Telegraph', has published any number of interesting articles on P.D. James. The beauty of these are that they are interviews where James herself reflects on writing. This video is delightful as is this article.

All hale Baroness James of Holland Park!

Fat is Not all about Fashion - It's All About Consequences and Long-term Health

I watched WIN's 'Girls on the Grill' segment this morning, a discussion about anorexia and our daughters. Two beautifully slim, well-groomed youngish women talked about how important it was to teach our girls about inner beauty. Such a mixed message!

The supreme irony of the mixed message is such a sad one. The very reason that these two gorgeous girls are up front and gracing our television screens is that they themselves fit the very slim beauty mould that they were railing against! Just being clever and articulate is not enough - they have to look the part.

By the time we see older women growing old naturally with wrinkles and grey hair as normalised television icons I think that I will be long dead!!

The visual message from the programme was in direct conflict with the intended verbal message. Now, if the discussion had focused on health and the long-term health consequences of poor food choices as it related to an individuals weight and society's medical burdens then we might have been going somewhere useful.

Combine this discussion with the food industry's inertia and reluctance to actually help us by cutting fructose from restaurant fare and packaged foods and beverages then we have a real recipe for unhealthy consequences.

Any rational person is all for building up the fragile self-esteem of young women, but we need to be very careful that we don't enable poor health choices in our young women by demonstrating poor health choices ourselves.

How many times do women pass around chain emails about the 'benefits' of chocolate indulgence. Again I ask: who are we kidding?

Perhaps it's time for a little tough love?

Whenever discussions surround anorexia and young women take place so often the emphasis is on appearance not overall health. We rush to reassure our thin AND plump children, teens and women alike that being overweight is okay and that it doesn't matter really, it's what you are inside that really counts.

Well, of course it is! But the thing we adults should be worrying about is what makes our girls think that they need to eat to the point of excess to feel good?The focus in the media seems to be way off the point.

The issue needs to be all about the long term health issues of our psychological battles with food. Reject the fat not the person.

And why do I wade into this battle with such authority? If you read my blog you'll already know. If not, then know that some of my health issues as related to excess baggage aren't pretty.

It's time we older women lead the way and stood up to be counted. As we rapidly age hordes of us are experiencing the consequences of excess weight on joints, Type 2 Diabetes, blood pressure and who knows what else. We know how hard it is to reverse the habits and poor health choices of a lifetime. Do we want our daughters to end up with our health problems? Is that what mother love is really all about?

Just stop and think! Start a blog yourself! Wade right in there and fight the fat!!

We need to help our daughters rather than reassuring them that fat is alright because it simply is not. We need to see fat as much a cry for help as we see very thin.

Come on girls, who do you think you are kidding in the long run?

Big Bad Sugar Attrition Rate Grows

It's all about 'trust'. If your nutritional advice is based on dodgy science then I won't be the only one having problems. And as a self-declared Healthy Ageing Activist I have a vested interest in walking my talk, even if I do walk with a wobble.

When I was much younger I wouldn't have waded into this debate at all in my tiny Size 8 jeans. I wouldn't have imagined a future where the very act of 8 hours sleep would have my right leg aching all night and giving me broken sleep for years. My gait is out, my feet require orthotics to walk properly even in the house, and one leg is slightly longer than the other. I got away with most of it for 55 years.

The mathematics of kilograms and pressure on joints is scary. 

My Physio - a  bright young lad who used to be in my Year 10A English class - tells me that a nerve is compromised, or is it my whole leg that is compromised, and what was that about my spine? So glad he doesn't test me on what he says! Anyway, the right leg is stuffed.

What has this all got to do with added fructose, with sugar? Quite a lot really.

When I totally cut out sugar from foods and religiously read all labels to see which ones adhered to the <3gms sugar per 100gm weight so that I could control most of my hidden sugar sources (see any of David Gillespie's 3 books), I lost weight - 14 kilos of it in 4 months. When I travelled and indulged and returned home I continued to pile it  back on again. I continued to use butter and full cream milk and olive oil. The only difference was fructose.

Thankfully, this time my palate had changed somewhat and very sweet foods now made me feel sick. But not all. So because my eating habits had changed I did not regain all the weight. Still, the weight was there.

So, I am back trying harder this time. It's not easy and it so easy to be sabotaged by friends who use the word 'moderation'. It's such an elastic term that word. Unfortunately moderation gets out of hand with me.

Last year I blogged about the so-called 'Australian Paradox' here. I applied my skills and experience as an English teacher on an article that incensed me for its very obvious use of blarney to persuade. I couldn't do the maths, but I knew that something stank.

Michael Pascoe's article on an economist's unbiased analysis of the suspect statistics used by some nutritionists to propose a national paradox for a so-called decline in sugar consumption with a corresponding rise in obesity rates, makes for illuminating reading.

The link between fructose consumption and obesity rates and general health out comes is growing and growing, and sadly it is being lead by a lawyer and an economist who have wanted to better their own health outcomes. The saddest thing is that when a layperson consults a nutritionist they are generally at their wit's end. If the nutritionist is being informed by dodgy science then where does that leave the ordinary Baby Boomer lying flat on her face in the street?

 

 

I *heart* Mark Grist who Prefers 'Girls Who Read'

This grey-haired, overweight, almost 60 year old is ready to swoon over a much younger man, one who she's only seen once on the internet, this morning!

Where do I start? I'm so twitterpated after viewing the YouTube clip of Mark Grist rapping about why he prefers girls who read that I don't know where to begin this Post. 

I'll contextualise my response for you so that you can share my marvelling at a universe of co-incidences. There are three strands. One: I'm writing romance and analysing characterisations of romantic heroes, and rejecting males who dominate verbally, emotionally and especially physically. Two: Yesterday I downloaded a Kindle edition of 'Fifty Shades of Grey' to see what all the fuss was about, my particular peers not having whispered a word to me - yet. What is wrong with my friends??!! Three: And last week I reconnected with a boyfriend from my early twenties. I'll begin with the last point.

Last Friday my husband and I had lunch with an old boyfriend of mine. We've all been good friends for years, although because our communication carriers of personal choice are out of synch over the three hundred kilometres between our homes  we don't connect. He uses his mobile phone and rings on his homeward commute when I'm cooking dinner, whereas I prefer to email, Facebook and blog. Technology is the reason we don't link up much.

We were in Sydney, we had a small window of opportunity to meet face to face. I didn't mind him noticing my limp, after all he hasn't seen me for quite some time and I do have a leg problem. What rocked me was that he had also noticed my tractor tyre tread shoes! And there was I wishing that he would engage me in conversation about some of my blog posts, that he would remember that I had always been a girl who reads!! I may not have been the size 8, long-haired girl he'd dated, but I was still a girl who reads.

Morning television yesterday included an interview with two Gen X women discussing 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. Yes I'd read about it in the SMH and wasn't that tempted to read it. I'm not a prude. It's just that I don't get women who reject controlling men in their real lives, yet like to be dominated by a man  in their fantasy life.  After viewing the discussion I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about. I will get around to it, it's just that I wanted to read the Australian Historical journal paper on nineteenth century women's opinions on the alcohol habits of their spouses, and then watch MKR and cross-stitch last night. And this morning I got carried away reading 'Oceans of Consolation', David Fitzpatrick's book about Irish immigration to Australia in the nineteenth century and his analysis of their correspondence back home. And then I booted up my computer and checked Facebook. I've given James' e-book a cursory look. I will get on to it soonish no doubt.

What can I say about Mark Grist, but all power to the boy! What a teacher he must have been! What an even better, bigger class he is transferring to with his career change! 

 

Spousal Retirement Leads to Death of Creativity?

Not at all. But life has suddenly become more complex since He has been dedicated to carrying out his avowed pre-retirement plan of increasing my health outcomes post his retirement. We are off to the gym three times a week, and walking the dogs,  much to their delight, at every opportunity.

When I tell women our age that He has just just retired they invariably smirk and immediately offer their condolences, then look nonplussed in case I think it's a good thing and they've just put their foot in it.

The excitement of young love has certainly given way to something altogether different in many homes around our nation!

After forty two years together we have become great friends, but still, even friends need to adjust to changes in status.

It's been a month since His last day at work, and we've had some negotiating to do. No longer do I grab a quick daytime snack - my agreed bargain is to provide a healthy eating lifestyle, and all this gym going is making serious inroads into my day. However, learning a new way to be together has many upsides, not the least being my anticipated upswing in heath outcomes.

I love discovering new places to walk the dogs in the Central West. After weeks of solid rain it was wonderful to get out in the sunshine and just walk through paddocks of green. The MouseWolves were so delighted to be out that they didn't even want to chase the ducks. The dogs are on leads, but apparently the whole package was far too exciting; either that or they have truly imbibed their lapdog function where chasing ducks does not apply. A good thing too.

I've been writing, He's been editing my work for typos, and outrageous claims or forays,and doing His own thing as well.

I've just bought a great writer's software package called Scrivener. It only costs about $40 and was delivered as a download. I've been wading through the tutorial, but as usual my need to use the thing has seen me impatiently fiddling around. It's quite an intuitive programme because this morning I had a breakthrough with it and I understand how it works to meet my immediate needs so I am now freed up to learn as I go whilst not wasting time learning how to do things, if you get my impatient drift.

I have two other literary blogs that I have Posts half composed on, but working hard to submit a competition piece to 'Voiceless' meant that I've been a little lacking in energy. I've discovered that one can't do it all.

I'm currently reading an Alexander McCall-Smith, The Comfort of Saturdays, in the  philosophy series. I adore McCall-Smith's carefully balanced tone and sane, sensible theorising. It gives much comfort indeed to an atheist. Oh to be a writer like McCall-Smith!!

I've also just finished Penny Russell's 'Savage or Civilised', a wonderful analysis of colonial Australia as it settled into a 'cohesive' social structure. The slights to good people tore at my heart strings.

Did I say that lunch was my responsibility? Must away!