“S” is for Spiraling Stars and Galaxies

I would like to share two of Russ’ poems with you in this blog entry. The first, Spiraling Stars and galaxies, shows Russ’ great love for astronomy. He told me that his mother was one of the first women in the United States to build her own telescope, and though he only learned about this as an adult, he inherited this love from her.

                                                                                                                                                                                                 The Spiraling Stars and Galaxies

                            The spiraling stars and galaxies

care not one whit if you or I

survive, prosper

or were never born.

 

The python. Tiger and bacterium

In equal share

Have similar intent

 

And so it falls to us

formed by God and nature impelled

to care, or merely exist.

 

3/02 

The second poem, although it doesn’t begin with ‘S’ is still a very beautiful poem; in fact I think it may be the most beautiful of all. He wrote it shortly after 9/11, where he lost two of his best friends. He has shared this poem several times, but I believe he would be happy to share it here with you.

HANDS

 

I am the Old one

The one of many colors

I speak with many tongues

I speak with one voice:

I am the giant once sleeping

my steel-slit eyes now focused

beware!

For on this day now done I rise

I rise with many ready hands

full  firm

lament!

 

And, to my fallen children I say

God has many more hands than I

and with His hands He will lift you

 

As my hands, my many colored hands

squeeze and shatter

Those who took His children…

 

 

9-16-01 (29)

 

©Copyright by Mary Purpari and Russ Kelly April 22, 2014 “S” is for Spiraling Stars and Galaxies

“R” is for Russ

I wasn’t sure if this would be the right subject for this entry, but I seem to have centralized mostly on this theme, and someone told that yes, I should, so here we are, talking again about Russ. Before I continue, however, I would like to say that “R” is also for realizations, and yesterday, while reading through my entry on questionnaires, I had a really big realization. Last October, I had an interview with Macy’s for a temporary job during the Christmas season; they had said they would call me in a couple of days to discuss when I would start working. Well, they never called, and though I was disappointed, it wasn’t so bad… Well, yesterday, I realized that had they actually called me, I would most likely have been working when Russ had his heart attack/ stroke and he would have been dead when I got home. I’m so glad I didn’t get that job, and could say good-bye while he was still alive.

So, about Russ. Russ was probably one of the most intelligent people I ever met, and I have met some intelligent people through the years. Although we had basically the same IQ, he was so much more intelligent than I, because he had what is often called a photographic memory, which I do NOT have. He thought in pictures. When someone asked a question, he closed his eyes for a moment and visualized the subject, and this is why he was generally able to give such good answers. He knew so many things, that I was shocked when he DIDN’T know the answer, as were most of his close friends and family members. I got him a few times, but those were more the exceptions that made the rule.

Russ was also one of the most caring people that I know. He would stay up through the wee hours of the night lending a shoulder and an ear to those who needed it. It didn’t matter to him if he knew you well or not—he got to know you as you spoke to him. And he would do what he could to comfort those who cried—it never mattered what time of the day—he would listen; and for the record, he never betrayed a word of what anyone said in secret; he sealed it in his heart and there it stayed, known only to him and to the person who told him.

Russ was respectful of me and my beliefs and feelings. He grew up in Brooklyn and could cuss up a storm, but as a general rule he didn’t use really bad language in front of me. Or at least he tried not to. He only got angry with me once, and I deserved it, to tell the truth. We went grocery shopping and were already with the cashier when I realized that I had left the grocery money at home. Oops! I was still on crutches at the time, so he went home alone, got the money, and came back to the store. He cussed me out all the way home and back, but by the time he handed the money to the cashier he was no longer angry, and was nice enough to admit it could happen to anyone.

He loved his family and would talk endlessly about his sisters, his mother, his father and his step-mother, whom he loved as though she were his real mother. He was so happy the day I found his sisters on Facebook, and regretted that we couldn’t find his older sister (She found me while he was in the hospital). He liked to tell me about the times he would babysit his younger sisters and their friends. One other familial regret was that he lost track of his son, Kevin, and his grandson, Joey. I tried to find them for him, but there were too many of them in the area he lived in.

There are so many other things I’d like to say, but I would need to write a book to get everything out. He’s the one who convinced me to write a blog, so it’s only fitting that I dedicate “R” is for… to Russ Kelly, my friend, my chief cheerleader and fan, my beloved companion.

Photograph at left, Russ with one of his “fans”

©Copyright Mary Purpari April 21, 2014 “R” is for Russ

“Q” is for Questionnaires

In 2007 I joined a social forum called QnA. The format was based on questions and answers. It was created by Microsoft, with the intention of gathering up information to form a search engine. The surprise for Microsoft was that through those questions data was also gathered by the forum members regarding other members and great friendships were formed. When Microsoft closed down the site, there was a great deal of sadness, but most of those friendships endured; in fact, many of my Facebook friendships evolved from questions asked an answered on the old QnA.

From time to time I have seen questionnaires posted on Facebook that entice people to participate. Even I have been interested in trying a few of them. I have discovered that my color is white, my mythological creature is the phoenix (although, according to Chinese astrology, I am a dragon), I am a swan and if I ever find myself arrested, my partner in crime would be an actress I’d never heard of before: Jennifer Lawrence. These questionnaires are fun, but I wonder for what reason the company that produces them does so?

There is another type of questionnaire that I find absolutely annoying. Anyone who in recent years has attempted find a job, applying online, has had to fill out one of these questionnaires on the application. These are definitely dedicated to collecting psychological data. These are multiple choice questions aimed at driving the applicant crazy, especially since there is, according to the instructions, no correct or incorrect answer. The problem with these ambiguous questions with no right or wrong answers is that if you give the wrong answer you won’t get the job. And not only are there trick questions, but the trick questions are asked over and over, with different wording or the same wording in different orders.

The last group of questionnaires are the ones I understand the least. I mean, I understand that the information we give in the questionnaires given by doctors is very important for the way in which our health is controlled. But, wouldn’t once be enough? Oh well, this is the age of questionnaires.

 

©Copyright by Mary Purpari “Q” is for Questionnaires April 19, 2014

“P” is for Purpari

As I was trying to come up with a subject for this particular letter, I was having a little difficulty. I had settled on Polymath minds, but since it sounded a little too high falutin’, I really was a bit reluctant to use it. And then it hit me. Duh! How about Purpari? Purpari is a very nice Italian name, not very common outside of Italy, although there was one branch that moved to the United States in the very early 1900s; the name has since died out due to a lack of male heirs to carry on the name.

The Purparis are, on the whole, wonderful people, and I am glad to count them as family and family, despite a certain falling out. There is one Purpari that I hold particularly close to my heart—my daughter Sonia.

Anyway, the name Purpari has its roots, as far as I could find, in a small mountain town in the province of Palermo called San Mauro Castelverde. The youngest son moved to Mistretta in 1710,  and this branch has been there ever since. During the passage of time, the name has undergone several variations, but as far as can be discovered it derives from one or both of two roots: The first would be the Sicilian word for octopus PURPO. Someone who fishes for octopus is a PURPARE. This would be highly plausible, since San Mauro, although being a mountain village, it is also not that far from the Tyrrhenian Sea, where there are lots of PURPI.

The other possibility would also be plausible, since it comes from the word PORPORA which stands for the scarlet worn by Cardinals in the Catholic church. There were a number of family members who took the cloth. Whichever of the two it may be, it doesn’t change that I heard my daughter being called PURPA several times by her Sicilian classmates…

When I came to New York, I ran into a little bit of difficulties with peoples’ pronunciation of the name. They ran the gamut, and in the end they just asked if they could call me Sister P. . I was a bit disheartened until my friend, Mrs. James, a teacher, told me her students asked if they could call her Mrs. J. What? 

The best (or worst) one, though, was my very own sister. I still shake my head on this one. My three-year old daughter and I were visiting my family in California. My sister taught the three-year olds in Church and so, while I was in Relief Society, my sister was busy teaching Sonia and the other kids. I think that even if I ever get senile, one thing I will never forget is what happened next. My dear, sweet, beautiful little girl ran up to me and yelled “Ciao Mamma Poopaloopa!” Her aunt, that conniving sister of mine, taught her to say that. Of course, she’s the one who named her oldest son Bowen Erro. sigh…

Why couldn’t I have married someone with an easy name like Rossi or… James?

 

©Copyright Mary Purpari April 18, 2014, “P” is for Purpari

“O” is for Old Ladies with Old Photographs

One of the things this old lady likes to do is look at old photographs of the way she (and her family) was. Sometimes the photos make her laugh when she looks at the expressions and remembers the occasions in which they were taken. Other times, she looks at them wistfully and wishes she still had the innocence portrayed in them. I like to share them with with my friends and family who sometimes have a problem believing that I was slim and young, about around 30-40 years ago. My favorite picture, the one of me standing next to one of the Buckingham Palace Guards (you know, the ones who aren’t supposed to smile when they’re on duty) and he has a grin going from one ear to the other, isn’t here—I think my daughter has it. 

I have decided to share some of them with you; I hope you like them.  

When Old Ladies (and their families) were young VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

“M” is for the Moon and Mars

“Ronan sighed. He flung back his head and stared at the sky. «Mars is bright tonight.» «Yeah,» said Hagrid, «but have yeh seen anythin’, Ronan? Anythin’ unusual?» «Mars is bright tonight,» Ronan repeated. «Unusually bright.»¹

This month our skies have presented us with some pretty nifty surprises. In fact, as Ronan noted, Mars has been especially bright this month, because it has been somewhat closer than usual, and even the reddish color of our nearest planet has been quite visible to the human eye. It was an even better show for those blessed with a telescope. On April 8, Mars was in opposition to the Earth and the sun, which is similar to an eclipse, with the Earth in between the two. Although I’m not lucky enough to have a functioning telescope, the event was live-streamed on Internet, and I was able to get a pretty good screen shot. I also got a shot of it with my regular old every day digital camera, which, although not the greatest, is still pretty good for that kind of camera. (it’s the smaller one on the left.)

However, that wasn’t the only astronomical show put on for the Earth’s inhabitants. This past Monday (or Tuesday, depending on where on the American continents you live), we were also given the privilege of watching a total lunar eclipse. There were several interesting points regarding this eclipse. It was the first of 4 total eclipses that will take place around every 6 months during a two year period; the next will be in October, 2014, then April, 2015 and the fourth will be in September 2015. This occurrence is called a Tetrad, and while it is a somewhat rare occurrence, it is not extraordinarily so; seven more are expected during this century, and there was another series during the years 2003 – 2004. For those of you who may have missed the eclipse and would like to see it, click here for eclipse video

One of the more interesting elements of this lunar eclipse was the color: it was the color of blood, earning it the name of the Blood Moon. This is caused by the way the light from the earth illuminates the moon. It is believed that this tetrad will consist of 4 blood moons that will be visible for most of the continental United States. Unfortunately, here on East Coast, the sky was beautiful until an hour before the eclipse (naturally). I DID get a nice photo of the moon at midnight (the silvery moon; it’s a bit fuzzy because of the passing clouds). The rest of the photos were taken as screen shots while watching the eclipse online. They are, from left to right: midnight, 2:45 am, 3:01 am, 3:18 am, 3:41 am this photo is so dark because it was just before it completely changed color), 3:48 am, 4:00 am:

         

 

¹Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, p.253; J. K. Rowling, 1997

 

©Copyright Mary Purpari “M” is for Mars and the Moon, April 16, 2014

“N” is for the Nothing Feeling

This is a poem that Russ wrote in April, 1979. I was in New York shortly after he wrote these verses and I wonder how things would have been had I met him then. Would I have continued on to Italy? Would we have been draw to each other, as we were in later years? Or would we have hated each other, so different then, yet so alike? Even now, I yearn to take away the pain and sadness described in this bitter-sweet poem. And yet, I think all of us have felt this way at least once in our life.

 

The Nothing Feeling

A neon moon is flashing

With midnight coming soon

a neon moon is rising

the juke box plays it’s tune

and a thousand little sorrows

overflow an empty glass

as I sit and think of nothing

and nothing comes to pass.

 

Sometimes I feel so weary

sometimes I gather strength

sometimes I feel so weary

at my story and it’s length

It’s like a nickel novel

with  a slowly turning page

as I sit and think of nothing

and nothing comes of age.

 

So lay me down

Lay me down

On the far side of the river

By the Holy ground

Lay me down

Lay me down

On the bright side of the river

I’ll be heaven bound.

 

The whiskey’s in the tumbler

the beer is in the stein

the whiskey’s in the tumbler

my money’s on the line

sometimes I feel so lonely

that the only thing’s to cry

as I sit and think of nothing

and nothing passes by.

 

And a thousand little sorrows

overflow an empty glass

a thousand little sorrows

letting nothing come to pass

and a neon moon is flashing

on a slowly turning page

as I sit and think of nothing

 

and nothing comes of age.

 

So lay me down

Lay me down

On the far side of the river

By the Holy ground

Lay me down

Lay me down

On the other side of the river

I’ll be heaven bound.

 

4/79

 

© Mary Purpari and Russ Kelly “N” is for the Nothing Feeling April 16, 2014