it's another gorgeous sunny Sunday in Sydney and
no doubt there will be many women ownership ceremonies on the harbour.
i can understand why a woman would want the security of ownership in a patriachy
but i question the insecurities of men to form and maintain patriarchies in the first place.
if stock strayed and caused damage compensation could be sought, so it was with a wife.

Fractelle, there are many inspirations from art, architecture is one.
my ancestors were some of the first to use photography in Australia.
i seem to have been caught up in the avant-garde side of things
to the distraction of a full-time career in the arts
having spent most of my adult life involved in the politics of indigenous communities.

I thought the Heidelberg school's biggest contribution was an Australian way of painting no longer aping the European style. With precise lines individual leaves on trees and darker (non Australian) light and colours etc. Where the Heidelberg school introduced impressionism and were among the first to capture the light and feel of Australia.

Snadel Cratcher,
I was interested to hear they were into design as well.

Girls,
Come on, what happened to perspective and context?
Of course it was/is(?) patriarchal it is a religious ceremony/concept!
Which of the mass religions aren't? To be fair part of the concept was imbued with protection of the family and women. However the primary purposes were to ensure the next generation of subjects for the religion/hierarchy and therefore maintain power.
The main reason vows are were invented at all were to "ensure"(?) loyalty/commitment to the hierarchy, King or Queen.(remember Boadicea)
Marriage vows/ceremony exist to day is due to cultural imprinting and yes women want it because it encourages commitment to them...security for them to have children....plain and simple. Thus the wording is inline with this cultural imprinting.
Conversely some deliberately don't as an act of 'independence' rather than the obsolete nature of the institution.

Govts endorse it as a means of control and book keeping.

All this latter day woman's lib, sisterhood etc bit, while it originated because of changes in social perceptions, much of it is simply doctrinal (a means to claim women as being one mass and
power mechanism for others... club-like)
NB I'm not saying things are fair and shouldn't change.

Sorry girls, I believe in equitable rights for all not doctrine and dogma.
In truth some men are lumps and arguments for birth control as are some women. Injustice is injustice regardless of gender etc. Simply replacing one form of (gender)injustice with another is simply moving the power advantage and isn't HUMAN RIGHTS.

PS I've just moved to an undisclosed protected site for my own self preservation

(;-o (me with my hard hat on)

Hey Piper, Fractelle,

What'd he say?

“Hey Piper, Fractelle,
What'd he say?”

Foxy shoosh, I was going to wait until someone else replied and try figure it out from there.

Tell ya though, before using the word “deconstruction” I looked it up and got this:

“a method of analyzing texts based on the ideas that language is inherently unstable and shifting and that the reader rather than the author is central in determining meaning. It was introduced by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the late 1960s.”

Which is possibly the right answer where wedding vows are concerned?

Dear Piper,

You've just made me spill my coffee.
Thank You, I really needed to laugh today.

I came across this poem in an old photo
album - written by Mason Williams (I think) -
which I'd like to share:

"Come my love and we shall wander
All of life to see and know
In the season's lostward rambling
All things come and all things go

We shall climb the snowy mountains
Sail across the rolling sea
We shall live for one another
I for you and you for me

We'll go down to green grass meadows
Where the cold winds never blow
If we taste the wine of loving
Only you and I shall know

Come my love and we shall wander
Just to see what we can find
If we only find each other
Still the journey's worth the time!"

Have I told you and darling Fractelle that
if it wasn't for you two - OLO would not
be as enjoyable?

cont'd ...

Here's another one by Mason Williams that
I found that might appeal to the guys...
This one I got off the web:

"This must be done with the most intense
of hokey accents and howling, weeping and
gnashing of teeth only add to the drama" :

It's title is - "You Done Stompt on My Heart."

"I told you that I loved you
You said that it was good
I called you my darlin'
I thought I always would
But now you've gone and left me
I don't know what to do
And so my little darlin'
I write these words for you:

(chorus)
Well you done stomped on my heart
And mashed that sucker flat
You just kinda sorta,
stomped on my aorta

You started goin' round with guys
I felt us drift apart
And then with every step you took
Twas a stomp upon my heart

(spoken)
I only hope that someday
You'll get those low-down blues
And in some smokey honkey tonk
You'll look down at your shoes

And you'll think about that tender heart
You crushed beneath them soles
With those big bloody stompers
You filled my heart with holes

(And with feeling, the chorus one last time)
Well you done stomped on my heart
And mashed that sucker flat...."