Elsie's Notes from New England - THEMission edition

I've been 'searching' for years for the source of a quote that has been stuck to my fridge for just as many years. I use quotes around 'searching' because, once I actually went online and really did it, I found the source within three minutes. Yeah. Sometimes I'm just lame. Anyway, it's a wonderful quote that my visiting teacher wrote down on a little sheet of paper, adding a colorful little border to make it attractive enough to post on a fridge or at least enough to make me feel too guilty to throw away immediately. Packrat that I am, there wasn't much danger in the latter, because I found the quote encouraging and inspiring during a time in my life when somedays I needed a little inspiration to keep moving forward. Raising kids is an incredible journey, but sometimes I got tired and found it easy to lose perspective. The quote might actually have been from a lesson in Relief Society, or from some Stake Leadership meeting, come to think of it. My memo

I'm not a big Michael Jackson fan . . . not for many years, anyway. When I was young, I thought he and his music were very cool. Then he got weird, even while his music got cooler and more original. His unexpected passing, at the VERY young age of 50 (a particularly tender age for me), while of little personal consequence to me, has made me think, especially as I listen to the praise and panning he is receiving in the media (both commercial and informal). We devote entire college courses and volumes and volumes of literature to the discussion and study of Greek tragedy. We marvel at Shakespeare's gift for creating tragic characters, and exposing in his plays their flaws and downfalls. However, we don't need to look past 'The Man in the Mirror' to see a perfectly tragic example in our own generation. His was a tragic end to the tragic life of a great talent, who changed modern music with his unique gifts as much as the Beatles did. Do we admire Tchaikovsky&#

So, here I am, at the top of the mountain, seeking wisdom from the Dali Ariane, keeper of all blogging wisdom. We'll see how my humble seeking goes . . . This photo, however, is not of my delightful evening learning at the feet of the wise Ariane. Instead, it is the only photo I had on my computer of my blog-guru-mistress (that just sounds so wrong, but it is the feminine of master, isn't it?). The photo is from Thanksgiving day, and is of Ariane, Amber, and Kristie, three of my 'blogging buddies.' Updated photos to come, I promise!