friedag--is one of the following Mary Oliver poems the "climbing" one you had in mind? Of the handful of poems by Oliver that I know, these are the only ones that feature climbing--but there is no ladder, unless you want to count the tree as a ladder. Happiness In afternoon I watched the she-bear; she was looking For the secret bin of sweetness-- honey, that the bees store in the trees' soft caves. Black block of gloom, she climbed down tree after tree and shuffled on through the woods. And then she found it! The honey-house deep as heartwood, and dipped into it among the swarming bees--honey and comb she lipped and tongued and scooped out in her black nails, until maybe she grew full, or sleepy, or maybe a little drunk, and sticky down the rugs of her arms, and began to hum and sway. I saw her let go of the branches, I saw her lift her honeyed muzzle into the leaves, and her thick arms, as though she would fly-- an enormous bee all sweetness and wings-- down into the meadows, the perfection of honeysuckle and roses and clover-- to float and sleep in the sheer nets swaying from flower to flower day after shining day. That final image always cracks me up--the big shaggy bear, drunk on honey, fantasizing about being a tiny little bee flying around in ectasy as she gathers the pollen for making honey all day long! Don't we sometimes long to be the exact opposite of what we really are--in this case, a bear's version of Cinderella at the ball, perhaps. LOL The Honey Tree And so at last I climbed the honey tree, ate the bodies of bees that could not get out of my way, ate the dark hair of the leaves, the rippling bark, the heartwood. Such frenzy! But joy does that, I'm told, in the beginning. Later, maybe, I'll come here only sometimes and with a middling hunger. But now I climb like a snake, I clamber like a bear to the nuzzling place, to the light salvaged by the thighs of bees and racked up in the body of the tree. Oh, anyone can see how I love myself at last! how I love the world! climbing by day or night in the wind, in the leaves, kneeling at the secret rip, the cords of my body stretching and singing in the heaven of appetite May we all discover the "secret bin of sweetness" --joy and love--and find within ourselves a "heaven of appetite" for the honey of life! I like to pair these two poems (don't know if Oliver intended that or not)--the second poem showing what she learned from the bear (from nature) about living life to the fullest ("gathering rosebuds" while we may, as our favorite 17th century poet might put it?) as she figuratively climbs the tree of sweetness that the bear literally climbed. If neither is the right poem, they are still a couple of my favorite contemporary nature poems. Maybe this is why I'm fond of bears in nature poems. Kate

Wow!! Carol, I'm happy for you. Heel to toe for 8 steps takes a lot of coordination, and YOU DID IT. When my kid was 4 years old, she would be so happy when I lost weight on the scale ... health for my friends cheer me up more than roses. I'm elated when I heard Garran home & healthy, and I'm happy about rain for Jess & no more thorns in her toe. I am happy when my daughter is happy. I'm sure that's how God, our Father in heaven, feels .. He's happy when His children (us) are happy. My kid has a friend came over today (same age). The friend was on Ensure (canned nutrition with soy milk) .. her skin was clean this past summer. I did research on soy milk and thyroid disorder, yes, there's a slight link, esp. with carrageenan added. So I e-mailed this teenager info., and her nutritionist switched this gal from Ensure (soy-based) to Kefir (fermented cow-milk). Fast forward today, this friend gets pimples on her face. I feel bad since the bad news about dairy didn't come out until this year. I google thoroughly when I switched my child from soy-milk to cow milk .. could not find a link between cow milk and acne until recently. But I learn something: always look at how many people are involved in any study. The thyroid & soy link are just a few personal testimonies, versus the below: " The famous Nurse's Health Study examining health habits of 47,000 nurses found that those who drank more milk as teenagers had much higher rates of severe acne than those who had little or no milk as teenagers. In other studies of over 10,000 boys and girls from 9 to 15 years old, there was a direct link between the amount of milk consumed and the severity of acne." Today I'm back to the diet that I was on when I was skinny: soy milk (new formula without carrageenan) & high fiber cereal ... I feel so much better & more energy. My kid loves her cereal & soy milk. She could NOT handle cow-milk either .. she's lactose-intolerant. I checked on soy milk again before I switch back: if the soy-protein is concentrated, like soy Isolate in faked meat, then it will screw up the thyroid. If the soy is concentrated and made on aluminum equipment, like tofu, then that will UP the risk of Alzheimer's. But soy milk in low dose with cereal, isn't bad ... at least it's freed of hormones, antibiotics, feces, and pus like in cow's milk. Soy milk is easier to digest, plus zero cholesterol. What I like the most is: it smells clean, NOT strong like cow-milk.

I think it's interesting that, as feminism and self-empowerment becomes pretty much a given, that cosmetic and body modification and body display has all increased. a 1970s-era feminist would find clothing like this (and cosmetic surgery, and breast implants) self-demeaning and self-objectifying but a millennial feminist seems to find it all body-positive and empowering. I said before but my rule of thumb is: who is going to be seeing this, and where, and how are they getting there? These events are taking place in a closed environment, and to some extent the girls are dressing for each other. I am not sure that boys are paying attention to the clothing, and if the girls participate in sports and other activities these same boys and girls have seen each other in less. That said, I wouldn't really want to see the girls going into town or on public transportation dressed quite like some of these outfits. Objectively I guess, I don't find a lot of it particularly flattering but there are a lot of women's clothes that are not particularly flattering and emphasize the most minimal "flaws" right now. And sometimes you see this sort of thing on men, too, if you live in an urban area; super tight pants or shirts that don't really look so great.

There is an HR. And several women talk about going to HR on a regular basis, but mostly how they are treated by two women higher up in seniority (and perhaps rank to some extent). There were three women at the top seniority wise, the current department head and two others who had been department head at one time. (it is supposed to rotate between people). Two of the women have hated each other for 20+ years and the third woman has always really been the puppet of one of them. One of the really negative angry ones in the 20 year standoff finally retired, and currently the other is on sabbatical. But the current department head (3rd person) feels a bit vulnerable I think because the one who just steamrollered over everything is on sabbatical. Honestly I feel as a male, I kind of get through all of this unscathed because I don't get involved in the interpersonal dramas. But there are a couple bullies at the top, to some extent, it's clear who they like and don't like; it's clear which students they like and don't like--it's just not very professional. But really... I can't imagine going to HR over this in my case. What am I supposed to say? "They give me repeated, unsolicited advice about my haircut, my facial hair, my weight and some of my clothing". I just don't know what good it would do. Believe it or not I have a relatively good working relationship with everybody there and a somewhat friendly work relationship with some of them. I felt one great relief when the one angry woman retired and another great relief when the other went on sabbatical. And yet, they were really two of the people who never said anything like the above to me. They were professional in that respect. They were just difficult to work with because they were always right, always the best at everything and uniformly condescending to the students. Most of the women who have said the stuff to me are generally fairly nice people all things considered. Not always to each other. So I don't think going to HR and tattling about the running commentary would do anything to improve relations with anybody. This is a blip on my radar, really. But despite the fact that it doesn't really bother me much (these are not the types of comments I actually mull over, believe me)...I just can't help noticing that there is a gender-biased double standard ( albeit probably one of the few against males, really ). We are trained to say absolutely nothing personal about women coworkers and to tread very carefully with questions or comments about race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, transgender status, appearance etc. of our patients. But I bet if I went to HR about the "unsolicited advice" and commentary it would be treated as trivial...and maybe it is. Maybe we've become ultra-sensitized to take offence at the most offhand comment. I know some people whose favorite pastime seems to be dissecting everything that was said as to real meaning, ulterior motive etc. and so forth and finding something to be offended about.