Slave to Love

While topics on The Media Lizzy Show are devoted to 2008 and how sexuality drives/affects the legislative agenda… my sense is authenticity will be the single quality to which voters resonate the most. Politicos are notoriously paranoid – usually with good reason.

When a politician’s private life intersects with his public life, humility and discipline generally dissolve into paranoia. Many politicians are afflicted with an inflated sense of security – scarcely realizing isolation is not the same thing as safety. As Barbarians (be it the press corps or a process server) begin to arrive at the gate with cameras and pitchforks in hand – the white flag usually rises and a brief statement is issued. Occasionally, hubris inspires mania. Like Gary Hart challenging the press – only to be photographed with a mistress on the deck of a boat aptly named the “Monkey Business.”

The stillness behind the security barriers, and beyond where peace officers whisper into microphones wired to their sleeve, and after the cleaning crew has taken down the stage…. the lives of many politicos are populated with agendas and scheduling decisions – it takes a very good person to keep balance and perspective.

Which of the 2008 candidates will step up to the plate – authentic enough to convince voters – that the agent of change they seek has arrived? Anyone can look good on paper. That does not make them good.

— Media Lizzy

The Media Lizzy Show streams LIVE at Noon Pacific on Mondays & Thursdays

O Fortuna

Occasionally, I simply must pause… take a deep cleansing breath… and refresh with the following music that serves as the opening movement of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. It is simply transporting. The poem is below, both in Latin and in English… this particular performance originally aired on France’s Channel 2, with Michel Drucker acting as host. This is one of my favorite performances of this piece. Masterfully conducted and arranged, the choir & orchestra of the National Opera of Bordeaux is simply magnificent.

The music is so beautiful, so strong… it is the perfect companion for an evening where no conversation is necessary.

Molto bene!

— Media Lizzy

The original Latin:
O Fortuna velut luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurate et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem, egestatem, potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus semper dissolubilis, obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris; nunc per ludum dorsum nudum fero tui sceleris. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!

In English:
O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it; poverty and power it melts them like ice. Fate – monstrous and empty, you whirling wheel, you are malevolent, well-being is vain and always fades to nothing, shadowed and veiled you plague me too; now through the game I bring my bare back to your villainy. Fate is against me in health and virtue, driven on and weighted down, always enslaved. So at this hour without delay pluck the vibrating strings; since Fate strikes down the string man, everyone weep with me!

Warriors: Fantasy & Reality

Family is family. Friends are friends. Even an urban family, however closely knit, never shares a bed with a warrior. The sacred trust between a warrior and his wife is unbreakable, even in the face of marital turbulence.

Those quiet midnight goodbyes…before he heads out to the flight line… or before the call of the Boatswain’s pipe fades… these husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends, become bound together. Those memories are sustenance for the warrior as the world explodes around him. Or as silence falls forever… Warriors deserve more than the simple things we hear about in the news… they deserve a warm memory where the lines between self and selfless are shared with his woman… Those last fervent kisses linger… and with every letter from home… he is reminded.

A lady who tends the home turf… the daily grind of Americana… remembers tracing the edges and lines on her lover’s face, his lips with her fingertips… memorizing the sound of his footsteps in the steel toed boots as he leaves… the last breath in her ear… such moments give her peace… as she strips the bed, feeds the kids, and consoles herself while counting down the days until his return.

When a warrior returns… her job begins anew. Wiping away the sand. Waiting patiently through the sleepless nights. Loving him as he grieves for buddies that aren’t coming home. She eases the transition… she knows just when the kids need to go off to Grandmother’s house for night… she slowly coaxes him back from the blinding reality of war, and into the safety of their shared, sacred trust.

Over the weekend, I watched a few moments of Munich. It reminded me of many things… I was struck by the gritty and poignant depiction of a warrior, his job, his wife and how when the nightmares creeped into his marital bed – she was there. With the words I Love you…

The clip below is brief… and tonight, I will say a prayer for a friend who is far away… has no wife but has many friends praying for him… and remembering some friendships are a sacred trust as well.

— Media Lizzy

The Secrets We Keep

The source of this story shall remain confidential… but it is worth telling… and I have permission to share. No names… just the essence. As conservatives, the light shines very brightly upon us. Our opponents and the press breathlessly await any opportunity to declare, “Hypocrite.”

I could say the same… don’t march in a protest, jump up and down about fighting for privacy and equality – then deny conservatives or Republicans the same rights. Inside the Beltway, there are more than enough opportunities for games and gotcha. Forgotten are that not all Conservatives are soulless lobbyists.

Allow me to assure you, there are Republicans with breathtaking humanity. Their lives are filled with as much angst and passion as anyone else. They seldom advertise their vulnerability. Limited, small government means no intrusions into the checkbook, the closet, or the bedroom. All protestations to the contrary are made by a consultant or fundraiser seeking to exploit a person or issue.

Occasionally, a Senior Staff Woman – SSW – meets The One. He may be the bald consultant on the brink of divorce, or an ascendant politician who needs a wife to make the next step, or a lifer in the military… or some comparable position. He’s not the beautiful man she dated in her youth. He’s not the gorgeous and charming superstar who decorated her arm throughout her 20s and early 30s. He isn’t the Daddy-type that commands her loyalty and time.

He’s simply The One. Brilliant, ultra-Conservative, self-reliant, and a tough competitor. He isn’t afraid nor intimidated by her cadre of loyalists and entourage that mark her down time. He carves out the time, the space and forces her to decide what she wants for her future.

He knows she is intelligent, formidable and ultra-Conservative. He understands her. She captivates him. She respects his control. His brilliance. His understated power over the audience. And so the veil falls.

Temptation leads to reality. Exploration leads to realization. Sensuality leads to sex. Sex leads to all consuming, overwhelming passion like a dam breaking… You have seen this couple. They are a little edgier in their language than they once were. You can sense the passion, the intense connection between them. Across a crowded room, chatting with different groups of people…. you can see their connection. The mystery of how such a Conservative guy conquered this beautiful woman who was seemingly isolated in the minds of her colleagues.

The truth is no one knows the secrets we keep… the sacred union between two people can never really be shared or understood. Love without reservation or judgment possesses a purity few find. This temple, this union facilitates curiosities and fantasies, makes them real. Indulgence of the taboo… conceiving a child… roughness… voyeurism… piercings… overcoming sexual history and baggage, from rape to identity issues… finding a safe place to fall… is blessed.

Strengthened by uncluttered language, such couples find a way to overcome any darkness within. Look around you… the couple that defies convention… the assumptions made about a person’s sexuality often reflect more on the judge than the accused. If she loves him, there is a reason. If he loves her, then she is not the cool customer some believed.

Utilizing emotional binoculars… seek the person who unlocks your secret door. What boundaries might be broken, what truth laid bare by such a visitor to your secrets. When you see your loved one across the room… do you remember the heat of your lover’s touch? how they undress you… or wash your hair… or the sheer beauty of their love… the freedom behind closed doors…

The magnificent release of finding The One… is spiritual. Do not settle… instead find your One… and surrender to them… together, there is transcendance.

— Media Lizzy

Sacred Feminine

Enough about boys.. and onto the order of the day. The DaVinci Code DVD was released this month, which please me. I love Dan Brown. He is the first man, in a very long time, (hello Ovid) to write about women the way women WANT to be written about. From Angels & Demons to The DaVinci Code, Brown understands the need for tantalizing mystery… women love a man who can evoke an emotion. I certainly enjoy it. I don’t appreciate a Casanova-type who is feminine – that is repulsive, but a real-live Alpha Male with a real live Alpha Body – who also happens to be intelligent… well, all I can say is this: please take possession.

Women want to be worshipped and worship in return. Brown gave voice and words to the thoughts many women, myself included, have thought for ages. What is the blasphemy if Christ were married? Or in love? If Christ were just a man, would his sacrifice somehow be lessened?

Yes, I am a Christian. And I know that somewhere my very evangelical, deceased grandmother is begging God for a lightning bolt.

All of Dan Brown’s books are fiction, yet the message resonates. Women, young women and our little girls are deserving of love – and a sanctified place in the universe. If we will not teach them to preserve their bodies and resist biological imperatives until the rational, mature self is prepared for the consequences of sexual congress… then are we not rejecting Christ’s teachings about purity?

— Media Lizzy