Articles by Adele Elliott
Adele Elliott: Incommunicado
We are united by jillions of connections, visible and invisible. You can call it a network, or the World Wide Web, or links. But, no matter, we are tangled in a labyrinth that no one really understands.
Adele Elliott: Saints and poseurs
This week the news has been filled with stories of saints of every sort.
Adele Elliott: Mardi Gras mambo
I got a strange phone message this week: “Miss Moonpie has taken down her Christmas garlands.” Most folks don’t feel the need to announce the ups and downs of their holiday décor. But, I had given her a gentle ribbing about leaving them up so long. She thought I should be informed.
Adele Elliott: Smile therapy
This new year is getting off to a very bleak start. We are still grieving over the apartment fire in Starkville and sending prayers to Haiti.
Adele Elliott: The silence of sorrow
Why does death always come as a surprise? We expect it throughout our entire life. It is the logical bookend to birth, the soul’s escape.
Adele Elliott: Wish list
This is the time of year to dream of wishes fulfilled. We are making our lists for Santa, or for whomever is our personal giver of gifts. Most requests, I suppose, are reasonable. Some may ask for a gift that sparkles, or one that hums, or perhaps even one with four legs and a tail that wags. Green is always good, whether it means environmentally beneficial, or the sort of green that folds neatly into a pocket.
Adele Elliott: A classic Christmas
I have the perfect antidote for the sort of stress that makes folks wish for a prescription of tranquilizers.
Adele Elliott: Music notes
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … and, perhaps a bit too soon. Chris and I, along with our array of “usual suspects,” fought the too, too early onset of shopping, and business-type, must-attends this week. We took in two very cool concerts, both with thematic locales quite far from the North Pole.
Adele Elliott: Soup kitchen
Our world is so very full of need. It is overwhelming, trying to understand the vastness of poverty and suffering. Humans everywhere (and voiceless animals) are hurting. Sometimes scarcities are created by war, or natural disaster, or the unwise actions of a government. Misery may be the direct result of choices made by those most in distress. However, the causes hardly matter when the results are tragic and immense.
Adele Elliott: Fear of flying swine
Once upon a time, when the world was a simpler place, there were only four seasons. In those days, it was easy to understand spring and summer, winter and autumn. The seasons were sort of color-coded and clearly-themed. Back-to-school ads and photographic calendars were always embellished with falling leaves in tones of gold and rust and fiery reds. No matter where you lived, winter meant Currier and Ives-inspired snow scenes.
Adele Elliott: Death by poverty
These days it seems that our world is filled with pain. Psychic pain is intangible and private. Who can really understand the agonizing loss of someone dearly loved? American sons and daughters are suffering, bloodily, in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, we do not need to look across the globe to find hearts shattered in ways that will never heal. (Where is Kaila Morris?)
Adele Elliott: Finally, autumn
It seemed that the season would never change. The city tried to hurry summer along by decorating downtown with our traditional fall display of scarecrows resting on bales of hay. I’m sure those straw men were grateful for the floppy fedoras protecting them from the brutal sun.
Adele Elliott: Ode
“Mississippi is like this,
a scorched dark country
where silence solidifies
like clay in a kiln.”
Kendall Dunkelberg
These days, poems swirl around me. They are caught up in the wind, whipping around my ears and ankles. I hear them whispering in the walls and scampering, like squirrels, across the roof. Recording them, however, is as difficult as capturing clouds.
Adele Elliott: Invisible in daylight
Elizabeth Smart is back in the news. You will remember her as the fragile blonde teen, stolen from her bed in 2002 and held captive for nine months. Today she is a composed and articulate 21-year-old testifying against her kidnapper.
Adele Elliott: Scholars, ever young
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. “They,” however, are so often wrong. I truly believe we only get smarter with age. Time improves many things; wine, some cheeses, and (in my opinion) brain power.
Adele Elliott: ‘Oh, Lady Be Good’
In many ways, houses are like women. Their names are usually feminine, inspired by flowers, or influenced by languages more romantic than ours. Even those that bear a family surname sound more genteel when the word “manor” or “mansion” is added.
Adele Elliott: September songs
The doldrums of summer will soon dissipate, perhaps not in temperature … yet. But, certainly the early rush of autumn activities is here to shake up our languor.
Adele Elliott: Time and Tennessee
This week, Columbus reached out to characters, hysterical and frightened, chic and social, both on-stage and off. The Tennessee Williams Tribute and Tour of Victorian Homes presented a wealth of plays, lectures, tours, luncheons and elegant evenings.