NOTE:

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25.12.10

Cryptic Message

Hi Ghazal, my Dear,
While waiting for an answer from you, I tried to de-crypt (or decode) a peculiar sequence of numbers to find out if there is a meaningful message hidden in it. The sequence reads as following:

5 2 6 0 2 0 4 2 2 4 1 2 0 1 2 1 5 1 3 3 8 1 4 3 2 4 0 1 4 2 1 2 0 1 2 4 1 2 1 3 3 2 3

Each digit is the number of messages that I wrote to you before I received an answer (during the last 4 month). Therefore, this sequence was virtually generated by you.
On average, you answered after receiving 2.3 mails from me, what is not too bad, considering that you have been very busy writing your thesis. I already thought how to bring the ratio closer to 1 (i.e. that one mail from you is followed by only one from me). This would mean I have to write less frequently, but this unfortunately  would result in much longer messages - a nightmare for you. On the other side, asking you to write more often would prompt you to shorten your e-mails to an SMS format again. And these very short mails too often lack any opportunity to say something important (although you are much more experienced in saying a lot with a view words only).

To decipher a hidden message in the above sequence of numbers, one can group them pair-wises (i.e. 52 60 20 42 24 .....). Using any text that is only known to you and me (i.e. to the sender and to the recipeint of the hidden message) one can re-derive this cryptic messsage by considering each of these two-digit numbers as the position of the next character within the key-text (method is called book-cipher)  (as above:
1. character at position 52
2. character at position 52+60 = 112
3. character at position 52+60+20 = 132 and so on).

With the introduction of your MSc-thesis as the key-text, the hidden message reads :

n matti nfecatskedatt
On the first glance it might still look very cryptic, but by re-positioning the empty spaces and with some fantasy one might read it like:

inmate at infected cats kedat


Ghazal, you have to help me further. Although I can read each single word now, I have no clue what you want to tell me. 

Take Care, my Dear
Michael
............................................................................................................
Hi michael, 

Oh, I"m surprised how far you got with decrypting this hidden massage. To be honest, I was not aware that there was some "meaning" behind the frequencies of my e-mails to you. The more I am surprised that the words make a lot of sense to me: 


"KEDAT"  is the name of my  "INMATE" at the university, with whom I share an office. She was sick ("INFECTED") with flue the last time we met. And now it might be that I ("CAT") caught the infection from her.

I have one general question about the decryption you did: You put the code (the sequence of numbers above) onto your blog, so everybody can read them. Even though the introduction to my MSc thesis is only known to you and me (unless I"m going to publish it in NATURE, ha ha)  I guess with some computing power the hidden message can be deciphered by anybody else, right ?  So how safe is it then ?


Seeing forward to hear you opinion.


take care
/ghazal



......................................................................

Ghazal, my Dear,
Sorry to read that you got cold. I hope it was not provoked by my intense search for a meaning behind the numbers (like a self-fulfilling prophecy). For myself, I try to "ban" the flue-bugs by going swimming in the cold once a week. Up to now, it seems to work.
Take Care, get better
Michael

22.12.10

Full Moon at Dawn

Hi Ghazal, my Dear,
I went to the Bayerischer Hof Jazz-Club yesterday, listened to a funny band "Titus Waldenfels and friends" who played on weired instruments. But they had an amazing singer Julia Schöter from Freising. With closed eyes one could imagine it is Natalie Cole there on stage.
Every second song they played was about the Moon. Like "Paper-Moon", "Moon over Manhattan". It appeared, that it was indeed full-moon night, and therefore I did a foto of it (sorry, its a bid blurred, but I hope you like it anyhow.)
Take Care    Michael

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hi michael,
who was there at the club yesterday ?  Is the gigolo-type waiter still working ?  I remember when we went there on my last evening in Munich, it was nice Music, but only few guests. Is it always so empty ?
greetings
/ghazal

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Ghazal,
I think its is always pretty empty during the evening, when the live-bands play. Later at night, they switch to dance-music from CD and it turns more into a night-club. Than more people come, but this happens usually only at around midnight (We had already left then).  The personel is still the same, and they are so friendly and polite, even though they have to deal with strange guest (like yesterday, a middle-aged lady insisted she wants to dance bare-foot (!!). After two songs, she stopped to dance, toke her coat and wanted to leave the club (without paying her bill, but still bare-footed). Still, the waiter remained very polite.
TAKE CARE,

Michael

21.12.10

Pierre Curie to Marie Skladovska

(August 10th 1894)
Nothing could have given me greater pleasure than to get news of you. The prospect of remaining two month without hearing about you had been extremely disagreeable to me: that is to say, your little note was more than welcome. I hope you are laying up a stock of good air and that you will come back to us in October. As for me, I think I shall not go anywhere; I shall stay in the country, where I spend the whole day in front of my open window or in the garden.
We have promised each other - haven"t we ? - to be at least great friends. If you will only not change your mind ! For there are no promises that are binding; such things cannot be ordered at will. It would be a fine thing, just the same, in which I hardly dare believe, to pass our lives near each other, hypnotized by our dreams: your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream.
Of all those dreams the last is, I believe, the only legitimite one. I mean by that we are powerless to change the social order and, even if we were not, we should not know what to do; in taking action, no matter in what direction, we should never be sure of not doing more harm than good, by retarding some inevitable evolution. From the scientific point of view, on the contrary, we may hope to do something; the ground is solider here, and any discovery that we make, however small, will remain acquired knowledge.
See how it works out: it is agreed that we shall be great friends, but if you leave France in a year it would be an altoghether too Platonic friendship, that of two creatures who would never see each other again. Wouldn"t it be better for you to stay with me ? I know that this question angers you, and that you don"t want to speak of it again - and then, too, I feel so thoroughly unworthy of you from every point of view.
I thought of asking your permission to meet you by chance in Freibourg. But you are staying there, unless I am mistaken, only one day, and on that day you will of course belong to your friends, the Kovalskis. Believe me, your very devoted PIERRE CURIE

PS: I should be happy if you would write to me and give me that assurance that you intend to come back in October. If you write direct to Sceaux the letter would get to me quicker.


(Ghazal, my Dear, This is a letter that Pierre Curie wrote to his colleague and later wife Marie Skladovska. I found it in a book that I bought as present for christmas (Love Letter of Great Men and Woman, Macmillan Pan Books 2010). It is such a wonderful language, don"t you think so ? And you see, even the two had a deep friendship in addition to their professional relation, Marie Skladosvka not only got her MSc, but two times (!!!!) the Nobel Price (one for discovery of natural radioactivity).
In the letter above Pierre Curie obviously also tries to convince Marie to stay with him, both for a future scientific career but also in privat, although he knows that this suggestion worries her. You know, Ghazal, what I really would like to know: Did Pierre Curie also promised her that staying with him privatly would not hamper her chances to get the Nobel-Prices, same as I tried to convince you in summer, that spending some time with me wont have any negative effect on your MSc project.
Ghazal, I know you have a good sense of humor, don"t you ?
TAKE CARE, have a nice evening and dreams that make you smile.

Michael





On 20.12.2010 12:17, Ghazal F. wrote:

Hi Michael,
 I read everything, didnt jump over 1 and 2.
Thank you so much for letting me know. I just tried to organize my chaotic thoughts a bid and introduced chapters 1 -3 in the e-mail.

so the link for Ikea was and accident. maybe your dog was looking for attention.
Maybe our dog did it intentionally, because she felt that you ought to see the IKEA book ?


 So you went to Ikea, they didnt have the pizza yet? I think if you buy food or some cake then you can have free tea or coffee right? I heard a story, that the man who owns Ikea. He went to Ikea somewhere (not in sweden) then he wanted the coffee after his food. They wanted money for it. The man was angry and told them who he is and obviously they were ashamed or they didnt know about the free coffee. good that you got the free coffee.
Do you know, if he ever inspected one of the IKEA shops in Munich ? I was quite satisfied there, nothing for me to complain about. But this, in fact, had mainly to do with you guiding me around and making this visit to an exciting language course in Swedish.

I try to answer as soon as I can. dont have bad thoughts. And it is still Ghazal that answers, not an angel from another universe.
 God to hear this, I feel a big relieve. But still think that parts of you are angel like. Maybe thats one of the facettes of your personality that is only visible to other people.

Its christmas soon. What will you and your family do? I will be at home with christmas-tree. will probably get presents. and then at night I will go to a concert with a friend. Its Googoosh, a persian singer. she is very famous since long back. My first time to see her.
I had a look yesterday on some Googoosh videos on youtube. It is very emotionally, but probably requires knowledge of the lyrics. Are there also songs with her on the CD you once gave to me ? But why does she staines her hair blond ?

your view of people not knowing all about themselves. it was interesting. I wonder how other people see me. would be interesting to see yourself from another point of view. i thought about this when i was younger.but you can never really see how other people see you. but interesting.
Yes, you are right. Only very rarely people are honest enough to tell you which picture they have from  you. Whether it is a positive one or a negative, it requires some convidence between two person to speak out. But on a long term, it is useful to find out. I remember, a friend at university ones told me that  " ... I am very unlikely to have real friends.." and others complained that "... I  am always cynical..". I thought that this was result of an misunderstanding, and tried to change my appearance a bid. Never know whether it helps.

take care
/ghazal

Take Care, Ghazal.
Michael

20.12.10

A view from the outside

Hi Michael,
I read everything, didnt jump over 1 and 2.
so the link for Ikea was an accident. maybe your dog was looking for attention.

So you went to Ikea, they didnt have the pizza yet? I think if you buy food or some cake then you can have free tea or coffee right? I heard a story, that the man who owns Ikea. He went to Ikea somewhere (not in sweden) then he wanted the coffee after his food. They wanted money for it. The man was angry and told them who he is and obviously they were ashamed or they didnt know about the free coffee. good that you got the free coffee.

I try to answer as soon as I can. dont have bad thoughts. And it is still Ghazal that answers, not an angel from another universe.

Its christmas soon. What will you and your family do?
I will be at home with christmas-tree. will probably get presents. and then at night I will go to a concert with a friend. Its Googoosh, a persian singer. she is very famous since long back. My first time to see her.

your view of people not knowing all about themselves. it was interesting. I wonder how other people see me. would be interesting to see yourself from another point of view. i thought about this when i was younger. but you can never really see how other people see you. but interesting.
take care

/ghazal

....................................................................................

Dear Ghazal,
Was so nice to read your e-mail. I am amazed, because you are very good in saying a lot of things with a few words only. I am very bad in this, very inefficient.
This is a general problem of german language: it needs many words to express simple things. And then, if I want to say it in englisch, I intuitively use a lot of words as well. I think I should learn from you.
I did not knew the story about the IKEA director, but it is really nice. So this man obviously likes to visit his own shops around the world without telling the employees beforehand that he will come. Thats good, that I like a lot.

I was not sure if you celebrate Christmas, now I know. Do you know that the Christmas tree is much older than christian religion. It goes back to pagan faith, when people believed that there are ghosts all over nature, that there are fays living in the forest (I think they are called "Peri" in persian) and angels all around. It is mostly irrational believe, but for me better than christian religion with its punishment, cheap morality and ignorance of science.
You probably also heard that this figure "Santa Claas" is an invention from Coca Cola, and is rejected by the Pope and the Vatican. In particular here in catholic Bavaria the church is heavily campaigning against Santa Claas and the Christmas Trees. They would like to have Jesus Christ and Crosses instead.
I"d like to hear the music by the persian singer Googoosh. Do you think I might find it on youtube ? I once found music by a persian singer Dariousz. It was good, it was very emotional. It gave me a shiver along my back (like Shirley Bassey, but the shiver I got from her is even stronger).

We will stay here, more or less. If the weather is nice, we go to the mountains for skying. But I will also use the time to do some article writing. It will be very quiet in the institute, this means nobody will be here to disturb me. I already have been to Berlin two weeks ago, already prepared the gifts for my parents and my sisters family.

Thanks once again for your mail, I enjoyed very much to read from you. I never got the impression that you have bad thoughts, Ghazal. I just could imagine that you have lots of things to do and to sort out and to organize. I know you are a very planed person, what is good in a sense that you have aims. Please don"t think that I want to interfere with them, I just like to exchange thoughts that - maybe because we are so different and so far away - I can tell much easier to you than to friends or relatives.

I see that I start to write endless epics once again, and risk that you get tired by them. Therefore, I"ll better stop now and instead send another e-mail soon.

Take Care, Ghazal, stay strong and happy and get the bad ghosts out.

Michael
PS: One last thing, that might be interesting for you: Do you remember the August "Stjaernfallen" called Persides ? Guess where the name comes from ? You were probably already wondering about it before: It comes from Perseus (son of the mythological beauty Danae, whom Zeuss visited as a golden shower). And there is the theory, that Perseus was the founder of the persian nation. Funny, isn"t it. But not all historicians agree with this.

17.12.10

Orbituary: Blake Edwards

Hi Michael,
When I heard today that Blake Edwards, the congenial director of "Breakfast at Tiffanys" died, I got very sad. My hope for a continuation of this nice movie wont become true any more. Could you imagine how the nice, sad story of Hollie Golightly and Paul Varseck goes on? How would they proceed, after the final kiss on the rainy avenue in New York ?
Coming back to our discussion about Anna Karenina and my suggestion that she very badly represents a prototype loving woman, I always considered Holly the diametral opposite, like the antipode of Anna. Holly, at least during most of the movie (and even more during the entire novel) managed very well to suppress her love and went only for material wealth.
Both, Anna and Holly therefore might represent the two extreme characters, between which each woman changes or from which each of us picks more of the one or the other. Some are more driven by an unconditioned love (Shirley Bassy "The way a woman loves"), others by the search for material safety Shirley Bassy "Diamonds are forever").

Therefore, if I would hope for a continuation of "Breakfast at Tiffanys", it had to be with a Holly Golightly changing her attitude more into a loving relationship.
Like in "The wonderful Baker Boys", where Michelle Pfeiffer also starts as a completely money-oriented and non-emotional woman, and step by step discovers that what she really needs is a loving partner, somebody to share joy and frustration with and somebody to trust.

Hope you have a nice time
Take Care

/ghazal

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Ghazal, my Dear,
I never considered Holly Golightly as the antipode of Anna Karenina. In a sense, Anna Karenina was a much stronger, she made her decision once and then followed her own route to the end. Holy, I always saw her as very undecisive. She much more seemed to play a role, the society expected her to play. It was the role of the fashion victim, of the modern girl completely devoted to fancy stuff and luxory life-style. However, in the few moments when she got "the mean reds", she seemed to show a desire for love and for a shoulder to lean on.
But you are probably right, that each real person changes between the two extremes.
But I could imagine, that one is aware one side of such a complex personality much more than the other. And maybe one even needs friends, to show you the other side of your personality. This might sound to you like a very stereotype pseudo-question of want-to-be psychologists. But could you image, that people next to you - your parents, relatives, or just friends - not necessarily know more about you, but that they know some aspects of your personality and your life, that are hidden to yourself ? Because they watch you from the outside, they see you different than you see yourself. They don"t see you better than you see youself, but they can see you in a different light, in different circumstances.

And so do I, always see you in a different light than you see yourself. I think that I can see aspects of your personality, that you try to hide from everybody, perhaps even from yourself. I don"t think that on a long run, hunting for material wealth and economic safety will satisfy you, Ghasal. I"m sure that deep inside you there is the desire for fantasy and for intellectual excitement, there is a great love for knowledge and maybe for what is called in an inflationary way "spirituality".

And on the other side, I now know that you discovered something inside me that I was never aware of before. That I can become extremely careless, ready to give up all material safety and all social and professional position, only because beeing strucked by the sudden love to a girl that arrived here from nowhere"s land, that was just sitting there in her own flare, not moving, not laughing, not speaking, only having her deep-blue eyes moving around.

TAKE CARE, Ghazal.

Michael

15.12.10

Something for you to consider: The Shabby Chick

Ghazal my Dear,
I hope you don"t mind this form of address, but I can not imagine starting a letter to you other than this way. O.K. an exception would be "Dear Miss F...", which would be in a funny contrast to the privacy we had here in Munich.

#1 (If you want to read about the mail with the IKEA link, continue here, otherwise go to #2)
Ghazal, my Dear, if your last e-mail had one important message than it was this: if I want to challenge your quiesence, to wake you up, and to make you curious enough to ask something, I have to write something that - with or without intention - appears confusing (like this Web-Site from Ikea). The weblink to Ikea was indeed send of by a a sort of accident. I was just about to save it, when I got distracted by our dog who hit the keybord such a way that it was send to you. In fact, I did not want to send another mail right after, with explanations or excuse could have only made you think I"m mad.

#2 (if you want to learn about a Saturday at IKEA, continue here, otherwise proceed to #3)
Last Saturday I helped a friend to move flat (I think I told you about her: she was my class-mate at gymnasium, and after University married a boy from Algeria, only to got the permission to flee from East-Germany. She has divorced already many years ago, and since then has trouble to sort our her life). Anyhow, as part of her removal into a new flat, she wanted to go to IKEA to buy some furniture. So I drove her there with a small truck, and although the weather was a catastrophy, we arrived there straight (unlike in June when we drove there, and I was so much distracted by you sitting next to me that I missed the exit from the motorway and we ended 50 km further north). This time it was different, more business as usual. My friend is so delicate, that selecting the right kitchen furniture took her 3 hours. Therefore I decided to go to the cafe, since I had the nice memories when we were there and you argued with the service lady about the missing pizza.
Meanwhile, the cafe was rebuild, it is huge and like a lounge area. You can have coffee, tea and even hot chocolate for free, and I think you would like this a lot (the next time you come to Munich we have to go there together). While I was waiting for her to sort out the kitchen furniture, I drank at least 4 tea and 2 and half hot chocolate, and read the entire weekend newspaper. Than, I found a nice book that was on display there, and this book is called "Geliebtes Zuhause" or "ÄLSKADE HEM", as I later found out. It is a funny book, cause it shows 9 swedish houses and their inhabitants. What was interesting for me: that you don"t see any of them living with IKEA furniture, instead they all have a very exotic and non-commercial style. Most of them live in old house, that are anything else than luxurious and comfortable. But all of them emanate an atmosphere of creativity and happiness. If you by chance go to IKEA, have a look at the book. What was really fascinating for me, that our old house here in the eastern part of Munich very much resembles one of the house in this IKEA book. So I got happy to learn that our house is not simply un-finished or primitive, but it can be considered stylish according to swedish taste (by the way, there is a special term for this: Shabby Chic or have a look at this Blog ).
The final essence of this day was: Even though IKEA worked hard to rebuild their coffee-shop, sitting there for 3 hours was a waste of time, if I compare it with the evening we were there together in June. Neither the free tea and hot chocolate nor the new, elegant lounge interior could compensate for the absence of an inspiring company as you were. The nice book, at least, drove my thoughts away a bid.

#3 (you have to continue here, even if you skipped #1 and #2)

... and for the next days, Ghazal my Dear, before I might receive another letter from you not earlier than Saturday, I just try to find out if possibly my mails are just too long and over-stress your patience. It always takes a long time before you answer, and sometimes I already thought that something got lost. But then, I got the feeling you don"t want to tell a lot. O.K., everybody keeps thing for itself, but I hope there was something more exciting and fascinating happening during the last days than a talk to MHR and SH. You must have your thoughts, your plans, your ideas every day, things you enjoy or you dream of. And other things that you hate and you condem, and at least those you could write about (Although I wish so much that there are more moments in your life to enjoy than things that you hate). I remember it was always nice to have long conversations with you, when we met somewhere, but the same seems to be more difficult in writing. You probably don"t like to put thoughts into words and put those into an e-mail. Or maybe you are simply too impatient to wait for e-mails.
I think I still live to a certain degree in a dream-world, and that I continue to write e-mails to you is part of this.
I can never be sure, if there is still this young lady Ghazal, somewhere at the other end of the internet to read my mails and answering them. But I carry on, assuming if it is not her, than maybe an angel in another universe reads it, and sometimes I even believe that this extra-terrestial angel sends back long answers, that appeare on my blog and are signed as /ghazal. These dreams, whether or not they have any real base, keep my mind in ballance. There is too much bullshit in the world that tries to enter our minds and destroy our souls. So what is bad about creating a little universe of dreams, made from old houses, castles, persian cats, frisky dogs and beautiful horses, and an inspiring, charming human beeing with tentalising hair and blue eyes and a dark voice, and to keep this all as barrier against the intruding stupidity from the modern society ?
(PS: Maybe you oppose this view, and I would be extremely glad to read your contradiction. But keep it fresh, send it right away. If you wait for too long, your sensation will fade away !!!)

Otherwise, Take Care my Dear,

Good Night , Enjoy your dreams

Michael

8.12.10

Give me one more time


This photo was shot by I.. She approached me so silently from the back, that none of my silly thoughts got interrupted.

5.12.10

What lasts forever ?

Hi michael,

it is hard to tell what will last longer in life, material stuff or love ?
At least when Shirley Bassey sings it, it sounds very convincing to me, that
"...diamonds will lustre on, when love"s gone."

Diamonds are forever
Sparkling round my little finger
Unlike men, the diamonds linger
Men are mere mortals who are not worth going to your grave for

I don't need love
For what good will love do me?
Diamonds never lie to me
For when love's gone
They'll lustre on


/ghazal

..................................................................................

Hi Ghazal, my Dear

There is no doubt, that the diamonds will lustre on, and they will last forever, even when the love is gone. But I think that their sparkling shine will loose its importance for us. Maybe it will even become painful, since it reminds us of better times.

Shirley Bassey also had songs with the complete opposite connotation, for instance in this one "the way a woman loves" it says "... a man would love discretely, a woman gives herself away completely."

3.12.10

Anna Karenina

hi michael,
how are you ? Yesterday night I found my mom watching a movie on TV, but the first scenes showed a rather cold winter atmosphere and I already wanted to zap over to another program (cause we have enough snow and frost in reality here in Sweden). My mom, however, insisted to watch this movie so I also stayed. After a few minutes there was a scene on a railway-platform, and a young lady leaving a train through a cloud of steam. It reminded me of a short youtube video you send some days ago, showing Greta Garbo as "Anna Karenina" in an 1934 movie. Now it appeared that we were watching a modern version of the movie, featuring Sophie Marceau as the main character. I think I probably would not have carried on watching it, unless my mom promissed that it is a great movie. She likes romances, and at the end of the film when Anna Karenina committed suicide, I realized that her eyes were full of tears. But this was very likely a sort of planned eruption of emotions, since for sure she knew before how sadly the film will finish. You know, woman can exploite emotions in a very useful way: breaking out in tears can relieve one of a lot of stress. It therefore should not be considered as a sole loss-of-control or as a sign of weakness. It can really help you to feel better later on. So in this sense, "Anna Karenina" is a very helpful movie for woman.
But except for this final scene, we had an argument with my mom, whether Anna did right leaving her husband and son for Vronski, to whom she had suddenly fallen in love with. My mom insisted that Anna did right, and that for such a great love, everything else in the world can be given up. In her opinion, a family relation that is based only on joint wealth, or material interest, or even on joint children, is a weak foundation and is not worth to sacrifice a really strong love for.
I don"t have this idea of a unique value of an ideal love, and that it represents something so extraordinary to neglect material wealth and a social status for. I could not understand how Anna Karenina left behind her easy and convenient life in the upper society and the material safety provided by her rich husband and his aristocratic family. For me it was hard to understand that she gave it all up to follow Vronski into an unknown future, only for the sake of love. Therefore, I consider Anna Karenina a males phantasy. And it is now surprise that Leo Tolstoj wrote it while he had lots of hussle with his wife. Sure, he dreamed of woman following only the voice of love, and not the temptation of material safety when they choose a partner. But thats not how woman usually feel. In the first instance, we are looking for somebody who can provide us with a safe haven for a long time. Love is optional, and might grow later. Therefore, the hype and the mystery around Anna Karenina became so long-lasting because what she did was against normal femal behaviour, whatever sociologists and femal-right activists want to tell us.

But there are exceptions, of course. And for me the best example is my mom. At least now, after her own experiences with husbands and lovers, she would clearly opt for an unconditioned love.

take care
/ghazal

...............................................................

Hi Ghazal my Dear,
Thanks a lot for your long mail, which is a clear proof that you can write not only in SMS-format. I have never considered before that Anna Karenina might be a pure males phantasy, as you suggested. There is nothing I can really contribute to the debate between you and your mom.
For sure, what you wrote about the female quest for material safety is more in agreement with sociologists theories, but also what is known from animal behaviour. So traditionally and in a large scale in society, woman do perhaps always look for a partner that provides best guarantee for a secure life. But there are also many famous examples where woman following an unconditioned love became very happy. Or do you think that this hunt for the supreme love will never end ?
But so will the hunt for material wealth. I think the fairy-tale about the fisher and his wife is known not just in Germany, but in Sweden as well. Like therein, hunting the whole life for nothing more than wealth will leave you at the end unsatisfied.

I liked your observations about the benefical effect of crying, that it will relieve you of stress. I have not tried it on myself, but very well remember when our son was still a baby, sometimes he had stress at the evening, was somehow unhappy about something, and did not want to sleep. I than use to slap him very gentle, not to hurt him, just to make him cry. It appeared, that after crying for some minutes, he became very calm and sleepy. A pediatrician later explained me that through the tears the body can get rid of stress hormones like adrenalin or cortison.
Thats probably what your mom knew instinctively, when she insisted to view the Anna Karenina movie. Ghazal, I hope so much that you don"t need tears to get rid of stress hormones. I remember that during your MSc project you have been very good of managing stress by other means.

Take Care, my Dear

Michael

1.12.10

Soldier of Love

Hi michael,

In case you want to listen to some great music, have a look at this collection of Sade"s greatest hits (you can click each of them and listen the full length title - if you don"t stop, it even plays the entire album).
And there is a video of her performing for her newest album. Its unbelievable, she is already 52 and makes such a powerful and young appearance. When you send me some of her music in July and asked me to guess her age, I was somehow sure that she is my age (just by listening to the music). But still now, seeing her performing in this video of her latest 2010 recordings, she is still so fresh and tempting.

Hope you are alright, my Dear, every day has at least one or two great moments and you feel amazing.

take care
/ghazal