Beware Death Country

It was suggested by the lead from yesterday's verbal and written warning that I might need help with my communication skills, especially with my professional communication skills, and that I might benefit from a class in communicating more professionally.

I'm still laughing over that one. They might as well have told me that I needed a class in the empty, but wordy, use of PC language.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't do PC. Politically correct language is using a lot of high sounding words to say exactly nothing. No wonder people have problems understanding each other since when in PC mode they are not so much communicating as throwing words at each other that have so little heft and meaning. It's rather like throwing an empty pie plate at someone with a picture of a big lemon meringue pie without the actually lemon, crust, or 6-inch thick meringue on top. And it has about the same effect as PC communication.

I don't know if you've figured it out yet, but I have been communicating on the Internet for a while now, have written books, and communicated her (rather ineffectually it seems) since 2002, which is 13 years come September.

I keep wondering how I managed to communicate in all the articles I wrote for newspapers and magazines, especially the ones that were picked up by syndicates, like AlterNet, and sold to newspapers and magazines all across the country. It couldn't have been words. Never that.

Jeff called me this afternoon just as I was waking up and wanted to talk about the screwing he has been getting at his job and it turned into the screwing that made him leave his last very lucrative position. His assistant, a really go-getter, who did everything she could to undermine him and take over his position, told him that the world was full of people like him (successful businessmen/women) who were the targets of people like her (morally bankrupt, go behind your back, and undermine you at every turn even if they had to manufacture proof) ready to take over and be the new broom that sweeps them out like so much old trash.

I've known people like that. I've known them my whole working life. I'm sure they felt that I was out to get them when I started a job and went from entry level to top of the statistical heap in a leap worthy of Superman -- or Supergirl -- and didn't even stop to consider their positions or their feelings or the level of their anger at me for displacing them while I ignored them and continued to do my job. I am so thoughtless that way.

But then they didn't work for a company like the one I'm working for now which does everything ti can to cut costs (employee pay) to enrich their coffers. Jeff reminded me that the people who cut costs are rewarded with a huge bonus every time the company must pay me what I've earned and what I'm worth. After all, it's not important that they get a bonus but that they deny me compensation for the job that I do at a rate that is commensurate with my experience and accuracy. Gotta keep the slaves in the dark digging coal and not getting above themselves with thoughts that anything they do actually matters -- except when it comes to quantity of coal dug and processed for the lowest price. Oh, they will jack up the prices to the customer, but the slaves will still be slaves working in death country as Sun Tzu once said in his Art of War.

How does Sun Tzu apply? Did you really think that a manual on how to wage war doesn't apply when it comes to office politics and the professional wars we all fight every day?

Death country is not where you want to put your enemy. You should always leave the enemy a way out of a conflict or he will get desperate and turn on you much like a wolverine caught in a trap from which there is no way out will turn and rend you and the horse you rode in on.  Death country. Sun Tzu said that you should never trap your enemy/opponent in Death Country. Now you know why.

I'm in Death Country. I cannot quit my job because I just started it in January. I have benefits I can afford and I'm buying a house, neither of which I can afford -- or intend -- to lose. I could accept the offers of other jobs, but I would have to start at square one and I don't think that would make me a good candidate for the loan I need to purchase my cabin in the mountains. I would be faced with no benefits, no insurance, or have to pay a month's house payment just to buy the benefits, and that would also not make me an attractive candidate for a loan to buy my cabin in the mountains. No way out. Not at this time.

What I have been left with is the way of the wolverine caught in death country.

No, I will not take a class on effective communication. I will, however, use what I have learned over 3 decades of written communication and use the very large digital footprint I was warned about leaving yesterday. My boss doesn't know about my digital footprint outside of the "very unprofessional note" I left on a doctor's report. She thinks that I will be less likely to leave a clear and cogent digital footprint again -- at least not where it will affect the company. I guess she didn't figure I'd have any way to retaliate since I do need my income (such as it is when they are done gutting it) and not be able to rock the corporate boat. After all, I need to take a class to learn to communicate effectively.  Poor me.

I'm sure they will think differently once my digital footprint is all over them and the horse they rode in on. Such is the way of being caught in death country.






That is all. Disperse.

• Current Location: Death country
• Current Mood: Determined

A Season of Thanks

It is the season of giving -- and depression. It is not just the lack of sun as the nights grow longer moving closer to the winter solstice, but the lack of resources that makes us unhappy.  Those who have give and those who have not . . . say nothing and hide. People never realize how little it takes to say thank you and believe that giving something of less cost would be rude. The best thing, many people believe, is to do and say nothing and nothing could be farther from the truth.  Manners and kindness cost very little.

Who among us would but put out or frown when receiving a letter from a friend or acquaintance, something that did not for once contain a bill, but a piece of someone life shared in a few lines of type or handwriting? I always smile when I go to the mailbox and find, instead of bills and a mountain of catalogs and advertisements, a card or a letter. That someone took the time to write -- or type -- a letter means so much.

I prefer to write my notes and letters longhand, although I have in the past typed up letters and sent them. I carried on long correspondences with many writers, friends, and family. Sadly, many of those pen pals are gone, but I still keep writing. It costs very little to write a letter or send a card, a few pennies for the envelope and paper and 45 cents for the stamp. A small cost, but a very big reward in strengthening the ties of friendship and sending a bit of our lives and memories into another's safe keeping. If you cannot afford a computer (rare these days), there are lots of libraries around that will let you use their computers and the cost for printing out the letters is about 10 cents a page, at least at our local library. I have often used the library for research and when my computer is being repaired and I wanted to get something out as soon as possible. Add 45 cents for the stamp and instant happiness, or as instant as it ever gets with the U. S. Snail.

If someone in better financial circumstances sends a gift at birthdays, anniversaries, or holidays -- like the holidays coming up -- I was taught a thank you card is the best way to say thank you, and yet gifts are sent and the recipients seldom even acknowledge the gift with a text message, IM, or mention on Facebook. A handwritten or typed card is obviously out of the question, and yet good manners cost nothing.

Perhaps the recipient is unable or uncomfortable with writing. A phone call works as well. In a small way, it is rather like going to the doctor for a biopsy or tests and because there is nothing wrong the doctor never calls, thinking that if the news was bad you would expect a call. No news is good news. In the matter of a personal gift, no news is quite simply no news . . . and pretty rude. Don't get me wrong. I often prefer rude, but only when polite responses are ignored. There is a time for rude and a time for thanks. Telling the difference is fairly simple.

Yet, what if you cannot respond in kind to a friend's gift? Isn't it better to stay silent than to expose your poverty? No. Not ever. Think how you would feel if you sent a friend a gift -- or gifts over several years -- and received neither a thank you nor a gift in exchange? How would you feel?

Inexpensive gifts are just as precious as ostentatious and expensive gifts. So you can't afford that 250-foot yacht or the diamond studded toilet seat with the built-in warmer and cell phone charging station, there are lots of other options.

Homemade gifts are the best, be it food for friends and family nearby or a handmade card. A gift of found items fashioned into jewelry or Xmas tree ornaments is always acceptable. Some of my favorite ornaments are those made by friends or even ones I made in more difficult times. One such time, I made a set of ornaments for Beanie, my youngest sister, and she still uses them on her tree every year. I made the ornaments out of scraps and bought 12 grapevine wreaths for about $1.00 and the result was more than 20 years of memories -- for both of us. A homemade gift card for housecleaning for someone who is working extra jobs or shifts to make ends meet or someone having health problems is a wonderful gift, rather like offering to do chores for a brother or sister in exchange for a favor later. In that case, the favor would be a heartfelt thank you for a gift you received from them instead of a night off doing dishes because you want to go to a movie or on a date. Different times, different reasons, but the result is the same -- everyone is happy with the swap.

A $5 or $10 gift card for coffee or lunch is a wonderful thank you and gift. You might even consider such a gift card for soldiers who will spend their holidays overseas. I'm a big fan of Cup of Joe at Green Beans and budget a little to send a hot cup of coffee to say my thanks for all the soldiers do standing in harm's way on foreign shores. 

There are times when a phone call and a chat that lasts more than 5 minutes is a welcome gift and a wonderful way to say thank you. These days, the call costs next to nothing, and hearing a friendly voice is always welcome, even if it is just to offer thanks or catch up. If there is time for watching television, there is time for a phone call. My Uncle Bob doesn't write letters, but whenever he receives a letter from me, he calls and we talk and catch up for a little while. I cherish those moments and the thought behind the call. I haven't seen him in a very long time because I don't get back east very often, but we keep in touch, me with my letters and he with his phone calls. Memories like that are priceless.

In this day and age with all the wondrous methods of keeping in touch, it is sad to say that we have lost touch with simple manners. There really are no good excuses, just excuses. If you can't write, type. If you can't type, call. If all else fails, let the people that matter to you know their gifts, their caring, and the time they took to remember you with a gift or a card or a letter means something to you. Keep in touch.

As Reese Witherspoon says, "Good manners cost nothing but are worth everything," a sentiment I hope we all will remember during this holiday season. Make this a season of thanks.

Say What?

I was minding my own business, playing games online and looking through the most recent Facebook comment when I saw this:  "[S]ome authors, like myself, have their own style of punctuation and capitalization. It's a matter of preference." 

Uh, no, punctualization is not a matter of preference. It a matter of rules.

Make up words for your science fiction and fantasy novels and stories. Make up names. Don't make up words; there are rules in place for a reason.

Communication, especially in writing, has rules for a reason, so that we are all, in a manner of speaking, on the same page. I've edited work where the writers decided that the day the wrote chapter 10 was a day without commas, the next day it was a day without periods, or making up sentences that had no subject or no verb or were all subject or all verb. Not only was their work incomprehensible but the writers' explanation of being above the stupid rules of grammar and punctuation made me see red -- and so did the writers when they read the edits -- blood all over the page.

While there are some rules that could use some revising and some well know writers, like E. L. Doctorow and some UK writers, that decide that quotation marks around dialogue is a waste of time or, at best, a silly convention, at least they stick to the hard and fast rules like ending sentences with periods, capitalizing proper names, and putting in commas so their page long sentences can be read once and understood. Putting a comma between too and the rest of a sentence is a bit archaic and I have flirted with leaving out the comma, but I have never had an editor or a reader ask me what I was writing about because it wasn't clear. I write the way I speak and I edit my work by reading aloud. My background in theater has a good deal to do with where I place commas, but that is why commas were invented -- so actors knew when and how long to pause (semi-colons and colons have a different pause length than commas and periods) and so they wouldn't run out of breath reading a speech that went on for a page or two. It just makes common sense as well as grammar sense.

The current trend among younger writers who believe that grammar is optional I think is pure laziness. They didn't learn the rules of grammar, can't remember learning the rules of grammar, or thing that their work is so artistic that the rules of grammar don't apply (it's still called being lazy). The rules aren't difficult and there is a slim volume by Strunk & White, The Elements of Style, that every writer should have either on their computer or on their desk, but definitely prominently displayed and well thumbed. Writers should buy more than one copy if they don't have a special place to write all the time and because consistent use of the book will wear it out. Grammar and punctuation won't be worn out, but reviewing the rules and reasons for the rules is something that should be constantly studied and applied.

I met a man many years ago who had decided to write a book about his experiences about healing himself using the energy of the earth. He had been unable to walk at all and had crawled out into the back yard to lie on the grass in the sun and wait to die. After several hours of lying there, when it got dark, he got up and stumbled back into the house. He hadn't died but he did feel better. He repeated the same process every day until soon he was able to walk out and sit on the ground to meditate and walk back into the house without a walker, cane, or other assistive device. He was on his way to be healed.

What struck me wasn't his story of how he healed himself but what he told me about wanting to write about his experiences. "My grammar was rusted beyond use and school was too many decades behind me to remember what I had learned, so I hired a teacher to teach me the rules of grammar and sentence construction. It took a long time, but by the end of it, I diagrammed complex sentences and my grammar was flawless." I asked him if it was worth it just to write his story and he said, "Yes, of course it was. I want everyone to understand me."

That's what grammar and punctuation are all about, rules that everyone takes for granted, but not when they're reading. They may not be good at spelling, but they know when something doesn't look right. The lazy reader will keep on reading and the rest will look up the word to find out how the word is spelled.

We live in a world of convenience where text messages (c u ltr = I will see you later) are commonplace and the people who write them too lazy or far too busy and important to write it all out. Well, there is the whole issue of going over the text message limit on the cell phone, but people who write more than a 1000 text messages a day aren't worried about limits, just making things easy.

While we can understand, after a fashion, such shorthand, and shorthand is great for taking dictation when someone speaks quickly or jotting down notes that are written out later, grammar and punctuation should not be optional.

Grammar and punctuation rules were written in a time when understanding each other was paramount and having a common ground, especially for foreigners learning a new language, made communication much easier. English is hard enough to learn because it is a polyglot of words borrowed from other languages, but grammar and punctuation in writing make understanding the writers' meanings much easier.

Doing things the easy way seems the best way to go, but when it comes to writing, expressing oneself clearly and concisely is more important than ignoring punctuation and grammar rules because it's a matter of preference. I prefer not to read books that can't follow the simple rules of subject, verb, and predicate with the requisite period at the end and commas used where appropriate so I don't have to read and reread the sentence a dozen times to figure out what the writer is saying. A writer whose preference is for ignoring the rules that make communication rich and expressive -- and understandable -- will not get my hard earned money for their failed attempts to communicate or entertain, but they will get a review that will let everyone else know to avoid them as if they have the plague -- the same plague that struck those working on the Tower of Babel when the common language was suspended and no one understood what anyone else said. It put an end to the building of the tower and the beginning of setting down common rules so that a meeting of minds would occur and people would be able to communicate and understand each other.

As far as I am concerned, I prefer not to have to work that hard to understand a writer's story. I'd rather laugh, cry, get angry, or be entertained and informed. That won't happen if the rules are broken because it's a good day to leave out verbs or periods and punctuation.

Just so you know, yes, I am the person who called a local radio station and told the manager that it was FEWER commercials and not LESS commercials.

Laughter is the only medicine

What cheers you up the most when life gets you down?


Any number of things. I have great friends who know me well enough to say just the right thing to make me smile and laugh out loud. I have a brother who never fails to make me laugh because he's such an idiot. That's the Mushroom. Passages in books cheer me up and certain movies bring me right out of the horse latitudes in no time flat, especially if there dancing and singing are involved. And then there are times like last night that something that was meant to be serious makes me laugh.

Last night someone told me that he was sorry things didn't work out and that what we hoped didn't happen, but it was because we couldn't seem to communicate. I couldn't help myself. I had to laugh, really laugh, laugh so hard I nearly wet myself. Couldn't seem to communicate. When I shared it with a really good friend, she made me laugh even harder.

"Communicate? When did he TRY to communicate with you? Was he attempting telepathy? Because he wasn't writing and he wasn't calling and he wasn't visiting."

I guess that was the couldn't seem part of the communication. I didn't have my receiver turned on when he was transmitting Morse code or telepathy. I was too busy getting on with my life. Working, reading, eating, sleeping, you know, the usual things that take up the hours I wasn't sitting by the phone or the computer or the door in case he popped up. Definitely laughable.

That's the thing about communication. When someone wants an excuse why things don't work out or how you could be angry with them, they use lack of communication. That is the second time this week someone has pulled the communication card on me, and Mercury doesn't go retrograde until next Friday, on August 20th. She asked why I was angry with her and had cut her out of my life like a malignant cancer, so I told her. Not all of it, just enough to let her know there were reasons I wanted nothing more to do with her. I hit the big points, the highlights, and she came back with, "But what did I do?"

Uh, weren't you paying attention? I listed a few more and she came back with, "That doesn't have anything to do with me. What did I do?" I realized at that moment, that even though I was communicating she wasn't paying attention. She was trying to suck me back in. I ended the conversation at that point. I was done. And when I'm done, that's it. There's no going back.

Communication isn't difficult. You open your mouth and speak, clearly and plainly. You carefully type out an email using simple words and ideas. You pick up a phone and speak without shouting or letting the emotions take over, keeping to the subject and stating the case simply.

I'm a writer. I communicate for a living and yet there are some people who cannot seem to tune in and pay attention, like one of my supervisors. I flagged an operative report and used the work number, job number, doctor's name and date of dictation. She emailed back and asked me which dictation it was. I responded with the same information again and added the patient's name. She emailed again. "Oh, that one has already gone back to the hospital. If you had just let me know a few minutes earlier." Now that was laughable. We'd been emailing for over 30 minutes. Well, it took her 30 minutes to figure out which report I had flagged, even though I had added flagged the report electronically as well as manually.

There are times when nothing seems to go right and the anger boils up like lava, and then something completely incongruous will happen and make me laugh and I can't hold onto the anger. Usually, it's someone farting in a serious situation, like while they're saying their wedding vows or tooting while walking down the aisle or shaking hands with the mayor. Let's face it. Farts during any occasion are funny and everyone laughs no matter how hard they try to hold it in, except if the farter is female and mortified beyond words. The red face is a dead giveaway.

That is all. Disperse.

Tarot: A sword divides past and present

The past and the present are tricky. Spend too much time in the past and waste the present. Spend too much time dealing with the present and ignoring the lessons and experiences of the past and life becomes one-dimensional. There has to be a balance, but how do we find that balance?

Today was an unbalanced day for me, but I finally managed to get it together and concentrate on today's tarot post. I am not surprised that Mercury is in retrograde because communications have been on the fritz. It was so much easier in the past, but it's best not to dwell in the past and risk losing what is available in the present, although it's nice to have the option. Or is it?



The Queen of Cups is intensely sensitive to others' feelings and can seem like she's reading their minds. In a way, she is a mind reader because she pays attention to the details. Don't let her romantic looks and the far away look in her eyes fool you. She is focused on a dream and, although she seems slightly tragic and moody, thinking about ill fated princesses in fairy tales, she is deeply concerned for the welfare of others. That is what gives her insight. She has been down those roads and knows what it feels like to be poor, in pain, loved and lost. She has done and felt it all.

The Queen of Cups' heart is engaged with deep concern for loved ones and her own emotional well being. She knows that things aren't perfect, but sees the sensual beauty of the life around her. Her message is simple: Look to the needs of the heart. Don't be bewitched or swayed by emotion and don't let emotion overshadow the truth or reality until the truth is no longer visible.

It's one thing to be concerned about people and another to be so arrogant and controlling that people are no longer allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. That is how people learn, but making mistakes and fixing them. It's a heady feeling playing god/dess, but it's not so heady for those who are smothered by such overly attentive care. Remember the butterfly struggling out of its cocoon. Help it and it dies. Let it struggle and it will be strong enough to feed itself and live to procreate.



In the garden of childhood, before Pandora came with her mysterious box full of hardship, woe and illness, children played in verdant fields and filled their cups with flowers and animals. It was an enchanted time. In the foreground of the Six of Cups is a cat. It is clearer and more real than the idyllic scene behind it. The cat is the present and the happy, laughing children are the past, a memory of happy times.

Memories are tricky. Memories can evoke happiness, warmth and security when life was young and innocent, inspiring us to share the nostalgic, romanticized remembrance of things past. Too much time spent reliving and remembering the past can cause profound sadness and disappointment with the current situation, fraught with the ills and evils that flew out of Pandora's chest of gifts for mankind. In memory, the past is always better than what is available now, but was it so wonderful? Were things so much better? Were there not problems to solve and people and situations that broke the heart?

The Six of Cups reminds us to pick and choose our memories careful and remember that time and distance, and current desires, have a tendency to color the past in soft, water washed colors. The way to deal with the past is to remember the good, accept the bad without question and balance it all with the needs of the present, use logic and reality to show the best path forward. If the past controls all actions, the path will never be clear and life will slip out of control. It's a matter of balance. Isn't it always?



A sharp sword cut through the Gordian knot and solved a riddle; it was the keen edge of intellect and the rational mind, the sign of the Ace of Swords. But with power comes danger. The Sword of Truth will cut through the toughest problems with ease. It is the tool of the complex mind and the mind is the key to controlling reality.

The Ace of Swords is the symbol of communication and the weapon of communication are words, words that can hurt as well as heal. The sword bring the gift of thought, a gift that grants the ability to see the world clearly, communicate effectively and create a happy and healthy environment, a stable reality. Sharp words spoken with unguarded thought can destroy it all. A clever wit is a blessing, but it can be a curse if it is used to hurt or destroy. With the Ace of Swords, the Sword of Truth confers the desire for honesty, and that is its guard and guide in order to know where and how to strike. It's in your hands.

* * *

A man sits at a bar drinking a glass of soda. He doesn't drink alcohol because he likes to remain in control. His world is about to spin out of control.

A group of men come up to him and address him but name. He doesn't know them and it turns out they don't know him. They've made a mistake. Someone with the same name is scheduled to appear and give a talk, but no one knows what he looks like. It's a subject with which he is familiar, and speaking to the group will make it possible to drag himself away from the edge of the abyss of despair and depression. He agrees to talk to the group and has such a good time an idea occurs to him.

His name is common and a quick Google search provides tens of thousands of men with the same name, many of whom are the same age, so why not try on their lives for a while, see what it's like had another path been chosen, and possibly find a life that makes him happier than his own. Research will provide enough background and he can relive his youth when anything in the world was possible before he chose the wrong path and ended up miserable and trapped in a marriage with a wife who doesn't respect him and controls his actions. He had a chance at love, but waited too long to take it. If he can't have love, he might as well have a little adventure . . . as long as no one gets hurt.

No doubt, my mood affects my creative vision today, but it happens. Best not to dwell on it. I still have next week and three new cards to tempt the muse. Where will the muse take you with these cards?

Tarot -- Gemini Choices

I drew the cards for today's post on Monday night. I had no particular question in mind, just wanted to know what the future had in store. If you find these readings seem to be about you, they probably are, or maybe you see something of yourself and your situation in them. After all, we are all connected. A leaf to one person is a road map of the future to another. It's all in how you look at things.



The Knight of Swords, like all of the knights, embody the element of fire as well as their own element, in this case the element of air associated with swords. In a sense, the Knight of Swords is all about hot air, or you could say that air increases the intensity of the fire, as oxygen is needed to keep a fire burning.

The knight's steed is ready for action and so it seems is the knight with his sword upraised and shining in the sun, but look closer. He holds the steed in check, eyes front, focused on what's ahead with no thought of what is behind him. An owl flies above, the symbol of Athena/Minerva, her familiar, a symbol of wisdom. The Knight of Swords, as all of the knights, is ruled by intellect, more so because the swords symbolize the element of air that governs inspiration and intellect. The knight is focused, committed to the future. He does not look behind. He knows what lies ahead and exactly how he will deal with it. He is single-minded in pursuit, certain of his goal, but he misses what is going on around him, ignoring and being insensitive to those who could and would help him if he doesn't stop in his relentless drive in pursuit of his quarry/goal. He is in danger of moving ahead without thinking of the consequences.

Associated with the astrological sign of Gemini, the Knight of Swords can be equally as foolhardy as he can be wise and courageous, depending on which way the wind blows and which side of the bed he gets out on.



The Seven of Pentacles shows a woman with a basket assessing the harvest. A squirrel in the tree is about to make off with one of the pentacles and sheep graze placidly nearby. The woman has worked hard to help this tree bear fruit, but, instead of climbing the ladder to harvest the fruit, she's already contemplating what she will do with her harvest. Will she bake them into a pie? Preserve them for the future? Call all her friends for a feast? How much money would she gain by selling the fruit so she can plant more trees, grow more fruit and plant an orchard that will necessitate hiring workers to nurture and harvest the fruit so she can buy a bigger house, fancy clothes and spend her twilight years in luxury? She is counting her pentacles before they are harvested and that usually ends up being less successful than the dreams conjured at the sight of a job not yet done.

It took a lot of hard work to sow the seeds, watch over the tree, nurture and protect it from nature's wrath and changeable weather and to bring it to this point, but the job's not done until the fruit is harvested and the best use of its produce is made. It's not enough to do half the work when there is still so much left to do. The job isn't over until the last fruit is picked and the tree made ready for the long sleep of winter. There is no time to daydream and wonder what if? when there is work still to be done.



In older decks, The Lovers were drawn as Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and symbolized choices. In the Gilded Tarot deck, the couple are clothed, more or less, not standing apart, together, grounded in the earth and surrounded by the waters of change. The warrior lifts his paramour up, but she isn't looking at him; she looks upward towards the heavens, jubilant and safe in the warriors arms. Although it would seem from the name of the card and the symbolism that this card is about romance and love, it's really about partnership and communication and the choices we make.

In the background, dolphins leap playfully around the couple. Dolphins are creatures of the water and the air, so it's no surprise that The Lovers has a connection to Gemini. Gemini is a continuing theme in today's cards, Gemini of the dual nature and double meaning. Dolphins are also very intelligent creatures and in Celtic mythology the dolphin is a symbol of good luck, as it is in many traditions. Sailors saw dolphins playing off the bow of their ship as a good omen of clear sailing and calm waters and if a sailor went overboard, a dolphin would rescue and guide him to safety. The ancient Celts viewed the dolphin as a embodiment of prosperity and guidance, a sign that trouble and strife and the old life had passed away and a new life was dawning. The Chinese believed the dolphin to be tangible proof of the forces of yin and yang, the symbol of harmony, the dream and the world of reality.

The very nature of the bond between warrior and maiden is one of joy and excitement. The Lovers are connected but still able to reach for the sky, grounded firmly and surrounded by water so if they fall they won't get hurt. The warrior is focused on the maiden, supporting her, holding her hand, but not holding her back. He knows she will always come back to him because he is her stable support, her solid foundation, her reliable rock. They are connected and completely in tune with each other. As in older decks, they have made a choice to move forward and not to stagnate. They choose to push away from the safety of the shore to explore what the world has to offer, to reach for more, certain that no matter what happens they can face it together and, if they are separated, they will be guided toward safety.

When taken altogether, the theme is one of choices. There is work to be done, a job to find, a world to conquer, but it's not advisable to focus on one single goal, one aspect of the future. There are other things to consider. Among the choices offered, don't take the first one or the one that will provide immediate reward, but consider the options. Go for the bliss. What at first seems like a good idea may turn out just to be the safe choice, the expedient option. It's not always about the money or clinging to the same old patterns. Sometimes it is better to reach out and find what will provide the most happiness and joy in the task and the end result. What may not pay well at first could well end up nourishing not only the body, but the mind and soul. Consider all the options before making a choice, but don't waste the time dreaming without moving forward. Don't hold the reins too tightly or forget to look around. Keep the mind open, the spirit willing and don't forget that in order to get to the harvest the ladder must be climbed.

Letting one choice overshadow everything else will blind you to the other options. To quote Barbara Moore, "...a career decision with only an intellectual [or financial] appeal or a home opportunity with decadent amenities may not be the best choice in the long run."