Both A2K and the world it reflects are impoverished by her death.
Please give her family my condolences.
She was quite the lady and will be missed by many. The sincere and loving tributes to her on this thread are a reflection of who she was and how she stood.
I know this...wherever she has gone, I hope they have their ducks in a row there or she is probably already organizing a few comittees to improve things.
My condolences to her family and friends and God Bless, Mama, I'm sure where you are now the air is clean and you can get around in a way that matches and keeps up with your wonderful free spirit.
Many thanks for rounding those up, Blatham!
blatham, Thanks for sharing those from old friends.
jjorge*197982* wrote:
.... and to all the bright, enfuriating, passionate, argumentative, witty, and wonderful members of A2K, while you are still alive and can read my words..
Thank you, jjorge, for the poems and to blatham for the abuzz responses.
and hi, CI and all.
love to all reading this and flowers in our minds from all of us to mamajuana.
I felt exactly the same way as Jorge. Whenever a friend just... disappears... the first thought after the shock wears off is, Hey, Wait a minute, I didn't tell you how much you were loved and appreciated. You want to rush out and say to everyone you know, In case I don't get a chance to say this later, You're TERRIFIC!
Good point, Tartar. I think most of us are guilty of not expressing our feelings of love and affection to the folks we care about. I've already lost several close friends last year, and I'm sure they become a normal occurance as we age. I wonder why we don't express our feelings?
Mamajuana and I had disagreements, but they were friendly, more like discussions. I enjoyed her very much and will miss her a lot. I enjoy the rest of you here and on abuzz too. Lets keep it friendly, after all, our points are only differences, not animosities.
Exactly, Olen. Rather strange, I was thinking of you when I read about Wesley Clark. As I understand it, Mamajuana was frequently in the political arena. I wish that I had known her a little better, but politics is simply not my thing.
Just saw this for the first time just now. I am speechless. Like so many others, I knew Mama from Abuzz originally. A fiery, feisty lady, deeply committed to decency and fearless in the face of ill-mannered opposition.
She will be missed.
Letty: I am very flattered to know that you thought of me. There was another lady, like mamajuana, that I used to enjoy discussions with, and she passed away suddenly. We became good pen friends, writing about her protesting the Vietnam war. I was against her doing it, but backing up her right to do it. Her name was Mary Pope.
What a wit that lady was, Olen. Odd that you should bring up Mary..she died on my birthday..and chastised himself for his cultural abyss.
Those of you who still drop in Abuzz occasionally may be interested to know that the Mary Pope memorial thread was revived recently. She is still on many people's minds. I suspect the same will be true of Mama Juana.
Thank you for the Mary Pope info.
I got to know Mamajuana on Abuzz, and have always enjoyed her passion and friendly feistiness. I'm so sorry to hear she passed.
For mamaj's daughter--
In our A2K forum, we are enabled to choose avatars and quotes to signify how we perceive ourselves, how we'd like others to perceive us, or what we want brought to mind when our posts appear on the forum.
I was reading before bed last night in a rather voluminous short story and poetry book I've had since college, and turned to a page that brought mamajuana crashing back into the forefront of my mind.
About a month, maybe longer ago, mamajuana and I had enjoyed a biting, funny exchange about how members really looked, and how they chose to portray themselves with their avatars. I argued with mama that she was a young, vital woman with long, black, straight hair. A strong-minded 60's activist. She argued that she would be gray, if it weren't for her brown dye job--but she couldn't convince me. Her words were fresh, and her voice was strong. We had fun arguing the point. She threatened to send me pictures, proving her age--and I said no picture she could send me would erase who she really was to me.
Her latest choice of quotes was: "I used to be young and blond; the world is too much with me."
For some reason the last part of her quote piqued some vague memory with me, but I didn't place it until last night.
I wanted you to know her quote, and what she was conveying to us.
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreath'd horn.
--William Wordsworth.
She will not be easily forgotten. And, as sad as it is, I'm glad.
Sofia
Sofia, such a beautiful tribute to MamaJ from your generous heart.
---BumbleBeeBoogie
