Adulting

From the Tarot of the Absurd, the Ten of Sticks; from the Post Psychedelic Cyberpunk deck, Maze:

This card should be called 'adulting.' If we mature into responsible people with duties and obligations, we'll all have those days when life seems overwhelming. Requests and demands can seem like a list we never make a dent in: find, fix, pay, buy, solve, contact, clean, create, finish, etc. The Maze card indicates that lost feeling, when confusion, frustration and exhaustion leave us thinking there is no way out. But is this true? The to-do list might be real enough, but is it possible to delegate, ask for help or leave some things undone until there is less to do? Can we operate from needs rather than expectations?

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem. —Theodore Isaac Rubin

Unpublicized Compassion

The Queen of Cups is the card chosen today from the Millennium 2000 Tarot:

Folchi chose Marilyn Monroe to portray this court card.  Marilyn grew up in a series of foster homes as a result of having no father and a mentally unstable mother.  She managed to marry three different times in her short life and endured two miscarriages.  The media either portrayed her as a sex symbol or an ill-tempered, demanding star.  Yet Marilyn had a compassionate, private side that the public rarely knew about.  For instance, jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald attributes much of her success to Monroe.  Marilyn used her influence to get Ella a gig at a very popular nightclub, telling the owner she would sit at a front table every night.  With her presence there and Ella's amazing vocals, the press went crazy, and Fitzgerald's career was off to a roaring start.  In her last interview, Monroe pleaded with the reporter to use the following quote: "What I really want to say: That what the world really needs is a real feeling of kinship. Everybody: stars, laborers, Negroes, Jews, Arabs. We are all brothers. Please don’t make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe."  If I want others to think of me as kind and loving, I need to live this way instead of just extolling the virtues of such a life.

     From the Post Psychedelic Cyberpunk deck this morning comes "The Maze:"

There are times I wish I had such a visual aid for my life.  There would be a red star proclaiming, "You are HERE," and a purple line showing how to navigate all the twists and turns (and avoid the dead ends) to get to my goal.  But then I look back on my life, and remember all the unexpected adventures I've had so far from those twists and turns, and all the wonderful people I've met.  While there are some things I might like to change - such as any pain or sadness I caused - maybe having a Google map of my life wouldn't be such a great idea after all...