Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh

Category: Sylvanians – The illustrated stories.

Episodic stories about the Sylvanians, my miniature figures, living in Avonlea, a fictional suburban town somewhere in the western hemisphere.

  • Carpe Diem, Ladies and Gentlemen! Enjoy the Moment!

    image (1)

    It’s a dewy one Saturday morning after the nightly rain that cooled off the fiery flame of the sun. Thanks to the abundance of flora in Avonlea, the process of transpiration by which leaves of plants release moisture  into the air that results in rain on earth, the land of Avonlea is hardly parched, and the atmosphere always fresh and fragrant. That is why Helen induced her husband Priam to move to Avonlea a year ago from Roanoke, where humidity and mosquitoes ruled in autocracy; it was an unsavory place to live, let alone to start a family. The rumor had it that the nondescript town was later set ablaze and ravaged by a man driven to madness by such a torid ambience of the toil. In the background of all this, Helen cannot be happier than now, while listening to one of her repertoires, “Downtown” by Petula Clark on her iphone. In fact, she feels as if she and her George were flitting on her aerial bicycle in the blue sky.

    image

    Meanwhile, Sally and Bonnie are cooing Alfred, a  baby son of their neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Redfox who are on holiday  to Prince Edward Island. Their vivacious daughter Judy is at a parochial summer camp in Thousand Silvers. The Redfoxes are scheduled to return home tomorrow afternoon, so it’s not too much of onerous task the two ladies have to tackle, straining themselves over how to pacify a crying baby, what to do in case he becomes sick out of the blue, and when to change his diapers, etc. Fortunately, Alfred is so mildly-tempered and easy to take care of in the bargain that it is actually a pleasure attending to the toddler without feeling stressful. Sally ponders if such equilibrium in temperament would be a manifestation of solidification of genetic composition. In a minute, Sally and Bonnie are going to take Alfred out for their usual morning promenade.

    photo

    “Look, Bonnie. Alfred’s got a cute mole on the right cleft of his lips! So adorable! I wish I had it too!” “Let me see. Hmmm… I had not noticed it until you told me so. Don’t you know that his sister Judy’s got the same mole on the left cleft of her lips? And so does Mr. Redfox? It seems to be a genetic trait of the family. Definitely. Funny that a man like him has got it, while his wife has dimples. But then the dimples are more precious and feminine and more desirable than a mole, no?” In fact, Bonnie secretly wishes that she would have the same attractive dimples around the corners of her lips that would make her face prettier and perkier. But it is just one of those innocent, muliebral wishes of  a lady who doesn’t think that she’s pretty enough to be wooed and sought after. But then who can blame Bonnie for vanity when a gentleman likes a pretty lady? But let us put all the convoluted thoughts and tangled emotions and untamed emotions aside for this bright Saturday fragrant with fresh petrichor. Forget all the worries just for Today and Tomorrow, which is Official Holy Rest Day, and let’s just pretend to have million dollars in our bank accounts for the weekend.

    0682e26f337825b366e8e3e3e0003ad1--folk-disc-golf

  • Eleusinian Craft of Lady Alchemist

    IMG_3985She writes, and speaks to a soul in many sorts of music. She sometimes invokes inspirations from her favorite Muses: Kalliope for epic poetry; Clio for history; and Euterpe for lyric poetry. In fact, she feels most ecstatic when the divine inspirations become one with her body and soul creating the ineffable rapture of the body and elevating the excitement of the soul in zenith. She is no less a dilettante of amateur music aficionado and an apprentice of alchemy of literature and history than Seraphina by herself.

    She also has a secret: that she practices her secondhand acoustic guitar she bought from a traveling troubadour who with his finely cultivated artfulness of sweet talking laced with a streak of medieval chivalry, tempted her to possess it three years ago at a reasonable price of $100. And it turned out that the crafty troubadour was a nice sort of reprobate who could make your otherwise bleak life a bit more cheerful and jovial to live because Seraphina loved the guitar at first blush and has played it since the farewell of the sportive wayfarer.

    IMG_4048

    Seraphina is an Aquarius, and therefore an independent beauty. She is an autodidact and is at best when she’s least self-conscious and left alone. She has been teaching herself to play the guitar in hope of playing the songs she loves flawlessly by changing the chords swiftly in keeping up with the rhythms. One of her repertoires for her guitar practicing is “As Tears Go By” by Rolling Stones – not the version of Marianne Faithful – It is another secret that Seraphina sings the song while playing the guitar in her room, and she loves the moment of doing it because she feels like a Jane Birkin or a Joni Mitchell or a Francois Hardy.

    Kurt Vonnegut once said, “To practice any form of art, however good or bad, is to make your soul grow, so do it.” In accordance with such supportive tenet of art, Seraphina thinks that it’s all about unlocking the artist from within. Surely, not everyone of us can’t make our names marked in the world, but then each one of us is something of a creator of a life. In her ideal firmament, being an amateur artist means being able to create her own artistic world unsullied by the material demands of life that often yield myriads of existential vertigo. But then who would know what might bring Seraphina into changing her weltanschauung in future? After all, we think we know what we are, but know not what we may be. In the brevity of life, Seraphina thinks to herself, ‘Sweets to the sweet: Farewell to worries!’

    thanks-for-reading-Rok-Hardware

     

  • Walk like Poet Henry David Thoreau!

    photo (1)
    Sally, the Thinker

    “Give me a box of bonbons and a pouch of fruit candy assorted with gummy worms to sweeten my vapid imaginations! Oh, and a cup of Hazelnut coffee with a little bit of half-and-half to spark up my dormant spirit that resists to awake after a day-off.” Sally was hoping to make a new Monday as vivacious and jovial as possible, so she decided to meet with her lovely alter ego Bonnie for brisk morning sauntering. Yes, sauntering. Or even perambulating, which in fact reminded her of a baby perambulator.

    “Hi, Sally!” Bonnie’s euphonious soprano voice manifested her presence like a spirit conjured up by a magician in an esoteric ancient language. Sally saw her dear friend approaching her from a distance waving effervescently at her with genuine smile. ” Oh, Dear. You look a bit pale… Have you eaten well? And please tell me not you are in a diet because you need it not.” Bonnie was concerned about a noticeable difference in Sally’s outward view: she looked thinner than before, and it did not look becoming to Sally. No, it was not out of that cardinal jealousy of womankind that knew neither friendship nor truth. In the eye of Bonnie, Sally looked prettiest with her round cheeks and dimpled elbows.

    photo (2)

    “No, I am not on a diet, but I just did not have any appetite… I like walking than eating! Well, let’s call it our “sauntering” as the great poet Henry David Thoreau defined. Do you know Thoreau himself was an aumbulater nascitur non fit? He was an avid walker who used to spend about two hours walking in nature. His study was out of doors like his poet pal William Wordsworth.” “Oh, I did not know it, Sally. I only know that Thoreau was a great naturalist poet and died from consumption. “Yes, Bonnie. That too was right. Soon both adorable ladies were embarking on their ritualistic morning sauntering along the Avenues of trees and flowers with larks and bluetits vivaciously chirping and tweeting, all in nature’s symphony that could make you forgive your foes and love humankind at least for that pristine moment of pleasure.

    photo
    Bonnie, La Bonne amie

    Thoreau was right: the act of sauntering in nature would blot out the strains and cares of contemporary life and anesthetize your weary body and minds against the strains of everyday life. It’s absolute freedom from all worldly engagement. Like Thoreau, Sally thought that sauntering was not an exercise but a kind of enterprise, an adventure of a day that invigorated her spirit and mind. And Sally was hoping that Bonnie would share her pleasure of appreciating the symphony of nature. “You know Thoreau was something of an eccentric genius,” Sally decided to add some tidbit of gossip on the poet. “Oh, really? How so? ” Bonnie seemed intrigued.  “Well, he never went to church but believed in God; did not marry, nor did he cast vote, nor did he pay taxes! But this very individuality endowed him with a crown of literary ascendancy, I think.” “How could he not pay his due taxes as it’s his sacrosanct duty and responsibility as a citizen? You know what, Sally? That’s why I do not like any of these intellectuals who put ideas before their civic duties and personal responsibilities.”

    Bonnie’s truculent remark was a bit startling aberration of her usual diplomatic modus operandi of expressing her opinion. But come to think of it, she couldn’t agree more with her friend about the duplicity of so-called the intellectuals, the new ecclesiastical estate of our modern society. And Sally was inwardly glad to have a friend as thoughtful and truthful as Bonnie. But still, Sally wanted to spare Thoreau from the supercilious learned elites.

    1-210

    The ante meridian sun was suavely sunny in the fiercely blue sky that would remind you of the celestial garb of the Virgin Mary in Rembrandt’s paintings.  The Italians would call the color “azure,” and they were good at making the pigment for Renaissance painters who raved about its lucidity and vivacity of the exquisite hue. And the fragrant breeze was a blessing of the beautiful Titan-goddess Aura for their friendship bound by mutual understanding and love of history and literature. As the two good friends were continuing to enjoy their sauntering in nature, it seemed right that without even going to church on Sundays, you could find the evidence of the Creator in awe of nature’s beauty and feel the presence of the existence just as Thoreau and the late Pope John Paul Second had felt and expressed.

    hqdefault

  • Lunchtime at Snoopy Cafe

    IMG_3943

    A new cafe is opened in Avonlea. “Snoopy Cafe” is the name of the venue selected by Ms. Katherine Cookson, the propriteriotess of great culinary skills and business acumen originally from Dublin, Ireland. Before opening up Snoopy Cafe, Ms. Cookson used to work as a head manageress at a popular pub called, “Irish Spring” in New York City for thirty good years. With her lifetime saving and investment from stocks she has sagaciously sold when the market trend was very favorable to her, Ms. Cookson was able to start her own business in her own accord. And voila! Since the opening of the cafe two weeks ago, it has been bustling with virtually all the residents of the town as well as customers from the neighboring cities who have become her regular customers hooked on her savory food made on premises on a daily basis served at affordable prices ranging from $6.50 to $20.00 for lunch and dinner menus.

    IMG_3954

    The cafe is needless to say what a cafe should be like in terms of the quality of food it serves to customers at prices that do not break their banks and its atmosphere; i.e., whether it has a pleasant, comfy ambience that attracts both  sensitive souls who delve into reading and writing with coffee or tea and gregarious spirits who like to confabulate with their ilks or friends on things interesting to them.  That is to say, Snoopy Cafe can become your elbow room during lunchtime out of the stuffy offices to refresh your minds or at dinnertime when you want to stop by to compose your stress-overwhelmed spirits, or to meet with your select few to get together.

    IMG_3946

    Sally has become one of the regular customers of Snoopy Cafe since the last Monday lunchtime when she accidently found out the existence of this new cafe; actually she had heard about it through the grapevine at the office, but never bothered to try it on her own because being painfully shy and a habit of creature, she had no auspicious audacity to go there by herself and check it out. Then – maybe it’s because of the beautiful weather or her acquisition of a new ipad her aunt Mary had bought for her that emboldened her caged spirit- at one Monday lunchtime, Sally finally recognized the store sign of the cafe while waiting for a green light to cross the street. “So there is that popular cafe… Maybe I can try it today.” So the history of her elbow room has begun.

    IMG_3956Aura Magoo whose husband owns and operates a seven-eleven type of convenient store nearby stops by at the cafe with her new friend Bonnie Poodle, who is opening a new French bistro at the end of the month with the trust fund bequeathed to her by her deceased paternal grandmother in France.So Bonnie wants to share her excitement for her impending new entrepreneurship for the first time. Aura, the prettiest lady in the town, is in fact secretly jealousy of Bonnie’s financial and social independence as a single woman because she has to rely on her husband’s (named Zeus) monthly allowances to her for tending household and other expenses.  Of course, she would not manifest her true feelings on the outside because she accepts it as a fact of life which she has to bear  with smile, now that she has married with three children named “Apollo, Artemis “Mina”, and Hercules “Herk.” All this complex of emotions and feelings while having a bowl of veggie salad and listening to Bonni’s rhapsodizing about her imminent business enterprise is on the brink of manifestation on Aura’s pretty face, but she manages to quell it by forcing herself to turn to the delicacy of the salad with a cup of red tea, her favorite cup of tea.

    IMG_3957Mary is taking a repose from her popcorn operation, opting for a Lunchtime Pick-Me-Up Sundae at the prices of $3.00 as a lunch special, instead of a meal set. Mary has a sweet teeth and loves to appreciate quality sweets regardless of calories, for calculation of calories at every eating time is thought ridiculously fastidious to her. After all, every edible element has calories, and just because you live on greens or proteins, it does not guarantee you optimal health, let alone svelte body. As one of the ancient epithets inscribed on the wall of the Oracle of Delphi, “Nothing in Excess” should be Rosetta Key to healthy body, beautiful body, and sound mind. In other words, if you do everything you do in moderation, you will never be led astray.

    IMG_3958While having her afternoon pick-me-up, Mary is joined by Brenda Beaver, wife of Randy Beaver, who has just lost a job as a head mechanic at “Troika Auto Body Shop” in the city as the shop went bankrupt three months ago. Thanks to his long years with the shop over ten years, Randy has been receiving his unemployment benefits that go straight to this household which has also been supported by Brenda’s income earned from her cleaning service on request. Randy has been thinking about his and his family’s future seriously but doesn’t let it shown lest he should lose confidence and hope. But his wife Brenda knows it all and understands his pathos, so she acts like she does not know any trouble in the world to keep up with Randy’s confidence as well as hers, for they have Betty and Billy, their apples of the eyes. Since Mary knows Brenda’s present family circumstances, she treats her with a swell luch of homemade-style spaghetti, one of many Mrs. Cook’s signature dishes.

    IMG_3962

    Snoopy Cafe  latently serves as an agit in which you can read and write however long you may like without ordering any more than what you want – say, a cup of black coffee or tea only – amid Baroque or Classical music or Pop-Classic music, such as any piano pieces of much written and played by Richard  Clayderman. Viewed in this light, Snoopy Cafe is meant to be a niche for any timid soul wandering desperately to rest the weary soul with good lite food just to refresh the soul for the other half of the day to make it a grand finale. Moreover, there are no vagrants importuning to patrons of the cafe, menacing money  with offish attitudes in uncivilized manners, for even though tramps are not to be despised, neither are their present abject conditions, such depravity does not/should not confer on them right of rudeness, incivility, and solicitation without a sense of civil obedience and societal codes of conducts that are essential to be citizens with money or not, all of which is overlooked for the sake of liberal/libertine ideology that gives no regard for societal values so crucial to the communal life. And all of the customers of the cafe want to keep their new elbow rooms untainted by such political ideology that does not care for the importance of civility in the name of equality.

    img-thing

     

    저장

  • The Avonlea Story – Fruits, Cakes, and Popcorn

    IMG_3913

    Uncle Willie has recently started his private enterprise of selling organic fruits from his at affordable prices in the town of Avonlea. A proud proprietor of his new business venture, Willie’s business prospect is full of auspicious anticipations of making high profit; his business motto is “Honesty makes best policy,” which is a quotation from Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. Also, Uncle Willie has adopted a business principle of Sam Walton, the founder of “Walmart” who became a business tycoon by means of a mass sale at everyday low prices. But above all this business blueprint for his new enterprise of fruit wagon, Wille’s goodness of heart and simplicity of character, not to speak of his freshy organic fruits picked up from his farm in Green Gable, is the mainstay of his economic and social activities. With his innate diligence, the fruit wagon opens from 8:00 am to 7:00 PM, Mondays to Saturdays at 113 Kingsbridge Street nearby Elysian Park. The fruits are so fresh and scrumptious that you will always come back for more.

    IMG_3875

    The news that his fruits being tested like Ambrosia of Mount Olympus traveled fast all over the town. It’s the case of great power of the grape vine, especially when it is stirred up by women. Brenda Beaver took her daughter Betty last Monday to Uncle Willie’s fruit wagon to to see if she could be a regular customer of his establishment because Betty’s priority was to take utmost care of the health of her family. And Voila! It’s no surprise to see Betty enthralled by the pretty sight of her favorite fruits that looked all lovely to her beady eyes: Grapes, Bananas, Apples, Melons, and so forth… Betty wanted all, but in accordance with her family motto of “Moderation is a Virtue,” she ended up choosing a melon, a bundle of bananas, and an orange.  Her mother Brenda encountered Laura Collie, the co-owner of the “Bonjour Cake Shop” with her husband Paul Collie in the town, who also came to check the new wagon establishment. Of course, the housewives of Avonlea raved about the freshness and affordability of Uncle Willie’s organic fruits, which meant that his business success was a foregone conclusion.

    IMG_3892The “Bonjour Cake Shop”is also a new enterprise in Avonlea; Operated by Paul and Laura Collie originally from Scotland, the cake shop has also been busy with newly acquainted customers in the town who come back to taste the homemade cakes for all occasions. The cakes are all made by Laura, who is no only a fine seamstress but also a lovely patissier who learned the art of cakes by working at the famed Patisserie Valerie in London in her maidenhood. In fact, making cakes and cookies has been Laura’s true passion because that’s what she really likes; however, she first had to deprecate her love of making cakes to support her family along with her husband Paul in a new land by working as a highly skilled seamstress. So when she and Paul (who was employed as an assistant manager at a supermarket) saved enough funds to start their own private business, they chose to open a cake shop without hesitation. Surely, Laura’s spirit was elevated when she and Paul signed the contract for the shop at a real estate agent’s office a month ago.

    IMG_3904Laura’s cakes are of supreme quality, second to none in comparison with the cakes of  Patisserie Valerie or Laduree or Pierre Herme because first of all, the cakes are all made fresh by Laura herself whose culinary skills are divine. Besides, she makes all her cakes with utmost care for authentic pleasure that can make her customers truly happy when they taste her cakes. In fact, it’s not merely a kind of eatery but a creation of art that provides people with genuine pleasure of life. Viktor E. Frankl, the founder of Logotherapy attests to this principle by telling us that a moment of pleasure, such as from listening to our favorite piece of music, doing things we enjoy, or appreciating a pleasurable sensation therefrom, can equal to a meaning of happiness, which is not at all a grand abstract idea. In like manner, Laura’s homemade cakes can be a good source of happiness to her customers regardless of who they are.

     

    Sally’s sundry wagon is also newly launched; it has popcorn cooked on premise according to her aunt Mary’s family recipes from England passed down from generations. Topped with butter and salt per request, Sally’s Popcorn cups are sold like hot cakes at $1.50 for each. In addition, she also sells candies and cold beverages, all less than $2.00 per each. She likes to talk with her customers when her spirits feels jovial and delightful. Judging her as a moody person is injustice to her true character, however. Sally is something of an artist who wants to dabble many things that she has in mind to express herself against self-doubt and obscurity. She’s well-read, compassionate, and creative. But she does not suffer the fool, the uncouth, and the uncivil gladly. After all, she is just very honest about her feelings and acts upon her principles, for how can one always smile and be pleasant like a robot? Hasn’t anybody heard that a psychopath can be extremely pleasant?

    So the new enterprises by enterprising spirits are well established now. They might look a bit anachronistic for the modern time and incongruent to today’s business trend as regards to the business principles set by the owners as aforesaid. But nothing is insignificant or less meaningful in the sense of size or value than any of their contemporary competitors in other places. However simplistic their business ventures may seem, what’s important is their dedication to their work and care for the people they serve, which has become a rarity in our today’s society.

    0682e26f337825b366e8e3e3e0003ad1--folk-disc-golf

    저장

    저장

  • The Avonlea Story – Existential Episode on the Collies and Ms. Cubert

    IMG_3732It has been almost over five good years since the Collies have immigrated to Elysia from Scotland. By now the family has well settled into the ways of life in their adopted home country, especially their beloved town of Avonlea, which has become their hometown. After all, anywhere can be anyone’s home as long as it feels comfortable and peaceful, if not exactly welcoming. Besides, if the customs and languages are similar to those of your native country, the process of acclimation is comparatively smooth without Herculean challenges. So in this respect the Collies have lucked out thus far.

    IMG_3730

    The Collies live in Avonlea, a suburb of Charlottetown where Paul Collie, the head of the household works as a manager of the Food Department at Diamond Trading Corporation. His resourceful wife Laura Collie works at home as a part-time seamstress, making and altering clothes, curtains, and tablecloths on order from her clients who all have heard about Laura’s finesse in sewing and knitting and crocheting from the grapevine of Avonlea and even Charlottetown.

    In fact, Laura owes her craftsmanship to her great Aunt Meena in Edinburgh, Scotland who used to own her own embroidery shop until her death six years ago. It was also this embroidery store where Paul and Laura had met together for the first time, which led them to walking down the aisle of the Church of Our Lady in Danube three years later and taking a marital vow of faithfulness, love, and understanding. There were moments when both Paul and Laura adhered to what they thought infallibly right but the sacred promise before the altar always won. Their faith always won. Moreover, Paul and Laura are always happy to work hard for their darling Lana, a dainty bright seven-year old girl who is always eager to help others in need.

    IMG_3734

    Recently, Lana has taken up a piano lesson under the tutelage of Ms. Brenda Cubert, a spinster who is finely conversant in classic literature, impressionist paintings, baroque/classical/romantic/ancient Greek music, and European history. Ms. Cubert thinks that Lana has a musical talent because of her quick sense of rhythm, aptitude for improvising melodies without musical notes, and her unalloyed appreciation of beauty of music and the Arts in general.

    IMG_3740

    But this is what Ms. Cubert thinks to herself; she keeps everything to herself in fear of jinx, for she believes that if she says something good about anything, about herself included, things will suddenly turn sour and belligerent against her… To dismiss it mindless superstition of a spinster is a great injustice to her fine quality as an individual of deep intellectual curiosity and as a woman of sophisticated sensibility and delicate disposition. Such brooding inclination rather arises out of her  empirically shaped mode of thinking due to her eggshell sensitivity. Notwithstanding all of this intricacies of her mind, Ms. Cubert is all intelligence, all beauty, and all kindness.

    IMG_3728

    You can get used to just about anything.” In certain cases, the adage seems to be in effect, such as in the case of the Collies whose life as a family of immigrants is quite smooth and placid. To them moving into Elysia, in this cozy town of Avonlea is akin to moving to a commonwealth of The Great Suhsland under the reign of Queen Stephana  whose sovereignty also includes Scotland. Whether or not it is this cultural similarities or affinities that facilitates their adjustment to the new land, the Collies will always remain a strong family bound by responsibilities and duty and love and understanding as Paul and Laura promised to each other in the matrimonial ceremony before the altar. Sempre fidelis, that is.

    *Extra Feature

    This is my very first experimental video featuring the panorama of the diverse residents in the town of Avonlea. All of the cast and setting are decorated and posed by myself. For those of you who have already read one of my short episodes about these folks might be familiar with them. The purpose of this video is to convey the leitmotif of the episodes I sometime write about these little residents vividly in combination with music which I deem humorously fit the whole idea of the story itself. In future, I plan to make a series of short stop motion animated films on these figures.