Better Thongs and Tassles
Nothing has been happening in Cairo lately, well for me anyway. So I'm going to tell you a story about my mom.
A few years ago my mother's best friend, K, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As she got ill, my mom took it really hard. I've learned it isn't easy to make close friends when you're middle-aged, and having lived in the city for only a few years, I was glad my mom had a friend she felt she could talk to. Near the end, when this friend was in the hospital permanently, my mom decided to bring K some of her favorite magazines to help keep her busy. This friend loved home decor magazines, Country Homes-esque glossies profiling beautiful living rooms and well-lit kitchens.
My mom on the other hand, finds these magazines to be, well, dull. Her approach- Who cares about looking at furniture? Let's give K something worth staring at.
So she bought a stack of interior design magazines, a stack of Playgirls and set to work. I came home for the weekend to find my mother, at the age of 53 with scissors and a glue-stick at the dining room table cutting out photos of naked men and meticulously gluing them onto the pages -- positioning the man wearing nothing but cowboy boots delicately on the expensive sofa, and perching a man in a silver g-string on the white granite kitchen counter.
She filled the pages of one of the Better Gardens & Whatever with naked, leering men, shoved it in the middle of the stack of magazines and headed to the hospital.
I should be so lucky to someday be the kind of adult she is.
A few years ago my mother's best friend, K, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. As she got ill, my mom took it really hard. I've learned it isn't easy to make close friends when you're middle-aged, and having lived in the city for only a few years, I was glad my mom had a friend she felt she could talk to. Near the end, when this friend was in the hospital permanently, my mom decided to bring K some of her favorite magazines to help keep her busy. This friend loved home decor magazines, Country Homes-esque glossies profiling beautiful living rooms and well-lit kitchens.
My mom on the other hand, finds these magazines to be, well, dull. Her approach- Who cares about looking at furniture? Let's give K something worth staring at.
So she bought a stack of interior design magazines, a stack of Playgirls and set to work. I came home for the weekend to find my mother, at the age of 53 with scissors and a glue-stick at the dining room table cutting out photos of naked men and meticulously gluing them onto the pages -- positioning the man wearing nothing but cowboy boots delicately on the expensive sofa, and perching a man in a silver g-string on the white granite kitchen counter.
She filled the pages of one of the Better Gardens & Whatever with naked, leering men, shoved it in the middle of the stack of magazines and headed to the hospital.
I should be so lucky to someday be the kind of adult she is.
posted by Detrie at 9:43 AM
3 Comments:
Priceless!! Absolutely priceless!
You are without a doubt, your mother's daughter.
With your permission, I would like to link to this story from the Altered Books Yahoo Group that I belong to. I am sure it will give others ideas.
Can't wait to hear from you.
BTW, I just found out that you have a photo album, yet you don't have a link to it from your blog...
your mother sounds way cooler than you or I could ever hope to be.
Your mother certainly is a inspiration to us all. Her kindness, good humour and creativity are admirable!!! And you are a very good story teller.
I am a painter of male nudes and an altered book artist. Your story inspired me to join these two different aspects of my art. It will be such a fun to alter a book using my male nude paintings.
Wishing you the best
Vera in Brazil
http://altereddreams.blogspot.com/
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