SARAH JESSICA PARKER

What a girl-woman she is....

Here she is as "Frances" in her new Home Box Office series, "Divorce."

She looks pensive, as if she's remembering other times, happier times in her life. The reviews for this series have been fairly good -- not great. Critics and audience wonder where "Frances" is heading -- for reconciliation with her husband, or mending her marriage, or love affairs? Since Sarah Jessica is the star and the producer, she will undoubtedly find actions and events that will be poignant, riveting, occasionally even shocking, as well as humorous -- S.J.P has, I think, a  very strong instinct for real drama. 

As "Carrie" in "Sex in the City," she changed the vision and dreams of millions of women as well as men -- brought laughter, reality, and down-to-earth honesty. She amazed us with her truthfulness.

Over the years, I have wondered how playing Carrie affected the real Sarah Jessica in her own life. I sense, from knowing my husband, actor John Cullum, that she was doing  her job -- creating, shaping, finding truth by digging into what was written in the script,  and making it real -- not playing herself, just working.

Just working?  Yes, revealing passions, anger, tenderness, fear, curiosity, as well as lusts of an invented woman -- not Sarah Jessica Parker or Mrs. Matthew Broderick -- just finding how the invented Carrie felt.

What is the difference between Sarah Jessica Parker and the always fascinating Jennifer Aniston?  I think we get a "there's the Star" feeling with Aniston. We feel that what Jennifer conveys is very real, but also, it's always Aniston. (With Meryl Streep, I forget it's Meryl, and am in the moment that's happening happening before my eyes.)

Yes, when Sarah Jessica Parker is playing a role, her name fades and we are focused on the person she's playing. She's a very special, unique, superb actress. With her in the driver's seat, I'm sure that "Divorce" will evolve into a fascinating show.

I still remember the first time I saw Sarah Jessica. I fell in love with her as "SanDeE" in Steve Martin's "La Story" -- at age twenty-five, she was utterly charming, fun, and unpredictably inventive. Searching for a video, and came across these photos.

Here's the only clip I could locate and embed here, so that you can see why I love actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

MAN GIVES BIRTH TO A BABY

This photo of a man in Time Magazine stopped me, stunned me, repelled me.

It seemed wrong, felt wrong, haunted me, and continues to bother me.

The article is about a man, who was born as a female, became a male with medical help but no surgery, and was artificially inseminated. Specific, intimate details about this are in the magazine story by Jessi Hempel, titled: "My brother Evan was born female. He came out as transgender 16 years ago but never stopped wanting to have a baby. This spring he gave birth to his first child.

Even as I read the article, I was distracted -- stuck on finding out why the photo repelled me.

"Abnormal" -- that was the word on the tip of my tongue. It got me wondering if "abnormal" is the same kind of thought that pops into people's minds when they react to other races, religions -- to the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual,  transsexual LGBTers.

How can I exorcise, or change, or re-focus what I think of as "normal?" Golly -- my repulsion, my reaction to the photo is what growing up and living in today's world has drilled into my mind.

I went googling around on my computer for other opinions. Here are the links. On Defense of Reason, I read how religion plays a major role in what we believe and accept as good, bad, or wrong. I looked at page called Live Science that explained how the status quo is a moral codebook -- a way to decipher good from bad and right from wrong -- that told us that the existence of a behavior does not mean it is good -- slavery and child labor, for example, are still popular in some parts of the world, though neither is right or good. On Bertrand Russell "Scientific Method,"  a subject I'd studied years ago, I learned again:  First, observe the significant facts; second, arrive at a hypothesis which would account for these facts; third, deduce the consequences of this hypothesis.

I reopened the magazine and studied the other pictures the article provided, and re-read Jessi Hempel's last few paragraphs.

"...The Obama Administration declared that all public schools must treat students equally regardless of their gender identity ... There's a backlash against the "battle of the bathroom" -- many states are now suing the Obama Administration. Violence directed at transgender people is up 62% from what it was in 2015. In June, we had the mass murder an Orlando nightclub, the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in U.S. history. More than likely, pregnancies like Evan's, and the many that are likely to follow, are surely going to stretch our cultural perceptions of gender norms even further ..." 

So all I can do is observe, and live 
with open eyes in a world 
that is changing. 

And adjust to the changes.

And see the tenderness, enjoy the look of a baby and its loving parent. 

And yes -- oh my yes -- love is there, and love is lovely to observe and feel.