Anthony Marr

We’ve been keeping busy with our friend, Anthony Marr, who arrived last Thursday for a visit. He will be staying here in WI until Saturday, which gives us plenty of time to visit, though I have less time to blog.

L has been anxiously waiting for this visit for many months and would prefer to have him all to herself. She’s not too thrilled to share his time or attention with others. She has allowed us some time to catch up with him, usually after she’s supposed to be in bed.

Daisy wasted no time in impressing Anthony with her special Daisy ways. Shortly after settling in for a nice long visit at our house, she decided it would be a good time to illustrate her magic skills by vomiting the crap and grass she ate outside, and making it completely disappear again before we got back with the cleaning supplies. Like most guests, after seeing that special trick of Daisy’s, Anthony wasn’t thrilled to share his lap with her, when she tried to shove her way in. M & I offered her the prime real estate on the couch right between us, and then she forgot that she wanted to crawl into A’s lap and lick him with her poopy-vomit tongue.

Saturday night was the Alliance for Animals’ annual vegan chili fest. It is normally a competition with everyone vying for the best chili title. M has won for three years. This year, rather than a competition, it was a chili of the champions dinner. Each previous award winning chili was there for our enjoyment. M brought both of his winners. I like them both, though I prefer his “lumpy fart chili” (he came up with that lovely title), because it’s a bit spicier than the “not on a first date” chili.

The event was very well attended. After filling the room, we had to seek additional chairs. Extra tables and chairs were added—as many as could be packed into the room, and we still ran out of seats. That’s awesome, both because it’s a fundraiser for AFA, and because there was a big crowd for Anthony’s talk.

M introduced A as the speaker and gave a brief bio and well-earned, glowing praise. I got a fun shot of M giving the introduction, holding up A’s first book, while A was taking a picture of M. A spoke for 1.5 hours, and could easily have continued, but for the time limitations of our room rental. The crowd was entranced for the most part, as his message is obviously true, dire, and frightening beyond belief! There were many, many comments after his talk about how much people enjoyed hearing his message.

I have heard much of the content of this talk before, though there was definitely some new information added. Still, hearing it again was not remotely boring. There aren’t many people who I can listen to talking for more than an hour (with me being forced to sit in one place and do nothing else!) without going stir crazy! As SHOULD any speaker who is confident in the accuracy and content of their message, he encourages his audience to research it themselves. There is no hiding behind a claimed ‘leader’ status and expecting the audience to just accept and swallow it whole.

Over and over throughout his talk, he repeatedly tells the audience to verify for themselves, Google the terms and statistics, and otherwise do due diligence in verifying the veracity of everything he says. At this point in my life, I believe nothing without verifying it myself, my way, and with my own sources. I greatly appreciate the confidence in someone encouraging such behavior, rather than so many who expect you to just accept their (often self-proclaimed) authority and simply digest and absorb their ‘facts’.

Even though I know A well, and know him to be a man of great integrity, I still feel it necessary to do my own digging and checking. The beauty of it is, I have found that he is absolutely correct (to my dismay, given the dire implications), and he is not remotely offended by my need to validate. And along with A, I urge you to do your own research and validation rather than just blindly accept my word on it. If everyone one in the U.S. did this—hell, if even a quarter of us did this on a regular basis—this would be an entirely different country!

Sunday was busy for A! He wanted to go along to L’s Bharatanatyam class on Sunday afternoon. He has, in the past, spent much time in India and had seen some performances in India. The music, movement, and costumes are so beautiful, once you’ve experienced that, you want to see more of it. It really is a fantastic art form! Meenakshi and the girls are working very hard this month to get ready for the big performance on the 23rd. They are spending twice as much time in class this month, and will have some additional practices the week before the event. A took quite a few pics of L in her class, and many of them turned out beautifully (other than the fact that she had not gotten enough sleep Fri or Sat and looked somewhat like a little dead girl). All of the photos shown were taken by A.

We got back in town with enough time for A to have a quick bit of lunch and then head to Beloit for his Sunday evening speaking engagement. He arrived back from that in time for a late dinner of tofurky roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.