IMHO the older I get the more I believe we may have the characteristics of archetypes at different times in our lives with different people. At points in everyone’s life you are more open to new ideas/influences. I freely admit to emulating people who have had a positive impact on my life and passing that onto others who don’t know any better Then again I also believe sometimes you are the windshield and sometimes you are the bug!

My personal Belladonna is my sister. She’s been stylish since she could toddle, and as a hairdresser she too never escapes notice. She’s just a few years younger than me, but is still 20 in so many ways, including her energy level and attitude. She’s also demanding, sensitive, generous, egotistical… and a person who’s 110% of something all the time.

I loved this Jane.

book? did you say book??? fanFLIPPINGtastic. like Women Who Run With the Wolves only without all that Jungian analytical blah de blah….bring it, girlfriend!

LBJ thought this piece reminded her of Madonna. When she said, ” She’s got that kind of electrical presence and sense of power. Would I want to date her or be her best friend? Probably not!” my heart kind of sank. Why? Because minus the fame, fans, and flimflam that has plagued Madonna… to me, it seems like a wonderful place to be. Arousing enough interest in people so that they pay attention, but do not care to come too close. That thought makes me smile and makes me sad all in one, but it feels extremely comfortable as well.

After the childhood that I had, my trust of people is cautious, at best. I rarely let people in. But to have people actually have interest in me from a distance sounds appealing. I’m going to have to give this some thought!

Would this fit in the category of being full of myself? Or is it more along the lines of a misfit who’s never really fit in anywhere, and doesn’t care to do anything about it?

Thanks for helping me to learn something about myself Jane and LBJ! Who needs therapy when I can come here!?!

I must discipline myself and not look at the other comments. I can’t even let the walls hear but my heart is pounding and there were/are frozen tears, suspended, behind, or in the middle of my pupils.

Not having heard from you, after I sent you a piece from my proposed book, I thought perhaps I had offended you. Alone, I goggled you and up came the “Bella Donna Woman” and I actually, felt beautiful, long fingered, scarlet red nails holding my neck in the most feminine of strangle holds as I seemed to be reeling – at a Tommy gun rat a tat pace – each and every word…’Oh my God, that is me’…well, maybe not, but why, oh why is this making sense as I was thinking of a woman I know, in pain, as we speak; Who is Jane? How does she know this woman? And I continued, hiding in one of my hobbies of being a collector of over 1,000 perfume bottles and once upon a time writing for a perfume quarterly, confusing Caron’s Bellodgia with Jolie Madame’s Balman or Miss Balmin with the Belladonna Woman; I felt so selfish, ashamed that I thought this description was me. Why? It’s just another Saturday morning in downtown oh blah dee, no one is looking so why should I care…this isn’t me, maybe a little bit, maybe a lot, but certainly not all of me, just bits and pieces so, let me take a deep breath and say “God Jane, you are such a journalistic warrior in this world you truly hit me like a bomb…and You are The Bomb! THE KAPPA DI TUTTI OF CREATING MAYHEM AND HAVOC AND I SALUTE YOU! ”

Now, with this said, I can be brave and go up and see what has been said about this beautifully, breathless piece.