When I started getting really bad growing pains in my legs. I told my mother and she said: "I think you are experiencing growing pains." A few years later, on my birthday, I got my first application in the mail to get a credit card. People thought I was crazy for NOT applying for it.
From the end of Bob Dylan's song, "The Ballad of Frankie Lee,"
"Well the moral of this story. The moral of this song, is: Simply that one should never be, where one does not belong. So if you see your neighbor carrying something, help him with his load. And don't go mistaking Paradise, for that home across the road."
For as R. E. M. sings, "Everybody Hurts."
Buddhists say that no matter who you are, life is suffering---we ALL have our crosses to bear.
Since this is a column also about inspirations, I just finished Denim Angel's stories and poems. There is something "magic" in her writing. It is always something that makes me either smile, or makes me reverent. She is quite an inspiration! Now what is this I hear she bakes ginger cookies? Lawwwdy, Lawwwwdy, Miss Clawwwwdy!!
I am just gum-smacked!
Bill Monroe's "Kentucky Waltz."
As a history writer, I can't often read for pleasure but to further my awareness of something that is supposed to be fact. But interpretation is a bugger in warping the so-called "facts." So some ways of interpreting events have become so well known to me that I can almost tell how a certain historian is going to "take" almost any event. Try reading "1491" and compare what it says to you about America's indigenous peoples, compared to what they taught us in school.
But when I read for pleasure, I sample everything until I find something i just "fall into." I am a sucker for romances for example, as long as they are good. Further, Nietzsche once said, we can never read the same book twice. He means that if you like the poetry of Tennyson, and you read a book with a whole lot of poems, some you will understand right away, and others on the second read, or even the fifth read. So as you grow, your ability to read grows, and that in turn make you see the world better, and on and on like that. So some pieces I have read many times. I just keep seeing new things. I think I could give a good example with music. Let us say you like Bob Dylan. You mayo like one of his songs, and even know the words, but do you really know what he is talking about? Then suddenly, one day it hits you between the eyes like a pie! The Old "Light Bulb" Experience! I love books like that! So, my conclusion is, I seldom finish a book!
Mmmmmm....ginger snaps with special flavoring! I love to dip them in milk! Thank you Sara!
I have family and friends all over Florida, and virtually every state up to Maine. We are all affected in various degrees and in various ways by water originated "storms." Up in New England, we are getting not just hurricanes, but tornadoes (which was once very rare here), and strange kinds of "twisters" in the harbors and other coastal places, that come out of nowhere.
A twisting wind suddenly rises up in a given area over water, and then makes a dart straight to the land. They can cause some serious damage. No they are not hurricanes or tornadoes, but something similar to both, and with no pattern. These are more powerful than what us seamen used to call "squalls."
The men I know that still work in the fishing industry have it rough because they never really know what they are going to see every day. Every vessel has specifications on how far out to sea they can go. "Smaller" vessels are told they have a 3 or 6 miles limit. Those smaller craft have to be really careful now.
In Austria and neighboring countries (I know in some cases), they have 3 kinds of coffee: Expresso/espresso, cinnamon, and "filter" coffee.
Here in New England we have Pumpkin pie with some of the spices mentioned here, and Squash pie. I prefer Squash pie as it is milder.
But to take any of these spices and put them into a latte seems "overkill."
I remember Linda so very well as I saw her when she was very young and the warm up act for Neil Diamond. She came out in a pair of tight jeans and a cotton shirt with a small cowgirl hat. I remember she was a "doll," or someone you just wanted to hug! She sang from her heart, and every song made your quickly developing crush on her deepen. By the end of her performance, I was ready to go home like I had seen the feature artist already.
Some years later I caught her doing her "torch singer" act, where her looks had matured and gotten sexy; where her gown was more revealing; and her voice was sort of like Julie London,
or Dianna Krall. That time I wanted to go home with her.
In between I saw her doing her songs in Spanish with some Mariachi and rocked us all!!
My point is: Linda was so talented, and had such good looks that no matter what she performed at what time in her life, she always got and held your attention in concert.
"On the Waterfront"
Marlon Brando and George C. Scott
"I Coulda Been A Contenda! Instead of a bum. Which is what I am. Let's face it Charlie."
"To Have and To Have Not"
Bogey and Lauren Bacall
Bacall: "Anytime you want me all you have to do is whistle. You do know how to whistle don't you Steve? Just put your lips together....and blow!"
Josey Wales.
Clint Eastwood
"Even the buzzards gotta eat. Sames as worms."
I have visited 37 of the contiguous 48, most of Europe, and China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan in Asia. I also have been to the former countries Hon g Kong (often) and Macau. The place I would most like to visit next is Africa, and of course, Alaska.
I LOVE Winter. The cleansing of the earth the Anishinnabe say. Life is hiding under the blanket of snow. It is, to us, the first season that prepares everything for the creating of the year that comes in Spring.
I also love Winter because as a kid I used to love to make snow men, have snowball fights, and get a shovel to go offer elderly neighbors my service digging out a path to their vehicles, and to clean off their cars. I would usually make 25 cents (US$) for the path, and 10 cents for the car. If I did 3 jobs that was a $1!!! On a lucky day might get more and get close to $2!
That all human beings are simply that: human beings.
