Welcome to Saturday ...
Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 10/26/2019 - 5:11am
"Action is a lack of balance. In order to act, you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking." ~ James Baldwin
Save this: Tongass National Forrest
~~~
~
Breathe deep, exhale slowly, first high-wire,
step
Calm, hard down below
peoples is funny
Better view here
shaky
perilous
no different than waking up
Mid-way swages, dizzy, deadly
tiptoeing in proprioceptors
in touch with billion upon billion times billions
Step again
Hear the wind.
“Every book is the same,” she wails. “A man is sad / A man is sad so he builds a cabin / A man is sad so he finds a wife / A man is sad so he leaves his wife / A man is sad so he befriends an injun / A man is sad so he kills the injun / A man is sad / A man is sad / A man is sad.” ~ ‘Slave Play’
~
Comments
Breathe deep, exhale slowly
Beautiful view of a magnificent glacier!
Thanks Smiley
Zionism is a social disease
Good morning, QMS,
My pleasure, again, your start to yesterday lifted the old spirits. After rehab, in a low cloud cover, i chose to tour around and take in the colors. Climbing up in switchbacks on Shull's Mill Road treated me to a sea of yellow so bright with green and red creating a special light of pure delight. Love these old mountains.
pure prose cum poetry,
and in a comment! niiiiiiiiiice; thank you, smiley.
and as yesterday was #WorldOperaDay:
blessings on us all.
Good day, Wendy,
Thank you for the opera and cool artworks.
Good morning, smiley ~~
Such lovely music with which to breathe deeply
and
think about how sad a man must be.
Yet
we close with a lively tune.
Good morning, day.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good morning, RA,
Love it, thank you. Haven't talked much lately, hope all is well, water plentiful and harvest done.
Write on, my friend.
Cling On
Passed this rock yesterday with a house stuck on it. It's called Cling On, but I prefer the star treck spelling Klingon. Self powered with wind and solar. Can stay a night or two. Bring your own rum. Access is by small boat, only at higher tides.
Cheers!
TGIS
Zionism is a social disease
Hey, perfect place for a c99 retreat, no neighbors
to disturb. Enjoyed some rum last night with a slice of orange.
Good soggy morning
Wow yesterday was a wild ride - 5.5" of rain. Amazingly the road has very little wash. When I left for my weekly session last evening water was running everywhere...streaming across the road and puddling in various places. By the time I got back home it had run off for the most part. The ground was thirsty.
Saw a herd of about 30 deer as I came in. Hunting season has begun in nearby GA, but not yet in AL. So they were hiding in the safety of the closed season. As breeding season arrives, I think the hunters suffer from a similar hormonal imbalance and lose their ability to think straight.
Colors are beginning to light up the forest with yellows and red. And the beauty of the season unfolds. The big rain has finally ended the drought.
Wishing you all a lovely fall (or spring) day. Thanks for the OT smiley!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, Lookout,
Wish you were here, Mabel is ablaze, best season for color in years, though peaking two weeks later than normal. I believe you recently wrote that the season's have changed about a month in time, i sense that as well.
When passing Linville Ridge gated golf community yesterday, i saw a car carrier at the entrance loading the most expensive sport cars, an annual occurrence, transporting the cars back to Florida for the winter. Reminded me of the huge graffiti on the old Duke wall. "Everyone should have one home before anyone has two."
Hi Lookout
Have I told you how much I enjoy your lookout on life and nature.
I have a book titled Nature and Culture, by Hamilton Wright-Mabe that is more like a 'bible' to me. I think you can read it free online.
https://archive.org/details/essaysonnaturea01mabigoog/page/n6
Thanks!
I was influenced by Aldo Leopold as a youngster.
https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/sand-county-almanac/
Thanks again for the book rec. I'll check it out.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning smiley, thanks for the OT. Good morning all.
Still have power, but air getting bad from Kincaid fire. Farmers' market today, then back to the to-do list and routine chores. Looking to find time for "sitting doing nothing", but first its time to fire up the grill, swap in the griddle, and make some french toast.
Everybody have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Good morning, el,
"Sometimes i sit and think and sometimes i just sit."
Damn the power in so many ways. Be safe el and all in California.
French toast, um, with your sourdough ... "how sweet it is."
Good morning smiley.
Funny you should mention James Baldwin. Last week I watched a video of a speech he made at Berkeley in 1979. I only did that because I was watching a video of a speech by Cornel West that he gave at Brown in 2018 and his speech led me to Baldwin. Cornel West is good for my soul. He helps to revive my flagging spirit and points the way to a glimmer of light. In another speech West talked about how unpopular Baldwin was owing to the fact that he was a truth-teller. Sort of like Assange. Sort of like a whole host of people who pay the price for laying bare the hypocrisy....who just won't tolerate the lies.
West's discussion of art and artists is relevant to your beautiful Saturday morning OTs. In fact, in a nutshell, West describes why art is essential, possibly even more essential in times of catastrophe. (Not sure 'more essential' makes sense....but you know what I mean :-)).
Some of what West says is like a touchstone, I recognize something that is essential to me. It makes me want to explore further and try to understand better.
I can't really give an adequate sense of what West said but as he was praising the best blues musicians he said that they made high art out of "living in the dissonance and revelling in the minor key". That statement stuck with me and made me think of our own JS and his week-night blues roundup. We are very rich here.
Oh well, onward, though it is shaky and perilous the example of so many fine people is nothing short of astonishing.
good morning, randtntx,
Baldwin came to mind when reading about Slave Play, he left an impression on my youth that has been life-long.
Wish i had a couple of plane tickets and center stage seats for Slave Play so we could "trip the light fantastic."
Yesterday at rehab, a very tall and large gentleman with cane around ten years my senior who had lapped me twice in cool down said to another senior, "it's all about attitude;" catching his eye, we shared big smiles. So simple, yet so elusive at times.
Heard the siren's call yesterday as local NPR aired a story about the new Artistic Director for the old Barter Theatre, located in Abingdon, VA, just over an hour north of me. Fancied for a moment riding over to meet this woman. Perhaps i could interest her in a barter, a place to live with food and libation. One can dream, can't one?
I don't really know
anything about this play. I haven't been keeping up with the cultural news. Now I'm curious and will find out about it.
What a lovely idea to get tickets and just go! The last play I saw was Fun House and that was several years ago. I swore back then I would make an effort to go to the theatre more often. That, sadly, has not happened though.
It sounds as if you are muscling your way through rehab. Good for you, I know it's not easy.
Many apologies for my slow response. Oh, and that siren's call....when do we stop chasing dreams? Should we ever? What about a phone call to that woman to see what is in the realm of possibility?
Thanks for putting flights of fancy into my little brain cells. Of all the billions of billions of ideas and thoughts we have, we should at least have some that are shining and flitting about with exuberance.
Best to you smiley
"Woman who came from the heavens"
That is beautiful
isn't it? What an honor and what a beautiful gesture on the part of Arvol Looking Horse.
Good Morning Smiley :)
Your Baldwin quote reminded me of another one I've long remembered:
Grateful that you should rattle the memory beans from long ago with his wisdom. An essay question I once had on a college application asked if I could select three people to interview, who would they be? James Baldwin was at the top of my list. Why? There are many people who live interesting lives, but few of them can write about it with such searing clarity. Baldwin was, above all, an artist. But he was also a keen observer of humanity and history in the making. I only wish we had Baldwin's voice now to give clarity to the troubles we are facing today.
Hope you are doing well, Smiley. Thanks for the contemplative OT this morning and one helluva mountain view! Simply stunning!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Good morning, Anja,
Fun, used to think and express the interview this way, who would i most enjoy having drinks with, Baldwin in Paris, yea. Memoir note to self.
Thanks for asking, Anja, i've had two good days in a row, 'zahzam.'
“Ne Me Quitte Pas”: ‘I Put A Spell On You’: Nina Simone: 1965
A single pant leg dangles from the chair.
Mud from the hem leaves graves on the floor.
Crescent moon: the last button
of your shirt caught
between my teeth.
Cricket: a record player cracks
its skipped obsessions.
A single pant leg dangles from the chair.
Stars: dust from your ankles climbs
the slats of streetlight.
Où l’amour sera roi: only the pits
behind bent knees are kingdom.
Mud from the hem leaves graves on the floor.
Your underarm holds a nest of burned leaves
I rub my face against. I smolder in the key of animal.
A single pant leg dangles from the chair,
a cougar unrolling the cologne
of a doe from its tongue.
Où l’amour sera loi: my bare feet run
against the headboard.
Mud from the hem leaves graves on the floor.
A single pant leg dangles from the chair.
~ Phillip B. Williams
Late morning hello smiley
I must be somewhat insane because, although I love thinking, I like action. heh. Always wanting to find ways for people to work together after walking in the streets, going to meetings, because we need to act now more than ever. But, not to worry, my cat is teaching me to sit still. We go outside together and watch the birds and squirrels aka peregrine snacks, do their thing. I do wake up at night and wonder wtf we are going to do; how we can turn this crisis around. Then again, I fall back asleep because I need rest to move into action. :)).
So on we go, spinning, precariously, “shakey, perilous” but still in motion. Forward. Have a good one...
Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation
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Good morning, magi,
One must act, insanity and all. Your cat can also share with you the how of always landing on your feet when protesting.
Just ran across this, always loved Jane, Barbarella especially.
Be safe out there.
My cat is teaching me to slow down
After she went deaf this year and became solely an indoor cat, I've been teaching her how to walk on a leash. Or rather, she walks me. We've limited her outing to the garden here on the property but I'm hoping to get her acclimated enough that I'll be able to take her to the park eventually. Right now she goes at her own pace, sits down every now and then while I wait patiently beside her. Patience does not come naturally to me not but I've enjoyed watching her navigate the outside world after months of being inside. My other two cats frequently join us and sometimes the four of us are sitting in the garden feeling the breeze through the trees. Cats are so zen.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Abby taught me patience
The last few months when she was slowing down she couldn't walk too far without paying for it later so we just walked as far as she wanted and then we just sat in the sun. I would stay out as long as she wanted and she would let me know when she wanted to come home. I treasure those memories. Enjoy your time with your cat and watch as she adapts to her new world. You will look back on the days you did with fond memories.
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
It's funny you should mention that
I was thinking the same thing when I was out with Pierre yesterday. So important to appreciate those quiet moments with her now. Thank you for saying what I was thinking. I'm so glad you and Abby had that time.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Hi smiley
Your poem expresses to me an image of balancing precariously between danger and safety, fortified by a sense of assurance and a delicate step that you will be protected by the billions upon billions. Nice.
It sounds to me from what I’ve read that Slave Play takes the audience to a similar place between danger and safety. It sounds like it would be an intense but enriching experience to encounter.
[video:https://youtu.be/J_36x1_LKgg]
Hi janis,
Splendid piano, thank you. Slave Play, talk of the town apparently, been a while since i've seen so much noise about a new play. Young playwright, 30, i think. Do miss the boards at times.
Hey, cornbread, greens and chili on the stove.
Appreciate your words about the poem; thought today of how familiar we are with other creatures heightened awareness of danger, the many quite visible evolutionary steps they take to survive and how little we humans stop and think upon that in modern societies until of course when a trauma happens.
When waking we all are but one moment away from falling.
Balance.
Not fair
to tempt me when I'm 8,000 miles away from your stove!
Enjoy it all, smiley.
Too funny
The message echoes from Gaza back to the US. “Starving people is fine.”
Great fun, Snoopy, thank you for sharing. :)
I LOVED that!
I was totally rooting for the little daschund. Go! Go! Go!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier