13: More Than Meets the Eye
1. When we were on the beach a couple of weeks ago, a young girl asked Joe if he was Jesus. Then, at Fandango this weekend (mini daylong Floydfest) Joe and I were lying on the grass close together after dancing to a rocking band when a young man came up to us and asked what we thought the secret to a happy life and good marriage was.
2. I pretty much paraphrased to him part of the essay I wrote for the book Floyd Folks, titled Living My Version of Successful Happy Life: “Just as I could fill notebook pages on the alternative supplements and therapies I’ve tried over the years to overcome CFS, I could also fill pages on the workshops I’ve taken, self-help books I’ve read, practices I’ve undertaken and progressive thought I’ve explored over the years. These days I’m not trying to change or better myself as much as I’m trying to understand what’s already there. I realize that the best thing I can do for the world is to be myself. If I can be myself, keep my conscience clear and respect the authority of my inner voice, I know the rest will fall into place, and that makes me happy.”
3. I also quoted part of our wedding vows: I want for you what you want for yourself.
4. My friend who is about to quit her day job and semi-retire has some concerns about what it will be like without the structure and purpose involved in having a day-to-day job. I told her that being retired for me is not so much about I what I did today, but more about what I saw, read, thought and felt.
5. Now that your ghost is 65 / they want to sell you life insurance / Now that you’ve been dead for 15 years / the AARP wants to claim you / The VA wants a donation / for the return address labels / from places you don’t live … More from, A Final Notice – an ironic and slightly humorous poem about a subject that runs deep, getting my deceased brother Danny’s mail – HERE.
6. I was against the NAFTA trade agreement in the ‘90s because of the loss of jobs at home but I’m starting to think that global trade agreements might be like the computer/internet, which I hated in the beginning. Farmers didn’t want to stop growing tobacco and miners don’t want to give up coal (because of the jobs), but the writing is on the wall. I think the issue is more that global economy doesn’t work for most people, and so they are rightfully mad. Considering that the top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the whole of the bottom 99 percent, we need to give the working class a leg up with some of the proposals that Bernie Sanders has put forth. Check out THIS video. Besides saying he will vote for Hillary, Sanders addresses what just happened Britain, how it correlates to the Trump phenomena here and more. And THIS about Sander’s op-ed in the New York Times on Wednesday is great. I so respect this man.
7. At Floyd’s first Poetry Festival, featured poet Tanya Cunningham enlisted the help of her husband for the first poem she read, which was about teaching her 16 year-old son that “doing 62 in a 55 can be a life of death situation” for young black men. The poem included the poignant refrain, “May I reach for my registration? I am reaching for my registration.” – More from the story I wrote about the Little River Poetry Festival HERE. And HERE’S a clip of Tanya and her husband reading the poem.
8. Sometimes when I’m having trouble ending a poem, it feels as if I’ve painted myself into a corner with my own words.
9. I’m pretty sure Jesus is a morning person / that he wakes up in a good mood / He denies he ever spoke / personally to George Bush / Maybe he spoke to Bob Dylan / Jesus wears a bathrobe and reads the obituaries / He has a long braid like Willie Nelson’s / He drinks his tea black / leaves the cap off the toothpaste / and never uses an ATM machine … More from Jesus Paints Graffiti HERE.
10. Remembering my father is dead / is like the leaky faucet in the bathroom tub / quiet enough that I can forget its leaking / but loud enough to keep me awake / I remember my father is dead / while staring at the crack in my bedroom ceiling / from burning a light bulb too bright / The blue paint is peeled back/ from its original color / Even with the light out I see it … – From a poem I wrote in 2005, titled Mudslide, that I haven’t yet posted on this blog.
11. “Self Reflected” is an artist created animated painting of your brain perceiving itself in an animated painting. Check it out HERE.
12. I have a fantasy house to retire to. It is uncluttered and energy efficient with lots of light and a view of the sunsets, which caused me to recently say to Joe, “Our golden years are going to be filled with golden light. In other words, we’re going to live in a house with big windows.”
13. So much goes on behind the scenes and unseen.
___________Thirteen Thursday
June 30th, 2016 5:47 am
# 3 just purely lovely in every way #1 also
June 30th, 2016 12:35 pm
In my mid-twenties I was happily shacked up with Mr. Al but not married to him yet. He and I ran in different circles. It was so rare for us to be seen together that some of my friends accused me of making him up to keep they guys at bay. Yet both he and I were repeatedly approached and asked the secret to a good relationship. Both of us, without consulting the other, said, “pick the right person to fall in love with.”
June 30th, 2016 4:53 pm
Number 8 reminded me of a book recently read, Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton. I think it’s one you might like (and yes, rare as it is, I actually read a work of nonfiction!). My T13
June 30th, 2016 5:48 pm
I’m totally checking that out, Heather. She’s a poet. I checked it out on Amazon, read an excerpt and practically cried,cause she sounded so kindred to me. Hit “add to cart.”
July 1st, 2016 12:47 pm
I fear for the world as corporations take over and run things. Changes always happen, but that does not mean change is good, or that change should happen simply for the sake of change. We have lost ourselves as a nation, and apparently other countries are experiencing the same issues. The world must either find a way to work together, or implode. I am expecting the latter.