Loose Leaf Notes

1. Last week I wrote that, because of Facebook, it felt like I had 100 people in my house. Over the 16 Hands long weekend Studio Tour that was actually true.

2. I realized just how small our house is when, during the Saturday 16 Hands Tour, our two downstairs rooms-turned-galleries were as full as a crowded dance floor that I couldn’t turn or spin on… – More Pots and Lots of People HERE.

3. I’m working on a playlist memoir of the most memorable songs that changed and marked my life.   So far I have Don’t Worry Baby by the Beach Boys, When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge, Get Together by the Youngbloods, Suzanne by Leonard Cohen and Higher Love by Steve Winwood.

4. When it’s 16 Hands time, it’s like when I travel and all my writing, photos and blog posting not related to that ceases until the trip is over.

5. As a somewhat anti-social homebody, I woke up Monday morning after 3 days of tour traffic through my house and said to Joe, “I think I did pretty well, since I sometimes can’t even handle you being in the house.”  He laughed, which is one of the reasons I love him.

6. “I’m sittin’ here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough to join the Army—burn women, kids, houses and villages—after bein’ a litterbug.”   Listen to a clip of the Alice’s Restaurant performance at the Floyd Country Store HERE.

7. The world has changed since Donald Trump was elected, and I feel sort of like I did after 9/11 when I had to eventually carry on with my life because if I didn’t it would have meant that the terrorists won.

8. “It’s all in God’s hands, conveniently located at the end of our arms.” – My Dharmacratic poet friend Will

9. Status quo or Stability? Confident or Conceited? Change or Upheaval?

10. “Post-truth’ was just named 2016 word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries: “Post-truth politics is a political culture in which debate is framed largely by appeals to emotion disconnected from the details of policy, and by the repeated assertion of talking points to which factual rebuttals are ignored. Post-truth differs from traditional contesting and falsifying of truth by rendering it of “secondary” importance … A defining trait of post-truth politics is that campaigners continue to repeat their talking points, even if these are found to be untrue by the media or independent experts …”  – From the wikipedia

11. And the word of the year at dictionary.com is, sadly,  xenophobia:  “The word xenophobia is actually relatively new, and only entered English in the late 1800s. It finds its roots in two Greek words, xénos meaning “stranger, guest,” and phóbos meaning “fear, panic. Dictionary.com defines xenophobia as “fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers.” It can also refer to fear or dislike of customs, dress, and cultures of people with backgrounds different from our own.”

12. When we were kids we believed that we were angels in training / and the wing bones on our backs were proof / We propelled ourselves in dreams about flying but let no leg hang over the bed / Now we have insurance to scare off those bogeymen and paper money promises that can’t buy time / The monarchs are pretty but so short lived and we don’t have those flying dreams anymore  … Read my poem Flying Dreams in its entirety HERE. 

13. “…I have my doubts. You grow up to be skeptical of the hormone treatment that eliminates wrinkles, the metal detector that will locate buried treasure, the school that will teach you the secrets of getting rich, the great leader who will make the country great again ..”  – More from “Maybe a Trump presidency is what God intended” by Garrison Keillor,  HERE. 

__________Thirteen Thursday