Loose Leaf Notes

1. If there’s an umbrella at an event, I’ll find it. In this case the event was Floyd’s 2107 high school graduation. Story and photos coming in the Floyd Press this week.

2. How long will it take for your trash to decompose after you’re gone?  Some things you toss in the trash will have a longer life span on this planet than you will. Plastic water bottle can take up to 450 years. Plastics may never fully disappear, scientists say. When plastic trash is dumped into the ocean, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces known as microplastics. Fish and shellfish eat these particles, and people who eat seafood are consuming them too. More HERE.

3. I can’t see you but I know you’re there. Listen HERE.

4. “I can’t see you but I know you’re there” was something I said to Joe when we first met.  We were at a bonfire.

5. “It’s a big enough umbrella. But it’s always me that ends up getting wet.”  – The Police

6. “We’re all in the same boat. Keep the boat afloat” is a chant I remember from the March on Washington to protest the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

7.  I’m posting this because I want it in my filing cabinet: “There is no such thing as not voting. Not voting is voting. It is voting to hand hour power over to someone else whose interests will be opposite to yours and who will want to use that power against you.”  -Eric Liu founder of Citizen University and author of You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen.

8. “The handwriting is on the wall. Our problem seems to be widespread illiteracy.” – My Dharmacratic friend Will

9. I’m more of a thinker than a feeler, and sometimes I have to think my way to my feelings.

10. Some stories are like card games / and you’re holding someone’s ace / You want to give it back / but not be seen / You want to even the score / but not at the expense of another / You want the royal flush / and not the bluff / of being loved  – Read Secrets in its entirety HERE.

11. At the “From Bach to Bluegrass” concert that I attended over the weekend, I told Maestro David Wiley that he reminds me of a surfer. As a conductor, he surfs the emotion of music. And he knows when the big waves are coming.  Stories and photos coming in next week’s Floyd Press.

12. Her name is Laura, and she proudly announced that she was born in 1917, but when asked how old she was, she referred to herself as being 100 years young.   And she was!  During her interview with the local paper, she was asked what the secret of a long life was. She said her mother told her not to drink, smoke, dip or chew or associate with people who do, so she tried to do that. – Read more about my “Birthday Buddy HERE.

13. Look what the ocean dragged in HERE.

________Thirteen Thursday