Loose Leaf Notes

1. Last week I watched it snow winged maple seeds for days. Judging by the number of them helicoptering down, my yard should be a maple orchard soon.

2. A hike is so much more doable when I think of it as a stroll.

3. I like to sit up front at concerts and events so I can get unobstructed views and pictures, but I like to sit in the back when I’m riding in a car cause the back seat is like a couch.

4. I sit when others are standing / I lay when they sit / I walk when others are running / I stop while they keep going – Read my poem It’s All in Your Head (CFS) it its entirety HERE. 

5. I still have traumatic memories of playing Musical Chairs in kindergarten and being scared that I wouldn’t get a chair.

6. I just watched a documentary about the Ötzi the Iceman mummy who existed around 3300 BC and a French movie called The Innocents about a convent of nuns having babies after being raped by Soviet soldiers during WWII. It’s based on a true story.

7. My friend Kamala and I went to Blacksburg Saturday night to see stand-up comic Cliff Cash because we knew his set was largely trashing the Trump administration. He had just come from Florida and mentioned the Don’t Say Gay bill, saying (with the word gay in the bill), “You can’t talk about it without breaking the law.” We laughed a lot.

8. Cash’s comedy, inspired by George Carlin, is often satiric and politically pointed, tackling topics such as racism, religious fundamentalism, and the MeToo movement. It often reflects his progressive political outlook, contrasting it with his conservative upbringing and Southern cultural stereotypes.[11][20] He often uses shows as fundraisers for environmental and other causes. Bill Poteat of the Gaston Gazette noted that Cash’s skewering of southern conservatism can be sarcastic, “yet the humor is at its foundation gentle rather than confrontational.” Wikipedia

9. His brother Wiley Cash is a novelist. Vanity Fair jokingly dubbed him “the Justin Timberlake of American literature” after Cash was mistaken for the singer at Timberlake’s New York restaurant. Both brothers graduated from UNC Asheville near the same time my son Josh did. Cliff is set to perform at the Grey Eagle in Asheville on May 12.

10. For those who think voting for Democrats is the lesser of two evils, I say, “Shocking, but some of us think the idea that Democrats are the lesser of two evils could be what got us in this place. There is no comparison between the two parties and the Democrats are likely our best realistic tool against Trump/Maga/the bro-archy/corporate monarchy, but not if voters continue to blame Democrats for Trump getting elected (letting Russia /Fox News/extremism/bigotry etc. off that hook), not if they stay home because they think Dems are a corrupt evil. There’s a lot wrong in the world and a lot of reasons why. I personally don’t find it helpful to trash Dems. Don’t forget that the Dems are the ones that impeached Trump for Jan. 6th and trying to blackmail Zelensky, and the Republicans blocked it.

11. That’s my 2 cents and I don’t want to spend any more of my $energy on it.

12. Time has saved me a seat / and this rocker is where I landed / as if transported from a classroom / where I watch the clock / waiting for the last bell to save me / Now the look back is longer / than the look forward is / and I’m watching for a door / onto a bright inspiration / But the grey of winter / colors the quiet / and the squeaky wheel / drowns it out – Read This is a Test in its entirety HERE. 

13. Oh, Susanna: Driving to Dogtown to celebrate my friend Susanna’s birthday, I found myself singing the Oh, Susanna song and then imagining that all the people I saw parking or walking near Dogtown were also going to Susanna’s birthday celebration. -More HERE. 

__________Thirteen Thursday