December: Joy to the World...
Mending Life

Life moves on, we discover new things and we rediscover old things in a new way. Sometimes moving on is scary. That is ok, many of the best lessons that life has given to me have required a lot of me. C'est la vie. It is the life. It is good.

Give what you have- to someone it may be better than you dare to think.- Longfellow

Last month Jay took me to a wine tasting at the Rexville Grocery- a vintage 1950s corner gas station/grocery located between Conway and La Connner. It is a cool place! Click on the picture to link to a PI article. As their sign says, they have foods galore- lots of local stuff and stuff from around the world that you haven't even dreamt of. The wine tasting was fun, with some great wines, and there were cheeses, organic meats, desserts and other things to sample- the place was packed and everyone enjoyed themselves. Next time you're up that way stop by- yes, you will like...

Well, Will checks out my page every day (so he says) and he has been patiently, or impatiently, waiting for Cindy to include one of his pictures that she took on her recent trip back to Michigan. I have been very busy, working on my tumbling skills on the stairs, exploring Mount Vernon, feeding Carol so she didn't starve in the hospital, and coming up with new job locations... some of you know what I am talking about.

I have not gotten to my project of putting up my pictures from my trip or from our birthday luncheon in November, but first things first... So here is the famous Reverend Will, my old buddy who I last saw the spring of 1974 before seeing him Friday November 8, 2002 when he and his wife graciously took me out to dinner and then took me to our old hangout, "Vic and Billie's", where our parents did not want us to be way back when.

Will still looks the same and remains the kind, sweet guy he always was. Later man...

Finally...

The wait is over and the Michigan pictures are done and put on a page of their own, a room of their own.

Come one, come all- click on the Eaton Rapids sign and see the gang!

The future is purchased by the present.- Samuel Johnson

The movie Solaris is out and I am recommending people go see it, if not for its great science fiction/phlosophy content, then at least to see George Clooney's bare butt...

The book Solaris was written by Polish author Stanislaw Lem mid last century. It was released as a Russian film in the early 1980s. Lem fans were skeptical about this American version, but most are pleased with the outcome, even though it is different from the earlier version. If you click on the Clooney film poster it will take you to a movie site, and if you click on Mr. Lem's picture it will take you to a site about the author's writings.

Very early in life I knew that the only object in life was to grow.- Margaret Fuller

The highest reward for man's toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it."- John Ruskin

What is the message of the film? What does it mean? Like all science fiction/phlosophy films it is abstract. Its message resonates within each of us according to the internal process we are going through in becoming our self. I read some of the literary writings about Lem's works and if you click on the "encounter" picture below it will take you to a relatively recent interview of Lem, in which he seems mistaken about the message of his own works... The cool thing about abstract art, be it books, paintings, photos, poetry, or movies, is that not only the beauty but the message is in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps in the mind's eye of the beholder. Actually just about everything of importance in life is abstract, and we each individually extract meaning from all of it as we will. Thus is the unreal nature of reality. The movie clearly is about intense and meaningful interpersonal relationships, particularly love relationships. It might also be about how our thoughts shape our reality, or about how much we control our own thoughts, or about life after death, or about politics, or about human vulnerability, or about the meaning of life. My daughter Carrie very matter-of-factly informed me several months ago that the meaning of life is different for each person. I know that she is an old soul so I have to take her word for it.

Insomuch as love grows in you, so in you beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.- St. Augustine

Go to the movie with someone you care about, and enjoy!

On my November page I had put a picture of Rodin's sculpture "The Kiss"; finally I am coming back to say something about that. I love Rodin's work. Check out his picture- isn't he intense looking? Ah, those French... who would guess that I am half French? No one, that is for sure.

(If you click on Rodin's picture it will take you to the site of the Rodin Museum in Paris)



Rodin's more famous sculptures are "The Gates of Hell" and "The Thinker". Above is a small version of "The Gates of Hell" and if you click on it you will go to a larger version so you can see more detail. And if you click on the picture of "The Thinker" it will take you to an art archive site. The "hand of God" image to the right also links, to an educational "Web Museum" site.

Rodin's work is intense and realistic. When he exhibited "The Age of Bronze" in Paris in 1877 it caused a stir because critics could not believe that he had not used a casting of a live model.

TO BRING FORTH ART IS A CALLING MOST SIMPLE AND SEVERE, BUT AT THE SAME TIME A DESTINY, AND THUS GREATER THAN ANY OF US, MORE POWERFUL, AND IMMEASURABLE TO THE END.- Rainer Maria Rilke, on Auguste Rodin, 1922

Look and enjoy...

"A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth."
- Robert Frost

The painting at left is by John William Waterhouse, entitled "The Crystal Ball".
Click on it to go to a site about this artist... enjoy!

Well, I have started working at my new/old job- back in Everett. It has been a funny, funny year. Hilarious, as a matter of fact.

What is life coming to? Since when do people leave a workplace enmasse, and then return in a similar fashion? And, yet, it is fitting.

I used to be digusted, now I try to be amused.- Evlis Costello

Yet again, more evidence it is, indeed, as John Prine sings- "It's a big 'ole goofy world".

Click on the tattered flag for a site sent to me by Andrea...



Those who are at war with others are not at peace with themselves.- William Hazlitt

AND SO IT IS CHRISTMAS...

Let's Hope It's A Good One...


The holidays, family, friends, time, life. I hope everyone gets a chance to stop and reflect- it is the best thing to do on these holidays, these days of meaning. We have filled them with so much of what is not important that it is once again hard to connect to life.

We all get e-mail jokes and stories; many are not worth our time, some are interesting. Here is one Doreen sent to me recently:

The story goes that some time ago one Christmas Eve a mother punished her 5 year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and she became even more upset when the child pasted onto the gold paper so as to decorate the box to put under the Christmas tree.

Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift box to her mother the next morning and said, "This is for you, Momma." The mother was embarrassed by her earlier over reaction, but her anger flared again when she found that the box was empty.

She spoke to her daughter in a harsh manner, "Don't you know, young lady, when you give someone a present there's supposed to be something inside the package?"

The little girl looked up at her with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Momma, it's not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was full."

The mother was crushed. She fell on her knees and put her arms around her little girl, and she begged her to forgive her for her unnecessary anger.

An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. Tthe mother kept that gold box by her bed for all the years of her life. Whenever she was discouraged or faced difficult problems she would open the box and take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put them there.

In a very real sense, each of us, as human beings, have been given a golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and even strangers.


Last week at work I went to see an elderly woman. Her daughter and son-in-law were present and the love and caring they shared for each other was striking. During the course of the interview I asked about her other children and she explained to me that she had had two sons and the one daughter, that one son lived in California and the other had died in an auto accident at the age of 26. Her husband had been out of town dealing with issues regarding his own elderly parents and they did not want to burden him with the news, so the two remaining children and her waited for him at the airport. When he saw all of them there he immediately knew that something was wrong. She helped to raise that son's child. She cried softly as she spoke of these things, not in unresolved grief, not seeking pity, but simply cried for the loss she felt and will continue to feel for all of her days.

I remember the scene from a movie that I do not know the name of, with an older Kathryn Hepburn in it, and that scene has become part of my psyche. The movie was about her relationship with the man she married, their wild young years and the years that followed. One day they were at an ocean beach and they were preoccupied with taking a picture or something with their daughter and told their son to go play, to keep himself busy. When they stopped later to look for him, he was gone. They spent days looking for him, encouraging the searchers to continue. Later the couple, now in their 80s, were at the beach and they spoke of that thing that they shared, and the husband choked as he said, "I still miss that boy". We do not always appreciate how very much our children, family and friends are a part of us, of who we are.


Time flies... Be Here Now.

Today is the day.


Every moment is part of the whole that we are creating.- Hazelden Meditations

We are so lucky to be alive, to get to experience these incredible emotions that color our lives and our selves. I am so incredibly lucky to do the work that I do, to get to peek inside the lives of so many people who grace me with their experiences, their lives, their selves.

And so I end with a poem shared with me by Jay, who colors my life these days that are now.
By Gerard Manley Hopkins:

Felix Randal

Felix Randal the farrier, O he is dead then? my duty all ended,
Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome
Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some
Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?

Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended
Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some
Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom
Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended!

This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears.
My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,
Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal;

How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,
When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,
Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!

FINALLY!!!

Cindy has been slow to post pictures the last couple of months, but now they are here: pictures from Barbara's going away party, pictures from my birthday lunch (oh, yeah, and Thomas'), Thanksgiving pics, and pictures from the Seattle unit Christmas Party...

CLICK ON THE WORK JOKE TO GO TO THE PICTURES.... AND ENJOY.

Adapted (liberally) from an e-mail...

BETTER WITH AGE

Things Learned in Childhood:
I liked my teacher because she cried when we sang "Silent Night".
When I wave to people in the country, they stop what they are doing and wave back.

Things Learned as Teens:
If you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up.
Although it's hard to admit it, I'm secretly glad my parents were strict with me.

Things Learned as Young Adults:
Silent company is often more healing than words of advice.
If someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it.

Things Learned in Adulthood:
Brushing my child's hair is one of life's great pleasures.
You can make someone's day by simply sending them a little note.

Things Learned in Middle Age:
There are people who love you dearly but just don't know how to show it.
No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
Regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die.

Things Learned Moving On In Age:
Life sometimes gives you a second chance.
If you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.
Whenever I decide something with kindness, I make the right decision.

Things Learned in Old Age:
Every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch-holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I still have a lot to learn.

There is no ache more
Deadly than the striving
to be oneself.- Yevgeniy Vinokurov

CLICK for ongoing writings/quotes from JUDITH VIORST'S book: Necessary Losses
(Last Added to 12/29/02...)

If you have comments on my topics or content, please send them to me at:

Comments received from responding humans and my responses can be accessed by clicking on the picture of Ken's 1962 Wheel Horse Garden Tractor at left; Ken was the originator of the idea for this...

Music: Click on Lips (Should be loaded about the 3rd try...) John Mayer, from "Room for Squares", "Your Body is a Wonderland" Page Created December 2002