Cindy's Next Page
"There's no one to my knowledge that isn't surprised by longevity, including myself. But it's very dangerous to plan, because you are dealing with your vanity. Tomorrow is hard enough. It's God who gives you the freedom, and the days you should be most concerned with are today and tomorrow." Dylan, 1990
11/29/01: I remember watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 5th grade, 1963 I think. The girls in the audience were screaming; it was exciting, felt like I was watching something special happen. Most of the time those feelings are right. I miss John sometimes, and now we are preparing to miss George.
This world exacts a heavy toll.
11/30/01: Yes, it is true.
12/2/01: "There was no beginning, there is no end... If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there." Harrison song
"Silver web of time, gently spins and spins around us. Hear the rythym now, telling of the then, behind us. Love is in the now, easing my elusive time forever. Returing to forever. You and I are here, outside of the then, together. Now, 'til eternity, 'til eternity, you and I will be, You and I."
- from CD and song, Stanley Clarke, Journey To Love, lyrics by Stevie Geltman & Jill Steinberg.
Stanley Clarke web site (CLICK):
I have been reading some "old" books lately and including quotes from them. I had never read Moby Dick before and read it at the suggestion of my dear friend Craig- it was beautifully and poetically written by Melville and the quotes that I included on some of my earlier web pages gave me glimpses of ideas that I wanted to share, some of which were surprising to come from the early 1800s. I re-read one of my all time favorites, The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, and was once again taken by the descriptive narative. Now I have just finished another book I had never read before, Bound for Glory by Woody Guthrie. It is a semi-autobiographical work that painfully recounts his growing up in the plains states during the depression and dust bowl years. This is the quote I have chosen to include from Woody : "I believe that when ya pray, you're tryin' ta get yer thinkin' straight, tryin' ta see what's wrong with th' world, an' who's ta blame fer it. Part of it is crooks, crooked laws, an' jist dam greedy people, people that's afraid of this an' afraid of that. Part of it's all of this, an' part of it's jist dam shore our own fault." and "All of this talking about what's up in the sky, or down in hell, for that matter, isn't half as important as what's right here, right now, right in front of your eyes. Things are tough. Folks broke. Kids hungry. Sick. Everything. And people has just got to have more faith in one another, believe in each other. There's a spirit of some kind we've all got. That's got to draw us all together."
Some days are harder than others, and on hard days I sometimes want to turn back the hands of time, re-capture the simpler days of youthful teens and early twenties when I could think about only myself.
12/5/01: Today at work a friend and co-worker, Carol, came to share with me some trauma she had just encountered. Seems she has an older client who has been struggling with brain cancer for two years. Carol had been working to set up the client's daughter, who is in her mid 40s, as the client's paid care giver so the client could stay at home. The daughter was recently remarried and in the thick of life. Then Carol spoke with the client and was told that the daughter was just diagnosed with the same brain cancer. Today Carol was told that they had just turned off life support for the daughter.
Our work brings us in contact with some of the harsher realities of life, and on those especially illuminating days we vibrantly come in contact with the concept of time. On those days we remember how fleeting it all is, and then we move on, back to the mundane tasks of life. I think it was Winston Churchill who said that sometimes we stumble over the truth, but most of the time we just get up, brush ourself off and go on.
Witnessing peoples' lives is a gift; retaining the meaning of gifts is a challenge.
'Tis the season-
A Racoon Christmas