Thank you Rod McKuen

Inspiration of the day is from one of my favorite poets whom I have rediscovered after so many years. As a child I used to read Rod McKuen’s poetry. He inspired me to dream of a world outside of Danielsville, Georgia. A world where I could laugh, dance, and sing without fear of ridicule or embarrassment. I used to dream of traveling to places like London or Copenhagen, or any number of exotic locations. I wanted to climb mountains and fly around the world. Because of his poetry I felt like the whole world was open to me and that I could do anything I wanted to do.

Then I grew up and went to college. There I was so busy reading required material that I had no time for poetry, at least not the poetry that spoke to me. Sure, I read the greats in literature classes but they didn’t inspire me half as much as Mr. McKuen did. As I was struggling to earn my degrees I stopped reading for inspiration and enjoyment. I lost the ability to travel in my mind and in time I lost the ability to dream.

Recently I turned 50. FIFTY. An age that I never thought I would see. As a child 50 was, of course, ancient. In my 20s fifty was the age I gave myself to accomplish my goals. I have to do, fill in the blank, by 50. 50 was the age where I would have a lot of money saved so I could take the six months it requires to hike the Appalachian Trail. 50 was the age when I was going to travel the world. Go around the world on an adventure to rival any of Michael Palin’s adventures. 50 was to be prime me time.

Of course even the best plans don’t always happen. What happened? Life. Economic booms and busts. Greed and Apathy. I spent 11 years working at a great job where I had a nice 401k retirement plan. I was well on my way to saving enough money to enjoy my life after 50 without worrying about how to feed myself. However, forces beyond my control had other desires. I worked at Remington Products which was owned by Victor Kiam. Mr. Kiam was an unusual business owner. Somewhere in all his interests and business deals he had a glimmer of respect for his employees. He rejected numerous offers to sell Remington to a company that would liquidate the company and put his employees out of work. Unfortunately he was mortal. In 2001 he died and the company was sold. Remington was liquidated and hundreds of people were out of work. The name still exists, you see the products in discount stores, and at one time an aging supermodel was doing commercials for the “company” but that’s all you get. A name. The people who made Remington a great company and a great shaver are gone. Now this was not unusual. Sadly it was happening to thousands of other people in this country during 2004 and it would happen to millions more in the next five years.

Back to Rod McKuen. Fast forward five years and I am sitting in Athens, GA, just a few miles from where I grew up. Just a few miles from the land that inspired me to travel and dream in the first place. Just a few miles from where my mother would make sure that I had every opportunity available to this small town kid. And the world comes around full circle. Today I thought about that wonderful book of poetry that I read so many times I knew each poem by heart. So, I searched for Rod McKuen online and found him. I found the words that used to inspire me. I found a little peace today. I found a safe place to land. I will be back. Thank you Mr. McKuen for inspiring me once again.

Finding Art in Every Day Life

Lunch. Organic beef on a whole wheat English Muffin with cheddar cheese and lettuce. Add a dollop (or two) of my favorite sauce and there's my mastepiece of a lunch.

Week in review

I can hardly believe it 's May already. Classes are ending and my friends who are graduating are starting to leave Athens. Everybody's excited about graduation and busy making plans.

One great thing about May is that the Farmer's Market opens back up. I am looking forward to having another way to purchase fresh produce. Tomorrow is the first day so we'll have to be early. I expect everyone to be sold out by 10 am.

Decided to work on my Etsy store this spring. I want to have some fun making magnets and working with upcycled, recycled items. Here's a pair of earrings I posted tonight. I have always been a baseball fan so spring and summer means watching the Diamond Dogs (UGA) and the Atlanta Braves. These would be fun to wear to the games.

Shelfari bookshelf

I found this cute little widget from Shelfari to display books. I am hoping it helps me with one of my goals this year which is to read more. Actually I started out with the goal of reading the "classics" whatever they were. Then I modified that goal. I think I have modified the goal more times that the number of books that I have read this year. Oh well. That's pretty normal for me.

Just finished reading The Little Guide To Your Well-Read Life by Steve Leveen. I have first heard about this book because I am a customer of his incredible store Levenger. It is THE STORE for anyone who loves to read. I used to love spending time in that store. Forget gold and diamonds, give me fountain pens and bookcases, not to mention the bomber jacket messenger bag. Now that I am back in GA I drool over his catalogs and the pictures on line. Hmmm. I really like Leveen's idea of developing your own List of Candidates instead of sticking to someone else's list. I am going to re-read his book and think about it some more but for now I decided to list some of the books that I've really loved over the years in the hope that they will inspire me today.

Rants for this week

This has been a tough week for us. My brother fell and broke his shoulder. It's been tough on him because he's so active and hates being unable to take care of himself. It's been tough on me because I'm trying to take care of his needs without being annoying and without insulting my big brother. So maybe my lack of sleep has made me less tolerant of some things.

I am so tired of movies and television shows that repeat the same old plots and act like it's new and original. Case in point is The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke. It has gotten rave reviews. I really like Mickey Rourke so I could hardly wait to see it. Since I work evenings there is only one night a week where I could have seen this movie in the theater. Boy am I glad I didn't. There wasn't an original scene in the movie. In fact the best part of the movie was the song at the end. Or maybe to paraphrase William Shatner in that Brad Paisley video, I like the ending. I liked when it ended. It was almost like a parody of sports movies. It's like the writer thought, let's see they haven't done this with a wrestler yet. Gratuitous nudity, lots of blood to show what? How gritty the business is? What lengths these guys go through? I am so glad I never got a chance to see it in the theaters. I would have been so disappointed.

Another case is actually almost anything on television. There's one called Tim Gunn's Guide to Style which claims to be based on a book Gunn and his co-author wrote. Actually it's a rip-off of the show What Not To Wear on TLC which is a bad copy of the BBC show of the same name. All three are tedious and boring. If you've seen one episode you've seen them all.

My last rant will be about that fake news network Fox News or as I've heard it called Faux News. I really don't understand how anybody can watch that network. I actually find myself feeling sick to my stomach when I listen to the drivel that comes out of the on air personalities. So it was frustrating to have to endure Fox not once but twice this week. First I had to sit in a waiting room at the Athens Diagnostic Center while I was waiting on my brother to have his "painless" CT done. Nothing is painless when you have a broken shoulder. Anyway since we were originally the only ones in the office I went to the window to ask if they could change the channel or turn down the sound. I wasn't able to ask because the receptionist answered the phone as she opened the window to talk to me. By the time she got off the phone there were other patients waiting so I was not going to ask. I probably should have. In fact the next day the television in the waiting room at the hospital was turned to the 700 club and thankfully someone else spoke up and asked if we could change that "depressing" channel. We were all relieved when another patient's relative changed it to Sanford and Son. My second Fox news encounter was at the Georgia Power Company offices where I was waiting to pay my light bill. I really shouldn't be surprised that I was subjected to Fox news at a medical facility and a utility company office. Both are overpriced and gouge the average American on a daily basis!!

Okay, there's today's rant. Maybe another day I'll talk aobut the "Hospitality parking" at St. Mary's or the emergency room at Athens Regional.

How to change the world

I stumbled upon this video while playing around on the bookcrossing site. I thought it was very inspiring. There's so much we can do to change the world if we would just do it. I know I have felt beaten down during the past five years. I have felt like there was no hope to stop the insanity, to save our freedoms, and our values. It seemed that the robber barons and the greedy political "leaders" had destroyed the world as I knew it.

Then someone comes along and with a few simple words reminds me that all is not lost. Hope does exist. Check this one out and see what you think.

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-change-the-world

More later,
Marie

Billy Powell

I just had to post a short note about the passing of one of my favorites, Billy Powell of Lynyrd Skynyrd. I've been a huge fan of the Mr. Powell and the whole group since my college days. His music has helped me celebrate some great moments in my life and lifted my spirits when things were rough. Lynyrd Skynyrd was a distinctive band because of Billy Powell's piano and the guitar combo of Gary Rossington and Allan Collins. I was thrilled to see them reunite with my favorite singer, Johnny Van Zant, as lead.

Although I never was lucky enough to meet Mr. Powell, he was a dear to me. His music helped me forget my troubles and truly has been a major part of the soundtrack of my life. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight.

Recycled book jacket gift tags.

This is my first project of the year. It's gift tags made from recycled book jackets. It's pretty simple. You just need a template for a tag, some decorative paper, plain paper for the back of the tag, glue, scissors, and string. I really like the designs. I just stamped "to and from" on the backside and used them for the holidays.

Image

Just a quick note to explain the image that I am using at the present. It's a photo that I took last spring. I wanted to catch the dewdrops on some buds and didn't even see the heart shape when I took the photo. This photo made me realize how much I miss every day. I am so concerned with things that don't matter and problems that I think are important that I miss the real beauty of each day and sometimes the love that is there. So I like to use this photo to remind me to slow down and really look around me.

Speaking of beauty. Here's a shot of my cat Annie. She enjoys sleeping under a blanket.

New Year New Ideas

I've always hated new year's resolutions. I always thought they were about what you don't like about your life or yourself and wanted to change. They were always so depressing and overwhelming. I'm gonna lose weight. I'm gonna get a better job, make more money. Yeah, right. I'm gonna beat myself over my failures was more like it. So I stopped many years ago.

Then along came 2009 and I guess I feel optimistic for the first time in many years. Maybe it was the election. Maybe it's the feeling that people are actually beginning to wake up. Maybe it's just hope. For whatever reason I've made ten resolutions this year. Then things I want to do. Then things to challenge me to be more creative and have a little fun this year.

1. 52 weeks of creativity.
I'm going to do something each week to try to jump start my imagination and creativity. This could be a project or an artist day.

2. Complete the Markeroni challenge. Logging 50 historical markers or monuments.

3. Reconnect with my cousins.

4. Read the Classics. There's a collection of Greek and Roman classics in the library where I work. I play to start reading them.

5. See all of John Wayne's movies.

6. Take at least one art class.

7. Go on a real vacation.

8. Utilize my blog more. Actually keep up with updating my blog and exploring other blogs.

9. Become more active in my community

10. Spend more time with my brothers

Okay, that should give me things to do and think about for a bit.