To the biggest of the big... to the smallest of the small, God's love for us says it all.

That's the full moon about a half-hour before sunrise... and if you look near the top of the photo, that little white dot cupped by the wisp of cloud; that's mars.

The moon is a mere 238,900 miles from us; about 24 times around the earth... not that far.

Mars is 29,438 million miles from earth; about 1.17 million times around the earth. It takes 22 minutes for the reflected light of mars to reach us. So in effect, when you see mars, you are looking 22 minutes into the past.

But if you consider, we are just a small dot, a mere planet in orbit around our sun, a star, which is one of about 100 thousand-million stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is one of an estimated 200 billion galaxies in our universe.

And if you've the mind for it, as far as is scientifically known, the universe continues without end. Imagine that! Now, if legendary Chuck Norris is so impressive, his tongue-in-cheek followers said that he once counted to infinity... twice, and we can believe one or the other, I go for universe without end. 

I would say that is BIG!

Now, about small: Scientific research shows that the human body has 37.2 trillion cells, most invisible but within the makeup of the body cells we can microscopically see. And (to match that Chuck Norris thing), it is ecclesiastically told to awe little kids, an infinite number of angels can fit on the head of a pin. If we can believe one or the other, I'll take the 37.2 trillion human body cells... because look what that has produced; every one of us now, then and forever, with all of our miraculous features and abilities. 

Since God has done all of this for us, how come we humans have seemed to mess it up to where we are today? It is because we have been blessed with free will! God has given us creatures free will to exist and go and do as his creatures in his world. Sadly, we haven't always done that well. Everlasting wars and conflict for sure, meanness and racism and intolerance and are human made... and give us room to do better, I suspect. 

Did Adam and Eve do all that? Maybe Eden should have been in Indianapolis. (Indian-Apple-less--get it?) 

It all comes down to what you believe... but no one has any better understanding as to how all of these miraculous happenings have come to pass. It is unfathomable to believe this started from nothing. We can hardly fathom the miracle of a tree (see below) let alone everything and us. 

Disclaimer: If you've read this far, you know where I stand and that not everyone in the world believes this or that. Some think the world is flat. Some believe there is no God. Some have different rites that focus on an alternative deity. Some believe science... or not. That really doesn't alter the facts: We, and all else exist, so there!

Personally, thank you God. (And to the infinite number of angles, forgive me for not choosing you.)

Bonus poem:

  NOW GO OUT THERE AND VOTE! 

The stupid button

The stupid button. We all have one. And it does not have anything to do with intelligence. A stupid button is more like a brain fart, but I couldn't find a picture of one of those.

A 2010 Harvard study found that the average person's mind wanders 47 percent of the time. Nearly half of your life, you're doing one thing and thinking something else. Compounding that, your distractions have more than quintupled (from 8.2 percent just last February to 35.2 percent in May, likely because of this pandemic and all it brings forward says research done by The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas... stuff we have never experienced in our lifetime. 

That's us on hyperdrive.

So what does that all mean? Well, it literally means we are not always paying attention to the matter at hand and we are more prone to brain farts and impulsive moments that often come with consequences.

A true story of one of those: A number of years back, my wife an I were on a vacation in our RV.  Pulling our car behind us one rainy dusk evening on our way to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, we started slowly up a steep incline. On the two-lane road, a car coming toward us crested the hill about 50 yards ahead. Then, out of nowhere, another car started to pass the oncoming car at high speed. I was driving and instinctively hollered "Oh oh, watch out." In a "life -passing-in-front-of-you" moment, I knew there were no viable options for us to get out of the way and I started to brake as hard as I dared while trying to control the RV and tow.

I watched helplessly as the passing car accelerated rapidly. The driver tried to complete the pass and overshot his lane. As he attempted to turn back he lost a tire and any control he might have had. He (and his pregnant girlfriend) T-boned the left front of our RV at high speed.

It was over in 10 seconds or less. 

Being a bigger/taller vehicle, the impact totaled our RV even bending the frame, and badly damaged our tow car, pulling us into a ditch on our left and pinning their car, on edge, between us and the hillside. The airbags and seat belts did their job and we came up shaken but not stirred. It all happened so fast that none of that mili-second was recalled until we pieced it all together in our minds. 

They died instantly as I would see. I leaped from our damaged but upright RV to offer help. I peeked down, into the driver's side broken window of the sandwiched car. One look told the story.

The police worked to comfort us saying that we, in fact, were the real victims. If we had been in a car, they said, we would also be dead. The driver was well known in the area, a speed demon and a 'hot dog.' They knew some day, something bad like this might happen. Sadly, the driver's spur of the moment brain fart cost three lives.

Perhaps not so strange in retrospect, the car being passed was driven by the victim's sister who was carrying the driver's first child, a two-plus year-old boy, safely in an infant seat in the rear. She rushed to the wreckage and seeing the carnage, screamed... then, in panic, hurriedly asked my wife to sit with the little fellow while she rushed up the hill to get cell service and call the parents. 

The little boy kept saying "poor man, poor man" as she sat with him. We were still trying to comprehend it all.

Studies prove no one 'multi-tasks' as good as they may believe they do. But most of us get by, thank God. 

Ever have a moment in your life when you realized 'that car' could have hit you broadside, or perhaps in a lightning storm, you were in the wrong place to be and still 'lived?' Maybe you forgot the name of the person just introduced to you 10 seconds earlier, or locked your keys in the car, or asked "When are you expecting?" when she wasn't, or trying to move the piano by yourself. What were you thinking? Oh, you weren't.

Social media platforms are ideal for brain farts. You post something and seconds later, wish you hadn't, but it is too late. Your brain fart will live forever. When was the last time that happened? Oh, five minutes ago? Good luck.

The reality is that brain farts are real and they have always been with us in big and small ways. General Custer made a Big Horn mistake of judgement and Napoleon met his Waterloo. Businesses often come and go on impulsive decisions.  In our every day world, we grab that first piece of too hot pizza, or open our mouths before we think and are surprised at the words that come out.

Ever have a pandemic and don't wear a mask or social distance? Sometimes you get burned or worse, someone else 'pays' your dues. Every brain fart has a consequence, though most, gratefully, are not consequential. When we lie, when we yell or cuss or are rude or worse... the bell has been rung and it cannot be unrung. 

Best we can do is be mindful... but even then, we are thinking of something else. All of us, wise or not, have a little 'Alfred E. Neuman' in us. "What, me worry?" Thanks to Mad Magazine for showing us what a brain fart looks like.

.

What does America want? America has spoken: It wants Brandon Leake!

With covid-19 wrecking havoc and forcing most of us to stay home, the chorus shouts "Thank God for television!" We know it well... and also every single repeated commercial that often insults ,which we blindly watch.

 Books? What are books compared to TV which frees up our hands for important stuff like nachos or popcorn or dinner on a tray in front of the television. Now that's living. Books can't do that.

TV does have some--ok, maybe one or two--redeeming values... like the Golden Buzzer of America's Got Talent.

 As someone who pretends not to watch, I occasionally peek at an open screen and find myself trapped between a rock and my wife. So naturally, tears were flowing as the 1 millionth season of AGT (as we aficionados like to say), ended by choosing the best of the best, the $1 million winner, by popular vote... a lyrical poet who doesn't even play an instrument, amaze with magic, shoot arrows at people spinning really fast, cracking a bull whip, flipping a yoyo or singing and dancing. Yes, admittedly, there really are great talents in many areas all over America. Really, there are. This time... the right time, it was Brandon Leake chosen the best.

Why is this really revealing of how much of America at this time, does think and feel this need. It is tender and touching and talented poetic prose by a young man whose talent won over every other form of entertainment, simply using the spoken word, and using it very well indeed.

He touched hearts when hearts needed touching. He reached into our souls to surprisingly bring tender feeling to the forefront. This, in our today world that is feeling anything but tender, we see conflict, anger, outrage, hate, hard feelings and hopelessness. Want to see/hear one of his winning pieces. Go here.

I guess America needed that. Deep down, we are still there. We still need stories so tender that make us cry or laugh, or remember... stories that evoke empathy and passion. I don't know about you but I go to bed too many nights feeling concerned and scared of what is happening. It is seldom win-win. It is mostly I win-you lose, haha. This isn't the promise of America... or anywhere. I'm more than just a little sick of the whole thing and want the real sun to com up tomorrow.

Years and years ago, in the early days of live television (no taping to get it perfect), there was a program called "Queen for a Day." I remember it being enormously popular because it featured women in real need of some of the simple things of life. This was a different time in America where many homes seemed to lack a refrigerator (rather than an ice box which was just what it sounds like) or other home essentials. It was a tear-fest of real woe. These were folks who had a difficult time putting food on the table. (Some things never seem to change.) And the host, Jack Bailey, would hear the stories and ask the questions. "So how old were you when your father lost his job... your house burned down... your best friend was hit by a car... the shark ate your baby... " 

At the end of the half-hour show, the audience would applaud as the host put his hand over the head of each woman. The applause meter (which was controlled by someone offstage offering a guess of the loudest) that would determine the winner--or, the most needy loser--and she would get a beautiful new refrigerator... or washing machine... or whatever she lacked, and be crowned on a throne-like seat, presented with a bouquet of roses and cry as the audience cheered. Bob Bailey would say. "You, Mary Smith, are QUEEN FOR A DAY! Then the audience of women would cry. There would be a song, not unlike the winner of the Miss America Pageant, as the program ended.

We are all in-tune for a story that touches our hearts but these days, there are too few of those, too many of the other kind that "shiver our timbers."Aye, matey!

                               VOTE!

A LESSON IN PERSPECTIVE: What makes you so different from Jeff Bezos? Don't we all put our pants on one leg at a time?

This is Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and a good many other things, and his ex-wife, Mackenzie Scott. We are just like them in a lot of ways... we breath, eat, sleep, bleed, etc.

But here's a test: If you are walking down the street and see a dollar bill on the sidewalk, what would that look like if you were Jeff Bezos? You see a dollar but he sees $850,000. He is so rich, he has $850,000 (or more) for every dollar you, average person, have. Imagine that!

Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world at $100 billion-plus. His ex-wife is in the picture because she is in the top 25 richest, worth a modest $36 billion. I'd call that a win-win divorce. So what's the secret everyone should know... if you want to be rich, marry Jeff Bezos... or his ex-wife.

Fact is, most of the very rich have made it themselves, thanks to our tech explosion and new ideas that spring from that. Hats off to the self-made. 

But this isn't about who is richest, it is about personal perspective... our view of life verses his or hers. 

• One mile to us is like infinity to space.
• One good meal a day is like everything to someone who is starving of hunger or dying of thirst.
• One roof over our head is like all the streets and places of the homeless.
• One ocean cruise to us is like all of those refugees trying to find safer grounds for their families and risk their lives at sea and elsewhere in the most unsafe ways for freedom.

It is not only that we are so alike as human beings but that we are so different when it comes to living within our body or viewing the world from our eyes. The world looks and feels different if you are poor or unhealthy or of a different race or place in the world. Try to understand that. Those without do not choose that path. Birthrights are not evenly spaced.

All of which brings us to a twisted Golden Rule: He/she who has the gold, rules. And with means comes opportunity that those less off do not have. 

The richest have experienced great financial gains in the last decade. The top 5 percent have grown by $4.8 million on average while the net worth of families in the lower tiers of wealth have lost ground, decreasing by about 20 percent from 2007 to 2016.

The Stock Market gains have benefitted the wealthy almost unilaterally as 84 percent of stocks are owned by the top 10 percent of the wealthy.

How can we be so alike and so different?

While it is so true that things like cancer, heart attacks, etc. and all of life's maladies don't care how much money or power one has. It's cancer for all. Money cannot buy happiness and health but it does make whatever life led, so much easier to manage with so many more options. The only thing poverty buys is more poverty. And that's how fast we are dividing.

Having money in abundance does come with options, and responsibilities, those less fortunate do not have.  To live in this world, we all have to be human beings and as such, owe each other common decency. If it were not for those who clean up after us, those who don't would have a real mess on their hands. Those who are ill need those who offer care. Those who own businesses need those who work, Those who seek education need teachers, and so on. 

Rich or poor, we have an interdependence to one another. If one group fails, we all fail, even if we don't realize that in the moment. Be mindful, the earlier America that set the stage was built largely on the backs of slaves. 

Biblically stated, the real Golden Rule says "That which you do to the least of our brothers, that, you do for me." Or simply, treat others as you would like to be treated...  fairly, with respect, with dignity, with empathy for problems that exist for them but not even close for you. 

While money tends to divide, humanity does not.

With all the divisiveness that is, 'today normal,' we really must do better, because THIS, is ridiculous.

Step 1: VOTE

Step2: STAND UP FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT STAND UP FOR THEMSELVES.

Step 3: LISTEN WITHOUT MALICE AND TRY TO SEE ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE.

Step 4: DON'T FORGET TO VOTE.

The world has, and always will have, bad actors. I guess we can blame Adam and Eve for that. But don't presume they are everyone that has a different path than you. 

Here's a story to share... a zen story with a good message.

It's a tale by award winning author/artist Jon J. Muth in this book, Zen Shorts, one of his many.

There are three beautifully illustrated stories in the book which was on The New York Times bestseller list for 41 months. This story, A Heavy Load, tells of two traveling monks who come across a young woman carried in a sedan chair. It makes my point.

"The rains had made deep puddles and she couldn't step across without spoiling her silken robes. She stood there, looking very cross and impatient. She was scolding her attendants. They had nowhere to place the packages they held for her, so they couldn't help her across the puddle.

"The younger monk noticed the woman, said nothing, and walked by. The older monk quickly picked her up and put her on his back, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other side. She didn't thank the older monk, she just shoved him out of the way and departed.

"As they continued on their way, the young monk was brooding and preoccupied. After several hours, unable to hold his silence, he spoke out. 'That woman back there was very selfish and rude, but you picked her up on your back and carried her! Then she didn't even thank you!'

"I set the woman down hours ago," the older monk replied. "Why are you still carrying her?"

That's Zen for you... whatever that is.

FYI insert: Zen is essentially a state of being at peace with your own thoughts, and being self-aware of your place in the universe, inconsequential (and simultaneously essential). After all, Buddha is not considered a god but the belief is that he achieved ultimate enlightenment through the process of zen meditation.  www.scienceabe.com >humans >what-is-the-concept-of-zen 

And yes, I work on mindfulness and do yoga but to rate my skill, if this were martial arts, my belt color would be toilet-paper white. But it is a rewarding mentality at any level. More of that here.

So here is the point: In today's world, conflict, angst and anger dominate the news and our lives it seems. That is so stressful, it hurts. Stress is really is not healthy for your body or mind. The most direct way to a better you is simple in definition--don't let things get to you--but so hard in practice and downright impossible, it seems at times. Well, that's why starting small is the only way to go. Even God didn't create the world in a day.

Stress is a one-way street. We carry so much on our shoulders that starts with conflict, angst and anger.

Here's another short story, one I know personally. I grew up living next to my maternal grandparents... Italian immigrants, wonderful people. My grandmother loved to shop, but never a driver, she took a streetcar (yes, it ran on rails) downtown at least once a week. Coming home at dusk one evening, she stepped off the streetcar and was hit by a driver not paying attention. She was hospitalized for a week or more to repair broken bones, but even after those healed, she was never the same. She died about six months later. I don't know what happened to the driver who hit her but it makes no difference. The damage was done.

My mother carried hate and contempt for the individual a long time after. She talked about it even to us kids. It seemed to eat her alive. Then, one day after talking with a friend, she had a revelation. She forgave the driver. She actually told us she forgave him, and from that moment on, my mom was herself again. The tension seemed to leave her body and she could laugh and enjoy life once more. We all saw it and marveled.

That is not an easy thing to do. It may even involve counseling or any other third party to 'turn the switch,' but the lesson learned is worth every effort. Depending on the severity of the issue, the memory of what happened will never leave but your reaction to it is remarkably healthier for you and all who love you.

So she stopped hating. Thank God.

The moral of both stories is that carrying contempt forward affects only one person... the person who carries contempt forward. The despised person has no idea nor does he/she care, one way or another.

One of the core values of zen (or mindfulness) is understanding yourself from a different mental perspective and practicing how you get there. If you click my link above or here  I'll tell you about an interesting, easy read book by ABC newsman Dan Harris called "10 % Happier" that made it simple for me to understand and take my first willing steps even if I wasn't sure I wanted to. What I liked most about this book is that Harris talks of his concerns and some skepticism about meditation/mindfulness up front and takes you through discovery and his proof. It was a really interesting down-to-earth read for people like me... and maybe you.
  

"With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good-street."

That 
was Dr. Seuss
(Theodor Seuss Geisel) talking. He left us in 1991 at age 87 but his simple logic has enthralled children, kids, young adults and parents. His colorful books took us from infants to adults. Perhaps no one has inspired young people more with fun and reason than him.

The question then is where do those youngsters and young adults have their own voice to be heard when they have their own thoughts, concerns and angst in these difficult covid-stained days? Our young are brilliant, if not yet enmeshed in a pre-shaped world that proposes to know it all for them.

What are their worries, fears, opinions and ideas? How do things look from their perspective? They have a big stake in the game and should have a voice. They should have answers. They should be heard.

Once a month The New York Times publishes a very impressive 12-page Sunday section exclusively for kids that is filled with everything in context with their world. The current issue, for example, has stories on juvenile detention at the border, the Coronavirus (of course), fossil preparation, masks, several features on race coupled with youngster submitted content on bias, prejudice, micro-aggression, privilege, culture, double standard, ethnicity, history, ethnicity, new school rules, quarantine hair, epic Sandwich ideas, contests, lots of Q and A and original content. It does not talk down to today's kids and is graphic-perfect for it's audience.

And kids have a say:

• "I belong in any room I enter, even if nobody looks like me."
• "Our generation speaks up for ourselves and for each other."
• "I want to be known for being funny or nice, not because of my race."
• "Why are they hating on other people because of the color of their skin?"
• "I feel like I can always do something and that is showing up for people.

It also carries an Editor's Note: THIS SECTION SHOULD NOT BE READ BY GROWN-UPS. It is inspiringly fresh in its perspective and hits the target of what kids want to know because they are involved big time.

There are grass roots efforts of the young reaching out to their peers. My favorite is the web page Covid Youth Project by Rio Baran, a bright young lady from Maryland who I know well. She is my granddaughter.

"Covid Youth Project creates a space for high schoolers to share their experiences as we go through this pandemic. Every story adds to a collective understanding of us teens with diverse backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives," she says. "By connecting through our stories, we can epithetically, kindly and fiercely move through this hard time. As the data accumulates, we can use it to help one another and self-advocate. History is made of stories. We have to make sure the world has a place for ours.

Click on the link and give it a listen.



"Yes, of course we are pretentious--what else is youth for?" Julian Barnes, author of Flaubert's Parrot and Man Booker Prize winner for The Sense of Ending.

"I'm not young enough to know everything." J.M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan

"Passion rebuilds the world for youth. It makes all things alive and significant." Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet

Birth, Death and Acts of God are the certainties of life. All the rest is up to us.

Charles Darwin

The scary part: That leaves living, dying and coping to define who we are and how wise, respected and valued we are to others as we co-exist through the rest of our lives. How will we cope? The danger signs:

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. It is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." Charles Darwin

In other words, the less we know, the more sure we know it all.  The more we know, the less sure we have all the answers, recognize the need to keep learning and have the capacity and desire to do so.


Birth is easy. We don't even remember. And death... to my knowledge, no one has ever made it out alive, so que sera, sera. (What will be, will be.)

"The dumbest are those who know it all." Malcolm Forbes

It is the 'Acts of God' (or nature if you prefer)... they define us. Think global warming. Ignore it if you aren't smart enough to read the signs, but our last 20 years have been, year after year, the warmest in all known history. The ice caps are melting and our poisons fill the air. At this time there are more than 8 billion people on earth. Just 200 years ago, we were only 1billion. We are projected to be 11 billion by 2100. You get the idea. Humans and increased technology extract their progress on the back of global litter and it is unwise to ignore. Call it global warming or not, the end result, without change, is upon us.

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." Epictetus (Greek stoic philosopher, 50 AD - 135 AD)

Pandemics have been a part of us since the beginning of time and they will continue as we fight our way to understanding the wise responses necessary to survive them. We haven't faired all that well.  There have been more than 5,000 United States covid-19 deaths just during the days of the RNA convention, for example--more than twice the number of casualties as at the Twin Towers-- and over 180,000 deaths to date and growing. We lead the world by a big number in that department. We are lucky technology is rapidly developing the knowledge and capability to advance medically, but we will be tested again and again.

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." Confucius

Hurricanes and tornados are growing more frequent and stronger. Forest fires are eating our lunch as conditions for their spread are more favorable for these 'Acts of God' every year. Will the wisdom of our leaders and the mass of humanity learn survival as our world spins faster under our feet? Old time comedian Groucho Marx was prophetic in his outrageous way: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.""

"Humility will teach you knowledge, arrogance will teach you ignorance. If you think you know it all, you have learned nothing." Thibuat (eminent Sanskrit scholar and noted philosophy professor, 1905)

We have found cures for many diseases that kill us, thank goodness, but that is a never-ending demand. Illness chases us as we learn to live with handicaps of body and brain.

Albert Einstein

"Any fool can know. The point is, to understand." Einstein, who also said "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

Then there are bad hair days and liars and haters and fixers and bribe takers and cheaters and con artists even before we include the biases of race and religion and political divisiveness, the poor and underprivileged, the rich who we empower so good can  'trickle down' and the underserved who catch far too little, the unbalance of wealth to opportunity (the top 10 percent richest own 84 percent of all stock) and the shrinking middle class, the homeless and uninsured, unable to help themselves, despite their efforts. to any great degree.

The humanity caveat: I have never doubted the overwhelming good of humankind that is universally seen and experienced. I believe it with all my heart.  But bad actors have far too great an influence, and a tacit immunity, for bad outcomes.

Are we the kind of smart this world so desperately needs or do we follow those who already know it all? The choices are always ours if we pay attention.

The art of the short story: A warning to long talkers and writers everywhere.

Note: One of my favorites written 5 years ago. Very pithy (look it up) and fun.

For Sale, baby shoes, never worn.


If done well, it may only take six words to write a poignant story. This one is credited to Ernest Hemingway.

As the story goes, Hemingway was lunching with fellow writers and claimed that he could write a short story that was only six words long. His pals doubted that was possible. Hemingway told each of them to put ten dollars in the middle of the table; if he was wrong, he said, he’d match it. If he was right, he would keep the entire pot. He quickly wrote six words down on a napkin and passed it around, then collected all the money.

Now all the world is not lived in a day, so short could mean lots and long could be few but the point is, get to the point before you lose the opportunity. Enough is just what it takes.

Mark Twain was known for his wit, among other things and he could put together a few pretty good sentences now and again. All of his quotes are fun to read and some of his quotes about writing offer a key to his success.

• A successful book is not made of what's in it but what's left out of it.
• One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.
• The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell together, as quickly as possible.

  

  Old lady screaming.

• Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.
• I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”
• It takes a heap of sense to write good nonsense
• The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.
• Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
• My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.
• I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.
• The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
• Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.  

He said one thing that so resonated in his time that it was repeated as often as it had relevance...
which is why it is still repeated today.

Larry Smith founded Smith Magazine in 2006. He started The Six Word Memoir project   in November 2006 in partnership with Twitter. It was a simple online challenge asking: “Can you tell your life story in six words?” It really caught on. Now more then 1 million Six-Word Memoirs have been shared across Smith Magazine sites and picked up by media around the world. It has proven to be an impressive teaching concept in schools and a team-building technique in the corporate world in getting to the core of conceptual thought.

Tweets and six-word submissions to the many Smith contests and challenges show humor, love, happiness, food, America, etc. succinctly and impactfully in just six words proving how simple it is to convey a feeling, idea, concept, question, emotion... It's a discipline that rewards by just getting it out there.

"Love bites. But so do I.
"We met over silverware and dysfunction."
"Only wine can save me now."
"Dispensing wisdom I do not have."
"I can always make myself laugh."
"Unplug for 24 hours and recharge."
"I'd pick you over french fries."
"Saw my mom in my reflection."
"Parenthood is a form of insanity."
"Wrote 2167 words today. Deleted 2141."

Then I read this book: How To Write Short. It's funny and smart... with lots of reasons why and examples that made it worth its cost. First lesson in the book is a keeper.

 Consider these documents:

• The Hipppocratic oath
• The twenty-Third Psalm
• The Lord's Prayer
• Shakespeare's Sonnet 18
• The Preamble to the Constitution
• The Gettysburg Address
• The last paragraph of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech

If you add up the words in these documents, the sum will be fewer than a thousand, 996 by my count.

Then you have the author's fun examples to illustrate what he is saying:

"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect." Steven Wright
"God is love, but get it in writing." Gypsy Rose Lee
"Ran out of deodorant midway, so one arm is Shower Fresh, the other is Easter Lily. This has the makings of a wild day." @phillygirl
"Santa has elves. You have Target."
"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."
"Where's the beef?"
"I like Ike."
"Just got a press kit in the mail from Gallo with a wine cork marked 'starter cork.' They obviously don't know me."
"Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly."
"If Jesus had been born just 40 years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses." Lenny Bruce
"The Hokey Pokey Clinic: A place to turn yourself around."
"I wish I were an Oscar Mayer weiner."
"If you live in New York, even if you are Catholic, you're Jewish."
"The baby just saw me naked. Now she knows where she got her thighs." @AuntMarvel
"Take my wife, please" Rodney Dangerfield
"Jesus wept."

Last paraphrase mine: 

God, grant me the serenity to accept the sentences I cannot change,
The courage to edit the words I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

MARCO!... POLO!

Marco Polo according to Geico

It's kinda stupid, right? But who isn't for a little stupid fun in the pool. Unless you are Mark Spitz, that's the whole idea.

But will it work in the supermarket? You'd be surprised.

I celebrated a milestone birthday a while back. No, it's none of your bee's wax, but anything to keep the birthday candle companies in business, and the people who love you always have a tough time coming up with a birthday gift when, after so many years, you have virtually everything you ever need. 

"How about a pair of funny socks... a pen, a cup, a book, a money clip, all with special messages? Bought him all those last year, etc. But what will we get him this milestone birthday?"

Confession: All my loving children and grandchildren 'hit it out of the park' because I LOVE all that  and the special thoughts that go with them. I am so blessed. But a few months back, daughter Jill and family took a new, sweet tack. She/they sent me a love note (before the lockdown, so adjust accordingly): 

"Hi Pop! Happy Birthday! Time is an illusion. Illusion's are beautiful! You are beautiful! here is a list of (secret number) things you can do for yourself this special year and forever."

• Take one full breath every time you put your keys in the car ignition.
• Go to a lecture, presentation,TedTalk, as you find them.
• Tell the sun thank you.
• Have a really long conversation with one of your dogs wen no one else is around.
• Smell the flowers, anywhere.
• Yell "Marco" in a grocery store and wait for a return, "Polo."
• Go for a walk in the rain. You could even wear boots and step in all the puddles.
• Next time you see a really, really fancy car and strangers are taking pictures of it, walk up to the driver's side door, go for the handle (but don't touch because you might set off an alarm) glare at the people staring... then tell them "Just kidding."
• Go on a picnic. If you have one of those baskets with a place for wind and plastic wine glasses, good on you. 
• Honk a code in a parking garage that demands other cars to answer. You know, "beep beep beep beep beep."... "Beep beep."
• Wear a cologne you used to wear.
• Put something off for good. Imagine 'garage sale,' then forget it.
• On a walk, wave to every car that passes.
• Tell someone that you love their glasses... or shoes. You get the idea.
• Get rid of a kitchen tool that is irritating, like a knife that doesn't cut well. Buy a new thing that is super high quality. Appreciate it every day.
• Greet every stranger whose path you cross with an acknowledging nod and smile.
• Send a piece of writing to one of your favorite magazines, something crappy at first maybe, just to get the hang of it, then start working on something really good.
• Make a Bolognese sauce and fancy yourself the most romantic creature on the earth. Smell the sauce as you cook.
• While you are at it, kiss your wife like that... romantic.
• Meditate for 10 minutes, 3 days in a row and then go outside and pick the first flower you can find and pretend like you just went to Woodstock and it was amazing.
• Tell a funny personal story you can share with someone one you have just met, like a waiter or someone changing your oil.
• Find awe in every sunset, blessed at every sunrise. 
• Have tea and crumpets, whatever those are.
• Get a fancy bar of chocolate for dessert one night. It should be expensive. Eat it slowly with red wine or coffee.
•  Be on the alert for any small and inexpensive, but meaningful gift for your love and/or anyone else you know it would mean something.
• Live fully
• Love desperately.

Oh, there are more... one for each of my years in fact, but those are preciously for my eyes only, filled with meaning. But the reality is that life always moves forward, not backward and those are the days and years that we have left to live fully and love desperately. Time's a wastin'!

Would you like to read more beautiful prose? This is daughter Jill's website. She is an incredible writer with her own sense of life and living that has few equals.

Her beautiful website and welcome: https://www.tangledbeings.com

Hello, my dears! 

I am Jill Constantino, a writer, a flower farmer, an anthropologist, a teacher, a mother. My family and I live on a small farm outside of a small town. We moved away from big jobs toward dreams that are as inspiring as they are elusive. We seek full lives with peaceful perfection, poetic love, and ferocious world-bettering engagement. But hawks eat chickens, plants smother plants, love becomes distracted and confused, and children grow up and away. I reluctantly embrace the sadness as I somewhat desperately hold onto the joy. 

I fret about time, the passage of which I know I am failing to fully appreciate, and the abrupt cruelty of mortality, the end of that time which will come faster than I can possibly imagine. Yet, I have so many stories of beautiful beings--botanical, animal, human, creatures that have become mine. I have cradled them protectively in my head for a while and now, I release them to you, in hopes that they carry us into the future.

Contact me:

​

jillcelesteconstantino@gmail.com

Once again, we lost a best friend. Our beloved yellow Lab, Abby, went to her real forever home a few days back.

Abby, age 13 years 8 months, our sweet little girl with a warm personality, left us after a long and loving life.

As every pet owner knows, that is no consolation to the reality that she is not beside our bed tonight or anyplace else where we shared our riches.

It seems ironic that given the healing and redemptive nature of these wonderful creatures, their life-spans are shorter than ours, so we pretend that one year equals 7 human years. Yea! Abby lived to almost 100... but it just doesn't seem that way.

Every pet owner knows that if this is the price of love, so be it.

Abby and Tess

She now joins her sister Tess, who we lost just eleven months ago. What a dynamic duo they were, both therapy dogs going regularly to the hospital and Hospice House. The two were also members of HOPE Animal Assisted Crisis Response serving so many people at national disaster relief service for six years.

Abby's Story: She was always a joy but she drew the short straw in personal health and good luck. She was a competitor and absolutely adored Agility, but before her first competition, she pulled an ACL. On the first day of release after surgery and months of recovery, she charged around our house with glee... and came back limping with another ACL on the opposite leg.

She was our champion dock diver and no dog could match her speed in the water to retrieve a thrown 'wubba.' 

She had three ACL surgeries then later, cancer. When that was taken care of, she suffered SARDS (Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration) causing permanent and irreversible blindness. In days her sight was gone... and so was her incredible confidence. That was four years ago when her life changed dramatically. It broke both of our hearts.

She loved her special walks down 'Abby Lane'--a path through the woods we named for her--which connected to 'Africa,' another journey in tree-lined underbrush where deer were plentiful and we were always on the look-out for lions and elephants. She knew those paths by name and smell. 

Then, as she aged, her hearing diminished. Through it all, we still shared joy and love... until this past week when she had the stroke that took her legs. She was definitely a champion in our lives.

Lily

Now it is up to Lily, our six-year-old Labra-Dane therapy dog, to fill all those roles. Thankfully, she is up to the job.

Is there another dog in our future? Why do we keep having these golden retriever dreams? Best answer: we'll see.


Abby, we will always miss you. Always. Go run now with Tess, Alix, Gretchen, Hershel the cat (or not), Hagar and Snert! We'll see you later in a more perfect place.

What time is it? What day is it? I have no idea.

It is exactly some- thing o'clock. Yes, I'm sure!

Of all the changes in our lives these past months-- self isolation, working and/or schooling at home, virtual this and virtual that, wearing a mask (You are, aren't you?), changing world--I really don't always know what day it is by date or name and often lose concept of time.

Those skills are leaving us because time itself is lost. We do seek comfort recalling what used to be and being reminded of what we still have.

For comfort, we look to the Arts. The arts are timeless and offer keys to our salvation. Paintings, like 'Melting Watch' by Salvador Dali, shows the vagueness of time itself.

We only have to look at Norman
Rockwell's "Happy Birthday Miss Jones" to reminisce and wonder when, if ever, something like this will happen again.

(God bless our teachers!)

We know that the world is a very strange and different place now, we see it and feel it in Hieronymus Bosh's work, 'The Garden of Earthly Delights." (showing one of three panels which is enough to show 'very strange and different.' in this expansive and graphic work made small on purpose.

Seeing Rock- well's vaccin- ating doctor, we take comfort in the realization that we too may soon have a 'get out of jail' card up our sleeve... but not real, real soon. (A shot in the arm though, right?) When we have that, it is anyone's guess as to how long it will take for all those who desire, to be vaccinated, ("a-one and a-two and a doodly doodly do...) and will that be enough?

Meanwhile, much is also happening on medical treatments that could lessen the effects and provide a covid-19 recipe for recovery. The catch is, you have to get it in the first place.

Will you be in line to aggressively fight this monster?


As reality sets in, we must take comfort where we find it. For many, that is a warm cup of soup on a cold day... or a cold cup of soup on a warm day, though that does sound less appealing, but bear with me so I can use Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Tomato Soup" art which is valued at $11.7 million... no cheapskate me.

Finally, we seek comfort that our President is "cognitively there" when we need him... and he assured us that he is. Repeating for us what he just said is Sarah Cooper.

We have nothing to fear but fear itself. God help us!

We have bats in our belfry! Lucky us.

As crazy as that may seem, we ARE NOT crazy (Oh, you want proof?) but we do have bats.


Backstory: Upon retirement a while back, we moved to our forever home (we hope) on a lakefront in North Carolina. When friends would visit, they marveled that we seemed to have no mosquitos, which we don't, thanks to a multitude of bats.

Bats are curious creatures to say the least. As fable has it, Count Dracula could morph into a bat and bite unsuspecting persons causing them to become zombies. Having seen lots of bats close-up and never, to my recollection, seeing a zombie in human or mosquito form, I figure those bats must be eating the mosquitos.

Bats are the only flying mammals, capable of true and sustained flight. They are nocturnal and incredibly adept at devouring mosquitos. In Austin, Texas, a popular tourist attraction is the home of 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats under the Congress Avenue Bridge. At about dusk, as crowds watch, the bats venture out en-mass on their nightly quest for mosquitos, often ranging as far as 25 miles before returning home by dawn. It is an enormously interesting and beautiful sight.

Bats leaving from under the bridge on their evening search for food

Back to my story: So this morning, about 5:15, as my wife and I sat on our second story deck with a wakeup cup of coffee, we had our own bat show.  In the pre-dawn light we were treated to the dark shadows of hundreds of acroBATic creatures flying circus-like routes of loops, dives and swoops toward us as if for our entertainment, sometimes encroaching three to four feet into our space, for 45 minutes or so.

Bats leaving from beneath the bridge

While bats are not blind, they have a refined 'radar-like" sense that lets them fly with tremendous agility at great speed, avoiding obstacles, each other and us as they hone in mid-flight on mosquito after mosquito.

Then, at the sound of a bird's call, they just disappeared, figuring perhaps it might be a good time to go hang upside down for the day.

Isn't nature spectacular in every way?
 

How bad was Jefferson? Maybe not a bad as we think, but it is a nuanced path for sure.

Thomas Jefferson

"History is written by the victors," said Winston Churchill, on how the story is told.

Our history has one of our 'founding fathers' and writer of The Declaration of Independence  as a slave owner.

So do the statues stay or go?

My last blog post on Hamilton, the musical,
 asked how a man who wrote "... all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights,  that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... " could also be a slave holder?

Was Jefferson 'two-faced' or is there a little more to be understood? Continuing, Jefferson wrote the clause that seemed to mandate the eventual abolition of slaves:  "... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles."

Here is a most interesting elaboration on how Jefferson might have 'pulled it off, ' byDon Tortorice, a former attorney and professor of the Law School of the College of William and Mary as it appeared in The Pilot, a newspaper in Pinehurst, NC. just last week. It seems to put the opposing elements of Jefferson's story in a modifying light.

Should Slave Owner Jefferson Be a Hero?

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Those are the transcendent words that begin the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson. But was he a true American Hero? Does he deserve the major monument building created in his honor and superbly visible to all as they cross the Potomac into Washington, D.C.?

Let us consider some facts that can be assembled about the man. He owned more that 600 people over the course of his life and profited directly from the institution of slavery. It is also contended, with convincing evidence, that he fathered a number of children with one of those slaves. 

Just stopping here, we might conclude that he was no hero, but just another enslaving despot who should have the historical cloak of heroism snatched from his back. But if we look closer--if we look broadly with an eye that is not only critical but discerning and circumspect--a singular conclusion becomes more difficult.

At the time of the American Revolution, Jefferson was actively involved in legislation that he hoped would result in slavery’s abolition. In a draft of the Virginia Constitution (actually the second draft he submitted on June 13, 1776) he would have prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans.

Then again, on June 18, 1779, he proposed an ordinance that would ban slavery in the Northwest territories. Admittedly, in a sea of complacency, he always maintained that the decision to emancipate slaves would have to be part of a democratic process.

Abolition would be stymied until slave owners consented to free their human property together, in a large-scale, orchestrated act of emancipation. To Jefferson, it was contrary to the principles of the American Revolution for the federal government to enact abolition by forcing planters to free their slaves. He knew that realistically, it would never happen.

But in a preserved letter to Thomas Cooper on Sept. 10, 1814, he continued to describe slavery as a "moral depravity" and a "hideous blot," and in another to William Short on Sept. 8, 1823, he voiced  the opinion that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of the American nation.

Jefferson consistently espoused the opinion that slavery was contrary to the laws of nature, views that were radically liberal in a world of Southern states where slave labor was the norm and reality was that slavery was becoming more economically entrenched. The slave population in Virginia skyrocketed from 292,627 in 1790 to 469,757 in 1830.

Jefferson had hoped that the slave trade would weaken, and slavery would come to an end. Instead, slavery became more widespread--and profitable. In an attempt to erode Virginians' support for slavery, he discouraged the cultivation of crops heavily dependent on slave labor, specifically tobacco and encouraged the introduction of crops that needed less field labor, such as wheat, sugar, maples, short-grained rice, olive trees and wine grapes. But by the 1800s, Virginia's most valuable economic asset was neither crops nor land but slave labor.

Jefferson's belief in the necessity of ending slavery never changed. From the mid-1770s until his death, he advocated the same plan of emancipation. First, the trans-Atlantic slave trade would be abolished. Second, slaveowners would "improve' slavery's most violent features, by bettering--Jefferson used the term 'ameliorating'--living conditions and moderating physical punishment. Third, all born into slavery after a certain date would be declared free, followed by total abolition. 

Like others of his day, he supported the removal of newly freed slaves to the lands of their origin. However, the unintended effect of his plan was that the goal of 'improving' slavery, as a step toward ending it, was used as an argument for its perpetuation. Pro-slavery advocates after Jefferson's death argued that if slavery could be 'improved," abolition was unnecessary.

Jefferson had written that maintaining slavery was like holding "a wolf by the ear. We can neither hold him, nor safely let him go." He was concerned that his cherished federal union, the world's first democratic experiment, would be destroyed by slavery.

To emancipate all slaves, immediately, on American soil, Jefferson feared, could result in a large--scale race conflict that could be as brutal and deadly as the slave revolt in Haiti in 1791. But he also believed that to keep slaves in bondage, with part of America in favor of abolition and part of America in favor of perpetuating slavery, could only result in a civil war. It did, and the result was more young America deaths that any other war we have ever fought.

Our forefathers should have listened to him--early on--from the beginning. He was right. I submit that his monuments should stand."

Disgracefully, total slave population in America was estimated at 6 million-plus. So it was slave owner Jefferson who foresaw and laid the legal groundwork for their ultimate freedom from slavery. How twisted is that? 

My name is Hamilton... Alexander Hamilton.

It's been 5 1/2 years since Hamilton debuted on Broadway and the world is still agog over it's magnificence. 

It was a happy chance for those of us who haven't seen--or couldn't afford to see--the stage play, now to view it in film format on Disney +  (Disney Plus). It was released just weeks ago, before it's planned release a few year later, as a covid-19 'treat' to take our minds off these really difficult times. Thank you!

The filming was during Hamilton's original run with Lin-Manuel Miranda who conceived and wrote

Lin-Manueal Miranda

the whole thing, and the entire first cast, so what you see is what those paying thousands of dollars a ticket saw... except better. With multiple cameras and sound mics, we saw close-ups and critical dramatic angles that those in the theater couldn't see or hear as well.

But really, the theater has all the personal drama and crowd effect, so maybe it's a draw. Yeah, there is a lot to say about 'in-person' and being a part of theater history. But that doesn't diminish the awe of seeing and appreciating it in any format.

Here is what happened as this play came into being:

The score for the show is all hip-hop, the genre that, like it's second cousin, rap  had found musical footing across the world... except for those "not getting it." (read older or heard of hearing.) Hamilton seemed to change all of that as the lyrics were fresh and historically relevant, just the way we were taught in school, but better.

The way it is performed is upbeat and familiar. The music 'caught on' and was embraced by the young in age and spirit. In fact, those in middle school and older fell in love with it. All of my grandchildren knew every word of every song and they sang them over and over, performed them for friends and family and learned history as it had never been taught before.

The Hamilton cast album quickly sold more than 450,000 copies since its release, more than any other since Jersey Boys years earlier. Those who couldn't or didn't want to listen to hip-hop before Hamilton came to realize what a wonderful genre it was for this show. It raise our spirits. We 'got it!'

Music has always had that power. Before there was the written word, it was music in one form or another that carried tales, legends and history forward. Music has retention in ways words spoken and written do not.

The trick of Hamilton and hip-hop is how rhyming is made to work for any story told. It is not by rhyming 'moon' and 'spoon' or 'love' and 'dove.' That would be far too limiting.

The Wall Street Journal  gave a really interesting and simple rhyming synopsis on Hamilton:

There are perfect end rhymes:   A staple of song and poetry is perfect rhyme. In a perfect rhyme, the vowel sounds and consonant endings of two words are identical, as with the words “squalor” and “scholar” in the opening song.

There are internal rhymes:  The “squalor” and “scholar” rhymes land at the end of lines. But this pair also rhymes with syllables in the middle of lines, such as “impoverished.”

There are imperfect rhymes:  Most of the rhymes in this verse are imperfect—the matching sounds are not identical. For example, “Scotsman” and “dropped in” aren't perfect rhymes, but they partially rhyme because they share similar vowel sounds and consonant endings.

And when hip-hop works best--as in Hamilton--different rhyme schemes, well written phrases with the right emphasis and pacing within the framework of an ingenious scrip make for what works. And my, how it works.

A couple of historical notes:

Remember when Lin-Manuel Miranda tried out his first song for Hamilton in 2009 at the White House for President Obama and family? He tepidly told The President that he was going 'off-script' with a new idea for a play about Hamilton. He received a few polite laughs as if he was kidding, then debuted what was to become the opening number of the play, to the great satisfaction of those present. Six years later, no one was politely laughing because they were too busy applauding.

Hamilton, the play, is a credible historic depiction of actual happenings, however, the real people did not hip-hop and dance like in the play. But the story performed is historically close.

That being said, Thomas Jefferson, who was the primary writer of  The Declaration of Independence, was a slave holder. This was odd in that The Declaration he wrote states "... all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights,  that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness... " I guess Jefferson meant eventually.

Jefferson was a masterful writer but his character, according to Smithsonian Magazine, lagged somewhat behind. He did write further, continuing in The Declaration of Independence, "... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles."

Technically we did that, though we are still far from done in more meaningful ways and must continue the journey to completion. As our Constitution mandates we do! 

Perhaps the best reflective counter-balancing to slave ownership is that Hamilton is the creation of Lin-Manuel Miranda of Puerto Rican descent and mixed parentage, along with the participation of some of his close collaborators. The original cast, though not by intent, is predominately people of diversity in the various roles including Hamilton, Washington and Jefferson himself, reflective of America then and as it always has been, whether acknowledged or not.

Washington was also a slave owner but at his death, he ordered all to be free.

How can I see Hamilton? It is only streaming on Disney + (Disney Plus) and available for about $7.50 (tax included) which is the fee for one month on that premium channel. Your subscription will continue unless you cancel, which you can do without penalty. You will not be able to see it if your first month is a free trial. You have to commit to at least that first month. And who knows, maybe you and your kids will love what is offered. One tip: turn on the captions when watching. It will help catch every word.

It you 'are into it' as so many are, you may want to get the ultimate book on the words and making of the stage show, scene by scene, and so many other photos and insights on the trials and tribulations of the birth of this spectacle, from original thoughts to the final product. It is "Hamilton: The Revolution" written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter. I forget the cost but it is worth it if you love this play and want to know more as so many have.

PS: King George III kind of steals the show.