You Rock

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.

– "The Essential Rumi"

 

 

While walking down a street in Huntington, Long Island, Billy Joel stumbled upon an old piano set out on the street to be thrown away.

 

Ever "The Piano Man," Joel stands at the piano and pounds out a rag-time tune. 

 

 Man, you ROCK! That was one swinging piano.

 

To the untrained eye, that instrument was useless.

 

But "The Piano Man" knew better.

 

He said it was perfectly good—just needed a new finish and a tuning to come back to life.

 

 

I wrote that into my blog, The Best Damn Writer's Blog on the Block, a couple of days ago.). I used Joel's philosophy for a couple of my books, taking old worn-out content and giving them new life.

 

https://www.bestdamnwritersblog.com

 

And now I'm here on this Tuesday, determined to meet my deadline—a self-imposed deadline, nobody has my feet to the fire. And although I want to post positive content, I'm not feeling positive today.

 

I woke up this morning at 4 A.M. What time did I go to bed? 11:30, that's not much sleep. No wonder I'm loopy. I suppose everyone hits a slump once in a while. (Abraham says, "Pet your cat. Take a nap.”) The cat is right beside me. I just gave him a stroke which made me feel better. My little dog is at my feet. Bless her heart. They get up when I do. 

 

I'm still slogging through my Real Estate Training—going through Oregon Real Estate Laws is enough to fry the brain. As I add hours onto my already completed, 111.18 out of 150, I feel that the early information is slipping away. But hey, they taught me about the foundation footing, sill plate, floor joists, framing, roof joists, ridge board, interior and exterior sheathing, siding,—I thought I was going to sell houses, not build them, but really, I like building houses, planning them, not carpentry—that's my daughter's forte'. (See, we're going to be a team—two Real Estate Agents for the price of one.)

 

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon at the DMV office getting my driver's license renewed. I was concerned about the vision test, although it was a breeze. See, I have test anxiety already. When I took vision training years ago, they said taking the DMV vision test without glasses declared us with 20/20 vision. I don't know if that's true, for the test has gotten simpler. My concern was that I've had cataract surgery between DMV tests. I highly recommend Interocular lens replacements. My vision is great! With my new lens the world became clear, sharp, and beautiful. Bless those researchers, doctors, inventors. 

 

When I woke up this morning, I was trying to remember how many years I had gone away for my birthday. It's coming up this weekend. Maybe that's adding to my melancholy—like what have I not accomplished so far? Isn't that a shame that we use those milestones to set ourselves up for disapproval? My daughter just said (yes, she got up too) that she feels like a kid inside, but others are treating her as older, and now she's feeling it. Hey stop it, I'm 32 years older than you.

 

A trip will clear my brain. My darling niece will be visiting me. I will come home enlightened. (Lighter?)

 

I'm out of here.

 

Love to you,

Jo

Windows

Can you believe this? Some 400 years before Jesus was born, a man said this:

 

“Someday, in the distant future, our grandchildren’ s grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge.” 

 

--Plato (PLATO’S DOCTRINE: 909 Relics of Greek Philosophy).

 

 

Reality is so compelling. It has so much momentum going it’s hard to stop or change direction. 

 

Brother, are you having a problem with life these days?

 

 Maybe it’s just me.

 

I was cruising along pretty well, not worried, then I felt something was bearing down on me. Yes, I know better. I know that when you are resonating with the good, you feel good. When you focus on the dire, the dangerous, the sick, you feel down, depressed, complaining, or just off-kilter.

 

So, how do you lift yourself up when something knocks you off-kilter?

 

When I realized that we don’t know what to believe anymore. I see that people believe lies, and we don’t know who is telling them to us and why. I saw that someone can drop a dire something on us, an insinuation, and not even sign their name to it, and what happens? It becomes spread into society. People glom onto the sick and disgusting. 

 

It has something to do with the way our brains work, how we can’t stop looking at a train wreck. It gets the adrenaline up—hell's bells, take a roller coaster ride, that will get the adrenaline up too.

 

We know that fear sells. Fear keeps us off-kilter. Fear makes us uncontrollable, but we can’t help it. Fear runs us. We let the media, and who knows what all, to affect us. I read that Memes are driving our culture. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram--these are all windows for us to peer into. When people have death, sickness, unrest, unemployment thrust into their face for over a year, it wears on them. We weren’t built to live under constant threat. 

 

Darn, I was looking out the wrong window. I have a philosophy about which window to choose—this is all figurative, you know. One window shows kids playing in the street, riding their bikes, and laughing. Another shows the neighbors quarreling. Some windows even look out upon downright fighting. 

 

And then I approach my kitchen window—this is real—and there is an orchid growing on the sill that has sent up a new spike and is budding. This is its third year to bloom. Maybe because it is looking out the window to the maple tree in the back yard that is bare now of leaves, but the tree and the orchid believe that spring will come and with it baby silky leaves that will flutter in the backyard.

 

We have to focus on the good, the healthy, the beautiful. 

 

We came here for a reason, and it wasn’t to suffer. We thought this time on Earth would be a grand vacation, a joyous one, so why isn’t it? Has the outside world done it to us? Could it be that our belief in suffering and decline has been passed down from generation to generation? Well, folks, now is the time to stop it. 

 

Now is the time, as Ralph Marston wrote, To “Breathe in the sweet air of limitless possibility and make life as rich as you know it can be.” 

 

Breath wrote Dido Owlnute:

“To pause

To make space

To collect your thoughts,

To remember,

To face the next moment, 

To choose.” 

 

“Remember, you made it this far through difficulties that seemed impossible. Remember how many times you were saved at the last minute—this time is no different.”—Bryant McGill.

 

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” --Marcel Proust

 

I came upon this picture, taken in Greece, of my daughter at 16. It is a beautiful window to look upon. She wasn’t posing but just standing there, and I snapped the picture.

 

 

 

“Truth isn’t always beauty. But the hunger for it is.”—Nadine Gordimer.