Beer

Next to music, beer was best.

~ Carson McCullers

- - - - -

Adult beverages are fine and all, but those baby beverages are just so adorable.

Trucks

I feel more at home in my truck than just about anywhere, which is a sad thing to say, but it's true.

~ Sam Shepard

- - - - -

Leslie and I saw the Gorton's fisherman in the parking lot at the post office. In case you were wondering, he drives a small white pickup.

Thanks

~ Posted on social media

- - - - -

Sometimes - maybe most times - when someone says something accidentally it isn't what they said that was the accident, it was that they said it out loud. 

 

Ideas

The great difficulty in education is to get experience out of ideas.

~ George Santayana

- - - - -

Zak makes me see things differently. He makes me think of things differently. He makes me see the world differently. 

Usually this happens when he grabs my head and screams, "How does the world look NOW, Aunt Shel?!!" Then he'll turn my head the other way and say, "What about NOW?! Huh, Aunt Shel?!!!"

Flipped

Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?

~ Rumi

- - - - -

Sometimes life gets shaken up to make room for other things. Ever have a bucket of stuff and then shake it and some of the stuff settles so there is more room in the bucket? Life is like that. It can shake you up to make room for more stuff.

Or maybe it can shake you up and make it snow. If so, then you probably live in a snow globe.

 

Bunny

He said, "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except by people who don't understand.

~ Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

- - - - -

I had to look it up, but enriched bread is bread higher in fat due to more eggs, butter, and milk. Apparently, bread can also be enriched by bunnies. 

Wise

Wisdom is not a thing you can acquire for your children.

~ Ariel Lawhon

- - - - -

You can often however acquire wisdom FROM children. They are way smarter than most of us. They play with other kids better than adults function with other adults. And also they will just tell you when you are boring or you dress weird. 

(pause)

Maybe that's just me that they say that to. 

(pause)

Stupid children.

 

Special

You have the capacity to be extraordinary.

~ J. Herman Blake

- - - - -

This restaurant is gone now. It was special. There are a lot of restaurants that aren't around for very long. They all have something special about them. 

One thing that is less special and more common when it comes to those restaurants is that they are all closed now.

Window

There's a world out there. Open a window and it's there.

~ Robin Williams

- - - - -

There is world out there if the window is closed. And maybe a bunch of dead birds on the ground if the window is particularly clean.

 

Touch

I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be.

~ Joan Didion

- - - - -

I'm reading a lot of little posts and comments about the adult you are being someone to protect the child you were or that you should think about if the child you were would be proud of the adult you have become.

I don't know what she would think. She was pretty moody.

(pause)

Don't tell her I said that.

Journals

[Journaling is] a way of disclosing emotions rather than stuffing them down...

~ Kira M. Newman

- - - - -

These are a few of my journals. I don't know what I will do with the journals in the long run, but I like journaling. Maybe it's less important what happens to them but instead is more important that they happened to begin with.

(pause)

I'm sure that is the part that is more important to the companies who sold me these journals.

 

Guidestones

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

~ Pericles

- - - - -

The Georgia Guidestones were a set of pillars outside Elberton, GA - Granite Capital of the World. I found them accidentally one day when I was on a drive. I have been fascinated by them ever since.

Then one day someone blew them up. 

I am even more fascinated now. 

I am sad they are gone, though. I liked going there. I even took some friends to see them when they came to visit one time. I expected they would always be there.

I took the Guidestones for granite.

Writing

Write about what you don't know about what you know.

~ Eudora Welty

- - - - -

Oh, Eudora... there's so much to write about that. (pause) Wait. I imagine that might be part of your point. 

I'm on it!

Confusion

What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.

~ Salvador Dali

- - - - -

Salvador Dali, I think you are right when it comes to creativity. I think you are wrong when it comes to tariffs. And human rights.

But what do you know? You're dead. 

(pause)

Which maybe makes you "dead wrong" right now.

Creepy

I don't trust or love anyone. Because people are so creepy. Creepy creepy creeps. Creeping around. Creeping here and creeping there. Creeping everywhere.

~ Vincent Gallo

- - - - -

We can be so different as people. I think I love people because they are creepy. 

However, I neither love nor trust dolls because they are creepy. Let me specify, they are creepy in a way that I do not enjoy.

(pause)

Also, I just looked up Vincent Gallo. The photo I saw looked like a combination of Joaquin Phoenix and Charles Manson. That's kind of ironic.

 

Color

Colors are the smiles of nature.

~ Leigh Hunt

- - - - -

Fog is the farts of nature. 

(pause)

Especially if there is a startled skunk in that fog.

Waterfalls

Two waterfalls do not hear each other.

~ African Proverb

- - - - -

Waterfalls don't have ears. They can't hear anything.

Joy

You get to feel what you are feeling right now. It's going to be more than some people and less than others. (Also it is okay to find joy in the world right now).

~ Nadia Bolz-Weber

- - - - -

So, earlier this month, I had a moment where the universe was reaching out to me. I won't tell you how I know this because you might mock it and, ultimately, it's for me and not for you. You have to find your own way. 

Anyway, I was about to write in this blog about how joy can be good at hiding. The reality is that it really doesn't hide at all. We just don't look for it all the time. Or we expect it to show up in huge events and moments. Instead, it is embedded in every moment in more ways than we can count. It's not about searching. It's about staying still and looking and listening and feeling. 

Unless you're talking about my friend Joy. She can be pretty good at hiding. She's a sneaky pisshead.

Smiles

Just be a joy to be around.

~ Sasha Colby

- - - - -

I think most dogs live in joy. Unless it gets messed up by humans. Of course humans can mess up the joy of other humans, too. 

So quit doing that.

 

Beer

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

~ Kinky Friedman

- - - - -

I understand that sometimes people drive you to drink, but when that happens, I think it's equally important to have someone drive you home from drinking.

Coveting

I don't read advertisements. I would spend all my time wanting things.

~ Franz Kafka

- - - - -

Wow is coveting a popular sin right now. Wanting instead of giving is popular in our culture, in our churches, in our minds. 

There are a few, however, who are not coveting or wanting or focused on what everyone else has. Their brains are quiet. They are at peace.

I wish I had what they have.

Cat

The worthy administrators of justice are like a cat set to take care of a cheese, lest it should be gnawed by the mice. One bite of the cat does more damage to the cheese than 20 mice can do.

~ Voltaire

- - - - -

Some days you see injustice in the world and don't know what to do. Other days you see injustice in the world and you know exactly what to do. Like when they degrade and dismiss heroes and you join the Cats on a Couch on Instagram as an act of subversion.

(pause)

Some days you take smaller steps to eradicate injustice than others.

World

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.

~ Charles M. Schulz

- - - - -

I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago. It went something like this:

Ryan: How are you doing?

Me: I have food, shelter, and people who love me, so I'm doing all right despite the fact that the world is a shitshow.

Ryan: Let me offer you a reframe on that. The world is beautiful. It is filled with beautiful people. And a few selfish people who are making decisions with no regard for the consequences to others.

I have some wise friends.

And, yes, this is a photo of Canada. And, no, that isn't an accident.

Hope

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

~ Tom Bodett

- - - - -

I might add food, shelter, and potable water to that list. 

Humor

Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.

~ Euripides

Once upon a time I was in a meeting. We were talking about someone named John Schmidt. I feel comfortable sharing this because there are a lot of John Schmidts in the world. Anyway, I wanted to share a thought with the group, so I posted the following:

This may be the single most hilarious thing that I will ever share in work chat. As you can see, two of my colleagues appropriately acknowledged this comment. There were more than two people in the meeting. The ones who failed to laugh at this... I am not angry at them. I am sad for them. 

 

Previous

"Absolutely Previous"

~ Schitt's Creek Fans

- - - - -

A more accurate caption for an image, I may have never seen.

 

Seeing

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

- - - - -

I call this photo "Dear God."

 

Darkness

The darker the night, the brighter the stars.

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

- - - - -

I heard someone use the phrase "rehearsing my fears" the other day. I didn't have a name for that activity before, but I do that. You can call it worrying, I guess, but it's a bit more than that. For me it involves a script, casting, an arc of plot and emotion, and in most cases a tragic end.

(pause)

Anyway, I guess there is supposed to be brightness in that. I don't know. Whatever. 

Questions

Life is a question in the form of an answer.

~ Piero Scaruffi

- - - - -

A text from Kirk:

Zak randomly asked me a question while we were driving today. "Hey, Papa! When I'm 30 will Aunt Michelle be dead?"

We did the math. We do not anticipate you will be. But he wanted me to remind you to be sure you know he loves you just in case. 

ummmmm.... I will say I think he's developing a healthy relationship with death.

He then started talking about how much he loved fishing with you so it might just be he wants to be sure you two can still fish when he is 30.

Jump

(photo by Richard Boettcher)

If obstacles are large, jump higher.

~Steve Backley

- - - - -

I believe this photo of Kirk was taken on a trip to the Wisconsin Dells. This was the trip where Erik and I flipped a canoe. We didn't really come close to drowning because we had on life jackets. In my head, I thought you were supposed to turn the boat upside down. Guess what. You don't do that with a boat that curves up on the ends or it just spins in circles. 

Erik was saying, "We're going to drown!" over and over again. We didn't drown. We got in trouble (As if we flipped it on purpose. I can assure you we did not.). 

This is how I imagine Kirk felt realizing there was still a chance he could be an only child. 

Dork.

Friends

When friendships are real they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

- - - - -

Try to have at least one brilliant friend in your life. Someone who brings out the best in you and loves even the worst in you. Someone you can go for beers or bagels with. Someone who is there when you create a character named "Leslie Fretwell, Librarian." We all need a friend like that.

Door

Uninvited don't mean unwelcome.

~ Maggie "Mags" Bennett

- - - - -

This is my motto, however it is NOT the motto of my home.

 

peaceful

Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.

~ Brian Tracy

- - - - -

I have role models of peace around me all the time, I just don't always pay attention.

(pause)

I also have roll around in leaves models around me all the time.

 

Meaning

We should use common words to say uncommon things.

~ Arthur Schopenhauer

- - - - -

Autocorrect is kind of like mansplaining. You didn't mean this, you meant that. Let me fix it for you.

Shut up computer robots! I do, in fact, actually mean "Live and let like"!!!! So leave it that way.

(pause)

I didn't really mean "Life and let like," but shut up.

Door

I went to the door slowly. I wanted to stay in my life for just a few seconds more.

~?

- - - - -

I don't know if I read this, heard this, or wrote this myself, but it is a a really cool pair of sentences. 

(pause)

I hope I wrote them. I mean I know I just typed them here, but I hope they are mine. If not - good job mystery person.

 

Fading

Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away.

~ Folklore Song Stanza

- - - - - -

I think this is especially true for soldiers who play a lot of basketball and are particularly good at jump shots.
 

Spring

[Spring] is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine.

~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

- - - - -

Spring is a time of beginnings. A time of new things. A time of not getting as much sleep as you did before the time change. A time of wonder. Like, "I wonder what time it is."

Ice

Like fragile ice, anger passes away in time.

~ Ovid

- - - - -

Some winters are longer than others.

Look

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

~ Marcus Aurelius

- - - - -

Well... some of the things we see are idiotic, Marcus Aurelius. Seriously. And, yes, that is me being observant without judgment. I mean, you know. You see it, right?

 

Railroad

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

~ Will Rogers

- - - - -

When I visited the California State Railroad Museum, a guy in line behind us said that place was on his bucket list. I guess some of us have to train ourselves to achieve our dreams.

Travel

There is no luck except where there is discipline.

~ Irish Proverb

- - - - -

It is easier to drive out of Chicago at 11:00 a.m. on a Tuesday than to drive into Chicago at 10:30 p.m. on the Saturday night of St. Patrick's Day weekend.

Join me for more wisdom I should have known before I actually lived it. 

 

Pain

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

 ~ Carl Jung

- - - - -

Child: [crying]

Mom: What happened honey, did you get pinched?

Child: No. I only got hurt.

Dang it, kids are stupid. I mean, this is your chance to use your pain to get something, kid. 

Mystery

(photo by person with a bunch of 2 liter sodas)

There is always more mystery.

~ Anais Nin

- - - - -

For what event were these intended? Did the event get canceled? Who bought this soda to begin with? Why is it free? How long have they been driving around with these in their car?

Mysteries are awesome.

Rich

Wisdom outweighs any wealth.

~ Sophocles

- - - - -

The boy was the heir of a great fortune. But not that great. He was born with a silver spork in his ear.

Line

The bottom line is to have fun and enjoy life.

~ Rekha

- - - - -

I was looking up ways to deal with hard times and one of the things they suggested was to "tackle your problems." 

I'm pretty sure I would get arrested if I actually did that.

 

Sick

It's a chilling reminder that people with plans get sick.

~ Liane Moriarty

- - - - -

What plans do you have that you have been ignoring? What plans should you be attending to and nurturing? What will people see and think if you get sick and those plans are left to die and rot?

(pause)

PLANTS. I mean what plants do you have? 

 

Searching

Part of adulthood is searching for the people who understand you.

~ Hanya Yanagihara

- - - - - 

Another part of adulthood is realizing that most of those who understand you are dogs. Which isn't bad at all.

 

Sunset

Be confused. Confusion is where inspiration comes from.

~ Robyn Mundell

- - - - -

For along time I thought that David Attenborough was the old guy scientist who created the original Jurassic Park in the first movie. That is not the case. That actor's name is John Hammond. Still, I will likely forever picture John Hammond when I hear Sir David talk about animals and the wild. 

A lot of mistakes and confusion are relatively harmless.

Unless David Attenborough has a temper. Then there could be issues. He sounds mellow when he's talking about 

On a loosely related note, John Hammond actually looks a bit like David Attenborough's brother Richard.

(pause)

Upon further research... John Hammond is the name of a character played by Richard Attenborough who is David Attenborough's brother. While confused in new ways, I actually seem to be more right about things than I thought I was when I started this post. For example, John Hammond in Jurassic Park does look remarkably like David Attenborough's brother Richard.

And I feel like I might have written about this before at some point.