Attention

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

~ Samuel Johnson

- - - - -

I don't know what dog memories look like. 

(pause)

That's it. That's the post.

Whisper

(Photo by someone with my dad's camera)

It isn't what they say about you, but what they whisper.

~ Errol Flynn

- - - - -

When Doris whispered, "This is the worst shower I've ever been to," everyone heard her. Doris was quite hard of hearing and had actually screamed the comment at Zelia who was sitting next to her. Zelia wasn't sure how to respond, so she just kicked Myrtle's handbag into the center of the room. It distracted no one, but it didn't matter. That was just how Zelia got her kicks.

Places

It is strange how people seem to belong to places - especially to places where they were not born...

~ Christopher Isherwood

- - - - -

I keep seeing this thing pop up on social media about how most people do not live in the right place. I'm not sure how anyone knows whether others live in the right places or not. Unless it's an article about squatting.

Messages

I never try to convey a message, I just want to tell a story.

~ Isabelle Allende

- - - - -

Once upon a time I had a work meeting that I was dreading. I was right to dread it because it was a situation where one person just wanted to agitate other people without bringing solutions. You know the type. They come and flip over tables and then leave it to other people to clean up the mess.

Anyway, I had been dreading the meeting and it turned out to be exactly the kind of meeting I expected it to be.

But then, immediately after the meeting, I got a text from my brother. It reminded me that my job is my job, not my life. My life is made up of beautiful things and good people. His text made the ugliness of the meeting evaporate completely. 

Kirk wrote one sentence that lifted my spirits and reminded me of what really matters in life.

"If you get a minute will you create and send me a photo of me with mutton chops?"

And now all is well.

Cards

I don't turn to greeting cards for wisdom and advice, but they are a fine reflection of the general drive of the culture.

~ Susan Orlean

- - - - -

An Email Exchange

Jenn: LOL- Love the card!

Sara: That masterpiece is from Michelle Boettcher. She thought it would be slick to send that grotesque picture of me on a card across campus. However, people that received it did not know it was a prank, and when they mentioned it to me (often just a thank you), I did not know what they were talking about and would just smile and nod. So I apparently foiled the prank with my dimness...

Jenn: OMG - this is even funnier. When I first got the card I wondered? I should have deciphered the handwriting. Then, on Sunday evening Soundoff! I saw a replica and died laughing.

I wonder who I could play on prank on over here in CHS... Well, nobody if I want to keep my job.

SO FUNNY!!!

Me: This is one of my favorite jokes I have ever played. Second only to the time I switched all the labels on my parents' canned foods.

Jenn: Do your parents still allow you to visit? 

Me: They do. But they always have the front door locked - even when they know exactly when I am arriving. True story. It annoys me, but it sort of makes sense.

Church

Even kids who were mean to me at school had to be nice to me at church. Or at least not as mean as they were at school. 

~ Jeff Hiller

- - - - -

I think kids are mean to other kids in church because kids are mean. I don't think they do it to see if God's wrath will rain down on them. At least I never heard a kid say that's why she was being mean to another kid at church.

(pause)

I guess I never heard a kid say that outside of church, either.  

Door

Be open to new ideas and experiences...  You never know when a new door will open to take you on the journey of your dreams.

~ Ketanji Brown Jackson

- - - - - 

You also never know - if you are Rosalind Shays - when a door might open and it might be an elevator door without the elevator car and you fall down the elevator shaft to your death.

This post is dedicated to my brother Kirk and one of his greatest phobias.

Dreams

All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving toward them.

~ Viola Davis

- - - - -

If you ride a bike made of dreams, you are riding a dreamsicle. 

Turkeys

There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. 

Someone needs to tell the turkey, "Man, just be yourself."

~ Mitch Hedberg

- - - - -

The two turkeys discussed who was more at risk that November. "I think it's you," Ben said to David.

David nodded, "Existentially, you may be right. I may have more at stake. Physically though, dude, it's gotta be you." 

Gatherings

You cannot soar with the eagle when you hang with the turkeys. 

~ Apparently Everyone is Quoted as Having Said This

- - - - - 

 What the hell is going on here, you ask? Just a photo of a bunch of turkeys and a dog.

Poison

Fools want to share their poison, but wise people prefer water.

~ Maxime Legace

- - - - -

While not generally a proponent of selfishness, I do sometimes wish people would keep their poison, their negativity, and their pumpkin pies to themselves.

I do not like those things.

Family

(Photo by Richard Boettcher)

Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days...

~ The Judds

- - - - -

This is my Grampa Boettcher and my cousins. I know it looks like Scott has antennae as if he is from outer space. That is because my cousin Scott was from outer space. Not in a cool way like Superman, but in a weird way like that alien on Flintstones. 

(pause)

Family history is fun.

Dizzy

 

All dreamers in the world are dizzy in the noodle.

~ Edie Adams

- - - - -

I heard someone talking one time about how we are programmed to seek a feeling of being high. When you're a kid you get that feeling from playing on the swings or spinning in circles until you're dizzy. Then when you get older you look for other ways to capture the feeling.

When you get really old, you can capture it just by standing up too quickly.

(pause)

Maybe you don't even have to be really old for that to start happening.

Lillies

The delicate blooms of a white water lily represent the essence of rebirth and renewal, promising a fresh start and revival to weary souls.

~ Kellianne Matthews

- - - - -

Lily the dog definitely promises revival to weary souls. She is the best dog in the history of dogs.

(pause)

Don't tell the other dogs. 

Greatness

To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.

~ Anatole France

- - - - -

The dreaming and the planning and the believing is all a part of the journey. It isn't success we are traveling toward, it is Acadia National Park. Well, at least that is what we were traveling toward when I took this photo.

 

Grandness

There is one spectacle grander than the sea. That is the sky.

~ Victor Hugo

- - - - -

This is a photo of a small pond, not the sea. But Victor Hugo doesn't read this blog. He is dead. If he was alive, I'm not convinced he would read this blog then, either.

Moods

"So is God evil?" a friend asked Kafka. 

"Not at all," Kafka said. "He just has bad moods."

~ Judith Shulevitz

- - - - -

We are responsible for our own moods. However, if you tick me off and make me angry and I take it out on you and that puts you in a bad mood... Wait, then it's still you who is responsible. 

Remember that.

Bandana

In terms of fashion, I love adding a fun scarf to whatever I'm wearing - it's a great way to dress up a plain outfit!

~ Bridgit Mendler

- - - - -

I believe that Lily is a nudist by nature.

 

Plants

Life is ruled by fortune not wisdom.

~ Theophrastus, The Father of Botany

- - - - -

From November 17, 2009

Dad and Mom: Have a question. The city of Des Moines is considering selling the Blank Park Zoo and the Botanical Center. We can't decide which to buy. Don't think we can afford both. Any suggestions? 

Love, Mom and Dad

Me: Buy the Botanical Center. Less liability. Less mess.

Kirk and Erik: (no response).

And since my brothers never responded, my parents didn't buy either one. 

Thanks a lot, guys. 

Sheesh.

Lure

I find the lure of the unknown irresistible.

~ Sylvia Earle

- - - - -

If invited, I shall choose not to attend the potlurk. Everyone just hangs out around the crock pot and it's creepy.

 

Mail

Discourse is fleeting, but junk mail lasts forever.

~ Joe Bob Briggs

- - - - -

When people die and you have their mail forwarded to you, you get things you never really expected.

 

Dog

Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

~ Anatole France

- - - - -

Lily goes to the dog park to see people rather than to see other dogs. Once in a while she will meet a dog she really likes and will play and play with that dog. I am sort of the same. I don't go to the dog park to see people, I go to see the dogs. Once in a while I will connect with someone at the park and we will play and play.

(pause)

I'm just kidding. That has never happened.

Going

You don't always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go, and see what happens. 

~ Mandy Hale

- - - - -

If you are hanging on a tree limb above a pool filled with crocodiles ore piranhas or toxic waste, I suggest that you plan instead of letting go. But I'm not the boss of you. Depending on how you got yourself in that situation, we could be talking about natural selection at work.

 

Church

A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.

~ Pauline Phillips (Abigail Van Buren)

- - - - -

When you live in a college town with a football team that draws a lot of people on game days, everyone with any space at all near the stadium will sell parking spots. I was driving through town one game day and there were some 30-something women yelling at drivers and pedestrians to get out of the way so that they could sell the parking spaces at their church. They were obnoxious and rude.

So, I wrote to the church and said that the women were very disrespectful and didn't represent the church very well that day. I also gave the exact time so the church administrators could tell who was working then. I also referred to the rude women as "50-ish year old women."

I still laugh when I think about this.

Note: The church in question was not the church on this sign which is not even in the college town where I was living at the time.

Rose

 A single rose can be my garden...

A single friend, my world.

~ Leo Buscaglia

- - - - - 

This is a beautiful idea if the friendship is reciprocated. This is pretty scary if the person who is your world does not want to have anything to do with you. So, a good first question when building a friendship is, "Do you want to have anything to do with me or if you become my world will that freak you out?"

 

Marketing

Books have become products, like cereal or perfume or deodorant.

~ Alexandra Ripley

- - - - - -

Books... they're GRRRREAAAT!

 

Gone

Gone but also forgotten.

 

Media

Isn't that the point of social media? To make everyone feel bad?

~ Liane Moriarty

- - - - -

Social media can be very problematic and even unsafe. But if we use our powers for good instead of evil, it can also be a source of joy and laughter (laughter with and not at).

For the assholes who use it for evil, let me tell you - you are a bunch of assholes. However, I know you do it because of how crappy you feel inside yourselves. Assholes.

Try be joyful like I am and not an asshole like you are.

Life

Life has no remote. Get up and change it for yourself.

~ Mark A. Cooper

- - - - -

If life DID have a remote, I wonder how many of you would be rewinding to rewatch things or fast forwarding to see what would happen in the future. Also, I wonder how many batteries that remote would take. 

(pause)

A lot, I bet.

Edginess

(photo by Richard Boettcher)

I want to stand as close to the ends as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

- - - - -

I love this image. It clearly was taken at the end of the roll. I assume it was meant to capture the vastness of the mountains. Instead, with the color and then the image vanishing on the right side and the stop sign in the foreground and the fence along the field... It looks like it could be from the Twilight Zone or some dystopian landscape from a post-apocalyptic future.

Or maybe it IS a photo from a post-apocalyptic past and we are now living in an even further post-apocalyptic future. The Mesopotamians used the word apocalypse to mean something revealed or an unveiling. In essence, is not all future an unveiling to reveal something new? 

(pause)

I don't know. I'm asking YOU. It's not a rhetorical question. 

(pause)

Still nothing? Sheesh. I bet people were smarter pre-apocalypse.

Worry

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

~ William James

- - - - - 

Oh no. What if I AM residing on another planet with a different reality system?!!! Leave it to frickin' William James to give me yet one more thing to worry about.

Failure

Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.

~ Winston Churchill

- - - - -

Just remember that both U and I are in failure, but only I am in winner, so you'll want to hang around with me.

Bubblegum

Flattery is like chewing gum. Enjoy it, but don't swallow it.

~ Hanke Ketcham

- - - - -

They say dogs shouldn't chew bubblegum. They should just shut up.

Home

Whether we like it or not, we all come from someplace. And at some point in our lives, we have to make peace with that place.

~ Jeffrey Stepakoff

- - - - - 

I think a lot of times a character's "origin story" if they have left a place where they grew up, is that the character is trying to escape the place and has no appreciation of it. 

I don't think that is true very often in real life. I think a lot of people appreciate escaping the places they grew up.

Teaching

They say that those who can't do, teach, so maybe I could teach acting to kids and sit backward in a chair like Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds.

~ Jeff Hiller

- - - - -

They could just as easily say that those who don't care about people govern, but they won't. You know how they are.

 

Death

Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring.

~ Edward Gorey

- - - - -

I recently sent my nephew some Edward Gorey books. I found a contest to submit art to the Gorey Museum and thought Zak might like to do that, but realized he might not be familiar with Edward Gorey. One of the books I sent him was The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Zak said he liked it. He sent me a video that said, "I read The Gashhlycrumb Tinies. It's about people getting dead. Thank you."

Zak is a bit like Wednesday Addams, sometimes. 

(pause)

I like to encourage that part of him.

Ghost

In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.

~ Laurie Halse Anderson

- - - - -

How do you throw out a ghost? It seems risky to even try to do such a thing. Still, this is something I saw in an alley in Clemson a few years ago. 

Spooky, isn't it?

Magic

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

~ Eden Philpotts

- - - - - 

The word magic originated in Greek as a reference to the priestly class. This was especially a reference to Zorastrianism. Zorastrianism originated with the prophet Zarathustra. "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" is a book by Friedrich Nietzsche. "Also Sprach Zarathustra" was written by Richard Strauss and later used in Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". One of the co-author's for that screenplay was Arthur C. Clarke who once said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

So... magic.

Reflection

Reflection is one of the most underused yet powerful tools for success.

~ Richard Carlson

- - - - -

Reflection isn't popular because it requires time - SLOW time. We have to slow down and process things. We have to think about what we have done (or not done). In a society where speed, constant affirmation, and never being wrong are prioritized, we neither reflect nor learn from what we have done already. 

Well, that is a broad statement. Some people are very reflective. We know a few things about these people, they build toward larger future successes on their own terms. They understand the value of slowing down. And they are not vampires.

 

Pretty

Humor and laughter - not necessarily derogatory derision - are my pet tools. This may come from my general philosophy of never taking the world too seriously - for fear of dying of boredom.

~ Marcel Duchamp

- - - - -

I think maybe I understand why Lily doesn't like me taking photos of her all the time. I wouldn't like that, either. I mean, she's beautiful most of the time. But on occasion I do get an unflattering shot of her. And she knows I'm going to share those photos even if - maybe especially if they aren't really flattering.

I think I might be part of the reason she avoids social media. And regular media. And my camera.

Leader

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.

~ John Quincy Adams

- - - - -

Lily is definitely a leader. She's just the kind of leader who looks back a lot to make sure her followers are following. Not a bad trait in a leader.

Running

Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.

~ William Shakespeare

- - - - -

Of all the things to run to get, propane seems like a strange thing. I'm not against propane. I'm not antipane. It is just an odd marketing ploy. With limited graphics skills required. 

Or maybe this is a great graphic. In which case, I can make great graphics, too.

You can learn so much from advertising.
 

Beginnings

No matter how hard the past is, you can always begin again.

~ Jack Kornfield

- - - - -

No matter how difficult someone is in their present, you can always begin to not be around them.

 

Doing

We need not wait to see what others do.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

- - - - -

It can be scary to go and do new things. But it can also be scary to stay in place. Sometimes going ahead takes you into the light. Or maybe just wait until daytime and then it's more light everywhere and it's all less scary. 

Pests

How we love sequestering, where no pests are pesting.

~ Lorenz Hart

- - - - -

I would imagine sitting around in one of these might also help you avoid people pests, too. At least I know it would be unlikely for me to go up and talk to someone sitting in this thing.

 

Small

It is often the small steps, not the giant leaps, that bring about the most lasting change. 

~ Queen Elizabeth II

- - - - -

This is one of the best photos I have ever taken.

Pictures

Let sleeping dogs lie.

~ English Proverb

- - - - -

If Lily had a camera, I bet she wouldn't take many pictures. She doesn't have fingers or thumbs.

 

Compromise

(photo by Leslie Lewis)

We are not put on earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are there always for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you.

~ Jeff Warner

- - - - - 

I once read this quote an author used to describe a place: "a community where there is no shame in staying across generations." I am not 100% sure where it came from, but think it was from God of the Woods. 

Anyway, whether you choose to stay in a community or choose to leave, there are always trade-offs. You might lose some security or close connections if you leave, but could potentially find more security or closer connections elsewhere. The people you leave behind may think you have changed when you try to go back and visit, but you may realize that staying the same is not the goal in life.

Wherever you are or you go , I hope you find other people. Unless you go into your apartment, you live alone and it is filled with other people you don't know and didn't invite. In that case, you might want to move.

The point is, life is about compromise.

Watching

The eyes only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend. 

~ Robertson Davies

- - - - -

There is a difference between watchdogs and dogs sitting around watching things.