Past

Should old acquaintance be forgot...

~ Robert Burns

- - - - -

Some of them should.

 

Olive

 She didn't like to be alone. Even more, she didn't like to be with other people.

~ Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

- - - - -

I don't love olives, but they are easy to draw. I wish I did love them. Then I could write, "Olive olives."

My life is really hard sometimes.

Lily

 The bond with a true dog is as lasting as the ties of this earth will ever be.

~ Konrad Lorenz

- - - - -

I am a much more social person when I have Lily with me than I am without her. I think it is because I feel an obligation since I represent her. She can't speak. She is nice and loving and generous. If I am my usual self, I am not doing right by her. 

Actually, when I am my nicest "I'm with Lily" self, I am not doing right by her - but closer to right. 

She is a wonderful dog. The weird part is that I think she thinks I'm a wonderful person. Don't misunderstand me. I AM a wonderful person. I just hide it really, really well. 

Except maybe from dogs.

Especially this dog.

Light

You don't find light by avoiding the dark.

~ S. Kelley Harrell

- - - - -

There is light all around us. Sometimes you have to look harder than other times. Sometimes you have to create the light. Sometimes you have to look inside to find the light. Sometimes you have to burn some things down to see the light. Sometimes when you're burning things down you dance and dance and scream with glee. 

Sometimes the neighbors make some calls and you see red and blue light.

Characters

Smart people focus on the right things.

~ Jensen Huang

- - - - -

This is my nephew Zak (left) along with his cars Mickey (middle) and Donald (right). Zak loves his cartoon shows. I think he gets this from my brother. I don't remember all the cartoons Kirk used to watch. I know he likes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Scrooge McDuck, and Rescue Rangers and Muppet Babies and Scooby Doo.

(pause)

Maybe I do know all the cartoon shows he likes.

Anyway, one time when Kirk and I were children, we were traveling somewhere with the rest of our family. We had some trivia game and someone was asked, "Who are the master's of the renaissance?" - or something like that. I said, "I have no idea." 

Then Kirk, who was probably four or five said, "Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Raphael." 

I was - and I don't use this term lightly - gobsmacked.

"Is that when you knew Kirk was smarter than you are?" you ask. No. I asked him some long division problem to make sure he couldn't answer that. He couldn't. 

No, it was later that I realized he was smarter than I am. 

Also... like father, like son: 

Shadow

 Shadow owes its birth to light.

~ John Gay

- - - - -

I wonder if good must exist before evil can emerge. I mean, it makes sense in my own family. First I was born. Then Erik. Then - the most evil of them all. The shadow of the family. The dreaded Kirk.

Kirk owes his birth to me. I am the light that creates space for his shadow. I hope that sometime we go strolling down the avenue and that by then we learn to the lyrics to the song "Me and My Shadow." 

(pause)

I don't think that's going to happen.

Cold

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...

~ Irving Berlin

- - - - -

I'm not. And if I was, I wouldn't be telling you about it because I would be asleep.

Santa

Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Claus. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't, who will? 

~ Jon Bon Jovi

- - - - -

So apparently, love, magic, others, me and my dreams are as believable as Santa Claus. Thanks, Jon Bon Jovi. Really. Thanks a lot for that.

Road

The road to enlightenment is long and hard, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.

~ Anne Lamott

- - - - -

Are there passing zones on the road to enlightenment? Because what if you get stuck behind someone who isn't progressing as quickly as you are?

I only ask because I feel that way a lot of the time.

Holidog

 Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

~ William Shakespeare

- - - - -

Lily provides a great welcome to anyone who comes to our house. She also is pretty full of cheer most times. These are good things since she is a horrible cook.

Winter

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.

~ Hal Borland

- - - - -

Winter in South Carolina is not like winter in other places I have lived. It isn't as cold. It is rarely snowy.  However, it is still a time to celebrate. To celebrate the changing seasons and moving forward. To celebrate the continuation of the cycles of life. It is worth celebrating just like one's birthday. Well, just like MY birthday. Or my half birthday. Or my quarter birthday. 

My birthday is is 197 days from today. That's something worth celebrating.

 

Birds

The freedom of birds is an insult to me.

~ Cormac McCarthy

- - - - -

So if your true love gives you a partridge, turtle doves, French hens, calling (colly) birds, geese, and swans you might want to find a new love because they aren't really that into you. They keep giving you the bird over and over and over again. Also, your house probably smells pretty awful.

Moon

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.

~ Carl Sandburg

- - - - - 

There are a lot of full moons on TV. I think maybe some of them are fake.

Dogs

A well trained dog will make no attempt to share your lunch. He will just make you feel so guilty you can't enjoy it.

~ Helen Thomson

- - - - -

 You are what you eat.

Neighbors

(photo by Kirk Boettcher)

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbors.

~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

- - - - -

My brother sent me this photo at the end of last year. I chuckled and thought about the disruption of the scene and the fact that there are two Marys in this particular scene. A few minutes later, Kirk wrote me back and said, but look in the windows.

I don't know who these people are, but whoever they are I would like to be friends with them. That said, I want to be the kind of friends with them who talk out in the yard. I don't want to be the kind of friends who go into their house.

 

Adversity

We don't develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity. 

~ Barbara DeAngelis

- - - - -

What if instead of advent calendars there were adverse calendars? Each day for a month there would be something negative in a little box. 

(pause)

I bet we'd be glad when that month was up.

Learner

It would be a terrific innovation if you could stretch your mind a little further than your next wisecrack.

~ Katherine Hepburn

- - - - -

Leslie likes to learn about as much as anyone I ever knew. She is always reading and sharing and looking things up. She wants to know as much as she can. She is not a know-it-all. She is an I-wanna-know-it-all. She is very smart.

She also still has things to learn. Like about dogs. And the answer to her never-resolved question, "What in the world are people like that?!"

Private

I don't know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life in public; they forget that invisibility is a superpower.

~ Banksy

- - - - - 

What the public thinks they know about a person and what they actually know that is accurate about a person is a mismatch. Even the people who know us best can't really know us. 

(pause)

At least those of us who are superheroes.

Musicians

Just start by creating your day. Then create your life.

~ Prince

- - - - - 

So if you ever get a book that looks like a kid's book for your nephew and it is about Prince, a couple of things:

1. Cool. Prince has some great music.

2. Prince didn't worry about conformity. That is a good message for kids to get.

3. Prince was very creative. It's good to inspire creativity.

4. Returning back to item #1, many of Prince's songs aren't really kid songs. Knowing this you should probably read the book before you send it to your nephew. Then when your brother asks if you were the one who sent your nephew the book and texts you some pages from the book one of which has the title "X is for X-Rated" you should be fully prepared to say that, "No. It wasn't me. It was John B. Nutting who sent Zak that book."

I don't know any of this first-hand. Just suggesting some ideas.

Contradictory

The writer who's afraid to contradict himself will never write anything. 

~ Marty Rubin

- - - - -

I think the sticker designer here messed up. I hate it when sticker people send contradictory messages. I hate it when stick people do that, too, but they are made of sticks, so they already have a lot that they have to deal with.