I don't know about you, but I'd like a respite from this unending series of final exams called "life."
It's bad enough finding yourself on the cusp of your anecdotage, but when the banking system as we know it collapses, the economy tumbles into and nearly past a recession, one's pension takes a wallop, Arlen Specter becomes a Democrat, newspapers start to swoon all around us, the globe is warming with every passing day, most of our citizens don't have medical insurance, and now swine flu has begun to invade our lives...well where does it bloody well end?
Or is this perpetual state of angst the normal state of things for the next little while...like the rest of our time on this vale of tears? OK, my time, if you're really picky.
Maybe we should just find a good book, a wee dram of something to help us along, a comfortable chair, and just try to relax. No really.
K likes to listen to the gloom and doom guys on the radio through the night; each morning I hear about some new conspiracy designed to poison the food supply, to generate civil unrest and violence, to allow our country to be taken over by [fill in your own damn blank], and to ensure that American supremacy will come to an abrupt end.
Men don't handle these complexities very well - we want to know who won and who lost, no matter how meaningless the competition might be.
Women seem to have a knack for making sense of very complicated situations, and I think they deserve a shot. Even I am willing to learn how to manage the vacuum cleaner, and I'm already a pretty fair cook and bake a nasty good loaf of whole wheat bread. I could even catch up on Jerry Springer and Oprah and learn about new decorating ideas for the bathroom and talk to my friends about the NFL draft and the local team's prospects for the upcoming season.
And not have to worry about all this other stuff. Sounds like bliss to me.
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6 comments:
A book and a wee dram seem like the best but, really, whatever works!
I look for Blues Advice from Blues songs when the Johnny Walker Wisdom runs out. Works for me.
And I fall back on music as well, but of the Celtic variety - Irish and Scottish blues, I guess - Capercaillie, Mary Black, Altan, Dougie McLean, among others. Gary's right...whatever works at the time.
Nick
Actually, the music question is what guided me to this site. I have Parkinson's and dance and music can have an amazing effect, for some people; but here come the Baby Boomers - my group likes the Blues; some like rock; country, big band; and so we say choose the music that turns you on, baby, whatever floats your boat, do your own thing in your own way, choose the songs that speak for you and to you and of your; the songs that have an emotional impact on you; the songs that have been part of the soundtrack of your life. And dance a lot, visualize, imagine your are the singer on stage, and dance and dance and dance.
But then the classical music fans complained - what about them? They are not ballet stars; they do not tend to dance to Beethoven or Mozart. So what about them?
Well, they have to conduct the orchestra! With a baton. A baton they can get from you. And I found out about Maestro David Dworkin and his conducter exercises. www.conductorcise.com/video.html
Exactly what we had been searching for. And that lead me to this site. Serendipity. Happens all the time.
Impolite of me to mention my site, but in this case I think the connection is real:
www.parkinsonsdance.blogspot.com
Ain't life grand?
Thanks, Bob, for your observations and for the link to your own blog.
And as for your mention of serendipity, I agree with you...it does happen all the time, and it's one of my favorite words coined by one of the great letter writers of all time.
This from Wikipedia, quoting a letter of Horace Walpole - the man responsible for the creation of the word:
"It was once when I read a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a camel blind of the right eye had traveled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right—now do you understand serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of this accidental sagacity (for you must observe that no discovery of a thing you are looking for, comes under this description) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who happening to dine at Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her mother treated her at table."[3]
So, thanks for your serendipitous comments.
Nick
I can summarize it in three little words: simple is better.
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