Our Extraordinary Work

Our Extraordinary Work
Elizabeth O'Connor

"Without a protected time of daily silence we have no possibility of doing the extraordinary inward work that each of us needs to do. More, we will not make any substantial or sustained commitment to the solitary life unless we ask and seek for ourselves a structure of accountability."

I was always a big fan of Elizabeth O'Connor's spiritual writing and was fortunate enough to share a couple of actual snail mail letters with her a year or two before her passing. . .She spent much of her life exploring the inward work we all need to do in our contemplation, meditation, examining our lives and then how that relates to our outward journey. . .

We are not penned up in a zoo. . .scenery the same, day after day.  .fenced in, moated in. . .

But, don't we do that to ourselves?  Is performing the same old drudgery every day and falling into the same rut of coming home and firing up the idiot box any different than being caged up in a zoo?  It's like the old knowing how to read and not reading--the same as really being illiterate if you don't take advantage of reading and learning new things. . .this is not to rail against TV. . .I have my guilty pleasures. . .

It's more about what we are doing with our lives. . .it goes by quickly folks. . .you get to a certain age. . .and I'm there. . .when you start calculating forward. . .you look at how old your dad or your mom was and when their journey ended.  .and you start making bargains. .. well, I've got to have at least another twenty-five years left, eh?  And I'm in better shape than my dad was, aren't I?  

Hogwash to it all.  

We all need to go back and be a little inventive. . .rediscover the magic and discovery of our youth. . 

I like that phrase from above. . .a structure of accountability. . .none of us knows what happens after death. .. NONE OF US. . .it's all rumor, really. . .and faith. . .either faith in something or faith in nothing. . .faith, nonetheless. . .but, I'm always thinking, just in case.  .in case you're right--that there IS something after we're done with the mortal coil. . .and we're asked "Just what is it you did with the time allotted to you?" . . .or, if you don't believe in an afterlife and your wrong--the same question will be asked. . .well. . .

There's no repairing the past really. . .oh, we can make amends. . .we can atone.  .but, we're only given the next few footsteps in front of us really. . .as we plan out in folly our New Year's Resolutions coming up right around the corner (for those that do). . .

So. . .we need to take some time to reflect. . .

. . .because, regardless of where we end up or what happens after we're gone. . .you will only be someone's memory. . .and people will talk about you. . .some reverently, some not so much. . .

Worse. . .they may not talk about you at all. . .

This has got to make you proud to be an American. . .

How about we do this.  Boycott all stores that are open on Thanksgiving and have any kind of special hours rather than their regular operating hours on "Black Friday."   Enough consumerism and idiocy is enough.  When are people going to wake up.  No setting up of any tents.  Merchants HAVE to give rainchecks on all items.

And, oh yes.  .  .the family of the woman in the blue shirt with the butt crack.  .  .I'm sure one of many proud moments in that family's history. . .

This is what it's come to. . .

This is what it's come to. . .

But, there's this:

Because there is this:

. . .and maybe this is the solution:

. . or maybe this. . .I'm no scientist. . .but, maybe this is what a lot of it's about. . .

all I know is. . .maybe we need this:

On This Day My Life Was Perfect

On This Day My Life Was Perfect 

For me, there is nothing better than catching the promise of youth. . .they have their whole life before them. . .it is right there to do with what they want. . .if they only knew what a small window most people make that in their lives. . .

In fact, those windows open and close all the time. . .but, most people jump through that first window and call it a life. . .somehow. . .most people lose the ability to have this expression of joy caught in bloom. . .when all things are possible. . .

. . .I'd much rather document joy than defeat. . .promise rather than acceptance. . .glistening hope rather than resignation. . .

These are the things dreams are made of. . .these are dreamers on the rise. . .

Dreamers on the Rise

I picked up the note on the kitchen table. 

     To my roomie, aka Ben “The Stud-Man of Wilsonville” Shaw:

          I’m guessing today, Sunday, for you, is a day of rest (not because you are particularly religious, but I’m sure thirty-six hours of hedonistic sex with a luscious girl in her early twenties, with melons, ripe and delicious,  has left your plums withered, you being almost twice her age and all).  But, I digress (in a fruity sort of way).  Tomorrow, here is your schedule.  I will remind you that your roommate (you know, the other good looking young girl, also with some pretty good looking apples I might add–but as far as you’re concerned, they’re on a branch fifty feet up with nary a ladder in sight–but, again, I digress) has tomorrow off (bogus teachers workshop–notice how they’re always on a Friday or a Monday).

5:00 (yes, A.M.! Atom splitter)–Get your sorry, lard-ass out of bed.  Five-mile run.  Come home, very quick shower (no fooling around in there–reference page 118 of girl talk manual–or first three minutes of American Beauty)–free, unless you count the soap and water used.

         

6:00 Take your roommate to The Criminal Café for breakfast.  You’re back on the program, by the way.  Awaiting you, an egg white omelet with tofu and wheat germ.  Maybe $10.

7:00 We go to the West Side Market and stock up on veggies and fruit for the week.  While over that way, we go to the Book Store on West 25^th to see if they have a used copy of Endless Love by Scott Spencer because David stole the copy we had at the store and when he finally brought it back all the good pages were ripped out.  Count on at least $50. $55 if they have the book.

10:00 Call in sick.  Excuse?  Just tell David your car was sunk by a U-boat.  See how long it takes for him to realize it’s a fraudulent alibi.

    

10:05 Stop at Shoptalk Lingerie and pick up mesh stockings, garter belt,  French maid outfit, and that butterfly toy with the remote control all my girlfriends are talking about (!) for your roommate (yeah! Right!  In your dreams Humbert!)–just seeing if you’re paying attention!  And just to keep you current on the all-important cutting edge lingo, they are no longer referred to as vibrators.  They are now called BOBs.  Battery operated Boyfriends.  But, again, I digress.  Such a state of arousal you get yourself into!

10:10 Stop at Thee Diamond’s Mens’ Club to see if I passed my audition (Humbert!  Humbert!  Wake up!–instead, we’ll go to Fourbucks Coffee and see if we can get two coffees for under $20).  Talk for 50 minutes and plan out the next ten years.   Also, discuss in detail supposed innocent childhood game rumored to be called Bang the Buddy. Roughly $9.

11:00 I’m hungry!  No hake for me, thank you.  I’m thinking the Mexican Village.  Veracruzanos.  Because I’m only 16, and have 5% body fat, I’ll have three.  Because you’re hovering on the four oh, and will soon find out you are some exercise guru’s fat, bastard brother, I recommend a Spinach salad and a bran muffin.  Take copy of current Maxim magazine (it’s at the bottom of your magazine pile, beneath the Atlantic Monthly, Smithsonian,  and National Geographic–nice try) and hope we see Monica Potter there so we can get her autograph–she’s on the cover (not sure if you looked above the neck).$20.

1:00 PM–It’s afternoon!  We go see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the fifth time!  I’ll have the large buttered popcorn.  If you’re nice to me, I’ll let you lick my fingers.  Afterwards, we have a fake sword fight with wrapping paper tubes and see if we can run up the side of buildings.   If you win the fight, I’ve arranged for you to have a threesome with Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi.  If you lose the sword fight, you have to wear your hair and talk through your teeth like Chow Yun Fat for the rest of your life.   Figure $15, unless you hurt yourself during the sword fight and I have to take you to the EmergiCare.

3:30 John Dufresne is going to be at Joseph-Beth Booksellers for a book signing, on Shaker Square,  and my roommate insists on treating me to a signed copy of Love Warps the Mind a Little.  A subject he has cornered the market on (my roommate, not John–it would be pure speculation on my part regarding John; with you, Buttfly, factoid for sure).  While there, we ride the rapid downtown and back so we can identify with the downtrodden urban poor who have to take the transit and also the rich people from Shaker Heights who think it’s fashionable.  $25 (+ another $10 on trashy magazines so I can learn about sex and find new positions for when I play Bang the Buddy game with my roommate–Ha! Ha! Ha!  You’re so incredibly weak and easy!  Some would say, pathetic!).

5:30 We pick up Patty and Jennifer (as you so coyly call them, the Yum Yum, Double D. Pleasure Twins–your dreams must be so tortured)  from tennis practice (somebody, maybe your roommate,  has mysteriously called off sick).  You do not, I repeat, you do not, look at Patty’s legs and Jennifer’s breasts like you always do.  Hear me?  I don’t want to hear them complain to me again!  (As in, “ewwwwww the pervert was looking at my legs!  Again!”)  We drop them off at home.  Free (although for only $20, Patty said she will let you take pictures of her in her old Catholic school-girl uniform!)–What am I going to do with you?!!! (And it was the unanimous opinion of the three of us that $20 was much too low considering the fact you’d probably gladly pay $50 and provide lifetime taxi privileges).

6:00 I’m famished!  Because you love me unconditionally, as you would a daughter, you take me to Gavi’s where we feast on an appetizer of Portobello alla Gorgonzola (yum!) followed by Filetti di Vitello con Sugo di Prosciutto e Pancetta for the lady (me!), and Tasmanian Salmon for the gentleman (with reluctance, I dub thee)–be very grateful, it is a fatty fish and will go right to your thighs and immediately convert to cottage cheese (well, technically, that only happens to women.  In your case, it lands on that vast expanse called the Great Plain of Goo which resides above your belt). $80 (includes the $5 tip you’ll give Brad, the guy who’s in charge of valet parking tonight–he’s a hot boy!) 

All in all–About $225 on your Master Card.  A day with your loving, sex goddess roommate: priceless!

          Oh, I forgot.

8:00 An after-hours appointment at the bookstore with David and Pervis Stahl for you to appraise used books he’s selling.  Is it me, or do you also think Pervis’s address is somewhat south of Erebus?  (Ah, yes. All this sex you’ve been getting has turned your mind into balata. At your advanced age, you’ve probably lost all knowledge of Greek mythology.  Erebus being that dark place just north of Hades).

10:00 Wallow in self-pity because you’ve gone 24 hours without sex, no fruit even in analogies, and are developing scurvy.  Think about how you could have spent the last two hours at the mall buying me clothes instead of with that vile, nasty Pervis Stahl, and then sneak into my bedroom while I’m sleeping and steal the magazines I bought today.  Memorize them (Please!  This time, don’t cut out the pictures of the girls in their underwear!  Leave me some shred of dignity for when the Yum Yums come over and we’re looking through magazines and then I have to explain how all the holes in my poor periodicals got there.  It’s just so unfashionable to be living with a true pervert.  They both feel so sorry for me). 

          11:00 Lights out!  Wasn’t it a lovely day!?

              Most affectionately, I remain, your true Erato,

                        Amber McClain, aka, your loving roommate

Erato--Call Your Girlfriend

I am indebted to my buddy Kate Snow for making me aware of this wonderful video. . .absolutely lovely and insane!

Another version by them here:

The original:

Stronger than the dark, the light

Stronger than the dark, the light 

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
 Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
 Stronger than the dark, the light;
 Stronger than the wrong, the right...
 ~Phillips Brooks, "An Easter Carol"

I was out early on Easter Sunday in April of 2009. . .colder than hell out there around six in the morning. . .

No matter any kind of spiritual beliefs, I wanted this picture to represent some kind of "power beyond us." Something mighty, something of wonder, something frightening, something inspiring, something that makes us want to explore. . .I rarely saturate like this, but this was just the atmosphere I wanted to create for this picture. . .

The picture was taken at Penitentiary Glen, part of the Lake Metroparks system in Kirtland, Ohio

Daylight Brings Promise and Hope

Daylight Brings Promise and Hope 

. . .and so it went. . .after they shrugged off the whispers of night. . .the cereal had been downed. . .the directions given. . . the door flung open. . .and it started all over again. . .this day that brought promise. . .this day that brought hope. . .because when you're two. . .life has not beat you down. . .and when you are five. . .all things are possible. . .and when you're ten. . .you want to hang on. . .because even by then. . .you see what's around the corner. . .and at some point. . .even as you look forward. . .there are times you want to count backward. . .to when all was promise. . .and all was hope. . .and it's all there was. . .

"Where the lawn ends and the Field Begins"

"Where the lawn ends and the Field Begins" 

"Insects tap and flutter against the window, borne in through the darkness on a tide of light--mayflies and caddis, moths and beetles, pulled off course by the glow from a reading lamp. Out in the night itself, fireflies have nearly reached their summer's peak. Where the lawn ends and the field begins, a wall of vegetation has grown up, thicker and for its height more impenetrable than any rain forest on earth. Above the grass heads and seedpods and leaves and fronds, the fireflies stutter like slow sparks. They constellate and then, for a moment, they all go dark at once.". . .from The Rural Life by Verlyn Klinkenborg

Chelsea Lee and the Walking Sticks--Subway Train

. . .such a very nice video. . .nice harmonies. . .very well done--excellent sound and production!

Resistance is futile. . .

What to Drink When You listen to John Stewart. . .yes, Drinkify is here!

What To Drink When You're Listening to John Stewart

Why Don't We Respect Stephen King as Much as We Should?

Following is the usual bang-up job NPR does interviewing an author.  This time around, Stephen King.

Stephen King--11/22/63

I have this feeling that we as a country really don't appreciate Stephen King.  Witness this: I must have deleted the picture, but at Half-Price books, they had an entire box of Stephen King hardbacks for $15.  There must have been at least twenty books in there. . .yes, I know. . .his first press runs must be in the hundreds-of-thousands. . .but, do we take him for granted?  I looked on the shelves of my personal library and only found one book of his fiction.  The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.  It nestled betweein All the Stars Came Out That Night by Kevin King (no relation that I'm aware of) and The Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me by Suzanne Kingsbury.  No Carrie.  No The Shining.  No The Stand. . . .

There was a time I stayed home from work to finish a Stephen King book--it was just that good and the pages just kept flying by. . .these were in the days of The Shining and The Stand. . .

His book,

was one of the most valuable books on writing I have ever read. . .(please pay no attention to the fact that I downloaded a picture for the audio version). . .you get the point.  the subtitle:  A Memoir of the Craft. . .

From the book:  "By the time I was fourteen (and shaving twice a week whether I needed to or not) the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it."

I only use that passage to point to the fact that rejection is just part of the game.  Stephen Kings tells us how human the entire creative process is. . .I was once there he's telling the budding writer, bogged down by rejection after rejection. . .but, those stories are well-known. . .the record label executive who rejected The Beatles. . .all the rejects J.K . Rowling received. . .John Grisham--rejection after rejection. . .A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle being rejected by twenty-six publishers. . .and lest we forget Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell was rejected by thirty-eight publishers. . .

But, I really didn't start this to focus on rejection (sorry, I got a bit off track there).

The truth is, many people seem to be almost embarrassed to admit they are reading Stephen King.  And why?  Because he is not "literary?"  Because he doesn't make you work for it?

Having served on the IMPAC Dublin Awards committee at Cleveland Public Library for seven years taught me one thing about "literary" fiction.  It is not all created equal.  I read some truly horrible books--not even close to being well-written because the hype machine was going full blast about a book being the "literary" read of the year.  There was great suffering. . .we debated over and over as to what was "a Dublin book."  I finally declared a Dublin book to be one that required enormous amounts of whiskey to sit through and maybe a loaded rifle near your chair. . .there were good books, also. . .more bad than good. . .The good I remember. . .the magic of finding Chris Cleave's Little Bee at the very last moment one year. . .the always good Richard Russo. . The Road by Cormac McCarthy right on the heals of No Country for Old Men. . .

The bad. . .I will not mention. . .

But, Stephen King?  No, we never considered him for Dublin. . .but, in the summer, long after we'd put the nominations to bed. . .we'd all pretty much retreat to other books. . .some to non-fiction. . .some to other writers. . .maybe even some to Stephen King. . .

So, as I stare at the twin bricks of

and Haruki Murakami's

I am truly torn. . .I know I will read them both--I am a big fan of Murakami's writing. . .and people want to know what I think of it. . .

I am drifting toward the King. . .

Because I respect the man that much. . .and yes, maybe it won't be as much work as the Murakami. . .but, the pages will fly. . .and maybe I just need to revisit that 1958-1963 time period again. . .when we lived in  four-channel TV land and AM radio ruled. . .I'll get to you Mr. Murakami. . .but, not tonight. . .

Life is never easy for those who dream

“Life is never easy for those who dream.”

 Robert James Waller

The girl in the picture had just hugged one of this guy's buddies--who is safely out of camera range now, emotions tumbling, wondering what had just happened with the spontaneous hug from this girl. . .now THIS guy, whether he was looking on still in shocked wonder about the hug or looking at the girl and wondering, "when is it my turn?," . . .wait. . .because whatever he is thinking, before he finishes the thought, she then turned to him and he got his hug, too. . .and all departed. . .

Today, these moments in life are lost far too soon. . .there is only a small window for that first hug, that first kiss, that first awkwardness, the aloneness in bed that night after it's all happened and dreaming of what is to come. . .and not knowing at that time, it will never, ever be quite that innocent again. . .only in hindsight will this whole cast realize this is the stuff dreams are made of. . .and they will all remember it differently. . .

Reasons to Rise

REASONS TO RISE. . .

. . .a new blog by my friend, buddy, pal, and one of my oldest friends in the world. . .Ben Blake. . .please take a look. . .

Reasons to Rise

Stereo Soul Future

In my ever-ending search for great new music, I was recently made aware of these great guys:

STEREO SOUL FUTURE

Love the picture. . .and kudos goes to whomever the photographer was on the shoot.  I'll be glad to edit this post to give him a shout-out.

There newest album is Ghost in the Night

Go here for an excellent video:

Stereo Soul Future

For the complete blog of the website, please go here:

 Stereo Soul Future

GO!

. . .full review to follow shortly. . .

You and Tequila--Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter--the official video. . .

The great Matraca Berg song. . .

Diana Krall. . .The Look of Love

Diana Krall. . .The Look of Love

Were you looking for something more down here?

The Staves

This is the group opening for The Civil Wars in their upcoming US tour. . .

Their website is here: The Staves

Cleveland Area History

Cleveland Area History is a total labor of love blog done by Cleveland Public Library librarian Christopher Busta-Peck.

He has recently published a book, Hidden History of Cleveland

Please show Christopher some love and check out his book!

Richard Russo

Go here: booklist online for a nice overview of one of the finest living authors we have around.  If you haven't read Russo, why not?  You can pick and choose any of his novels and feel right at home.  I happened to start with Straight Man.  I don't think you'd be sorry. . .

A big shout-out to Booklist Online for the post.