Is "Is Blowin in the Wind", literature?

The Noble Prize for literature in 2016 was awarded to Bob Dylan for "having created new poetic expression within the great American song tradition". 

Harpers Magazine says that “literary means not only what is written but what is voiced, what is expressed, what is invented, in whatever form".  More restrictively, it is writing considered as an art form, or any single writing deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often due to deploying language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.

Is "Blowin in the Wind" literature? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l4nVByCL44 

What do you want to listen too?

Operate & Play some Leonard Cohen?
  

I have heard it said of Leonard Cohen that his music brought "Light" into our lives.  I like his music so when I went to the hospital with a heart attack not to long ago I had occassion to think of him.  

I  had been on the operating table 3 times before. It was metal and even with the towels it was cold. The room was busy with people walking all around. I was flat on my back on the table mostly naked. Music was playing and everyone seemed to be happy about it. The young doctor who was in charge came over and asked what I wanted to hear as music? Of course we both knew that in a few minutes I likely wouldn't be listening to it. 

I figured he was just being kind but I wondered if they even knew who Leonard Cohen was so I suggested Cohen.  

In my semi conscious state I was betting that they wouldn't know him and I was right. No one in the room knew him.

They did try to find him on whatever device was providing the music for the operating room.  No luck but I was just glad it wasn't the music from "All that Jazz" and that operating scene. (Truth is you would have to have seen that movie to know why this comment has any relevance). 

They went back to their own music choices and I slipped out of consciousness. 

SEND IN SOMEONE TO BLAME..............RE THESE DANDELIONS.

Are we accountable for what we see as well as what we do?.

How is it that we remember some things, and not others?  Are we accountable for the things we remember? If we don't remember then are we off the hook?  What about what we read? What we read sometimes makes a connection.  We experience things even through fiction that we would not experience without it so we are effected by it. Are we accountable for the fiction we read?

Is what we are, the result of what were accountable for, only.. Does being blamed make us somebody? 

50 Years

It has been 50 years tomorrow the 9th.  In the movie "Peggy Sue got Married" Charlie Bodell tells Peggy that he is the man. He has the hair, and he has the car. That was me, once upon a time. I had the hair, I had the car, and I still have Kathy.

I also have this little secret longing. I have always wished I was a graceful dancer! Graceful at anything would be a good start. I wish Kathy and I could dance the night away sometime.

This year for our anniversary we are moving away from New Mexico. We sold our house and bought a new one in Utah. We also rented an apartment there.  So it sounds like we did something big, doesn't it? 

We, Zach, Jenn, and the Castles, will go out to dinner to Yanni's.  Good times, good folks.  Not too bad of a destination. I really like the Saganaki, their flaming Greek Kaseri cheese.  

"Standing with a Fists" is talking about Sunkmanitu Tanka Ob Waci who is Dancing with Wolves when she says: My place is with you, I go where you go.............That is what Kathy and I did.

It's ok if you "love" blueberries.  It takes some passion to love, and it is clearly obvious that many folks really seem to love blueberries.

And the winner is, "Raspberries"

     Asked to think of something that I loved, I thought of raspberries! A bowl of raspberries, with sugar lightly sprinkled on them.   
     They had sugar put on them the night before and sat waiting for me all night.  I might put milk on them this time but I don't do that everytime. Some of the berry juice will bleed into the bowl or milk and will add another texture of flavor. 
     Fresh berries right of the bush are good but cold berries in a bowl, sweetened some and with milk, are even better. 
     My parents and, across the street my grandparents, had a big raspberry patch in their back yard when I was young. We moved away when I was 7 but  I remember crawling between the rows and picking all that I could to fill my container of the day right off the bush.
     One time when I was about 15 I went up one of the canyons south of town to the Frazier farm and picked raspberries as a one day job. I don't recall how much I was paid but I do recall eating a lot that day. 
      This morning, early, I went out the front door to get the paper. It reminded me of so many years getting up real early to go out and run. 
      Upstairs, near the bedrooms, the house was warmer than downstairs. As I walked downstairs it felt better as it began being a little cooler. 
      The air, and a lot more, changed as I opened the front door. It was cooler outside but it was also crisp. The coolness was in the moving air and as it touched my skin I could feel it. It felt crisp.  Breathing the cool air and feeling it touching my skin and nose and chest was the focus of my attention. I loved that experience and those feelings. 
     I have read that mediation or even Zen teaches you to think about the air your breathing. Think of, and feel, the air coming into your body and out of your body.  This is suppose to allow you to not think about anything else. 
     I have to be truthful right here. I have tried this breathing approach a lot. I have tried and tried to see if I can find myself thinking of nothing else while breathing in and out like this. I have not achieved what seems to me to be this suggested state of euphoria. 
     I do love the feel and touch of cool crisp air in the early mornings. 
     I love Raspberries. 

     I have a lot to be thankful for. Raspberries and cool air are on the list. 

Poetry evokes or implies what?

What about poetry?  I am interested in the implication that poetry is different than I had previously thought? It may be that it is mostly just personally satisfying.................................. but of not a lot of value to others?  True or not, maybe that is the better way to look at it? 

I want to learn more about why three lines can be a poem?


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         Writing each day may be the polish

Details and style may follow

         Is value the end game, or is it the effort?

       Clouds in the sky

Blue all around too

        What color defines the ground and us

Poetry, thought, rhythm

Left hand, right hand

Melody, defining song

I wonder how long I could write about things I love?

Much longer than those that I don’t

Love has more details.

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The Mantra

I have blogged several times the last few weeks. The first time in over a year.  The question I have not resolved is why am I blogging. It is probably the case that no one buy my daughter and perhaps my wife have read any of this. Kathy may figure that the one she read was it and hasn't been back. My family is pretty loyal but I am pretty sure they are out of the habit of checking this blog.

I have wondered about inviting some extended family to read it and maybe some friends?  I haven't done that before. Maybe this blog would, if I keep blogging in it up, turn into a way to stay in touch or up to date with them.  Facebook perhaps is a more modern way to do that? I can't see me going on Facebook and living parts of my life there. I have limited interest in what I see there and have the potential to be in front of a lot of people who had not intent of seeing anything about me on purpose.

I have also thought about starting another blog. I might make it more about something. Something is a necessary word here because I have no answer for what that something would be. I don't think politics is a good subject. Religion probably isn't but then religion is about strong feelings about things and I have those.

I do think I have some subjects inside that may come out in a book.

     The goodness of people

Is often blurred with each day

     The life story reveals, whats in the way

 Today this blog has room to become a book blog.  I just finished the book, "Writing Down The Bones, Freeing the Writer Within", by Natlie Goldberg.  

It was about the writer and writing.  One thing I didn’t expect from the author was how her years in New Mexico were relevant to this subject. 

 The expected image I often find about this state is one that when I am in Santa Fe or Taos. There I find it in excess. It is a mantra. Artsy, cool, creative, beautiful, all creating an image in what ever is being discussed.

With the Bones book finished I just went in and found another book I might read.  "On Second Thought, by Robison E. Wells. (maybe he is a more important writer than Natalie Goldberg because he has a middle initial on the cover?)  It says right on the cover that it is "a novel". Maybe that is a declaration or maybe it was part of the title?  Perhaps the book really is an attempt at being a novel or maybe the whole thing is just a story about writing a novel? Not sure yet. 

A early surprise about this book was found in the "back cover comments". A character in the book, Walt, is offered a job in Alamitos, New Mexico. It says that the town is beset with colorful, offbeat characters and mystery .......................

Here again is the New Mexico Mantra at least the mantra is used to suggest something. Having read the first part of the book I didn't think that it was the same mantra of artsy and cool and more important the book didn't hold my interest..................

Bright Shinny Momements

I have driven to work each weekday for almost 13 years now. Today was no different, but then the things I saw stuck me different?  

I don’t use the freeway but instead drive on the city streets. On the freeway I am surrounded by cars and each has someone inside usually just the driver. Often I notice what they are doing but I don’t spend much time thinking about them.

Today it occurred to me that on the city streets, even with cars still alongside mine, that the roadside seem to have almost no people. The streets are lined with houses and businesses and I assume that most have people inside?

As I slowed down approaching an intersection I noticed a young woman sitting on a bench waiting for the bus.  The first thing that caught my attention was her light sky blue tennis shoes. The blue and the white soles were spotless. The copper rivets in her Levis seemed to shine in the sun. Her pants were a traditional dark blue color with a white shirt loose and hanging over them. Her black rim square glasses complimented her long raven black hair hanging down over her shoulders.  She was an American Indian and her brown skin against her black hair and the way she was dressed just sort of sparkled. 

Her image sparkled. It was shinny and happy. It reminded me of yesterday morning before I went to work. I sat looking to the east out of an upstairs window at the mountains. The trees were full of thick moisture filled leaves and the morning sun seemed to deflect off them. The corners of the leaves were actually like small mirrors. 

The trees sparkled. 

Good to find some bright shinny moments. 

Retire or ReInvent / Ok

Retire or Re Invent?

I am 6 weeks out from a change. Maybe 5. Today I was talking to a financial planner and that was my answer to her when she asked about it. Retiring or re inventing.  

Not so strange really.  We have called it "the next chapter".

Looking back over my career I have re invented myself several times. 

I went into the wholesale business after collage. I went into the brokerage business after that and then back into the wholesale business and then back into the brokerage business.  Well then again I went back into the wholesale business and then almost finally on into the restaurant business.  

It is a good thing that this, today's blog, is not my book because even I am bored with this beginning. 

Even so the theme of reinventing oneself is a reality. I did it. I might do it again. 

A long time ago I wrote a book. I had in my mind some lessons that seemed clear at the time. I thought that life had taught me the value of doing your best and seeking out the best. That idea got lost in the writing of the book and really would be hard to see looking back at it.  I did use some quotes in the book that had felt really good when I thought about what I wanted the book to say.  Probably too many quotes really and not enough book.  Even so so of the things I read, especially good quotes, just have such an impact. 

I saw a book on a shelf upstairs a few minutes ago. All the good books are packed (retiring and moving) so I was hunting for something to read. The book that caught my attention said, "1001 books that you need to read before you die". Ok. I have already read over a 1000 books so now what. I didn't pick it up and by the way I have already read that book too. 

Well I want to go back to the idea in this short message of reinventing. Each of the prior changes that I have gone through have built on the past. They have seemed different but in many ways they seemed different because of what I did before.

I am not planning on anymore of the food business. So for the goal of reinventing now I probably have to see in my past the lessons and things I have gained from the people I have known.

Sorry but this just leads me to a quote. Marcel Proust a famous writer if you like old books, or maybe if your old, said something profound.  He said that "the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new sights, but in looking with new eyes."

I really like that quote. Looking back and thinking maybe I ought to really value the relationships and people is some new vision. Reinvention is new vision. New eyes. New conclusions. It is exciting.

One more quote. Sorry I just can't help it. T.S.Eliot is another older guy who has said some good things. In thinking of my new eyes, my reinvention, and even my hope that I can find a book in me that will be a good enough book to keep and read, I love this idea about what is coming next that he expressed so well. 

He said that "we shall not cease from exploration. And at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Yes indeed. I see some things now that seem to be different and even original even though I have seen them before.

On the other hand I am not done. I intend to keep exploring. I have just started to figure out what the right questions really are.

Thoughts about Retirement and today............................



This is my second post in a long long time. I likely have no followers.  I have started posting on my blog again to see what I might have to say?  I do have some questions that occur to me?  

I do like this quote. "Teachers teach more by what they are than what they say".  Maybe in retirement my seeking a subject to write about will as part of that goal help me to figure how who, after all this, am I.

I don't know that "a blog" really is the place to find that out? On the other hand is this really the best blog location, for a blog anyway? (a very different question)

Should I be blogging for just the family and some friends, or for anyone who wants to look in?  Do I need two blogs?  

I have some plans to write a book and maybe some possible topics for chapters or pages could make its way into the blog? 



Well, I am still working and will be for another few weeks. Then I am retiring. 

I have always spent a lot of time using "Outlook" on my computer to do emails and to keep track of things. When you look at the inbox in Outlook you see on the left side the "Mail Folders". Under them you can create other folders. You can move all your incoming emails, that you want to keep, into a folder with the category of the emails name on it. You an pull up your "sent emails" and store them for reference.  This is just a small amount of the ways to use this tool.

Over the last 8+ years in my current job I have created many many files. I have big categories.  Purchasing, Human Resources, Distribution, Stores, Insurance and on and on. Within these areas I have smaller files. Employees by name. Store by store number. HR policies, ect and so on.

Since I will retire in a few weeks I have been reviewing these files. Many have emails going back to day one. Day one was back in May of 2008 for my current job.  

I have taken the information in a lot of these files and passed them to those who will handle those areas after I leave. Even so, I have probably deleted over a thousand files and the contents, at least, so far, besides those passed on. 

So in a way I am deleting the sum total of all the documentation of all this time. The 8+ years. 

There must be some big profound lesson to be drawn from this other than that this was just a good way to hand off the baton.
. 


So did something good come from all that I deleted? Was the file effort worth it. What value went away by deleting it?  The files are not clean they are just gone




I still had the experiences. 

Today is “the day”. (Actually it was a couple of weeks ago)  The day that I write something for the sake of writing it. Not that I haven’t done that a lot. I have written a lot of pages about things and just tucked them away over the years. Some just ramblings.  Others intended to be really about “something”.   Some folks who like to offer writing suggestions say that  every single day a person should just write for an hour or two about whatever they can think of.    

Last night I was reading a book about writing that was put together by a person who felt she learned the most herself during the years she was teaching folks to write. She seemed to treasure the idea that everyone had something to say.  She claimed that almost every person reveals themselves even in just trying to write one sentence?  Really, do you think that is true? I wonder? Then on the other hand she in saying this is really making a point I have thought a lot about myself and that is that everyone has an interesting story.  A “life story” most likely.  In fact I have never heard someone tell their life story and not found it really interesting.  So maybe that is it. It isn’t the ability to write that is the big deal, it is the story.  This is good news because it takes the pressure on technique to a degree.

I liked another part of the message this writing teacher brought out in the book. She said you ought to get out each day and walk or maybe run.  She did suggest walking slow so maybe running isn’t the best. 

Walk slow she said. Think a lot while you’re walking.  Let your mind just go where it wants. The idea being that creativity slips in during this type of time spent.

It occurs to me that this writing I am doing today could be a post on a daily blog.  I recall I have a daily blog .............................. but haven’t used it for a couple of years? 

Kathy used to post a lot on her daily blog. I liked her posts a lot. That follows because I like her a lot, of course. She does a nice job of those type of things. I remember a few years ago some person living in the Northeast, in a big city, would post on a blog a lot and add pictures of the buildings in his town. Loved that blog.  That person just stopped blogging.  Miss him. It was a “him” I am pretty sure.

Maybe I will give some thought to a new blog format. Maybe one that has several sections. A section to talk about books maybe with links to where to buy them. Of course if I get a book written of my own it could go there. 

I did really like the idea that creativity could be tied to walking.  The author suggested 65,000 steps a week should be a goal, but that was the high end of that suggestion.   This probably means that Fiona is a very good writer with all her “invested time“ in walking or creativity.  The author did say to take it slow and enjoy it. 

Maybe a book on retiring will work for me. I think I am "more than ready" for it.  Here is what I like a lot about what I hope will fit well with retiring.  I can walk a lot. I can hit the goals suggested. I tried today actually. I just went out and walked for 3500 steps mid morning. I walked slow. The sun was hot but it felt really good on my skin.  This must mean I am a good writer by the way because the author I have mentioned got really excited  when one of her students explained in one of her assignments how she felt about the sun on her skin.  So there you go. I felt really good this morning out walking. The sun on my skin. Me walking slowly and just feeling good. Sort of a slow runners high...........................................................

So that is my blog today, or a couple of weeks ago. Whatever.