On its own, it was a very cool tweet by Keith Olbermann:
Roald Dahl is one of my childhood favorites. I am still very fond of vermicious knids.
I replied to the tweet:
He answered almost immediately:
Seven is the perfect age for a very smart kid have written to Dahl. I already love Keith, but this added yet another layer of respect. I wish I’d thought of it!
I’m really hoping that he reads the correspondence on the show. His literary readings have been very enjoyable to me, but this would be extraordinary.
I’ve been thinking about narratives, how people create stories about themselves – even (maybe even especially) private stories.
I’m not sure whether it’s our culture, or if it’s just me, but music anchors me even more than sight or touch. It rivals smell for the primal whole-self response. I had an idea to free-associate, to simply list the music I strongly recall enjoying. For almost a minute, I had the illusion that that I could make a whole list. I suspect that if I did this again, some songs would stay and others would fade back, replaced by others through a different train of constructive memory.
Tonight, at this moment, here is the music that I recall enjoying, as it occurs to me in a roughly autobiographical, chronological order.
All Through the Night
Star Light, Star Bright
I’m a Little Teapot
Good Morning to You
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
Home on the Range
Sweet Betsy from Pike
I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad
Oh, Susanna!
Au Clair de al Lune
Rose, Rose and Up She Rises
I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
My Knapsack on My Back
Funiculì, FuniculÃ
Cool, Clear Water
Erie Canal
Shulamite Maiden
Tsjaikovski
Sleeping Beauty
When the Bell in Lighthouse Rings Ding Dong
Kookaburra
Oh, How Lovely is the Evening
Silent Night
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Have You Seen the Ghost of John?
Inchworm
Cruella deVille (101 Dalmations)
Rachmaninov
Someone to Watch Over Me
The Beatles
In the Summertime
Forward, You Witnesses
There Was a Rooster
Joy to the Word
If You Go Away
Oliver!
Where Do I Begin? (Love Story)
Chopin
Hushabye Mountin
West Side Story
The Mama’s and the Papa’s
The Sound of Music
Godspell
Cat Stevens
South Pacific
Jesus Christ Superstar
Beethoven
The Doors
Jackson Five
Tony Orlando
The Carpenters
Love is Blue
The Locomotion
Classical Gas
Layla
I Think I Love You – The Partridge Family
The Monkeys
Seasons in the Sun (and side b) – Terry Jacks
Helen Reddy
Simon and Garfunkel
John Denver
American Pie
Laughter in the Rain – Neil Sedaka
My Eyes Adored You
The Eagles
Barbra Streisand
Elton John
Tom Jones
The Bee Gees
Olivia Newton-John
Grease
ABBA
Chicago
Steve Miller Band
Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Rolling Stones
The Who
My Sharona
Maggie May / Rod Stewart
Starry Starry Night
Queen
Boston
ELO
Looking back over the list, I’m convinced that it must be so off, in a number of ways. I also laughed. It does get better than this eventually (smile).
Have you ever thought about the music that resonated with you at a young age?
In 2008, Americans in record numbers voted for change.
But the health insurance companies, the Wall Street banks, and the special interests are already eyeing this November’s elections as an opportunity to put their allies back in power. Many Republican candidates have openly promised to run on a platform to repeal health reform, and roll back the progress that President Obama has made so far.
It will be up to each of us to support President Obama and keep the country moving forward by working to support Democratic candidates.
Commit to do your part this election season by voting in 2010.
The greyness is comforting, bittersweet, familiar.
Is the awareness of the longing itself the meaning? Is there an object for the longing? Is the longing the subject? What is beyond the longing? Where is the between of the longing?
“A Lonely Voice” – October Project
I keep looking back
A lifetime back
Across the desert
In a desert where no one can explain
You tell me God is dancing in the rain
I can hear the echo
In a maze of words
A lonely voice behind a door
Can you hear me calling
From a world away
A lonely voice behind a door
I keep looking back
Traditions back
Across the centuries
In a century where no one can explain
You tell me God is dancing in the rain
I can hear the echo
In a maze of words
A lonely voice behind a door
Can you hear me calling
From a world away
A lonely voice behind a door
As I stare ahead
A dream ahead
Across the ocean
Cross an ocean where there’s nothing to explain
You tell me God is laughing in the rain
I can hear the echo
In a maze of words
A lonely voice behind a door
Can you hear me calling
From a world away
A lonely voice behind a door
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are but princesses that are waiting to see us act just once with beauty and courage.
Perhaps everything terrible is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that needs our help.â€
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
“Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.”
~ Viktor Frankl
“Spirit borrows from matter the perceptions on which it feeds and restores them to matter in the form of movements which it has stamped with its own freedom.”
~ Henri L. Bergson
“Spiritual energy flows in and produces effects in the phenomenal world.”
~ William James
“In each individual the spirit is made flesh, in each one the whole of creation suffers, in each one a Savior is crucified.”
~ Hermann Hesse
“There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.”
~ William S. Burroughs
“It is very hard sometimes to know how intensely we are loved, and of what value our presence is to those who love us.”
~ Anthony Trollope
“The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.”
~ Erich Fromm
“Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama.”
~ Ram Dass
“In the dominant Western religious system, the love of God is essentially the same as the belief in God, in God’s existence, God’s justice, God’s love. The love of God is essentially a thought experience. In the Eastern religions and in mysticism, the love of God is an intense feeling experience of oneness, inseparably linked with the expression of this love in every act of living.”
~ Erich Fromm
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity.
The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”
~ Carl Jung
“Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment – a little makes the way of the best happiness.”
~ Frederich Nietzsche
“Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful.”
~ George Bernard Shaw
As promised, here is my favorite superhero – UNDERDOG!!! Thank you Danny!
Want an Underdog of your own? Or have some other nostalgic craving? It just so happens that the store is in the family! Check out Retrospect Dry Goods (it’s fantastic!!) and tell Lisa that Heidi sent you! She’ll be even more tickled than when I relieved her during the volleyball game. If you happen to be near Monument Colorado, stop in and do a little dance – but if not, you can still order lots of cool stuff from the website: http://www.retrospectdrygoods.com/
Now, back to our regularly-scheduled program. A photo of Underdog isn’t enough, I know, so… enjoy!
There’s no need to fear! Underdog is here!
When criminals in this world appear
and break the laws that they should fear
and frighten all who see or hear
the cry goes up both far and near
for Underdog! Underdog!
Underdog! Underdog!
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder
fighting all who rob or plunder
Underdog (aaaaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaah) Underdog!
Underdog!
When in this world the headlines read
of those whose hearts are filled with greed
who rob and steal from those who need
to right this wrong with blinding speed
goes Underdog! Underdog!
Underdog! Underdog!
Speed of lightning, roar of thunder
fighting all who rob or plunder
Underdog (aaaaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaah) Underdog!
UNDERDOG!
