Setting New Scenes

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

Albert Schweitzer
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Why should I be used up? Why should anyone ever be used up? I have memories about my career and sometimes I think about them. but eventually I reach a point where I realize that in the long run they're not that important. Life is much bigger than what you choose to do with it. That should be an energizing thought not a depressing one,

Now what about us can get used up? When the peanut butter is all gone do we rue the loss of peanut butter and give up, or do we go out and get some more? If our energy is used up we rest and regain it. If our effectiveness at a job wanes, we can hold on to the job or step aside and let a younger person take it over. That doesn't mean that we are used up..

What about goals, personal goals? When a goal is achieved the efforts and struggles to attain it may be used up . That doesn't mean that we are used up. There is a certain nihilistic mentality some will adopt which causes them to identify themselves with their life's struggles as if they had forfeited the right to any other identity. In such a person the attainment of the goal means the end of struggle and therefore the end of identity, the end of usefulness.

And what if the goal is never attained. I have a list of goals I never attained. I can sit and wish I had reached them, but wishing does not make up my day. It does not describe who I am to myself. There is always something to do. There is an importance to everyone's life. We must rid ourselves of any temporary or chronic fetters of uselessness. Turn around, your stock and trade of abilities may be in a place you didn't notice because you were holding on to an empty peanut butter jar.

DB - The Vagabond
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

4 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Searching The Grains

It is peculiar to mankind to transcend mankind.

Friedrich Von Schlegel
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I don't know everything. I don't know anything. I don't want to know everything about anything because then I would have nothing to learn. The universe is an infinite place but life is greater than the universe, it's greater than the infinite because it includes the universe.

Some people believe that life ends, that there's a stopping point. There's death. Or there's the "Great Reward" when we are judged for the life we lived and then are checked into heaven or hell to spend an eternity in torment or whatever it is that folks do in heaven. I think those concepts are very confining and not worthy of the universe in which we live.

Space scientists are among those who are looking for some form of life an other planets, and sooner or later they will probably find it. They should certainly continue the search. But until time travel is discovered all the information they get will be billions of years old. Even so, the search itself is the result of the need to know things, to learn things. To some it may seem to be like analyzing grains of sand on a beach, but the search is also a search into human life. Every discovery, each new thing learned, affects human mentality even if we don't notice it.

The search for life elsewhere in the universe is a search for life itself, for the knowledge of what life really is, outside of stars and planets, and the discoveries that affect our mentality, our perception of life, are also discoveries of mind and mind is what is greater than the universe.

In the mental gutters of the world the human mind seems to be used for nothing but a universe of dangerous, disgusting or pointless activities. Some people have risen out of those gutters, many have not. Those who have not are stultified by beliefs and are not in a search for anything beyond what they know. It can be seen in commerce, politics, government, the business of daily life, religion and, yes, even in art.

When we reach the level of understanding that even the stars and planets are not as important as mind, the true universe, real exploration will begin and real life will continue.

DB - The Vagabond
*****************

SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

4 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Beat The Heat

When in doubt sing loud.

Anonymous
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I don't feel well today. I never feel well but today my brain feels like a large stone and all the energy has fled from the rest of me.

I did a couple of shows with an Israeli director who whenever I wasn't feeling well suggested I should take some vitamins, which, in her Hebrew accent, she pronounced "weetaminz." so I took my weetaminz this morning and have had my oats. But every time I eat something I feel like taking a nap. Vitamins these days are sometimes called "food supplements" which is one of the sillies titles ever.

I have a bottle of third rate apple juice. The market was out of Motts, which is the first rate, gourmet, state of the art, fruit of the loom apple juice. (No one paid me to say that.) Folks around here know from apple juice.

I have to put a little sugar in the apple juice I have to make it palatable. I sometimes wonder if there is any nutritional value in any of the food I eat. I'm thawing some chopped beef for dinner, to go with my rice and beans, at least I think it's beef, one is never quite sure these day.

It's hotter than virgin lava here. I've got the ac going, the fan is up full blast, but they're just blowing the hot air around as I am right now. Every now and then I take a hot shower which helps. "What? A hot shower? Why not a cold one?" Because a hot shower heats up the body and makes the air seem cooler. That's why the people who live in equatorial climates eat all that hot food: chili, tacos, enchiladas. peppers, all that diabolo heats up the blood and makes the air cooler than the body. Those people aren't stupid.

Now the question is, isn't this the dullest, most boring and uninteresting vagabond journey you've ever read? I thought so. But I have to stay at the keyboard. If I move over the bed I'll lie down and sleep through the day.
********************************

And now here's the answer to the WEEKEND PUZZLE.

The winner is godolallie@aol.com of the Blogspot Tigers who wins the grand prize of an Olivetti typewriter spool. You were asked to continue the story --

It was an early September in the afternoon. The sky was darkening and a storm was threatened. But Dick and Jane needed to reach the other side of the lake. So they got into their canoe with two bags of groceries and Maxine, their Chihuahua. They began paddling across the lake and everything was going well until....

out of the gray’ an object appeared.
It was like nothing that had ever been seen in, on or above this lake before.

Dick and Jane stopped paddling.

Maxine (being descended from generations of fighting dogs) barked her willingness to attack irrespective of the fact ‘It’ was so big her eyes (renowned for their size) were unable to bring it into focus.

The lake boiled under the storm. Dick and Jane were thrown from the canoe.

Maxine stood her ground and the canoe answered her courage by slicing through the waves that threatened to inundate it.

After the storm the canoe was found on the other side of the lake containing two bags of groceries guarded by a Chihuahua.

Morning mist had descended over the lake and carried all that had occurred into a time yet to be explored by man but was already known by one small dog.

Medical records later identified Dick and Jane.

Maxine tried to tell what she knew and barked fit to bust but she was faced with ignorance.

Maxine then decided to take the best on offer and jumped into the soft lap of the reporter that initially came to expose the cause of the tragedy.



I can only report what my Chihuahua tells me.

It was like nothing that had ever been seen in, on or above the lake…



(Thank you.)

DB

Learning From The Masters

My writing improved the more I wrote - and the more I read good writing, from Shakespeare on down.

Dick Schaap
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
We never really know how good some people are at doing things until we try to do them ourselves. I know that as a young actor I came across behaving as if I knew a lot more about it than I did. I know that because over the years I've seen other young actors come on with the same ignorant bravado. It wasn't until I got to work with older, more experienced actors that I began to learn. When playing a scene with a better actor he would demand more of me than I thought I knew. So I learned. I am grateful for the years of challenge.

So now I write every day. My complete Shakespeare, which I cherish with all my heart and about which I have written many times, is always at my elbow. Every single page shows the genius of great writing, poetry and drama. I also read great philosophers and historians. I can't read as easily as I used to because of my poor eyesight. So I have to use a magnifying glass. So what?

And now I paint. Some of the artists in the local art association of which I am a member are excellent artists. Do I feel intimidated by them? Maybe I do, a bit. Do I feel squeamish hanging my paintings next to theirs? Not at all. So far no one has indicated that my work doesn't belong there. In fact last weekend, during one of our exhibits, one of my pieces was prominently displayed. I enjoy viewing the other artists' work and try to avoid any hint of "ignorant bravado." I'm too old for that anyway.

Real artists don't compete with other artists, they compete with themselves to make it better. So whatever you do, keep doing it and keep your eye on the true experts. You will inevitably do it better.

DB
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WEEKEND PUZZLE
So you didn't care for last week's Who Done It?
All right, try this one.

CONTINUE THIS STORY.

It was an early September in the afternoon. The sky was darkening and a storm was threatened. But Dick and Jane needed to reach the other side of the lake. So they got into their canoe with two bags of groceries and Maxine, their Chihuahua. They began paddling across the lake and everything was going well until....

Grand prize goes to the one who gives me the best continuation of this story.

Good luck.
DB
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Why Didn't I Think Of that

Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Arthur Schopenhauer
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When I was studying art I took a drawing class for a year from a great teacher named Marshall Glazier. Mr. Glazier was not an old curmudgeon, but he liked to pretend he was for the amusement of himself and others. He would come into the class room after the class had begun saying in his gravelly voice "All right, all right, what's going on in here?"

One day he came in and said "What's the difference between genius and talent?" One person said Mozart and Salieri. Another one said Bernstein and Bacharach. He said "Yeah, those are good. Now I'll tell so that you'll know, A man of talent does what he can, a genius does what he MUST."

"Oh, that's good"someone said.

Glazier said "You think that's good? I got it out of a fortune cookie."
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One definition of a genius is someone who can do something extremely difficult extraordinarily well and make it look simple. I think we all can have moments of genius. No one is a genius 24 hours a day. It is said the Albert Einstein sometimes couldn't remember if he had lunch or not and forgot where he was going.

A genius is one who comes to a solution no one else thought of and perhaps could not have thought of. When Mozart went wandering in the forest of music the trees and bushes stepped aside for him.

A genius is one who does something that can't be done. There is no way man can fly. But now we fly thanks to a couple of bicycle mechanics. We now have the benefits of the International Space Station, the Hubble Telescope, the shuttle crafts and the Soyuz vehicles thanks to the work of some far seeing geniuses who saw what others could not see and made amazing things happen.

The first step on the road to personal genius is to dismiss the idea that something can't be done, That's a lesson that took me years to learn. I pass it on to you free of charge. Once the "can't be done" is thrown out in the trash whatever it is is going to be done. The next step is the "How" factor and that means observation and imagination, followed by persistence, setting up theories and testing them, until finally the light bulb stays on and the plane stays up.

Never say "I'm not a genius" because you might be at least once in your life and probably more than once.

DB - The Vagabond
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WEEKEND PUZZLE
So you didn't care for last week's Who Done It?
All right, try this one.

FINISH THIS STORY.

It was an early September in the afternoon. The sky was darkening and a storm was threatened. But Dick and Jane needed to reach the other side of the lake. So they got into their canoe with two bags of groceries and Maxine, their Chihuahua. They began paddling across the lake and everything was going well until....

Grand prize goes to the one who gives me the best continuation of this story.

Good luck.
DB
*****************

Do It

Keep true to the dreams of thy youth.

Friedrich Schiller
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The other day I was watching the NASA TV channel and they were showing the induction of 4 new members into the Astronauts Hall Of Fame. One of them was Guy Bluford, the first African/American astronaut to travel into space. In Mr. Bluford's acceptance speech he gave a brief autobiography which went through his boyhood into his education and finally his career as an astronaut. Several times in his speech he used the phrase "chase the dream." He mentioned the problems he had to overcome but he also mentioned the people who encouraged him, from his family, his teachers and colleagues. All along the way he "chased the dream."

Growing up I never really understood what the "norm" was, but whenever I did, said or wanted something that wasn't the norm I got scorn and discouragement.

As a youngster I was very interested in outer space. I knew as much as I could about the solar system, I knew about the planets and their moons. I have written often about my elementary school science teacher who scornfully told me that man could never go to the moon or even travel out of the earth's atmosphere. He was the authority figure so I accepted that for a while. I might have been encouraged to study science and engineering and, who knows, to be one of the early astronauts. But I wasn't. I tried to write a story about space travel. My brother found it, showed to my sister and they both laughed at me.

I'm still interested in science. I have books on the various subjects and I enjoy reading them. One day I was reading a book on mathematics when another actor walked passed and laughed at me. He thought I was faking it to make a good impression.

I wanted to be a composer of great music. One day I was describing my reaction to a piece of music for mother and she said she always thought there was something not quite right about me. I wasn't normal. When I got to junior high school there was musical training available. I was told that I had to pick an instrument to play, so I chose the violin, violinists get to play everything. I spent a lot of years and money trying to learn the violin, but I had no ability at it. Years later I found out that I could probably have been an good clarinetist or other wind player, if I had had the chance to try it. I learned to play a tenor recorder in 15 minutes. I used to have one but it got lost in one of my vagabond moves. I hope whoever has it is making music.

So I went into show business. That seemed to be the norm since both my mother and grandmother had been actresses. My mother used to proclaim that she wanted to see my name up in lights on Broadway, but she never did a thing to help. In fact the few times she saw me perform she told me why it was no good. My brother started out as an actor but soon quit and went into advertising where he produced TV commercials. He could have hired me to do a commercial very easily, he never did. My sister started out as a singer, but quit to become a nurse. They both discouraged me from trying to make a life as an actor.

I could mention many other times and ways in which people tried to discourage me out of whatever dream I had. But the point of this entry is to say if you have young people in your life give them the freedom, the endorsement and the reassurance to persue their positive goals and if you are a young person reading this at whatever age you are "chase the dream."

DB - The Vagabond
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

4 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Dig We Must

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.

Edwin Schlossberg
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Anyone who is looking for quick and easy answers to the paradox of life is in for a shock. Look to a favorite book to tell you what to think and you're looking for trouble. Among the philosophers that I enjoy reading are Nietzsche, Hegel and Heidegger. Those are men with strong opinions strongly and clearly stated. What's difficult is following the thinking processes that brought them to their opinions. Nietzsche stated that the purpose of philosophy is not to tell you what to think but to get youto think for yourself. A good philosophy teacher would point out the observations, logic and finger posts of a philosophers thought and ask if there is a fault line running through it. He would ask if you agree or disagree, and if so, in either case, why?

It isn't necessary for everyone in the world to be a philosopher or even a reader of philosophy as I am (a nutcase if there ever was one). But it is necessary for people to think. I've written about this topic so often that I'm bored with it, as you also probably are. I have a quote here someplace that I might use someday which says that the reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

The sad thing is that there is no result of honest applied thought available on most of our TV and radio programs, from news reporters, politicians and preachers, tal;k show hosts. No one is entertained by mindfulness.

Great music is a glamorized experience of original deep thinking. Listen carefully and find your way through Debussy's La Mer, You can't do it on one hearing. Only a genius can do that.

Why is thinking like digging in the back yard? Because you might be surprised at what you find there. Carefully study Da Vinci's Last Supper. Forget for a time it's religious significations and look through it with an open mind. Can you find the knife?

Read any Shakespearian play. The story, the characters and Shakespeare's own amazing intellect are so completely bound harmoniously together that it is easy to miss the profound wisdom as it flashes by.

My life changed considerably one day when I discovered that not only was I opinionated but that there was so little thought that supported my opinions. Facts are one thing, ideas are something else. Most people want to just deal in facts and leave the ideas alone. "Just the facts, ma'am." They want to know the what and the how but not the why.

The amazing thing is that there is an infinitetude of ideas, music, poetry, art, inventions, systems, philosophies, programs and solutions still existing in the mind waiting to be discovered. Writers write to lead us, through the inadequacy of words, to the places where those discoveries can be made. A good writer provides the back yard and the shovel.

DB - The Vagabond
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

3 responses so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Something Old, Something New

One of the hardest things for old folks is to remember that young folks were born in a different age, and vice versa.

DB - The Vagabond
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If you are a senior citizen who has tried to convey what your life was like when you were young you have probably seen that benign, uncomprehending smile on the face of whatever youngster you were talking to. It isn't that they don't believe you, it's just that they don't understand. They have probably heard things about the "old" days but have no experience with them. They can't imagine a black and white TV with an antenna on the roof, a milk man delivering mile to your door every morning, telephones without dials that got a live operator every time you picked them up, cars that ran on gas which cost 50 cents a gallon or less, penny post cards.

When I was a kid I was amused at my grandmother who had a fright every time the phone rang. But she was a woman who, when she was young and newly married, would drive the ox cart into town to buy supplies for their sod house on the Nebraska prairie. I couldn't conceive of it.

Young people today know about things I took for granted that I wasn't supposed to know about. I've heard preteens make remarks about things and I want to say to them "How do you know about that?" but I realize it's an old fogy question so I keep my mouth shut.

But I wonder, considering the rapid development of technology, if it's possible to be an old fogy at the age of 20. At the tender age of 71 not only can I not keep up with all the latest gadgets, I also no longer want to. If someone says to me "What?!! You don't know about such and such?" I will answer "There are a lot of things I don't know about and neither do you. Now I'm more interested in Mozart than Microsoft, so there."

We do change as we grow, but it seems that every age has a different starting place.

DB
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

1 response so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Know Thyself. Impossible?

Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.

Jose Saramago
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One of the bad habits of casting directors and other people who are conducting a jab interview is to say to the applicant "So, tell me about yourself." They don't really want you to tell them about yourself, they want facts and figures about your work experience, aptitude, intelligence, special interests and other issues. If you really told them about yourself they would be horrified or embarrassed and in either case you probably wouldn't get the job.

That something inside us that has no name is why it is so difficult to know ourselves. Sometimes we can be taught about ourselves through experiences or other people, but usually those lessons are things we can put a label on. Even the knowledge of who we are can carry a label, but our real essence, the thing that the knowledge points to, is nameless.

"So, tell me about yourself." Where do you start? Anywhere you start is a door that probably leads nowhere. "Tell you about me? Well, I'm this tall, I'm this old,
I've been around the block a few times and I need a job. What else is there to know?"

"Tall you about myself? Well, my life has been filled with many failures and a few triumphs, I have too many regrets. I'm generous and hard working. I know how to live with financial insecurity. But I'm afraid of snakes, courts and bullies. I am a loyal employee but I don't relate well to people. I know how dangerous the world can be. What else do you want to know?"

"Tell you about myself? Well, inside me there lives a human being with traits, natures, talents, formations, facilities, clouds, ghosts and histories, an individual piece in the inscrutable puzzle of the universe.?

"Tell you about myself? I can't, because like everyone else who lives, I don't know what I am."

DB - The Vagabond
*********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

1 reply so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Spring Into Summer

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.

George Santayana
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SPRING QUESTION ANSWERS
_____________________________________
In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.


This question brought a wide variety of answers from many sources and points of view. I am impressed. Enjoy them. Then check out the Summer Question below.

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I am hoping for, and think it is possible, to have a cure for most if not all cancers.
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At or towards the end of it I'll be collecting my pensions and be
close to, if not already, collecting Social Security.
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A spaceship from another world lands, makes peaceful contact and fills us in on what’s happening out there. Finally!
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My Spring event would be building bridges... Bridges to cross countries, cross barriers, cross cultures, bridges to close the gap of hate to love, close the gap of differences to see the similarities of all... I'm Building Bridges...
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What could happen during this decade? World Peace~wouldn't that be nice
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I think a very significant thing in the next decade, one that is definitely achievable, would be the development of a clean, safe, renewable energy source. It would change the world as we know it in many ways!
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The most amazing thing...
One day the world suddenly changed and everyone was pleasant from then on- There would be no wars, no violence,no arguments--no nasty remarks,no dirty deeds done dirt cheap..just a world without tension from that day on.

Ooooh wouldn't it be lovely!!

P.S.
I thought about no more illness and no world hunger but those will maybe come in time if all is right with the world.
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The RAPTURE!!! (you asked!)
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The Democrats will lose control of the US House and Senate. Obama will be a one term president. We will have a GOP president in next, who will have been elected in part by the help of the Tea Party Movement. Republicans will be in power for awhile (if they don't blow it -- by becoming too progressive).
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I'm not sure what truly amazing thing will happen this decade, but I believe it will definitely have something to do with technology. Our advances are coming so quickly, even in the last several years alone. I think one of the things that could happen, perhaps, is everyone will get tracked by a number so that their daily doings and whereabouts will be known. Perhaps this will be done with an implanted chip (on one's body?). If you think this is nuts, I have seen, on documentaries, that this is occuring in countries other than the US -- although i think it may be done at this time only for political prisoners and not the average citizen of a country. This could get into a problem i think, like a big brother thing. Why? Bc if you start to track political prisoners bc of their values, polititics and opinions, who's to say whose political opinion is correct? I think it was in Iran (not sure) that people were getting chipped after protesting the dictator there who is not for democracy, and is for killing the people to keep his power. this is WRONG. they have a tracking chip on them and now will be forever followed by their country when they did nothing wrong but protest an evil dictator. Wrong

I'm hoping that something else amazing that will happen this decade will be a spiritual renewal of some kind -- and that people will come to know that Jesus is real and is Lord, and want to follow His ways. Many say Jesus is coming back soon. Soon for Him could be this decade or in a thousand years, bc, what does soon mean to the Lord? Soon for Him COULD be a thousand years and not this decade -- who knows? So while I don't think He will most likely come back in the 2010's or 20teens (not sure though), I do believe Jesus will give us some kind of spiritual renewal and awakening, and let those who don't know about Him know Him, and those who do will be able to ammend their ways and come to know the Lord more fully.

Okay, perhaps we'll have technology and the Lord at the same time I guess, then, this decade! This should be a fun decade i think!
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In answer to your question about the most amazing thing I'd like to see in this world...1. Peace 2. No starving people anywhere.
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I want us to go back in time --how far...back to the time of my childhood..when doors didn't have to be locked..you knew your neighbors and they all looked out for each other..jobs were there for the asking....children addressed elders as yes mam--yes sir,people were not looked down upon because of their clothing or education or lack of,a young girl could walk home in the dark from her friends house and sing and be happy,not fearful for her very life,I cry to think what has become of this world and what is yet to come...yes give me back those simplier,trusting,loving times.................
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My thought on this is that it would be most amazing if in the next decade we could find an effective and total way to handle our waste safely and in a green manner without dumping it into the ocean or creating toxic dump wastelands and helping the world do this. Especially of focus would be the plastic that the animals keep swallowing, such as the plastic bags and the bottles…but in general keep our waste from harming the earth and each other. I’m not just talking about recycling efforts here and there. I’m talking about a comprehensive and total process that creatively handles this without fines and penalties. A process which would be something new that transforms our culture into making and using things with as little waste as possible without reducing our standard of living.
I’ve seen some of this beginning to happen, I believe it is doable. They (companies out there) can do all sorts of things with plastic that has been used once and in our area there is a program for those plastic grocery bags at our grocery store. Return them and the store will ship them off to be made into other things. Only problem is that I use them for the kitchen garbage and kitty litterbox cleanup and I forget to bring the excess unneeded bags back to the grocery store so I just save them and they stack up. I could use paper but it’s harmful to the environment to make paper even though it is biodegradable once it’s made. If we could just figure out another way…provide boxes like Costco? Just don’t have the bags…so people would bring their own as a habit or buy one at the counter when they forget? Ok…I’m not supposed to offer solutions here but it sure makes one think and I’m now positioned to do something different. Thanks for this very compelling question.
There you have it…
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The most amazing thing that could happen in this decade would be a global nuclear arms treaty in which all nations agree to destroy nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons capabilities. And nations without weapons would agree to develop nuclear capability only for peaceful purposes. All nations would agree to engage their best physicists in a global panel of watchdogs, each nation providing the same number of participants regardless of their degree of nuclear capability.
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Spring Question: Most amazing thing that could happen in the next decade is bi-partisanship and that we balance our national budget.
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Thank you everyone.

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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Thank you.
DB
********************

Brian and Christine

The third part of Brian and Christine, now called "Adoption" is finished and in the Brian Saga. In another few days I will have the three parts in their proper order.

A Bunch Of Artists

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold our world together.

President Woodrow Wilson
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Yesterday I took two of my paintings and an easel down to the wharf in the Lions Club Park alongside the Delaware River. It was an exhibit of work by the artists organization that I belong to. We're known as the Artists of Bristol (AOB)

It was a beautiful day, hot, but with a good breeze coming off the river. The wind sometimes blew the pictures around but whoever was in proximity picked them up and restored them to their places.

It was a pleasure to be in the midst of that exhibit and part of it. One of my paintings was prominently displayed. There are very good artists in the group and manyfew of the pieces were quite excellent.

At one point there was a discussion among a few of us about an idea one member had proposed at our last meeting. The idea was that we should invite our works to be juried by other professionals. In our discussion yesterday it was agreed that it was an idea we didn't like. Not that we don't feel our work is worthy of being seen by any one but because it might cause division and jealousy in the group.

If someone wants to buy a painting and the artist who painted it doesn't happen to be around one of us will sell it for him. We are free to admire each other's work. We're friends. We're friends because we are artists. We may do work that is much different from each other but we all share the experience of being artists and that cements us together.

I didn't sell anything today. Maybe next time. But I am proud to be a member of the group.

DB - The Vagabond
********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Osgood Pepper was a multimillionaire investor. He lived in a very large house surrounded by 70 acres or property, some of it gardens but most of it forest. He was 57 years old. His body was discovered at around 10:30 in the morning by the gardener Giovanni Schizzi. It was in the forest. Osgood's throat had been cut.

Giovanni Schizzi was an Italian immigrant who had been Osgood's gardener for about 20 years. He lived in a cabin on the property. He once spent a few hours showing Jane-Ellen Fremont around the place. He was unmarried. Upon discovering the body he went to the house to inform Agnes Pepper, Osgood's much younger wife. Blood was later discovered on Giovanni's boot.

Agnes Pepper married Osgood when she was just getting out of college and Osgood was in his 30's. It was the first and only marriage for each of them. But Agnes was having an extramarital affair. Osgood found out about it but never knew who it was and Agnes would never divulge her lover's name. Osgood was in the process of filing for divorce when he died.

Also in the house was Frances Pepper, Osgood's son. They had become estranged about 15 years ago when Osgood found out that Frances was gay. That resulted in Osgood cutting off all support for Frances who was now usually in desperate straights. Frances had come to plead with his father for reconciliation and financial help which was denied.

Two other visitors had been to the house the day before.

Boris Kleinack, Agnes's lawyer, who was there to help her defend herself against the divorce proceedings. The murder weapon was eventually discovered is Councilor Kleinack's car.

Jane-Ellen Freman was there to discuss property rights. It seems that while Osgood Pepper owned the house outright he only co-owned the property. The other owner, Ms. Freman, was the CEO of a syndicate that built very successful casinos and theme parks. She had stated her intention of taking half of the 70 acres and building another establishment on it. Osgood had sworn to defeat her by buying up the rest of the property just to put a stop to her plans.

It is known that Osgood Pepper made out an ironclad will 25 years ago and had not changed it.

The Coroner determined that death had occurred at approximately 7 p.m. the previous day.

Detective Bret Knudson investigated the murder, looked at all the evidence, interviewed all the suspects and made an arrest.

Whom did he arrest and why?

The prosecuting attorney awaits your answer.
DB
********************************

They Walk Among Us

I love to see the parks fill up with young life each summer...I am joining them for a day lest I grow old before my time.

Macrina Wiederkehr
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
From my window I can see them. They walk in a lively manner. I like to see them. When they get where they're going they do the things they like to do. They are going to the library.

I was invited to visit some people I know for a few days one Christmas. They had three children aged from 6 to 10. Their parents had tried to come up with things for me to do while I was there because they thought I would be bored. But I took to those children immediately, and they took to me, even though I was a gray haired old codger. We played kick ball and board games, went for walks, I bought lemonade, saw a tennis lesson and painted a picture with one of them. One of them helped me make cookies. I admired the way the older ones looked after the younger ones, and all three of them looked after me while I was there. I'm sorry I lost contact with them. They are growing up now, the future of America.

At the supermarket the other day the checkout lady was very hassled because of a faulty credit card machine. When she finally got my purchases bagged she looked up with a smile. I said that I hoped she would have a relaxing evening. She said no because she had two boys at home one 11 and one 5. I asked if the older one took care of the younger one and she said yes they're good friends.

I was coming down the stairs into the library with my cane one step at a time. At the bottom was a very little girl who when she saw me stepped back to let me get down. There was room so I stopped and motioned to her and said "come on." She ran up the stairs and as she passed me she said in her tiny voice "thank you."

If that's the future of America we've got nothing to worry about.

On the other hand I was doing a play for school children in Maryland. It was a comedy and they loved it. There was a discussion afterwards and they were full of questions. When we were finished the Principal raged at us for making them communicate with each other and raged at them for communicating.

Standing in front of the supermarket one day I saw the students from the school across the street coming out to go on some field trip. They marched in double file and were not allowed to talk to each other. One teacher kept saying with a loud voice "We are not talking! We are not talking!"

Now they are warping the history books in some states. If this is American education then we all have a lot to worry about.

DB - The Vagabond
*********************

WEEKEND PUZZLE

Osgood Pepper was a multimillionaire investor. He lived in a very large house surrounded by 70 acres or property, some of it gardens but most of it forest. He was 57 years old. His body was discovered at around 10:30 in the morning by the gardener Giovanni Schizzi. It was in the forest. Osgood's throat had been cut.

Giovanni Schizzi was an Italian immigrant who had been Osgood's gardener for about 20 years. He lived in a cabin on the property. He once spent a few hours showing Jane-Ellen Fremont around the place. He was unmarried. Upon discovering the body he went to the house to inform Agnes Pepper, Osgood's much younger wife. Blood was later discovered on Giovanni's boot.

Agnes Pepper married Osgood when she was just getting out of college and Osgood was in his 30's. It was the first and only marriage for each of them. But Agnes was having an extramarital affair. Osgood found out about it but never knew who it was and Agnes would never divulge her lover's name. Osgood was in the process of filing for divorce when he died.

Also in the house was Frances Pepper, Osgood's son. They had become estranged about 15 years ago when Osgood found out that Frances was gay. That resulted in Osgood cutting off all support for Frances who was now usually in desperate straights. Frances had come to plead with his father for reconciliation and financial help which was denied.

Two other visitors had been to the house the day before.

Boris Kleinack, Agnes's lawyer, who was there to help her defend herself against the divorce proceedings. The murder weapon was eventually discovered is Councilor Kleinack's car.

Jane-Ellen Freman was there to discuss property rights. It seems that while Osgood Pepper owned the house outright he only co-owned the property. The other owner, Ms. Freman, was the CEO of a syndicate that built very successful casinos and theme parks. She had stated her intention of taking half of the 70 acres and building another establishment on it. Osgood had sworn to defeat her by buying up the rest of the property just to put a stop to her plans.

It is known that Osgood Pepper made out an ironclad will 25 years ago and had not changed it.

The Coroner determined that death had occurred at approximately 7 p.m. the previous day.

Detective Bret Knudson investigated the murder, looked at all the evidence, interviewed all the witnesses and made an arrest.

Whom did he arrest and why?

The prosecuting attorney awaits your answer.
DB
********************************

The Lonely Time

After 10 p.m. is the loneliest time.

In The Cave

Complacency seems always to return with time.

Ira Lipman
*********************
I'm not a professional writer. No one has paid a nickel for anything I've written except for some advertising copy, and I've never been published. But even a nonprofessional writer who writes, writes because he has to. Yesterday I read an article about how those in charge of the Holocaust Museum in Israel are feeling that it's losing it's significance. I also read as many of the comments (mostly silly) that I could. It is amusing to note that even historians don't agree with each other about what it was and what it signifies.

I don't want to write about the Holocaust because if I had a dollar for every word written and published about it I could buy the Earth. But the impression I got from reading the comments is that no one has really figured out what it means.

The phrase "never again" has become a hollow one considering what is happening in some parts of the world today, at this moment. "Comparisons are odorous" Shakespeare wrote. While what is happening in some places may not be the same as the cold blooded, systematic murder carried out by the Nazis, the fact of blanket, insane hatred of other people for whatever reason still exists in one form or another. One doesn't need gas chambers to practice hate.

Long ago I learned that intelligence includes the ability to hold the specific and the general in mind at the same time. To the Jew the Holocaust may represent an all too current antiSemitic danger in the world and something to be defended against. But the events of the Holocaust also hold keys to that which is the worst in human nature.

To read the news of what is happening right now in Africa, Asia and even in our own "hallowed" lands is enough to make one think the whole world has gone crazy.

Lawrence Durrell wrote "It is the living who might be spared if we could quarry the message which lies buried in the heart of all human experience." Clearly the message for me is how the derangement of a whole group of people can happen to the extent of destroying another group of people. It must surely go beyond not thinking for oneself. There must be something more hideous involved, and whatever that it is is the main thing to be defended against. It goes beyond whites, blacks and Hispanics, beyond Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews, beyond Green sand Orange Irishmen, beyond African tribes, beyond Turks and Armenians and beyond Liberals and Conservatives. It reaches down into the very well, the natural source of our existence and the possibility of our survival.

Blacks, Jews and Native Americans are being told to get over it, to forget about it. There is some value to that. It is all spilt milk after all. The danger is that by holding on to the specific events and looking for some restitution or revenge one loses, or never gets, a grip on the essential meaning behind them. About that we must never become complacent.

The questions that need to be asked are do the nasty signs like "God hates fags" or pictures of President Obama looking like Hitler, no matter how ridiculous they may seem. point and lead to the same hideous circumstances and, if so, how long will it be until there are concentration camps again, murder, efficient, systematic cleansing of the human race justified by religion, the lack of religion, eugenics, wealth or poverty, relative value to society, IQ, education level, mental health, place of birth, ancestral history, language, color of skin, height or lack of it, athletic ability or anything that makes one guy not like another guy. All of the above have been used at one time or another to prejudicial effect against people and often fatally.

There is a dangerous, angry, hate filled dragon living in the cave of human thinking. it has been struck and slightly wounded by the Holocaust Museum and many others, but it is still alive. Decide who you hate and the dragon will come out spewing venom, lies, rage, violence, torture and death. Where is the Super Hero to slay it once and for all?

DB - Vagabond
*********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
The end of Spring is inches away.

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Jump For Joy

Get all the good laughs you can.

Will Rogers
***************
I have a hard time understanding some people's attitudes and forms of behavior. It seems to me a lot of people spend too much time telling other people how to think and what to do. A few days ago I wrote about the dangers of underestimating people and how it can lead to a patronizing and condescending attitude.

One Thanksgiving Day a few years ago my stove and oven weren't working. So I bought some canned food to have for my dinner. Then my can opener broke. What did I do? I laughed. It wasn't a sarcastic, poor-pitiful-me laugh, but a genuine laugh. If it hadn't been Thanksgiving Day it wouldn't have been quite so silly. I ate a peanut butter sandwich and a banana and go on with life.

Yesterday I had some fun talking about the gremlins in our computers waiting to jump out when we approach there hiding places. In spite of how aggravating they can be there is also a humorous side to them if you look for it.

I have been called by some a dark and sinister man. I was never able to understand that considering the joy and laughter I get out of life in spite of being an old coot, with a meager income, debts and decrepitude. Finally I realized that those who were calling me dark were in their own darkness, standing with their backs to the light casting their own shadows on to me.

Years ago I learned that there is a light source in even the most dire tragedy. It may not produce gales of guffaws but it is fuel for healing. But it can't be seen unless there lives inside of us the propensity for joy. As an actor I loved doing comedy because I liked to hear people laugh. I would try to get as many "good" laughs as I could

We may laugh at the antics of kittens, puppies, apes and monkeys, but nothing is funnier than the human being. Us. Me. You. "'Tis the season to be jolly" says the carol. When is it not? "Make a joyful noise." I complain bitterly about certain things. Who doesn't? But I can also laugh at them. I enjoy life. And the Email Lions and Blogspot Tigers better get used to the idea.

Joy, joy moves the wheels
In the universal time machine.
Flowers it calls forth from their buds,
Suns from the Firmament,
Spheres it moves far out in Space,
Where our telescopes cannot reach.

(Friedrich Schiller)
----------------------------
The Vagabond
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Watch Out For Tanks

Since I've got on the Internet, it's opened a whole world of wasted time for me.

Mick Ralphs
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Let's face it, the computer is a battleground. I spent from 10 a.m. until 1:45 p.m. yesterday trying to send a single email. I kept getting a window that said I was blocked from sending emails. Blocked. That was followed by a long complicated explanation from Keyword. Evidently the Great Bubu, the man behind the curtain, thought I was trying to send spam. Spam!? Me? Spam and I don't mix.

The techie at AOL finally figured it out and had me deleting periods, brackets and other such marks until the email was sent. Then I sat down to write this Vagabond Journey and when I was almost finished writing it the computer deleted it.

I used to play war games with a friend, those games played on a paper map with a grid of numbered hexagons and small cardboard squares that represented armies or parts of armies. One of those games was about tank warfare in the desert. There was an attacker and a defender. The defender was allowed to secretly hide tanks under the sand or behind dunes, making notes about where they were. The attacker wouldn't know where they were unless he came upon them whereupon the tanks would suddenly appear and a battle would ensue. Depending on the route through the desert the attacker took it was possible for him to pass the hidden tanks and avoid all contact with them, but it wasn't likely, even though it would have been easier than dealing with a computer.

It seems AOL, Google, Microsoft and who knows who else have these secret weapons buried in your main frame, your keyboard, your monitor, your modem and on the Internet. They are like alien creatures hiding under the sand waiting for you, but you don't know they're there unless you try to do something.

How stupid of me to think I could send an email from Pennsylvania to Indiana. BLOCKED. How ignorant of me to try to write a journal entry. DELETED. That should teach me a lesson.

What is this world coming to that we have to beware of our computers?

DB
*************

Ghost Stories

Wilderness is not for sale.

Nick Rahall
**************
You probably aren't aware that you are surrounded by ghosts, are you? I don't mean the specter of some ancient personage who keeps appearing and disappearing or the creature in the white sheet that floats through the garden at night.

Wilderness is what it's name implies: wildness. Nature in it's intricacy and inexhaustible variety of design creates what to the human eye seems to be chaos. Scientists tell us that nature never repeats itself, no two butterfly wings are alike, no two snowflakes. I don't know how scientists can know that but I'll take their world for it.

Somewhere I have a quote which describes making a neighborhood as bull dozing down all the trees, building a street and then naming it after the trees: Oak Street, Maple Way, Elm Lane, for example. And yet if that neighborhood was completely abandoned and no one ever set up residence there again, nature would eventually reclaim it, the buildings would eventually collapse, the street would be broken and the oak trees would grow again. The seeds of the life that nature had designed for the place are still in the ground and those seeds are what determine what grows there. Those seeds and roots are the real life of the place. The oaks, maples and elms never left. You may say you have a nice two bedroom house with grassy front lawn, but Nature quietly and patiently says "No, that's where the pumpkin patch is."

An artist chooses colors from a vast spectrum of them and every color is there whether it appears on the canvas or not. If you mix all the colors you get a dark substance, indiscriminate and wild. A writer has a choice of words but his entire language is automatically implied in the words he didn't choose. There is a vast number of musical tones, many of them beyond the ability of the human ear. If they are all sounded together there is a kind of static sound called "white noise."

If you look and listen carefully you can see the implied colors and hear the accompanying tones. As you walk down your street stop at a tree, one that has been there since before your neighborhood was made, and know that it's brothers and sisters are but ghosts in the ground waiting to reappear.

DB = The Vagabond
*******************
May today be a good day
A beautiful day in every way.
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Summer is around the corner.

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond

Secrets There

He who would search for pearls must dive below.

John Dryden
***************
People are strange. They spend a lot of time and effort underestimating other people. I suppose it's the nasty habit of making comparisons that prompts people to do it. "He can't be as smart as I am. Can he?"

I was coming out of a performance at the Metropolitan Opera House one evening and saw a guy I knew somewhat. He said he was surprised to see me there. He didn't know I was an opera goer. I thought to myself, what would make him think I wasn't? What image did I project of myself which would convince anyone that I wouldn't enjoy the opera" He knew I was in the arts, why not an opera lover?

Another time I was working on an original play and after rehearsal I was having a beer with the author and discussing the play. I said that I thought the character was going through an obscure night of the soul. He said he was surprised that I would know that. Again I wondered what would make him think that about me. After all, one cannot live with going through an obscure night of the soul every now and then, those times when one is confused, things don't make sense and everything seems dark.

If you underestimate people you are in danger of patronizing and condescending. I try never to do it.

I was having a discussion recently with someone who said she never realized that a work of art was actually supposed to have a meaning. She referred to a particular painting of mine and asked if it was allegorical. She was seeing something in it that caused a personal response in her. I replied that all art is allegorical. But then I thought about it and revised my remark to say that all art is allegory.

I could have gone on to say that everything is. All is allegory, metaphor, parable. One doesn't need to go through live analyzing everything to get it to reveal its secrets. That would be an exhausting thing to do. It is enough to know that the secrets are there to be found if one wants to dive deeply.

Another play I was working on had a scene where the other character threw a fit on the stage. The director wanted to know what I was thinking about during it. I said I was trying to figure out the tactic. The other actor said there was no tactic and quoted "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." I said a cigar is always a cigar but on the stage it has a meaning and I want to know what it is even of your character doesn't know. He was surprised to think there was a meaning behind something that his character wasn't aware of.

One who is content to go through life with a smile and not much on their mind is in for a surprise, hopefully not a shock, when all of a sudden, like a flash of light, something opens up and reveals its mysteries. That is the first big step into wisdom. Pearls to be found.

DB
**********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

No Fooling

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made.

Lawrence Durrell
*****************
I suppose there are as many ways to be a fool as those who've done it, which pretty much includes everyone. We have all stepped in the mud piddle at least once in our lives, taken the wrong turn off the highway and forgotten to record a check we wrote.

I think one of the biggest foolish steps a person can take is to deny who they are, either by not sufficiently understanding themselves or by convincing themselves, or being convinced by others, to try being someone they are not.

I was doing a play in Virginia and on a day off another actor and I went to talk to some high school seniors who had seen the play. They were a smart, bright and lively group. One boy asked us what it took to be an actor. That's a question which requires a 400 page book to answer. So I turned the question back to him and asked if he was thinking about a life in the theatre. He said "Mildly." My colleague said "Well, if you're thinking about it mildly, don't think about it."

The boy was a little shocked, but I hastened to say that my friend was not being insulting, he was saying the truth, a truth about any endeavor in life that is important. I didn't want to dissuade the youngster from following a career in show business. But I wanted him to know that he should think earnestly and honestly about whatever he did, to investigate things that interested him and to keep an open mind. I told him that one day, maybe in 5 years, maybe in 5 minutes, a light would go on and he would know "This is what I want to do for the rest of my life" whether it's acting, science, business, sports or something else.

I distinctly remember when it happened to me. I was about the same age as that boy. I had been calmly contemplating off and on what road I would take in life. Suddenly, at one moment it came to me in a flash. I was an actor and had been an actor since the day I was born.

I call myself a vagabond because my life is a wayfaring one, a journey, as yours is, even if you never leave your house. My journey is particular to me. It has taken me through many experiences that all relate in some degree to my life as an artist and entertainer. It has been a risky journey, chocked with dangers, but totally necessary to be who I am to the best of my understanding and ability.

I have known those who have fooled themselves right out of the lives they should have. I know a man who refuses to give up his regular job to pursue a career. He would rather be sleep deprived than to give up the safety and security he thinks he has. He is denying himself the life of the fine artist he could be. What foolishness!

My own family eventually began to treat me with envy and scorn because they all turned their backs on the talents and abilities they were born with to take orthodox roads to the future, and I didn't.

Now more than 50 years since that moment of realization I can look back and see that I did a lot of foolish things and have a lot of regrets. But for accepting the journey I was given from the day I was born I have no regrets.

DB - Vagabond Journeys
***********************
Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle

What? No contestant? Not one?
If I have to tell you the answers you are going to be ashamed of yourselves.
I've added two more questions at the bottom which should be major hints.

I give you the questions, you give me the answers.

Ready. Set. Strike up the band.
-------------------------------------
1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
13. What don't I know?
14. Who looks good on a tandem bike?
----------------------------
I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
*********************

The Hard And The Soft

It is requisite for the ideal artist to possess a force of character that seems hardly compatible with its delicacy.

Nathaniel Hawthorne
**********************
To be an artist one has to be mildly schizophrenic, not in a clinical sense but in a social, mercantile sense. In any transaction involving a work of art there are three elements, the seller, the buyer and the piece. Initially the seller is the artist whether he sells to a gallery or an art collector. If the buyer is a gallery there is usually no money involved. There's an agreement instead. The gallery becomes the seller, collects the money, takes a commisssion and sends the rest to the artist.

When the artist is the seller it becomes a problem of possession. He is letting go of something that was once an all consuming part of himself, like sending off a daughter to be married. The artist has to completely believe in the work and in himself. And he has to be very good at coming to an agreement with the buyer that is satisfactory to both of them. Which means he has to be a good businessman.

I know an artist who was asked by a buyer how much he wanted for a painting. The artist said, let's say, $500. The buyer then asked how much it would be without the frame. The artist replied "$500, I don't sell frames."

It is very similar in the theatre world. When an actor auditions for an agent or a director he has to go in sure of himself, confident and prepared. But in the actors case the piece he is selling is himself. It's his talent, ability, artistry and craftsmanship that's up on the easel. Once he gets the role then he can put the salesmanship in his pocket and let the artist go to work.

So how is this done? A young artist asked me that once and here's what I said. It's like you have two heads, and here's where the schizophrenia comes in. One head is you the hard nosed businessman and vendor of wares and the other is you the imaginative, sensitive creator of beauty, vulnerable and delicate. When one head is out front you are holding the other behind your back. You know it's there, but for the time being you forget about it.

DB - The Vagabond
???????????????????
Weekend Puzzle - Weekend Puzzle

I give you the questions, you give me the answers.

Ready. Set. .
-------------------------------------
1. What's here to stay?
2. Who am I dreaming of?
3. What are free?
4. Where should you tell your feet to go?
5. When did I know the time?
6. What do the light winds say?
7. How did she live her life?
8. Where should you take me?
9. Where have I got you?
10. What shall I brush up?
11. Who ran Venezuela?
12. Why should I keep my violin and bow?
----------------------------
I'm tapping my foot waiting. Good luck.
DB
*********************

Art Work

To the regular readers of Vagabond Journeys who said they would like to look at my art work, let me know and I'll send you a batch, if I have your email address.

DB

A Love Song

The trees are singing my music.

Edward Elgar
======================
I love music.
I love silence.

I love poetry.
I love a blank page.

I love colorful art.
I love the blackness of the night sky.

I love the beauty of a well kept garden.
I love the wildness of the forest.

I love the order of science.
I love the chaos of nature.

I love companionship.
I love solitude.

I love the logic of rational thought.
I love the fantasies of imagination.

I love the happy memories of my life.
I love the contemplation of future adventures.

I love the things I managed to do.
I love the plans I'm making..

I loved it that I am alive today.
I love tomorrow.

I love this moment.
And I will love the next.

DB - The Vagabond
********************

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

No Limits

The rivalry is with our self. I try to be better than is possible.

Luciano Pavarotti
# # # # # # # #
It has been popular for many years for young actors and actresses who come to New York and study acting with some teacher who is probably a bone head and can't act his way through a door, to say "I know what my limitations are." I tried to dissuade them from saying that.

I have never ever said that in my life. Why identify limitations? Why measure yourself up to the point of your capabilities and stop there? Why draw a line between what you can and cannot do and never step over it?

I never learned how to sing. I've done four musicals and two operas. I never took a dance class in my life. I played Zorba, a dancing role, and performed in two major modern dance programs. I never learned to play the piano. I accompanied dance classes for two years. I never took any formal training as an actor. I had a fifty year career on the stage. I never took a class in painting. Now I paint. I never got a college education. Now I write.

I'm not bragging. What I'm saying is it is possible for us to do things we can't possibly do. It is impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes. That's a medical fact. Man can't walk on the moon. That's a physical fact. A black man will never be President of the United States. That's a political fact.

I know what my limitations are. And every time they show up, I grab them by the tail, swing them around over my head and smack their nasty faces against the wall. There are things I can't do, because I haven't done them yet. In my senior years I'm not racing around tracks, walking on moons or running for political office. I don't have to do those things, and neither do you. But in my arbitrary retirement I'm always looking for the impossible things I haven't done yet.

Join me.

DB
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Summer is comin' 'fore you know it.

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Animal Crackers

God is really only another artist, he made the elephant, giraffe and cat. He has no real style but keeps trying new ideas.

Pablo Picasso
***************
While living in New York City I belonged to a small group called The Birthday Club. We celebrated each other's birthdays in an unusual way. Whoever had a birthday would throw a party for the other members. It usually involved an event, an excursion boat trip. a drive out into the country, a day at the beach and so forth. Since it was a small group it didn't cost the birthday celebrant much. One day the fellow having the birthday packed a picnic lunch and took us all to the Bronx Zoo.

The Bronx Zoo, officially known as the New York Zoological Garden, was one of the vanguard zoos to create natural environments for the animals. The creatures there live in their natural element as much as possible and are well cared for.

I'm still not sure I know what the fascination is for looking at animals, but since millions of people do it all over the world there is obviously some attraction beyond simple curiosity.

We saw the elephants and the giraffes. We saw the bats and the moles, so dark in their subterranean burrows you could hardly see them. We went through the primate area where I had a conversation with a young gorilla which I've written about somewhere. We saw the big birds who sit up on their perches and occasionally spread their wings, a magnificent sight resembling a small living aircraft. The small birds are not confined to their areas but can fly out and up and down the hall over people's heads if they want to, and visit each other. We saw the butterflies and the reptiles, the wolves and walking birds. One of the emus came right up to his fence and stared me right in the eye. I don't know what he wanted but maybe his was just curious. Humans, after all, are the oddest creatures in the world.

Finally we settled down to have our picnic lunch next to a field where young baboons were chasing each other around.

At one point in our visit we came upon a field of tigers. One of them was on a rock ledge pacing back and forth, back and forth. He never left the ledge. I asked one of the keepers about him and was told that the tiger and been a performing animal, a circus cat, and he had spent most of his life in a cage where it was his habit to pace back and forth. He hadn't yet learned that he could jump off the ledge and roam in the field. To me that was the most interesting thing I saw that day.

Am I just pacing back and forth in my habitual, orthodox mental cage unwilling to roam the field and discover new ideas?

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Bravos And Bozos

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.

Oliver Wendell Holmes
*********************
"Oh, no. Not another actor story." Cool it! Don't rush for the exit.

I was riding on a bus in New York. There were two girls sitting behind me and as they were talking I overheard one of them say "Why should I go on a date with an actor no one has ever heard of?" I wanted to turn around and say "I'm an actor no one has ever heard of and there are thousands of us all over the world. If he's a good actor, conscientious and dedicated to his craft he's probably a fine man and you should give him a chance." Of course, I didn't. It was none of my business.

I took a flight from Boston to Portland, Maine one winter day. It was a tiny 6 seater commercial plane from a small New England airline. When we took off the sky was very gray and threatening. Soon after it began to snow heavily. In the winter New England weather can be fierce. I was next to a window, of course, but I couldn't see anything out of it except gray, I was in the front and there was only an open curtain between me and the cockpit. I could see the pilot and the front window which was iced up. The trip took about 30 minutes. We started to descend. I still could see nothing out the window until suddenly I saw the runway no more than 50 feet below us and probably less. The pilot set the plane down as gently as if he was putting a baby to sleep in its bed.

One day I watched a man single handedly pitch a tent that covered about a 25 foot square area. If you think there is nothing to pitching a tent, think again. It took him about an hour. It was up for a long Autumn weekend and the wind never blew it over.

I have had the benefit of watching masters at work, master artists, master engineers, master technicians. I learned that whatever it was my duty to do, mopping floors, proofreading documents or performing on the stage, it deserved my complete attention and best efforts.

It's easy to tell the difference. If you take your car in it's not hard to know if you are talking to a real mechanic who knows his business or a bozo. It's the same if you call your computer company or your ISP. There are a few who understand how things work and can solve your problem. A few. But there are a lot of bozos. No doubt there are a lot of bozos working for BP. but there are also intelligent, knowledgeable, dedicated engineers who will get the problem solved eventually.

"What does he do for a living?" "He lives." I could have said that proofreading was not really my calling, I'm really an actor. But as long as the legal document was in front of me and a play script wasn't, to get that document right was my calling. Or to quote that eminent philosopher and wise old sage, me, "What's the next step in life? It's the one right in front of you."

DB - The Vagabond
********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Too Much

I have too much to do. I can't wait for my private secretary "Bubbles" LaRue, to get back from her vacation. I hope she didn't run off somewhere with Giovanni, my chauffeur.
DB

Wash Out The Mouth

Even so, one step from my grave,
I believe that cruelty, spite,
The powers of darkness will in time,
Be crushed by the spirit of light.

Boris Pasternak
******************
Johann Goethe called the devil the spirit of negation. It is too easy to fall into that diabolical pit of darkness and negativity. The crafty devil always begins by telling us something true. The serpent in the garden said they would not "surely die" and they didn't. And that's when the trouble started. The three witches in Macbeth start off by saying Hail, Thane of Glamis, which he is. Then they say Hail, Thane of
Cawdor. And that's when the trouble starts. They go on to say Hail that shall be King. He soon becomes Thane of Cawdor legitimately. But to become King he has to murder the King.

When the public mouth tells us something that turns out oo be true we tend to trust it and believe whatever else it has to say. And that leads us into negative behavior. If we keep following we end up in the hospital;, the prison or some other form of hell.

All those who follow the spirit of negation, who say no to every new idea, who say modern music is not music and modern art is not art, those who humiliate their children, hurt their family members and are unfaithful to their spouses, those who plunder the poor, refuse insurance payments for fanciful reasons and bail out the rich, those who ridicule people they don't like, who make insulting jokes about others to get a laugh, who tell lies, spread gossip, support rumors and betray friends, those who are disrespectful of their neighbors, over aggressive drivers and who scoff at laws, those who copy, plagiarize and blandly steal another person's ideas, those who abuse animals, torture prisoners and take revenge, those who cite scripture to justify criminal acts, those who vote against a good plan because they don't like who proposed it, those who look for ways to take advantage of other people, those who cannot forgive, try to understand or have compassion on others, those who only find fault and not value. those who willingly put people in danger, those who sell faulty products and don't care, those who would never kill the body but would kill the spirit, those who justify every wrong, harmful and selfish act by the false belief of entitlement, are all working for the devil and they don't know it.

So what can we do? We all have our own version of dark corners, our own private patch of mud to get our feet stuck in. The only answer is to beware. Beware of the smooth talking reptilian vendor of theories, Beware of the smiling prophetess of enticing improbabilities. Beware of the dommsdayers and deniers. If we have any entitlement it is the right to make a list of those things we know are right, purchase only those things and avoid the rest. We have the right to check our mental bags all the time to make sere we bring home only the best. We have a right to ask questions of every negative. And we have the right to think for ourselves. What is light? What is dark? And make the right choice. Believe me I know what I'm talking about. I've not done yet, but I relinquished myself from the dark that accused me of darkness and joined the light that welcomed me in the spirit of light.

DB
===========================

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Another Day

Leave something good in every day.

Dolly Parton
*******************
Let me tell you this retirement bit is no stroll in the park. I don't have enough time in the day to do all the things I need and want to do. I try to read the huge mountain of books that interest me. I try to paint pictures that will please and intrigue people. I try to share ideas, adventures, stories and humor with the few folks who read my journal (only 7 today), and while doing all of that I try to take care of myself as best I can.

It has been nasty hot here for several days. They keep saying "rain" but they lie. To spend a day outside makes for a very smelly shirt. Now I don't care if I wear one around here, I'm the only one here to smell me. But it might just be that I will have to go out into the general public one of these days and since I didn't have a clean shirt to wear I hauled them all down to the laundry machine and washed them. When the machine was done doing its mysterious cycles, I hauled them all back upstairs and hung them up. I'll be damned if I'll pay an extra dollar just to dry them. I hang them up and let nature take its course.

Once that was done I was exhausted and needed a nice frosty mug of apple juice on the rocks. It's a good thing I bought some the other day. While I was enjoying that I began to think about the other things the should have gotten done but weren't going to. And I thought about quitting. I said to myself "Self. Why don't you just stop? You don't have to read. You don't have to write. You don't have to paint. You don't have to think. Just relax, watch some stupid TV and forget about it all." Myself answered "And just how long do you imagine you will be able to do that without getting bored." "Okay Self" I said, "you're right. It's back to the computer."

I would like very much to be able to do more than I do. There is always something important that I didn't get to, something left over for the next day, or the day after. But it's a good reason to stagger out of bed in the morning, find my slippers, take a pee, make a coffee and think about all the things I have to do.

I hope I leave something good in every day.

DB - The Vagabond
***********************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Inch Worm, Inch Worm

Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

Blaise Pascal
*******************
"I have measured out my life in coffee spoons"
(T. S. Eliot)

Is there a difference between an insignificant dot and the universe? No. What do nothingness and infinity have in common?

I was just thinking about that Eliot quote a few moments ago as I made myself another coffee. I drink it from a mug . The spoon is in the mug because I put sugar in it. I've been drinking coffee every day since I was a teenager. I can say I have measured out my life in coffee spoons. What do nothingness and infinity have in common?

A baseball team has 9 players on the field and they play 9 innings, and some times a little bit more. A football field is exactly 100 yards and a little bit more because of the end zones. A marathon race is not 26 miles, it's 26 miles, 385 yards. 2 cups of flour, 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and, what the hell, a little bit more. I'm not 71 years old. I'm 71 years, 2 months and 24 days old. I could tell you how many hours also, but I was so annoyed at being birthed at the time I forgot to look at the clock.

So what do nothingness and infinity have in common? Neither one can be measured. And because they can't be measured we cannot see them, we can't even be conscious of them other than as concepts, unknown things that have a name attached to them.

Time is such a concept also, but at least we can measure it: Sort of. Seconds, minutes, hours. Every year is exactly 365 days, except it's not. Every now and then there's an extra day.

Alright. time measurement isn't precise. What about space, inches, feet, yards, surely we can count on that, can't we? That all depends. A 6 furlong race is 3/4 of a mile around a race track. But it's only that if you stay next to the rail. If you pull out to pass another hourse your horse will run more than 3/4.

We can't get by without measuring things, or at least approximating them. I put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee. But I don't get a measuring spoon and carefully dole out a precise spoonful. I dip the spoon into the sugar bowl and plop some into the mug. Measuring puts limitations on things, but it can't be helped. Even if we try to imagine the invisible, unknown and infinite, we will still do it in shapes and places. While trying to be precise in our measurement may be a futility for all but the scientist, it is better to live in a life we can measure than to try to live in the nothingness and infinity that can't be measured.

DB
*******************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

15 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

Who's Watching?

You can see a lot from looking.

Yogi Berra
(Thank you Bruce.)
**********************
Okay, Yogi, why don't we observe things? Why do we pass through life barely paying any attention to the world around us? What a waste of eye sight. Many remarkable things happen which no one notices.

Everywhere one of my neighbors goes he stares at the sidewalk in front of him. An angel could fly over his head he wouldn't know it.

Part of an actor's training is a very difficult observation exercise. A row of chairs is set up and filled with students. Another student observes them for a minute or two then turns his back. Those in the chairs rearrange themselves and take different poses. Then the student turns around and has to restore everyone to their original positions and poses. It is much more difficult than it seems at first and teaches the student to be very careful how he looks at things.

All during the actors life he will observe people. Observing people is an enjoyable experience for most everryone but for the actor it's also work. One never knows when a simple action a person may make will become something the fills out and compliments an entire role.

Some things that people do are automatic. When a man enters a room wearing a hat, if he takes it off he may straighten out the hair on the side of his head. When a woman sits down wearing a skirt or dress she generally scoops her hands under her backside to straighten out the skirt so it won't bunch up or wrinkle. I saw a woman do that once even though she was wearing slacks and didn't need to. It was automatic.

We do those automatic gestures on stage but we do them purposely. We make them look automatic so you will believe us. That way we help to add dimension and reality to the role.

And when not on the stage? When I was in shape I used to know how many tables there were behind me in a restaurant and how many diners there were at them, how many lamp posts there were between my home and where I worked and how many steps there were on the back stairs, a good thing to know when they were covered with snow.

One evening at Christmastime I was traveling back here from New York City. A man got on with three large bags. He put two of them overhead in the rack, but there wasn't room for the third one there so he put it up in another place. I was sitting two rows behind him with my backpack next to me. He may have been nodding off but he wasn't ready when the train reached his destination. The train had stopped and was about to leave the station when he realized where he was He jumped up and grabbed the two bags over his head and started down the aisle toward the door. In his rush he had forgotten the third one.

I was evidently the only one who had noticed where he put that bag. I got up and called to him about it. He turned and started back but I told him to get to the door and keep the train from leaving and I would bring the bag. I did and he told me the bag was full of the Christmas gifts for his kids. He was very grateful. He got off the train with everything.

When I got back to my seat there was a man sitting in it. As I approached he stood up and said "I sat here so no one would steal your backpack." I thanked him and he went back to his seat. Two people being alert, looking and seeing things saved a lot of property.

DB
*************************

Light The Lights

Do we stand in our own light wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?

Edward Bulwer-Lytton
***********************
"I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see."
(Robert Louis Stevenson)

Years ago I knew a photographer who told me one day that she had mounted an exhibit of her pictures at a photography gallery in lower Manhattan, and that they were self portraits. I thought that was intriguing so I went down to see it.

It was a nice big gallery with some beautiful pictures. In one large room there were films and videos. One of the videos consisted of people cavorting around in very active and suggestive ways. But the video screen was very small. I went over to it to see what they were doing and as soon as I stepped up to the screen the image changed to a very lonely scene. I shrugged and walked away, and as soon as I did the original scene returned. So I stepped back and again the video changed to the lonely scene. It seems there was a switch which would change the video whenever anyone came close to the screen.

In another room there was a very large print of a photo taken with a camera obscura. That's a technique in which one frame of film is exposed over a period of time. In this case the film was in a box with a pin point lens using ambient light. And what the artist had done was to set up nine chairs in a row and put a model in each one of them. Every ten minutes, from one end or the other one of the models would get up and leave. At the end of ninety minutes the only model remaining was the one in the center. The resulting photograph showed her, very clearly, and those on either side of her gradually becoming transparent as your eye moved along the surface of the picture.

Finally I found my friend's self portraits. What she had done was to go all over the city on a sunny day and take pictures of her shadow, on the sidewalks, on the grass, up against a wall and so on.

I could have said "Hm" and left the exhibit simply having spent an entertaining two hours. But those three exhibits, the changing videos, the slowly disappearing models and the shadows, all pointed toward the same thing and I had to think about it.

There's an existential carpet there. But is it a magic carpet, does it fly or is it only to sweep confusing hair balls of thinking under. "Cogito ergo sum." I once knew a philosopher who paraphrased that Cartesian axiom by saying, I think therefore I am, I think. Carefully setting under the carpet for today the possibility that I may not exist in the form in which I think I do, is the fact that I am a thinking creature irrefutable evidence that I exist? It can be a fearful thing to face one's own thinking if it is honestly and conscientiously done. Where do my thoughts come from? Are they a product of the passionate love affair between imagination and reason, are they the product of some phylogenic process, are they the intellectual merchandise of some tyrannical brain seeding, are they (heaven forbid) mental weeds which grow out of nature's chaos to fill a vacuum? How many of the thoughts that twirl and bounce around in my head like a bunch of lottery balls can I claim to be my own. The fewer of those there are the more transparent I have become and the earlier I have quit the scene.

What is the reluctance we have for facing the clear light of reality? Is it fear, indifference or ignorance? It doesn't hurt to turn one's attention to ideas and experiences greater than one's own. It shouldn't hurt to explore the open fields and mountain tops of one's own thinking. Why then do we habitually look away from the light and define ourselves by our own shadows when we could let ourselves be defined by the brightness that is hiding in us like a prehistoric creature in a cave?

I grew up in a threadbare family; no father, a difficult and demanding mother, a brother and sister who were a whole decade and more older than I. I suffered a great lack of the feelings and experiences of a family life. Hence I tried to make a family out of whatever theatre company I was with. I tried thinking of them as my fathers and mothers, my sisters and brothers and, eventually, my sons and daughters. Of course it didn't work. They all had families somewhere, and other lives. When I retired it was my destiny to live alone and lonely. But it was also the time to start learning about, understanding and appreciating myself. The party is going on, the games are being played and the crowd may be fun to be with, but you won't find yourself there. You will find yourself in the vast, bright, mysterious, secret and sacred cathedral of your own mind.

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

14 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************

What Do You Want?

I hope that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.

Michelangelo
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Yesterday I sat in a hard wooden chair and twisted myself around in order to take photographs for the first time on a digital camera of my art works so that I could put them on the computer. When I finished and stood up I couldn't walk. For the rest of the day I was painfully bent over. But no matter how I feel today, whether I can walk or not, I have to go to the market or I'll run out of toilet paper (pardon me,
"bathroom tissue"). Now if you don't think that's funny, you've got no sense of humor.

A good hot bath would probably help the back, but I don't have a bath tub. I have a stall shower. There are people who have bath tubs who never use them. They just stand in them and take showers. What a waste! Come take my stall shower and leave me your bath tub. What? Real men don't take baths? Bull.

When I began the day I didn't have a file on the computer of my paintings but, in spite of the sacrifice, now I do. I completed the most recent one a few days ago. Except for signing it I'm finished with it. Naturally I still worry over it as you might worry over a child, hoping they turn out all right. But the painting is not finished with me. Every time I do one I want it to be better than the last one. I'm learning how to paint by painting, the same way I learned acting and broadcasting. There seems to be no other way in my life.

One of the biggest questions of all time is how do we survive? Considering that we are born unable to take care of ourselves, dependant on people with varying degrees of wisdom to teach us how to live, once we make it through the roller coaster of growing up, then considering the limitations, the financial flops, crippling illnesses, emotional whip lashes and natural disasters, how do we keep going, and why?

The answer is: we stay alive because we want to . We desire to live. And that means we desire to experience, to learn, to accomplish things, to fulfill ourselves and to do better than we've done. The imaginations of an active mind, the heart's hopes, the lover's binding strengths transcend all those limitations beyond distances no one has ever measured.

I always hope that things will get better and that I will accomplish more. They don't and I don't. But so what? I will not stop wanting.

DB - The Vagabond
************************
SPRING QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)

In your opinion what is the most amazing thing that could happen during this decade? Make it as outrageous as you want but keep it within the realm of what you consider a possibility.

14 responses so far.

Answers will be published the first day of Summer.

Thank you.

dbdacoba@aol.com

DB - The Vagabond
*******************