To continue a bit away from the rants, a small discussion on what constitutes the proverbial "Good Life"?
The picture is a good indication of where I might start. I find that the things that count the most are great food, good wine , friends and family. My art works in there, but I went many years without it and as long as I had the 4 things above I would be endlessly happy.
I also find that the incredible beauty of each day is important. We live backed up to the East/Southbay hills and almost immediately we are outside of the "city". Behind us is a stable and then into the hills. The bay is nearby and the views if you drive into the hills are miraculous. It is eaasy to imagine what it looked like when nothing was here but nature.
We already know some of the beauty that PromiseMe creates for himself. WH must have beauty everywhere he looks and I would imagine that CA has great beauty around her in the mountains. So what else does it take to make you content?
8 comments:
Wolfmom:
Mea Culpa! Slap my face! Beat me with a wet noodle! What'd I say to give you that impression? This small group has quickly come to mean a great deal to me, and you are an integral part of that. As much as I love music and poetry and appreciate to the extent I am capable, I don't have a creative cell in my body. Wish I did, but as my boys Metallica sang, sad but true. I am really stricken to think I may have dissed you in some clueless way. If this is an early April Fool joke, I'll be very relieved.
I'd like to comment on the Good Life, but I'm really whipped tonight. What I was referring to was the theoretic "gap" between Gen 1.1 & 1.2, and the assumption that it's all literal. I'll have more to say tomorrow, but I'm curious about your take, and the others.
Again, "I know I'm a broad" ? Dear, I love 'em. I was a feminist when Germaine Greer wasn't. I'm married (3 years on 4/1, but lived in sin for 14 1/2 before) to a feminist. I jokingly call her " the Irish" (you saw her name on the foodie blog) but she is the love of my life, as was my first wife until she wasn't. You will never find me disparaging women. And the two of you on here are my absolute favorites among those I don't really "know".
If I grovel much more I'll have carpet burn, but you get the idea. BTW, I did like it when you called PMT a snarky bastard. We can do that here.
Windhover, crawling away.
Dear dear WH...I was giving you a bad time for playing kissy face with CA, who clearly deserves it...my most favorite lady on the blog...although I do like Elissa, and JD is pretty funny, but they live near me and we are planning secret meetings.WHAHAHAHAHAA(my evil laugh).
I was just gently pulling your leg. I love the people that are currently posting on this blog and find the various philosophies interesting and I think we all move along the same lines. I think that you are possibly the most philosophical of all of us, but your Wendell Berry proximity may add to that...still can't find that article.
I think, as a group, that we would have one hell of a time with several bottles of wine and an evening to while away. I also think that each of us is an artist, just in different ways...PMT has his music and the appreciation of the beauty that surrounds him...the photos of his beautiful birds and especially that of the manatee are proof, CA is a philosopher in her own right with a love of evocative poetry and the talent to always choose the absolutely correct poem for the day. She also enjoys her art classes and her music.
You create the most basic and important of beauties by bringing forth the wealth of the earth, through the food you grow, the land you nurture and the cheeses from your goats that you and Irish create. I have had close relationships with cheesemakers and it is a fine art to make good cheese...Being a farmer and close to land and its creatures is a special artform.
I was watching a video of my favorite artist Wayne Thiebaud and he said that anyone can paint...the trick is being good at it...I am working at being good at at it, a work in progress. I think that we all have art in us, I found other ways to express it when I wasn't painting.One was that I cooked and kept taking it to greater levels of expertise...PMT sounds like a fine and adventurous cook and eater and it sounds like you and CA enjoy good food also...it is the art of living well, appreciating the importance of the simple pleasures that surround us.
Now...just to digress a bit on the odd 11:05 and follow-up postings from some surprising people...I guess that I still find it bizarre that with all we know of the history of the collection of writings called The Bible that people can still take it so literally...Jeez! The whole Adam and Eve thing was refined and added in by a mysogonistic ex monk in the 4th Century...I pointed it out a few months back and got my ass kicked before I had really gotten to know the dynamics of that group...we definitely have some bible-thumping bible-belters in the group...I guess that I haven't been paying attention to who was who.
This is one the things that I would love to have a time machine for and go back, get the TRUTH and come back and go..."AHA, Jesus was a Jew, his friends saved him from the cross and he lived to a ripe old age and had kids with Mary Magdalene and they are all buried in that tomb in Jeruselem...so there...Adam and Eve came by spaceship and that's why we have monkeys and great apes AND Humans and they were Cro-Magnon and NOT realated to the Neanderthals, who were and advanced ape project gone awry...The earth took a REALLY long time to grow and develop and didn't happen like that Life-creating force from that Star Trek movie where they had to save Spock...God, if there is such a thing has many faces to many people and has through history and he probaly rested ALL 7 days as everything was already done by the time he came along in people's minds...
It just surprises me that seemingly intelligent and clever people can slip so easily into such dogma...
Well...it is almost 10 pm and I have discovered Nathan Fillion and CASTLE...on tv Monday nights and it is a mystery/police proceedural...sorry, cute guys in murder mysteries...a serious weakness of mine...tune in tomorrow boys and girl(s)...Cheery bye.(CA..it is on ABC 10 pm...CASTLE :o))
Oh my, I just finished up on the comments on the Genesis 1:1 to 1:2 theory and here we are again.
I did take a couple of minutes to read WH and WM's entries. Let us all agree that any teasing comments are precisely that and nothing more. I think if anyone were annoyed, he or she could say so outright. Agreed? OK, onward and upward...
There are lots of things I'd like to comment on that make my life enjoyable, but not tonight. What will make my life perfect right now is climbing into the king-size bed, next to my snoring (OK, nothing is perfect) husband and mentally running through my "relax body instructions". I start with my toes, go to arches, heels, ankles, calves, etc. and let each part let go and relax. I'm a much lighter sleeper than I used to be and even though it takes me longer to go to sleep, I'm always zonked before I make it all the up to my head.
So, lovely people, I have to call it a day. Stocking the pantry tomorrow with trips to Costco and a few other stores. I'll have to catch up when I get home.
Sorry WM, too late for Castle this week. You are right. He is very hunky.
I wasn't sure whether to put this repost here but then I saw Windhover 'crawling away', so I said, "What the hey."
Argyle said...
I know it's not the one Jeannie was thinking of, but there is Chris De Burgh's - Sailing Away
Meanwhile, I'm "skating away, skating away, on the thin ice of a new day". - Jethro Tull
March 31, 2009 2:34 AM
Argyle: WOW...so good to "see" you... do join us...we are having fun discovering what we all think about things and ranting a bit...seldom do we cover anything to do the Crossword Corner and amuse ourselves with random topics, often politically motivated, occasionally religious and always interesting...
Hope to see you back.
I'm with CA...If I'm actually upset I would definitely let that person know...I just can't see that happening here. I was just teasing WH about his broad-minded, but shallow comment...
PMT...sorry I didn't catch your post with Dolf Lundgren(yep...he be pretty nifty!) and the skates...
We have a skating rink within skating distance. It is all downhill so coming back up was problematic. I worked as a manager there for about 13 years while our girls were growing up. It was a good situation as I could always leave to get them from school and after they finished their homework, they could skate. Both were speed skaters and at 2 years old, our youngest was the absolute youngest registered speed skater in the country. The owners put skates on her at about 10 mos old because she was always getting into everything(her older sister by 3 years, was always much better behaved). Well...that lasted all of about 3 days and then it was even harder to catch her. I started just skating sessions, then took some artistic lessons,designed costumes for and skated in several large amateur show competions called GOLD SKATE, but when I started teaching junior roller hockey things really clicked. i joined a women's team, became their very stylish goalie(black spandex body suits and soccer goalie shirts to cover the chest pads...very cool), we won Nationals in Lincoln Nebraska and I quit to join a Senior Men's team as their goalie, along with friend, because we hated all the back-stabbing and bitching on the women's team. Besides, on a men's team, the view from the cage is much better! I played Men's Hockey for about 5 years and finished up on my 40th birthday teaching goalies at the Olympic Training Center at Colorado Springs...shortly after that I sold everything but my skates and bought an oak roll top desk with the proceeds. A few years later I was given the offer to travel with a US women's team to play in Italy, but realsitically, I had been out of it for too long...My friend did go...we got seriously much better playing on the men's team, so they still wanted us to make them look good! LOL
So that's my hockey story and I'm stickin' to it. I do still have my skates and the very expensive art skates on the Snyder plates...but nowadays if I skated, it would be with hockey skates...much more comfortable and I do have a few extra pounds that I didn't used to have...remains to be seen.
OK...have finished my lunch, so back to the studio...sorry I didn't catch that earlier. There's still wine time!
I'm going to take a bite out of this damned Apple to see if there's a worm in there. I composed a rather long (for the Iphone) post this morning, was typing the last damn word, and it just went away. Wasn't Grr a word today? I doubt I can recreate it, body and brain are fried again tonight. Here's part.
Wolfmom: I suspected as much, but wasn't taking any chances. The groveling was sincere, and I am pleasantly relieved.
I enjoyed reading both your and ClearAyes comments on the 11:05, but find that I haven't the energy or enthusiasm to rant about inanities tonight. I'll take the next shift. It seems to pop up regularly. Creation, for lack of a better term, is a mystery I enjoy thinking about, and
I think some of the ideas the two of you mentioned are just as plausible as a gap between days 1&2.
On the Good Life: Good health, being in possession of my own time, beauty in my surroundings, and a warm and willing partner to share it all with. All else is gravy.
What do I go back in for when the house is on fire?
The Irish,first. There's a little cash and some pictures.
PMT: I'm posting here because I think it's easier for us to stay current than to go back several days to an original that is relevant to the topic. You are the final arbiter on such matters. I await your ruling.
There was a lot more this AM, but I'm out of gas. Looking forward to whatever wine generates from the West tonight, especially now that I'm out of the dog (or wolf) house.
Windhover, relieved.
I finally have all the groceries put away and Fred made a chicken salad for dinner. It was really quite good. I think he is making up for last night's snoring. So I'm finally back to make a few comments.
I have to thank both Wolfmom and Windhover for their kind recent kind remarks. PMT is too busy stirring up things around the corner. He does seem to love getting a reaction. You make me laugh PMT, and that is a favorite component of "The Good Life". Anyone who can make me laugh is on my buddy list. I guess that is why I like Buckeye so much. His sense of the ridiculous is right up my alley.
So what is the Good Life to me. First of all, what it is not. Definitely not money...any more. Of course, when I was a dirt poor single mother, I rated it a lot more highly. I never had a job that I worked at because I loved it. I worked to pay the bills and take care of the kid. I learned to like my job at the Post Office, but I wasn't sorry to retire. As far as money is concerned, now I'm just happy not to owe a dime to anybody.
I've mentioned that the older I get, the less I need. I think at 66 I'm the oldest regular here. Isn't that true, or as has been mentioned before, is it a fact?
I don't like a lot of busyness in my life. Ever since I retired I try to keep things as simple as possible. I don't volunteer to be in charge of things. Let those to whom it matters be the boss.
I like to get up in the morning without an alarm clock. I like going to bed when I get sleepy.
I enjoy being alone. Fortunately, Fred golfs several days a week and that works out wonderfully for me. Those two or three days are mine to read, watch a movie, play with pastels, or sit on the patio with a glass of Guinness with a shot of black currant.
I love movies, books, plays and musicals. You already know about the poetry. I love to sing along with soundtracks. It took a hour there and and hour back to shop today. I sang the whole soundtrack of Annie (there) and the whole soundtrack of Hair (back). I grew up with a very hammy, theatrical, musical family. I learned to love it early on.
I love to spend time with our friends. About two or three time a month is just about right. I love the women; I couldn't do without my women friends. I love the men too. I've always been at ease with men as much as women. I've found you never get too old to flirt...just a little.
I do like to cook, and I'm a good one, but gourmet cooking isn't too important to me any more. Fred and I are eating more simply as we get older. But I have to admit, I do enjoy having dinner guests compliment and ask for recipes. I am not without vanity!
I'm sure there is more, but it's been a long day and I am getting sleepy. Have a good evening. Ain't life grand?
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