Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land, Drawing no dividend from time’s to-morrows. In the great hour of destiny they stand, Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows. Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives. Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats, And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain, Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats, And mocked by hopeless longing to regain Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats, And going to the office in the train. by Siegfried Sassoon, Selected Poems (1968)
Another Memorial Day, another year. In 2012, I was living in Washington DC and made the effort to travel to the Mall to see the Rolling Thunder demonstration. It was called Rolling Thunder because it consisted of thousands of motorcycles riding from the Pentagon into DC down to the Vietnam Memorial. Their main mission was to bring awareness and accountability for POW’s and MIA’s and was heavily attended by Vietnam veterans. In 2012, it was the 25th Anniversary of the event so larger than usual. In 2020, they re-named it Rolling to Remember in order to pass the torch to a younger generation and to bring attention to the veteran suicide issue as well as POW’s and MIA’s. During the pandemic, it shrank considerably but is now back in full force. The ride starts Sunday at noon in the Pentagon parking lot. I’m sorry to miss it.
I’m gonna lay down that atom bomb Down by the riverside down by the riverside Down by the riverside I’m gonna lay down that atom bomb Down by the riverside study war no more
I ain’t gonna study war no more Ain’t gonna study war no more — Pete Seeger
Hug me, squeeze me, love me, tease me ‘Til I can’t, ’til I can’t, ’til I can’t take no more of it Take me to the water, drop me in the river Push me in the water, drop me in the river Washing me down, washing me down — Al Green via Talking Heads
I needed a new couch. I gave my old one away. I found the perfect couch. Super comfortable. Perfect color. Nice size. I fell in love with it. I ordered it. I paid for it. I had to wait two weeks for delivery.
It didn’t fit in the elevator. Too big.
I know better than to fall in love with anything. I usually don’t care that much. But it was a really nice couch. So back to square one. And believe me, there are not very many comfortable couches. There aren’t even very many nice looking ones. And I know I won’t see that color again. Unless I want to pay 12,000 dollars which I don’t.
I took a quiz on one furniture store website. It told me my style is Contemporary Chic. But then it didn’t give me any examples or show me any possibilities. What is that about? They did send me a $25 off coupon though…
This is the picture they showed of what Contemporary Chic looks like but it doesn’t exist on their website. I don’t really like it that much.
This is my old couch in its new home.
So after sitting on many sofas, I found this one. It isn’t perfect but I got a red chair to go with it. And it is comfortable.
Now I have to wait another two weeks for it to show up.
It is St Patrick’s Day! Who doesn’t love St Patrick’s Day? The patron saint of Ireland who drove the snakes out of Ireland (even though there were no snakes in Ireland). Sub zero wind chills for the parade today. I think I’ll skip it.
I watched the film Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles the other night. It is a three and a half hour film starring and directed by Chantal Akerman, first screened in 1975. What little dialog there is is in French. It follows a single mother over three days. It is slow and mundane. She cooks, she shops, she feeds her child, she does the washing up, she takes a bath, and she provides sex for money. It is mesmerizing in its monotony. But the changes are subtle, you have to watch closely to see her controlled behavior begin to unravel. She is a complicated woman trapped in her own world. Trapped by society? Very interesting film.
She cooked potatoes every day and some kind of meat. One day it was veal. I am feeling so uninspired. Nothing sounds good lately. I’ve been watching the Sopranos. They eat mounds and mounds of pasta at every meal. Manicotti, Ricotta, Salami, meatballs, Spaghetti, Ziti, Fagioli, etc etc. What I really want is a short rib bolognese but I’m too lazy to make it.
Requiescat by Oscar Wilde
Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow.
All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust.
Lily-like, white as snow, She hardly knew She was a woman, so Sweetly she grew.
Coffin-board, heavy stone, Lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone She is at rest.
Peace, Peace, she cannot hear Lyre or sonnet, All my life’s buried here, Heap earth upon it.
Not a very happy poem but nicely done by an Irish son….
It’s that time of year… the holiday card, the holiday letter. It always includes travel, family, achievements, mostly positive stuff but sometimes includes losses as well. It’s the holidays, time to be upbeat and happy. Mine went something like this.
Happy Holidays!
We started the year off with an amazing trip to Egypt! I am still processing all the beautiful things we saw. Cairo, Abu Simbel, Aswan, and the boat up the Nile to Luxor. We highly recommend it.
In the spring I flew to San Francisco and had a lot of fun hanging out with old college friends. Golden Gate, Point Reyes, and Sonoma wine country.
I took a trip to Duluth and Lake Superior with my family. It is nice to be able to travel again. I also spent a long weekend in Washington DC with more old friends.
But the really big news is happening in January. I am retiring. Can’t wait. I have a million projects waiting for me. And Travel. Stay tuned.
Joy and Happiness to all in 2023
Nothing earth shattering but full of action and positive vibes.
I read today that a Radisson Hotel in Berlin boasted having the world’s largest Aquarium in their lobby. It had 1,500 tropical fish in it. And it broke, exploded, kaput. All the dead fish on the sidewalk. There is something just wrong about that. Is that entertainment? Looking at jailed fish on your way to your room? Ugh.
I watched the second half of the Harry and Meghan series as I’m sure many of you did too. I came away with some questions. What do they actually live on? So I looked it up. Apparently Harry’s father cut them off so they had to fend for themselves. They cut a deal with Netflix for $100 million. Harry got millions for his new book, Spare. Harry inherited some money from his mother and possibly from the Queen. So what they live on is their Name. They are selling their Name. Coming away from the show, I couldn’t help but think about the Duke of Windsor. I felt like they were both treated similarly. Is that a word? Anyway, way too much about that.
I watched a delightful film about Bhutan – Lulana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019). It is about a young man who is a teacher as part of his State service and he has a year of teaching left on his contract. He wants to go to Australia and be a singer and has no interest in teaching but they send him to the remotest part of Bhutan to teach. The experience changes him. I saw it on Netflix. A nice “holidays” film.
Good advice from Charles Bukowski….
Roll the Dice by Charles Bukowski
if you’re going to try, go all the way. otherwise, don’t even start.
if you’re going to try, go all the way. this could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe your mind.
go all the way. it could mean not eating for 3 or 4 days. it could mean freezing on a park bench. it could mean jail, it could mean derision, mockery, isolation. isolation is the gift, all the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. and you’ll do it despite rejection and the worst odds and it will be better than anything else you can imagine.
if you’re going to try, go all the way. there is no other feeling like that. you will be alone with the gods and the nights will flame with fire.
do it, do it, do it. do it.
all the way all the way. you will ride life straight to perfect laughter, its the only good fight there is.
Now that is upbeat and holiday-sie, right? Have a good week.
It’s another Friday. Down to my last month at work. Snow on the ground. Cold and windy.
Nothing earth shattering in the news. Death, hate, war, celebrities, rich people, poor people, homeless people, bad politics, lawsuits, repeat. My crisis of the week? Didn’t have one. Actually I haven’t been out of the house all week. I’m reading a book called Up Like Thunder by Colin T. Nelson. A VIP’s daughter goes missing in Burma (Myanmar) and this Private Investigator goes looking for her. It is kind of slow moving but interesting. Lots of color on Burma. I’m about half way through, will finish it this week.
St Paul is full of skyways connecting the buildings downtown. I use them all the time to get around out of the cold. They are all on the second floor of the buildings. From my window I can see one lone skyway way above the street that connects two buildings. It is thought to be the world’s first modern skyway, built in 1931. Merchants Bank and First National Bank merged and the buildings were next to each other. The floor heights were different so the skyway connects one building’s 16th floor with the other building’s 17th floor. It is a private skyway so, unless you work at the bank, you won’t be able to use it. It is the tallest skyway in the Twin Cities. And it is green.
I leave you with Poem VIII from Pablo Neruda’s Book of Questions:
What is it that upsets the volcanoes that spit fire, cold and rage?
Why wasn’t Christopher Columbus able to discover Spain?
How many questions does a cat have?
Do tears not yet spilled wait in small lakes?
Or are they invisible rivers that run toward sadness?
Well, it’s another Friday. Another week. My countdown to retirement is jogging along. I am down to 67 more days. Probably time to start obsessing. Actually, I’m way past that. Forms, Dates, Signatures, meetings…. My head is swimming.
I keep trying to find happy, positive, funny things to write about. I always end up back at the gloom and doom of today’s headlines. I was listening to the news this morning and literally the only thing they mentioned as far as National/International news was… drum roll… Twitter. Elon Musk took over Twitter and fired the CEO. Then with all kinds of speculation about what will happen next. Will he unblock Trump? Will he get rid of all controls imposed?
I am on Twitter but I rarely look at it. I think you have to be focused in on a particular subject to really understand any of it. But ultimately it just feeds the press and the ignorant. The ignorant press? Who cares what Elon Musk does? He is in the top 1 percent. Probably the top idiot of the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent. Why am I even mentioning him? Ugh…
Speaking of the 1 percent… Another one with too much money: Jeff Bezos. He is the one who shot William Shatner (and others) into space, for a minute. Of course my thought was, what an incredible waste of money. Shatner released his book, Boldly Go on October 4. Apparently, he had an overwhelming revelation during that flight. He saw the vast emptiness of space and the beauty of the earth. It is a common thread with astronauts. How amazingly beautiful our planet looks from space. Many are overcome by it. Shatner took it a step further and was overcome with grief. He realized we were killing our beautiful planet. So my thought is, why doesn’t Bezos pour all his money into saving our planet instead of trying to colonize Mars? Who wants to live on an ugly red planet?
How about a Travel Tidbit? Apparently today there is a big festival every year in Oshogbo, Nigeria. It draws thousands of people from around the world. I went there in the last 1970’s. It was the center for women’s fertility ceremonies and shrines on the Osun River. We were allowed into their private area and led down to the river to witness a ritual. We saw many shrines in the area. An Austrian artist named Suan Wenger created sculptures in the area – weird things that looked like huts, or female forms. She revived the area and brought attention to it and today it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. When my friend and I went there, we were the only visitors.
This is an except from September 1, 1939 by W.H.Auden.
Somehow seems relevant today…
All I have is a voice To undo the folded lie, The romantic lie in the brain Of the sensual man-in-the-street And the lie of Authority Whose buildings grope the sky: There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. —-W.H.Auden
I made Tarragon Chicken this week that turned out yummy. Sorry, no photos this time…
1 lb skinless chicken breasts cubed ½ red onion chopped 8 oz mushrooms chopped 2 cloves garlic chopped ½ cup white wine 7 ½ oz crème fraiche 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard 24 oz small potatoes cut in half 2 Tbsp chopped fresh Tarragon
Cook chicken with onions and garlic in some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Add the mushrooms.
Toss the potatoes in oil, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Pour onto a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until done.
In a bowl add the crème fraiche, mustard, wine and tarragon.
Add the sauce to the chicken and heat through.
Add the cooked potatoes and mix to coat. Or you can serve the potatoes separately.
