To thine own self be true

( a man from the 1920s lives long enough to see his 5th great grandchild in 2015.)

in those people from the 1920s who were born post WW1 in the Roaring Twenties, who grew up in the Great Depression, who served in WW2, and then brought up families in the straitlaced Eisenhower ’50s, and saw how the Swingin’ Sixties changed our culture and values hugely, and aged in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s as technology took over, and lived long enough to see the 21st century. Ah, the wisdom and perspective in that remarkable a lifespan.

I realized that life was largely/basically a personal/subjective matter/frame/perspective. That curiosity and interests would continue to remain intact and only grow since there were infinite possibilities for consciousness and life-story. Expansions and epiphanies all the way. All that were really needed were imagination, curiosity and ceaseless desire to explore. In other words, Life could be as large as an individual made it.

(I am always amazed by long obituaries of people who were members of numerous organizations and who travelled and did so much. )

Freedom, will, and personal choice are keys that determine how large one lives. There are and can be many incredible lives of self-actualization, as can be seen in the lives of great people from history. They overcame self-doubts, fears, and various limitations to break free and live large. They became giants. Yes, one can become/can live as large as one wants or chooses to be.

are familiar faces, stories, themes, and scripts. There is a sameness to all of it because of predictable patterns of human nature methinks.

13 years ahead of its time. 11 songs by Paul Simon with unique sonic landscapes by Brian Eno, recorded by Andy Smith, and mixed by Tchad Blake. No other Simon album sounds like this.

The songs are very free in flow and memorable because of Eno’s sonic landscapes. I am also equally very impressed by Simon’s poetic lyrics here:
“If the answer is infinite light, why do we sleep in the dark?”
“We don’t mean to mess things up, but mess them up we do.”
“I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime. And beyond.”
“Who’s gonna love you when your looks are gone?”
“I’m an ordinary player in the key of C.”
“Who’s that conscience sticking on the sole of my shoe?”
“Snowman sittin’ in the sun doesn’t have time to waste. He’s had a little bit too much fun, now his head’s erased.”
“I don’t believe a heart can be filled to the brim then vanish like mist as though life were a whim.”
“She hears the clouds, she sees the eye of the hurricane, as it sweeps across her island pillow.”
“I figure that once upon a time I was an ocean. But now I’m a mountain range. Something unstoppable set in motion.”
“I am walking up the face of a mountain. Counting every step I climb. Remembering the names of constellations. Forgotten is a long, long time.”
“I’m gonna stand guard like a postcard of a golden retriever.”

The lyrics have no regular rhymes and are prose poems. The flow of each song lyric is more stream-of-consciousness much like the feel of the accompanying music and sounds.
This is easily one of the best, fun, provocative albums Simon has ever done. Right up there with Graceland. Definitely worth checking out. Has a very contemporary feel with much unpredictability and spontaneousness. Two thumbs way up.

as reported and shown in the morning paper. A rare partridge Chukar showed up in our yard (above) last fall. Sighted in Calgary in 2016, too, apparently. The continuing story of…

in different and changing contexts. Adaptation skills, imagination, creativity, critical thinking skills, a willingness to accept, change, and let go are all necessary for survival and success. Recurringly so.

(On a whim to visit a Dollar Store, I found and bought this video classic on sale for $3, took it home and watched it only to realize and write about the amazing connections between the protagonist Willie Stark and Donald Trump, separated by 70 years.)

Those daily synchronicities.

At my daughter’s house, an owl fell from a bathroom shelf. Within minutes, her ‘owl’-companion was involved in an ETS crash on the way home on his side of the bus.

At the sale, my mentioning long-retired CTV reporter Fred Kazakoff who was a seller to my wife.Then, within days, her finding Fred’s name on one of her late mother’s calendars. As to why her mother should have done that is unknown, a mystery.

I find these coincidences and portents are common in the daily flow. It is as if these synchronicities are just built in or ‘in the air’. One things sets off and connects to another under different circumstances creating an uncanny resonance as if these things are connected and all meant to be. They just happen; they just ‘are’, and form interesting, curious connective aspects of our consciousness. The more open and accepting you are, the more they seem to happen and inform our lives.

https://www.facebook.com/yegmusicshow/photos/a.1556508754392444/1556509774392342/?type=3&theater

Been doing this for several positive years. One of the communities I enjoy/belong to.

changing. ‘Normal’ doesn’t live here anymore.

Wayson Choy (1939-2019).