It’s probably not good for my reputation as a male, but I really like the music of Natalie Merchant. (I also like Guns ’n Roses and Godsmack, so there’s a balance.) This song, Kind and Generous, is one of my favorite uplifting favorites. (Thick as Thieves is also a favorite, but in a very different way.)
Outside of dancing with a couple of married women somewhere in the deep south (after more than a few margaritas), and one long night in Las Vegas, the last song I can remember dancing to in public is “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy),” by Information Society.
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
My mother is 82 years old, and is dealing with dementia. I called her yesterday and spoke with her and Sister #2 for about ninety minutes. (I have three sisters, and it’s easiest to refer to them by number.) Mom never talks much, but my sister uses her speakerphone, and you hope that mom might be listening a little bit.
We hung up, and then about an hour later my sister called back while mom was sleeping. We talked for a little bit, and when mom started waking up my sister told her, “Al’s on the phone.”
To which my mom replied, “Again?”
:)
Today’s song of the day is Similar Features, by Melissa Etheridge. Her self-titled album is one of my all-time favorites.
A Pheochromocytoma/Paraganglioma tumor is referred to as a “time bomb,” and affects only one person out of every 500,000. As a nurse put it this week, statistically speaking, I’m taking the bullet so that someone else in that group of 499,999 other people won’t have to. That’s a nice way to think about.
#There’sOnlyThisMoment
One of my nieces graduated from high school last night, and in honor of that, today’s song is Wind of Change, by the Scorpions:
It’s safe to say that during most of my life, my willpower has gotten me in and out of a lot of trouble.
If I could say anything to my younger self about this, it might be, “Use that strength a little more wisely.”
One of my favorite songs of the last ten years is Pride, by Syntax. I originally heard it in a 2007 episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent titled Privilege.
It’s kind of an awkward conversation when your specialist doctor turns your case over to someone else (in this case researchers at the University of Colorado): “I’m sorry ... it’s not me, it’s you. Good luck with that.”
Theme of the day: Get busy living, or get busy dying.
(From The Shawshank Redemption.)
The song that led me to find Jeff Buckley’s Grace is this other song, New Year's Prayer, which was used as the theme song for the tv series, The Dead Zone.
“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” ~ Mike Tyson
(Two years ago the Denver Broncos got punched in the face. Yesterday they punched Carolina.)
I’ve come to enjoy good writing over the last few years. This is a short excerpt from an episode of a tv show named Medium:
Joe: I want to help you figure this thing out, I do, but I have to go, we have to go.
Woman in Allison’s body: So wait, the two of you have never gone out and said, “Oh screw it. Let’s stay out all night and party?”
Joe: Ah, that’s hard to explain, but for me, uh ... being with Allison is the party. And for Allison, there’s kind of no better place to have a party than at home with the kids.
Woman: God ... I would die to feel that way about someone ... some place. I would die to have someone feel that way about me.
“The true practice of meditation is to sit as if you were drinking water when you are thirsty.”
~ Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
“Do not think that enlightenment is going to make you special, it’s not. If you feel special in any way, then enlightenment has not occurred. I meet a lot of people who think they are enlightened and awake simply because they have had a very moving spiritual experience. They wear their enlightenment on their sleeve like a badge of honor. They sit among friends and talk about how awake they are while sipping coffee at a cafe. The funny thing about enlightenment is that when it is authentic, there is no one to claim it.” ~ Emptiness Dancing
The song of the day: Make Believe, by The Burned. I heard it last night on a tv series named The Tomorrow People.
From this Dead Zone episode:
“I have found that to deny who you are is much more painful than to confront what you hate about yourself. It takes courage to face yourself but I was too weak to admit how weak I was. Guilt drove me to silence, and guilt forced me to the truth. It is something that we should embrace because it is the only weapon our morality has to wield against us when we forget ourselves.”
This is a small part of John Mellencamp’s song Check It Out, from his performance last night at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado:
To see a full version of this song, see this YouTube link. Someone recorded the song at that link about six months earlier on the same tour.
John Mellencamp meets the surgeon who saved his life with an 18-hour surgery when he was nine days old:
