YEAR OF THE ROOSTER

"I", 2011, mixed media sculpture by African-AmericanBrenna Youngblood

My brother is sick. As teen agers, we were orphaned but I, the older, escaped into academics and an early marriage while he, four years younger, was left to swim out the other side without much of a life jacket.A dear friend is recovering from serious surgery. Another is threading through the process of self re-acquaintance after surviving a debilitating stroke. Me? There are days like today when arthritis in my shoulders make combing my hair an olympic event.

I’m soaking up episodes of “Grace and Frankie” on Netflix - a series featuring two women in their 70s with a basketful of troubles and unplanned for situations who confront all with charm and wit. In the episode I just finished, Frankie has a mild stroke and discovers it isn’t her first. She laments that the knowledge changes everything - her life, how those around her respond, how she herself responds! She begs the question that we all ask sometimes. When is intimate information helpful and when are we best left in the dark?

We are all rusting like old cars. Now what? Diagnosed with a fatal illness? Isn’t everybody?  You just have more information than the rest of us. Sure -  eat well, exercise lots, sleep soundly, love truly. And while the body says “no,” the spirit says “what the f…! I will if I want to.” (But I’m giving away the hair dryer and curling iron.)

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

A painting by abstract expressionist Richard Diebenkorn

Troubling times.  No ordinary President. Where did statesmanship go?Remember those Bible verses? “Care for the least of these…” When did we get so mean - so stingy?  So today when I read:

To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards out of 

men. (Elda Wheeler Wilcox, 1914)

and: My silences had not protected me.  Your silence will not  protect 

you.  (Rachael Carson)

and: Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion and you can say ‘I don’t 

know.’ (Richard Diebenkorn

The words seemed especially relevant. I pass them along.

```````````````````````````````

This is the Chinese Year of the Rooster.  (Just thought you should know.) 

```````````````````````````````

A parklet is often an adorable public gathering/resting area typically carved from parking spaces or under-utilized parts of streetscapes.

The idea began as an experiment in 2005 in SanFrancisco with a single parking space.

This photograph of the newest public art park is sitting outside the Mighty-O-Donuts shop in Seattle; it’s the 9th parklet in Seattle. It was paid for through “crowdsourcing funds” which I hardly understand but I guess it’s a “thing” these days - with some additional funds from a grant from the Department of Neighborhoods.  While this parklet clearly has a history on the water (it’s an old boat - get it?), the design was helped along by architect David Squires.  

Parklet, the Mighty-O, Seattle, Washington