Yet Another Look at Winslow AZ

I was listening to an Eagles album the other day and figured this was worth a third look. In 1972 the Eagles wrote their song, Take it Easy. It commemorated the town of Winslow, AZ. Kristine and I did not meet until five years later.

That very last week of 1977, we began our trek from Baltimore, MD to Ventura, CA, a town memorialized by the Pontiac Ventura, a car that died that same year.

On the last day of our journey the beautiful, cool, winter weather drifted through AZ. We were driving the 2nd least dependable car I had ever owned,  both of which were not vetted. My lack of skill through the age of 32 in buying dependable cars was remarkable.

It was evening and we were rolling down the road into Winslow, AZ. At the same time  from our subpar speaker system we heard the Eagles singing” Well I am standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ.” .

We couldn’t bring ourselves to actually stop and stand on a corner. Our car might have died like the Pontiac Ventura had we stopped.

Solitude, Its Value

“Solitude, whether endured or embraced, is a necessary gateway to original thought.” Jane Hirshfield, American poet, and essayist. I search for that thought each day as I write.

Sometimes I bear the isolation with its slow expiration. Originality hammers its way out of that place.

At better moments, I embrace the remote place with inspired thought. A wide smile spreads across my face, thinking about it.

Thank God for the open door. It brings me peace in the winter of my journey.

Life in 2022

“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” The American humorist, Peter De Vries, who died in 1993.

You remember paper. It was usually white. Manufacturers dedicated half the trees on the planet to its production.

Paper came in large packages. If people counted each sheet to see if the vendors were truthful, it caused frequent cuts and infrequent visits to mental wards. But it could be healthy for humans because, with all the paper they trashed, they made frequent trips on foot to the garbage.

Of course, now that e-contact has replaced p-contact, you can be more quickly flooded with ads on products for which the perpetrators have trailed you ceaselessly. Maybe we should go back to paper.

The Good Fight

Despite attacking the airfields on the first day, it appears the anti-aircraft equipment and the determination of the Ukrainians has prevented Russian air superiority to this point. Putin’s objective is to replace the Kiev government but not even one city has been captured. These are brave determined people. May they, by the grace of God, continue the good fight at this level of intensity. Our 🙏’s are with them.

Why?

Could anyone tell you at the deepest level why two people love each other enough to take on a lot of risk by getting married? Given the odds, it is a roll of the dice, an entrepreneurial-like choice. 

Our lives are a vast mystery from what’s going on at the deepest level of our human cells to why certain people spend most of their lives together. Don’t you think?

“What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!” “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” Victor Hugo, the Parisian author of Le Miserables I think Victor had it right.

Slouching?

“The face you give the world tells the world how to treat you.” Gillian Flynn, an American author. Makes sense.

My spouse Kristine, who paints portraits, reminds me, when I slouch or look downtrodden, to straighten up. It’s been a bad habit since childhood. But it affects the way others see me.

A consultant advised a recent Presidential candidate to stop slouching in the campaign. Good advice. Don’t you think? 

My late father, who I continue to forgive, was tough on family, worse on me. It affected my mother’s posture and my own.

I feel better when standing up straight as I fly right. It’s even easier to breathe. Praise the good Lord who breathed life into us and brought us many spouses who care.

Time Well Spent

One of the joys of reading is the ability to plug into the shared wisdom of mankind.” Ishmael Reed, an American novelist. “Books are humanity in print.” “To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.” Arthur Schopenhauer, the 19th-century German philosopher. And Schopenhauer had no spouse or kids.

Writing and reading are two of the greatest joys of my retirement. I have time to read a lot.

I remember one of my last opportunities, until retirement, for lots of time in books, was the summer between high school and college. It was quite a relaxing summer that may well have helped me prepare for college. It did enhance my love for time spent in a good book.

Who do I read? We are all different. I love Steinbeck’s work and Pat Conroy’s novels, but Hemingway just doesn’t fill me with wonder or engage me, despite his public acclaim. David McCullough is my favorite historian, particularly his works on Truman, Adams, and the Wright brothers.

Our reading, broadens and deepens us. It makes us better communicators. May God bless each of us with the time we need to benefit richly from what we read.

Good Fiction

“I just think that fiction that isn’t exploring what it means to be human today isn’t art.””I had a teacher I liked who used to say good fiction’s job was to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” David Foster Wallace, the late award-winning author.

In The Bloom is on the Rose, my work of fiction published recently, the key character, a medical examiner , struggles in his budding romance in that she has another man in her life. It is a disturbing tension.

At the same time the reader can find comfort in the deep love that develops between them. She lifts the downcast portion of his spirit stemming from his aiding the justice system while observing the worst of human mayhem.

Meanderings

You rarely hear writers talk about the editing process. But editing is everything. The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciating. It’s like the difference between having a crush and a marriage.” Jonathan Safran Foer, an American author.

There’s a difference between a crush and a marriage?

A Good Dose of Laughter

I love this remark by the late, award winning novelist, David Foster Wallace. “I do things like get in a taxi and say, ‘The library, and step on it.’”

Humor is such wonderful medicine. In the travail that was some of my medical school experience, one professor frequently got me laughing. We are still friends fifty years later. He was and is a genuine friend.

Another friend and I worked at one business for years. Beating the notorious LA morning commute, both of us got to work early. Our brief a.m. routines often included sharing good laughs. Now retired, our friendship is one of my best memories from my work-life.

In each of your days, I hope there is at least a little humor, that marvelous gift from our Maker.