Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

September 25, 2017September 24, 2017 ~ Live & Learn ~ 33 Comments

I think much of decency. How to pass a plate. Not to shout from one room to another. Not to open a closed door without knocking. Let a lady pass. The aim of these endless simple rules is to make life better. I pay close attention to my manners. Etiquette matters. It’s a simple and comprehensible language of mutual respect.

~ Jack Nicholson

Notes:

Inspired by: “The more powerful you are,” the pope said earlier this year, “the more responsible you are to act humbly.” Quick, Mr. President, to the dictionary. Humble, humbly, humility.” By: Timothy Egan, In Rome, a Visit With the Anti-Trump (NY Times, September 22, 2017)
Photo: Lynette Mcneill Studio;
Quote: via seemoreandmore

Truth

January 10, 2017January 9, 2017 ~ Live & Learn ~ 16 Comments

chris_rock_2016

“You know, some people say life is short and that you could get hit by a bus at any moment and that you have to live each day like it’s your last. Bullshit. Life is long. You’re probably not gonna get hit by a bus. And you’re gonna have to live with the choices you make for the next fifty years.”

~ Chris Rock, as Richard Cooper in the movie “I Think I Love My Wife”

Portrait of Chris Rock: Trending Topics

Vintage 1942: The more things change, the more they…

August 3, 2016August 2, 2016 ~ Live & Learn ~ 32 Comments

Every time I hear a political speech or I read those of our leaders, I am horrified at having, for years, heard nothing which sounded human. It is always the same words telling the same lies. And the fact that men accept this, that the people’s anger has not destroyed these hollow clowns, strikes me as proof that men attribute no importance to the way they are governed […]”

– Albert Camus, Notebooks, 1935-1942

Notes: Quote Source – Schonwiener. Photo: George Horner on The Bowery Billboard (via this isn’t happiness)

Walking Cross-Town. With Scruffy Shoes.

July 27, 2016July 27, 2016 ~ Live & Learn ~ 44 Comments

Tuesday morning. It’s early. I’m walking down the tunnel at Grand Central Station. The air is heavy, the mammoth air conditioners have not yet fired up. I punch through the day’s calendar as I walk: Light.

I look down at my shoes. Scruffy. Light Day, nothing major looming, scruffy shoes.

I accelerate the pace, the step counter on my watch silently records the activity. I stare at the watch face as the counter tracks each step, and marvel at the technology. I speed up and slow down, speed up and slow down, the step counter with me with each step. What a child.

I walk by the shoe shine stand. It’s not yet 6 a.m. They are setting up: A middle aged man and his wife (?) of Central American (?) origin. I slow, but decide I don’t have time to wait, and keep walking.

He catches the flicker of my interest, not unlike the habits of thousands of commuters who walk by, slow their pace, and think: Do I have time? Do I stop? Or some other time?

“Sir, please. Come. I can help you.”

Continue reading “Walking Cross-Town. With Scruffy Shoes.” →

Walking Cross-Town. With Thunderdome.

May 5, 2016May 5, 2016 ~ Live & Learn ~ 14 Comments

The cross-walk.
The yellow cabs.
The street lights.
The cart vendor stacking his bananas.
Real things.

Yet, Upstairs, is the real show.
I turn the dials.
The brightness.
The contrast.
The tint.
And finally, the color.
The picture in picture is sharp, vivid.

I turn my attention to the World,
Gray, blurry, rushing.
A slide projector, click, click, click, click.

But the Tom-Toms beat in Thunderdome.
The Man swings his sticks.
He whips his shoulder-length hair back,
it’s sopping wet from perspiration, it rains. Continue reading “Walking Cross-Town. With Thunderdome.” →