Things I Love

Dinah Washington's little pauses

Piano percussion

Bass, totally addicted like

Chanel no 19, old formula

Madeleine Vionnet

Moonlight on water

A responsive piano

Bach Cello Suites

Old leaded glass panes

Warm wood

Cool stone

Really old and really new buildings

Buildings that bring the outside in 

Four year olds

Eight year olds

70 year olds

Cab Calloway

Guacamole

Rhythms that start as one thing and morph into something else

Ofrah Haza

Fertile women, not necessarily in the baby sense

Perfect audio
The Tiki Room

Transparency

Women

Men

Children

Elegant machines

Live music in that moment where the room stops

Walking outside with my children and having three way conversations

Growing

Lying in the dark, listening to a train whistle

Gardens that look wild

Jane Austen

Aldous Huxley

Annie Dillard

The King and I

Flogging Molly

Ella
Thelonious

Clara Bow

Wooden boats
Deep water

Tentative kisses

Hidden places

Eyes

Warm, windy nights

Banter, fluff, back and forth and all that

Getting beyond all that

Brave people with radical ideas who tell them in gentle ways

Kindness and creativity in the same person

The sound of crickets at night

Blue, the color and the movie
The Word

Not Really

Blah blah blah Me me me blah Me Me!  blah blah blah blah me.blahgger

Is Me Me a meme?

Wow, I am amazing. Look at the beautiful poem I just wrote about blogging.

Dedicated to the proposition...

 Remembering my great great grandfather, Corporal John Marion Woodyard, Company H, 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry. His brother, Jerome, died of typhoid fever near Harper's Ferry. John named his son Arthur Jerome, that son was my mother's grandfather. This book is a great read, btw. Part of it is written by a woman, about her journey to bury her husband. On the way back she was captured and held as a POW for a time. Her writing is charming, frank, fun. 

Extraordinary deeds, ordinary people called by their conscience, none famous, few recognized. So grateful for this heritage. They took their cause personally and from what Hewitt says, most believed that they were shooting the shackles off of four million human beings. 

He was disgusted after the war with attempts to memorialize Confederate soldiers, and talks about that in the conclusion:

" However, regarding the war from a moral and political standpoint, it sometimes seems as if the war did not last long enough. It took years of the terrible scourge of war, it would appear, to convince the people of the seceded states, and to wring from them the acknowledgement that they were better off without slavery than with it. And perhaps if the war had lasted a little longer, and the Rebels had felt still further the scourge of war, those who now have so much respectful regard for the flag of treason, and the Lost Cause and their defenders, might have finally become convinced that one flag and one cause and its defenders are enough to honor; and that there should be no place in the patriotic regard and affection of the people in this free land of ours for the Rebel flag, the Lost Cause or their defenders. Big as this country is it ought to be too little to give room for any display of honor to the Rebel flag, the Lost Cause, or their champions, dead or alive. Therefore, no soldier who would be faithful to his country and the cause for which he fought should join in any ceremony of decorating Rebel graves, of holding reunions with Rebels, or of putting up monuments to them."

So much for the "States Rights'" theory.  Living here in WV we still see the Confederate flag on a daily basis- on tshirts, bumper stickers, in yards and windows. I believe this environment may have been what drove our grgrandfather out, to Iowa.

The picture/ link at the left goes to the West Virginia book company, a local small business focusing on literature relevant to the state. The link below is one of Project Gutenberg, and a free book available in several formats.

 History of the 12th West Virginia Volunteer Infantry

This kills

This kills people. Too many. There is no excuse for the rate of suicide we have in this country. Why do we act like suicide is a part of life? It is not a part of life: depression is an illness in the brain. Do we say that about diabetes or appendicitis? Just watch people die from those things and shake our heads? As a society we bear a collective guilt for failing to inform ourselves, for looking the other way. It's way past time to do something about it. We can't wait for Dr. Drew anymore. My wish is that every single person on Facebook know how to prevent suicide. How many lives could we save collectively? Let's stop the stigma. This Is a Tedtalks video about helping: "How to Save a Life." Please watch and share. You really may save someone's life sometime. The main tool to prevent suicide is human connection: listening and being willing to take action. We are all capable of that. Suicide destroys-the dead and the left grieving and wondering. It's deeply hurt someone I love dearly and his family: children, parents, spouse. Please help me tell him something good is happening here- watch and share, easy. He is young. He needs hope. also posted a list of warning signs above . . Feel free to clip and paste. Thanks for your time. http://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FWRmRSiJRGEw&h=iAQFf0cwB&s=1