It was quite the weekend for me. I participated in the “No Kings” local rally where the parking lots were already overflowing 1.5 hours before the official opening. I am not quite sure how many attended but it was a great place to have the event. Police presence was negligible, people were smiling, listening, drumming, etc. I am ready for the next one. There were speakers, singers, musicians, and lots of kids! Wonderful!!
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Please pass this along to others of like mind. We do need to spread the positivity around! Know that I will be working hard to make the starter better with each issue. It will come into your inbox at 8am, each Monday morning, free or paid. Comments are always welcomed! Enjoy!
“Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there."
Miles Davis
Do What you Can’t… Casey Neistat: In choosing this video for the starter I wanted to focus on something that can be of service to many people who might think they are stuck. Stuck can be evident in many pursuits. You can be stuck behind a counter. You can be stuck in front of a canvas. You can be stuck with a wrench in your hand.
The message in this upbeat video is (what the title suggests) Do What You Can’t. Work yourself past the tempo of the music. Place people who might be more your age in the video instead what you see. On the other hand, don’t! Go with the music, kick up your heels and think of something you have been told you can’t, for whatever reason… and do it! Contact me and let’s have a conversation.
Six Short Essays by Karen Anderson (no relation): In these six short essays you will discover odes to family, to neighbors, to nature, and others. This selection may take a couple of reads but I am pretty sure it will be worth the time. The first one got me thinking about going next door and introducing myself. ©pressbooks.pub, Karen Anderson
Shadow & Light Magazine Archives: Erica Masterson, Between Worlds: “When I was just 8 years old, my mother took me to England, where we discovered whimsical flower fairy cards in a little shop in Surrey. The artist was Cicely Mary Barker, the illustrator who created the famous Flower Fairies in the shape of ethereal smiling children with butterfly wings.
“Water became my gateway. I’ve always been drawn to its mystery—the way it ripples and hides, inviting questions about what lies beneath. When I first slipped my camera into its Professional Underwater Housing, I felt a thrill akin to those childhood dreams. Suddenly, I could cross that threshold.” ©Erica Masterson (image- “Cerulean”)
Poetics, Natasha Trethewey — A two-time poet laureate for the U.S., Tretheway writes with passion, intelligence, and historical truths that are found in the shadows and cracks of our collected histories.
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Elegy for the Native Guards
Now that the salt of their blood
Stiffens the saltier oblivion of the sea . . .
—Allen Tate
We leave Gulfport at noon; gulls overhead
trailing the boat—streamers, noisy fanfare—
all the way to Ship Island. What we see
first is the fort, its roof of grass, a lee—
half reminder of the men who served there—
a weathered monument to some of the dead.
Inside we follow the ranger, hurried
though we are to get to the beach. He tells
of graves lost in the Gulf, the island split
in half when Hurricane Camille hit,
hows us casemates, cannons, the store that sells
souvenirs, tokens of history long buried.
The Daughters of the Confederacy
has placed a plaque here, at the fort’s entrance—
each Confederate soldier’s name raised hard
in bronze; no names carved for the Native Guards—
2nd Regiment, Union men, black phalanx.
What is monument to their legacy?
All the grave markers, all the crude headstones—
water-lost. Now fish dart among their bones,
and we listen for what the waves intone.
Only the fort remains, near forty feet high,
round, unfinished, half open to the sky,
the elements—wind, rain—God’s deliberate eye.
©Natasha Trethewey
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