Monday Mood: Why Are We Here?

What is the purpose of our being here? What is the value of our existence? Deep questions. At various times in my life I have had different answers.  

The first half of my adult working life, it was all about me. I had a series of jobs, that were really a competition, we were all out to prove that we were the best, that we could sell more, build more, build it faster, make more money than the other person. I was obsessed, the goal was to be something that we weren't. My purpose was to make money, for others, hoping that it would trickle down to me.  My value, and a great extent my self worth, was based on the stream of income I produced. I was really not happy, and spent a few years looking for a way out. 

Then I was very-very fortunate, to be able to take three years off from the real world, in my late 30's, and go back to school, to law school to earn a doctorate in my field.  I went expecting that I would come out and go back into the same rat race, but at a different level of rats. Then the summer between first and second year of law school, I decided to complete a mandatory-volunteer-service requirement (is it really voluntary if it is required?) I needed 30 hours of volunteer time, I ended up with about 120 over about 8 weeks, time spent helping improve the lives of others. I learned about purpose and meaning that summer.  A purpose of helping others to live a better life. 

That led to a career in public interest law, that filled, often to overflowing because I can be obsessive and over committed for 25 years. Work that had great purpose, and filled my life with meaning. I am very glad I did it.  I made a real difference in the lives of others, and doing so made it difference in my life. 

Two years ago this week, I retired. It has taken some time and some work to adjust, and I still look in the mirror sometimes and wonder how I can be old enough to not be working everyday. But I am. And the longer I am the more fulfilled I am with being so. What is my purpose in retirement, to be good to myself, to accept and love myself, to be kind to others, to encourage others to find peace and happiness, to create and share. To think and understand the wisdom that develops from the struggles over 50 years of labor. I am here, to be comfortable and happy. And that is enough. 

I don't regret 25 years helping others, I did my share. That was my purpose for a quarter of a century, it is no longer. I am glad I did it, and glad I have moved on to finding the happiness I thought that first 20 years of work would bring me, and didn't.  

The Sunday Five: Kelly's Inspiration New Year W

Why these photos? Kelly is a master gardener, and a talented artist. This display at the Hirshorn combines her to passions in life.  

Our dear friend Kelly posted these on FB on New Years Eve, she is married to Bob, who used to post as Woodchuck, he was one of the first bloggers we met in person.   

1:What would you like to have accomplished in one year from now?

2:What new ideas do you plan to pursue in the next year?

3:What was the most difficult thing you traversed this year?

4:What is the most important lesson that you have learned this past year?

5:What was unknown to you a year ago?

My Answers:

1:What would you like to have accomplished in one year from now? I hope to be a better painter, I am working on faces at the moment. 

2:What new ideas do you plan to pursue in the next year? Exploring the familiar and finding new details in the everyday. 

3:What was the most difficult thing you traversed this year? Remaining positive when others are terrified of the world. 

4:What is the most important lesson that you have learned this past year? To relax and enjoy the freedom of not working. 

5:What was unknown to you a year ago? The beauty of St. Andrews in Scotland. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: We Are All Artists

Inside everyone of us, is a creative urge. A desire to draw, paint, make music, sing, dance, sculpt, shape pottery, write, tell stories, photograph, create video, work with fiber, or act. We are all artists. Most of us spend a lifetime suppressing our urge to create. We are afraid our work is not good enough, that others will find it silly, or ugly.  In doing so, we stifle a part of our development. 

This year I am going to urge you to create, to let your inner artist develop and flourish. Even if your work is used to line the bottom of the bird cage, creating it releases a part of you, develops parts of your brain that most of us spend a lifetime not allowing to flourish. 

Pick up a pencil and sketch, pick up a brush and paint, put words on paper. When you see a work of art and think, "I could do that." Follow through on that and "Just Do It!" Explore on your own, take a class, create with others, share your work or hide your work, but create.  

When I was a teenager, I learned a little bit about painting. I learned more about color and light by painting than I did from any other source.  In college I took a jewelry making art class, I learned that I could focus for hours on refining tiny details that make a difference in the finished product.  The only meaningful thing I learned from Law Journal in law school, was the importance of editing and editors. I have spent the last decade learning how to write, how to be comfortable writing and sharing what I have written. 

Exploring your creative urges, allowing yourself to practice arts will teach you things about yourself, that you never knew.  

Let's spend the year, being creative.   
 

Funky Friday: Two Years of Me

Is it an art project, a personal history, a daily reminder, or a new habit?  At times I have described it as all of those, and this week marks two years since I started quietly posting on a secondary blog a daily selfie.  Are these portraits? Snapshots of daily life? Are they boring, I lead an intentionally dull life. Yes, probably all of that.  

There is a bit of funk in there, some exotic locations, some funny faces. The beard has stayed consistent, though shaggier at some times than others.  Glasses come and go, depending on what I am doing and my mood. If I am driving or away from home I am probably wearing glasses, and I have half a dozen pairs including a couple of pairs of prescription sunglasses. 

Should anyone ever look at this collection? Will anyone ever look at this collection? Who knows, who cares. Maybe 50 years from now, long after my ashes have nourished trees someplace, someone will stumble across this simple daily record of life. Maybe the pixels will be erased in the great purges of time. 

I don't know. I don't care. For now I will continue this little daily ritual, take and post a simple photo of my face, once a day, every day, day after day. I hope I am able to do this everyday for the rest of my life. 

What is your daily ritual that maybe only really matters to you? If you don't have one, what do you want to start doing?  

The Thursday Ramble: Happy New Year

 Happy New Year

I assure you 2026 will challenge us,

There will be tragedy, and hatred in the world,

and there will be goodness, peace, and love.

So what is new? Every year is like that. 

Every year has good and bad.

There are some of the human monsters in the world that 

take great pleasure in making people angry, depressed, and hopeless. 

Limit the amount of satisfaction you give them.

Be a beacon of kindness in 2026. 

If each of us helps one other person have a better 2026, the world will be a better place.

And if your country has an election this year

VOTE-VOTE-VOTE

Vote for the people and ideas that make the world a better and safer place. Vote to contain the monsters, to get them out of power. 

In North America and parts of Europe immigration laws are miserably out of date. Urge law and policy makers to modernize the laws. 

Urge law and policy makers to incentivize peace, and discourage war.

Everyday, do at least one little thing that leaves the world a better place than it was before.  

Treat others, as you would wish to be treated.

As humans living in civilized societies, we have much more in common, than we don't. Focus on allowing others to live their differences in peace. Don't let the angry minority, paint entire groups of people in a negative light. 

Help bring peace on earth in 2026  

My World of Wonders December 31, 2025

As the sun sets on 2025, where am I? Home, where I should be. 

Where have I been this week? They gym, the pool, Fresh Market, Michaels Arts and Crafts, Trader Joes, Aldi, Harris Teeter, a haircut, 

What have I been up to in the kitchen? Last Wednesday I made Lasagna; wonderful layers of pasta, ricotta, mozzarella, Italian sausage based marinara, and shredded Parmesan.  Thursday was rare roast beef tenderloin, roast Brussels sprouts with Parmesan, green beans, Yorkshire pudding, and a beef and onion gravy. Fruit cake later in the day. Running the self clean cycle on the big oven, it really needed it. Roast loin of lamb, cheesy potatoes and steamed broccoli. 

What did Santahamster bring me for Christmas? Some wonderful figurines of bunnies, sheep and a little bear to add to the ever growing collection, a couple of books, Britcoms on DVD, a pair of Irish knitted sheep, and a wonderful piece of art glass.  All selected with lots of love. 

Who have I talked with? My sweet bear, Doc Spo, Marcell, 

Who have I traded messages with? Erica, Spo, Sassy, Omar, my sister, and my oldest nephew.  Gloria a retired professor of Italian language, who is writing a book about horses in medieval Italy. 

What is on the easel? Another portrait. There is lots of work to do on this one. 

What are my New Year's Eve plans and rituals? I will stay home, stay up late, I have a bottle of bubbly, fruitcake, and caviar (not together,) I will be asleep shortly after midnight. Dinner on New Year's day will be roast pork, and baked beans. My Aunt had a tradition of having money in your hand at the stroke of midnight, I have a wood cigar box with nearly 50 years of money from midnight on New Years in it, I started writing on the paper money the year and location many years ago. Money at New Year's brings money in the New Year. 

What music should be playing at midnight? https://youtu.be/Ik7ktS3PqEs?si=zkna6F-GZErgVJwQ 

What interesting fact did I learn this week? You are 12 times more likely to die the first time you skydive, than the second time you skydive. I will avoid that first time. I never have understood the desire to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. 

Tuesday Travels of the Mind: 2025 Reading List

 

George Washington Presidential Library, Mt Vernon, Virginia

1. How to Have a Life, Selected writings of Seneca, James Romm (P) 
2. Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8, Naoko Hgashida (P) Wisdom from a young man with Autism
3. Zaytinya, Jose Andres (P) an amazing cookbook 
4. The Thefts of the Mona Lisa, Noah Charney (P) the history of the world's most famous painting 
5. The Piano Shop on The Left Bank, Thad Carhart (P) a delightful tale of life in Paris, and rediscovering playing the piano as an adult. 
6. Those Precious Days, Ann Patchett (P) a collection of essays, good, not great. 
7. Draft No. 4, John McPhee (P) about non-fiction writing. 
8. All The Time in the World, John Gierach (P) fly fishing in the backwaters of north America, wonderfully written. 
9. White Space, Jennifer DeLeon (P) the life of a writer from Guatemala 
10. 100 Great Breads, Paul Hollywood (P) 
11. Seven Seasons in Siena, Robert Rodi (P) 
12. Your English is Better Than My French, Scott Carpenter (E) 
13. Write for Your Life, Anna Quindlen (P) journaling, bio, writing, 
14. Thoreau's Axe, Caleb Smith (P) distraction and discipline in American culture
15. Vegetables Unleashed, Jose Andres (P) - Great "cookbook." 
16. The Book That Changed My Life, Roxanne Coady (P) 
17. Arts Of The Possible, Adrienne Rich (P) 
18. The Abundance, Annie Dillard (P) 
19. The Plot Against Native America, Bill Vaughn (P) 
20. Low-Hanging Fruit, Randy Rainbow (P) 
21. Time Pieces, John Banville (P) 
22. This Is Assisted Dying, Stefanie Green, MD (P) 
23. A Year in the Maine Woods, Brend Heinrich (P) Well written, not Walden, lots of naturalist content
24. Three Roads Back, Robert Richardson (P) 
25. Pig Years, Ellyn Gaydos
26. Never Play It Safe, Chase Jarvis (P) didn't like it
27. Botticelli’s Secret, Joseph Lizzie (P)
28. On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder
29. Paris Lost and Found, Scott Carpenter (E)
30. Golden Years, James Cappel (E) 
31. The Seven Graces of Ageless Aging, Jason Elias (E)
32. Howards End, E M Forester (2/3rd of it, I couldn't stay awake long enough to finish it.) (P) 
33. Baking Across America, B. Dylan Hollis (P) 
34. How to Travel, The School of Life (P) 
35. Valley of Forgetting, Jennie Erin Smith (P) long winded and pointless. 
36. The World As I See It, Albert Einstein (P) 
37. Cheaper Faster Better How we'll win the climate war, Tom Steyer (P)
38. The Artist's Joy, Merideth Hite Estevez (P)  
39. Food for Thought, Alton Brown (P) A fun autobiography. 
40. American Sheep, Brett Bannor (P) Very well written, informative. 
41. The French Ingredient, Jane Bertch (P) 
42. Building, Mark Ellison (P) Excellent book by a carpenter from NYC. 
43. Humans are Underrated, Geoff Colvin (P) 
44. Revenge of the Tipping Point, Malcom Gladwell (P) 
45. Happy This Year, Will Bowen (P) 
46. Imagine, Jonah Lehrer (P) great book on creativity
47. BOLDER, Carl Honore (P) 
48. License to Travel, Patrick Bixby (P) 
49. The Creative Act: A Way of Being, Rick Rubin (P) An modern classic. 
50. Purple Crayons, Ross Ellenhorn (P) Not worth it. 
51. The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris, Evie Woods (P), novel
52. Growing a Feast, Kurt Timmermeister (P) Very good
53. 50 After 50, Maria Olsen, (P) Did not like, to much of her personal tragedy and no real joy. 
54. Civility, Steven Selzer (P) 
55. The American Frugal Housewife, Mrs. Child (P) reprint of a book from 1833
56. The Slow Traveller, Jo Tinsley (P)
57. How to Host a Viking Funeral, Kyle Scheele (P) A better title than book. 
58. The Importance of Being Educable, Leslie Valiant (P) 
59. Uncharted, Gordon Ramsay (P) 
60. Longitude, Dava Sobel (P) Very informative. 
61. Modern Block Printing, Rowan Sivyer (P) 
62. The Burning of Washington, Anthony Pitch (P) A history of the War of 1812. I learned a few things about what happened in my neighborhood. 
63. Immortal Milk: Adventures in Cheese, Eric LeMay (P) Well written about small farming, cheese and cooking with love. 
64. Return, Lynx Vilden (P) 
65. The Pre-History of The Far Side, by Gary Larson (P) 
66. In My Remaining Years, Jean Grae (P)
67. Off the Record, Colin Dobson-Fox (P) erotica. 
68. Small Wonder, Barbara Kingsolver (P) 
69. In Praise of Idleness, Bertrand Russell (P) 
70. Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach (P) The first time I have read it, I have no idea why this one sold millions of copies. 
71. Nature Imprinted, Jane Spink (P) 
72. Arts of the Possible, Adrienne Rich (P) 
73. Amplify, Adam Met (P) 
74. The Slow Traveller, Jo Tinsley (P) 
75. Long Days Journey Into Night, Eugene O'Neil (P) A play, very much a downer. 
76. Page after Page, Heather Sellers (P)
77. Life in the Garden, Penelope Lively (P)
78. Look Alive Out There, Sloane Crosley (P) 
79. Barbados Island of the Yellow Bird, Ralfy Mitchell (P) A travelog by a Whiskey YouTuber. 
80. The Funny Thing Is . . ., Ellen Degeneres (P) I didn't find her very funny. 
81. Think Like A Rocket Scientist, Jim Longuski (P) Well worth the read, a work of philosophy by a rocket scientist. 
82. Medium Raw, Anthony Bourdain (P) 
83. More Than Words, Maryellen MacDonald (P)  Psycholinguistics
84. Make it Anyway, Danny Gregory (P) Art philosophy  
85. In Praise of Wasting Time, Alan Lightman (P) slow down, be idle, sleep, find time to do nothing
86. Portrait Painting, Tricia Reichert (P) 
87. Beginners, Tom Vanderbilt