Here we are, October already. In Northern California on the edge of the world, (or at least it would seem that way if you didn’t know the world was round) its a beautiful sunny, blue sky day. In other parts of the globe there are problems galore, we are all aware of what they are, but here in this moment, on this day, in this place things are pretty good. Thanks Universe.
I have a certain fondness for old trashy paper back book covers in the category known as “Pulp Fiction“. That is why when I discovered a website that allows a person to create their own pulp fiction art (can go on coffee mugs and other stuff) I was in nerd heaven.
At Pulp-O-Mizer you can make your self into a space pirate princess swinging through the Cosmos…what’s not to love! While you are there don’t forget to read some of the “Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual” and check out Cornelius Zappencrackler’s Derange-O-Lab.
Here are a few of the glorious pulp fiction covers hot off my own bookshelf.
Aren’t these great? I just love the titillating sensationalism inviting you to dive in and have a voyeuristic adventure via some pretty heavy hitting authors to boot…all for around 40 cents!
Until next time…enjoy the adventure we call Life!
When I was a kid I was a big MAD Magazine fan. It was my gateway vehicle to parody, it tackled some of my embedded middle class beliefs and made relentless fun of them. Everything was fair game. Sometimes, I felt like I was going against the rules by even looking at it. The only reason my parents allowed this subversive publication in our house was probably because they thought it was just a silly comic book. Well, it was sort of, and therein lied its brilliance! It’s goofy glossy covers looked harmless enough, but MAD’s highly visual content opened my eyes to life’s absurdities, allowing me to laugh at, well….. anything (even my beloved Disney movies). MAD’s iconic mascot, Afred E. Neuman with his slogan “What, Me Worry” has stayed with me my entire life. Sort of a way to say “In yo face life! I’ve got this.”
Recent events have shaken my belief in my “I’ve got this!” ability. The worst of which was my mother’s death due to a horrible disease called Alzheimers. Her decline and suffering shook my family to its core. It swept me up into a tornado of emotions that I am still trying to sort out. In addition, my adult sons are having their own life issues that I can’t solve for them, though I desperately want to. The simple act of scrolling my Facebook page confronts me with a world reeling from violence, chaos and stupidity, OK there’s plenty of dog videos and Weird Al, which of course makes the scrolling worthwhile ;).
The point is, what I’m finding more and more of in my life is something that could be slowly killing us all, and that is STRESS. Did you know that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in America? There is a medical term for it, GAD it stands for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Wikipedia defines it as: “a mood disorder that is characterized by multiple and or non specific worries that interfere with a person’s life in some way.” When we can’t control things the way we want to, we worry about it. I think that is why I love story books so much, fictional characters go through their own conflicts, stumbling and bumbling along, they learn as they go. Some end happily ever after, and I have to admit, I like those endings the best. Fictional characters can be controlled, I like that too. At the end of a scary thriller we can always close the book and tell ourselves it was just a story.
What can we tell ourselves to help us through our own story, when the tornado comes from out of nowhere, rips us off our feet, carries us away and sets us down who knows where? What do we tell ourselves to help keep us sane in what seems many times to be an insane world, a world we can’t control? I don’t have any answers, except maybe to keep reading the stories, keep creating, love each other, laugh at ourselves, and remember what Alfred E. Neuman would say…”What, Me Worry?”
02/24/2013change
What?! She escaped by shrugging off her attackers! OK they were elephant sized shrugs but still. There was a point when that elephant must have thought she just wanted those lions off her back once and for all. She could have given up as the announcer said, just laid down and let those lions take her out but no, she gave a mighty shrug and she saved herself.
We all have lions on our backs sometimes don’t we?… be it money woes, family issues, self doubt, depression, anxiety, they can be hazardous to our health. Let’s all take a lesson from that elephant and shrug those suckers off. Keep shrugging and carry on. Life will be lighter without carrying all that stuff on our backs. It might give us the ability to heal what needs healing. And if they try to get back on, don’t let them!
02/24/2013change
What?! She escaped by shrugging off her attackers! OK they were elephant sized shrugs but still. There was a point when that elephant must have thought she just wanted those lions off her back once and for all. She could have given up as the announcer said, just laid down and let those lions take her out but no, she gave a mighty shrug and she saved herself.
We all have lions on our backs sometimes don’t we?… be it money woes, family issues, self doubt, depression, anxiety, they can be hazardous to our health. Let’s all take a lesson from that elephant and shrug those suckers off. Keep shrugging and carry on. Life will be lighter without carrying all that stuff on our backs. It might give us the ability to heal what needs healing. And if they try to get back on, don’t let them!
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Life can be scary sometimes, this summer has brought us fires, an earthquake, and a horrible mass shooting during a midnight movie. How do we trust that our loved ones will be safe in such a world? How do we sleep when we know that our kids might be in a midnight horror show of their own somewhere? How do we cope when someone we care about has wrapped their lovely tentacles around our hearts, only to be brutally yanked away?
I wish I knew. What I do know is that we must have faith that our loved ones will be safe and return to us each time they venture out into the unknown. Because they have to venture. We all have to, or we will curl up into a never ending fetal position and maybe we are safer that way, but that is not what life is about.
Life wants us to go out there and experience. Have adventures, meet people, converse, connect, enjoy, make mistakes, dream, love, cry, try. We need to celebrate everyday the joy that life brings us, because 
someday life will bring us down for the count. We all know that, and while that is scary, it makes us realize how very precious every second of every minute of every day is. We, who are still living on this planet, need to celebrate for those who no longer can.
Yoshi the Wonder Dog gives Lost In the River of Grass two paws up!
Speaking of adventure, I just finished reading a young adult novel by local author, Ginny Rorby. ”Lost in the River of Grass” is a thrilling tale set in the Florida Everglades. Two teenagers get lost during a school field trip and have to make their way through miles of gator, snake, rat, and insect infested country. The dialogue is realistic, (having worked with teenagers for the past twelve years, my ears are acutely tuned to inauthentic teenage conversation.) The experience changes these two young people and you can sense a new maturity as the characters evolve. This book has it all, thrills, chills, teenage rebellion, and romance. It subtly tackles the tricky issues of class and racial prejudices that are deeply instilled in our culture. Spoiler alert: This book has no vampires or zombies, but still manages to deliver a seat of your pants experience!
I leave you with five words of advice for a happy, fulfilled life…
Learn, Love, Explore, Create, Read!
Life can be scary sometimes, this summer has brought us fires, an earthquake, and a horrible mass shooting during a midnight movie. How do we trust that our loved ones will be safe in such a world? How do we sleep when we know that our kids might be in a midnight horror show of their own somewhere? How do we cope when someone we care about has wrapped their lovely tentacles around our hearts, only to be brutally yanked away?
I wish I knew. What I do know is that we must have faith that our loved ones will be safe and return to us each time they venture out into the unknown. Because they have to venture. We all have to, or we will curl up into a never ending fetal position and maybe we are safer that way, but that is not what life is about.
Life wants us to go out there and experience. Have adventures, meet people, converse, connect, enjoy, make mistakes, dream, love, cry, try. We need to celebrate everyday the joy that life brings us, because someday life will bring us down for the count. We all know that, and while that is scary, it makes us realize how very precious every second of every minute of every day is. We, who are still living on this planet, need to celebrate for those who no longer can.
Yoshi the Wonder Dog gives Lost In the River of Grass two paws up!
Speaking of adventure, I just finished reading a young adult novel by local author, Ginny Rorby. ”Lost in the River of Grass” is a thrilling tale set in the Florida Everglades. Two teenagers get lost during a school field trip and have to make their way through miles of gator, snake, rat, and insect infested country. The dialogue is realistic, (having worked with teenagers for the past twelve years, my ears are acutely tuned to inauthentic teenage conversation.) The experience changes these two young people and you can sense a new maturity as the characters evolve. This book has it all, thrills, chills, teenage rebellion, and romance. It subtly tackles the tricky issues of class and racial prejudices that are deeply instilled in our culture. Spoiler alert: This book has no vampires or zombies, but still manages to deliver a seat of your pants experience!
I leave you with five words of advice for a happy, fulfilled life…
Learn, Love, Explore, Create, Read!
Life can be scary sometimes, this summer has brought us fires, an earthquake, and a horrible mass shooting during a midnight movie. How do we trust that our loved ones will be safe in such a world? How do we sleep when we know that our kids might be in a midnight horror show of their own somewhere? How do we cope when someone we care about has wrapped their lovely tentacles around our hearts, only to be brutally yanked away?
I wish I knew. What I do know is that we must have faith that our loved ones will be safe and return to us each time they venture out into the unknown. Because they have to venture. We all have to, or we will curl up into a never ending fetal position and maybe we are safer that way, but that is not what life is about.
Life wants us to go out there and experience. Have adventures, meet people, converse, connect, enjoy, make mistakes, dream, love, cry, try. We need to celebrate everyday the joy that life brings us, because someday life will bring us down for the count. We all know that, and while that is scary, it makes us realize how very precious every second of every minute of every day is. We, who are still living on this planet, need to celebrate for those who no longer can.
Yoshi the Wonder Dog gives Lost In the River of Grass two paws up!
Speaking of adventure, I just finished reading a young adult novel by local author, Ginny Rorby. “Lost in the River of Grass” is a thrilling tale set in the Florida Everglades. Two teenagers get lost during a school field trip and have to make their way through miles of gator, snake, rat, and insect infested country. The dialogue is realistic, (having worked with teenagers for the past twelve years, my ears are acutely tuned to inauthentic teenage conversation.) The experience changes these two young people and you can sense a new maturity as the characters evolve. This book has it all, thrills, chills, teenage rebellion, and romance. It subtly tackles the tricky issues of class and racial prejudices that are deeply instilled in our culture. Spoiler alert: This book has no vampires or zombies, but still manages to deliver a seat of your pants experience!
I leave you with five words of advice for a happy, fulfilled life…
Learn, Love, Explore, Create, Read!
Yoshi the Wonder Dog at the beach
It’s summertime in America, and that means:
School’s out;
Kids are home;
Backyard BBQ’s;
4th of July;
Corn on the cob;
Watermelon;
Reading;
And time to polish the toes!
photo by Danielle Keaton
Yoshi the Wonder Dog at the beach
It’s summertime in America, and that means:
School’s out;
Kids are home;
Backyard BBQ’s;
4th of July;
Corn on the cob;
Watermelon;
Reading;
And time to polish the toes!
photo by Danielle Keaton
Yoshi the Wonder Dog at the beach
It’s summertime in America, and that means:
School’s out;
Kids are home;
Backyard BBQ’s;
4th of July;
Corn on the cob;
Watermelon;
Reading;
And time to polish the toes!
photo by Danielle Keaton
