A brush with greatness...

I wrote this on 8/5/07...more than a year ago...
As I grow older, but not old, I have these nostalgic moments. Moments when I consider the paths I've crossed with "greatness." Famous generals, a Nobel Prize winner, and in a funny way…Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s mysterious – upon my return from touring the Meyer May house in Michigan, I find myself not drawn to the man, but rather his ghost. Or is it the ghost of the house he’s created. It's not the man I admire. It's the work. His dream. His accomplishment. The Meyer May house was like his opus...no, it's in fact this country's opus for the man. It's restoration has made the house more than it ever was. For Frank Lloyd Wright, every project seemed was an opus; nothing was mundane or routine. I wish I had an hour to simply sit, alone, in the living room to study every nuance and the detail. To take it all in...to feel the house, to experience the ghost. And eventually come to the conclusion that this was just one of so many.I'll never be a Frank Lloyd Wright, and I find comfort in that. Here a week after a 40 something birthday, I realize that instead of being disillusioned with my life – I'm really quite pleased with it. I’d love to have more…more friends, more wealth, more fun – the whole deal. But I really am happy. Two days ago...maybe it was even yesterday, there were so many thoughts I couldn't find time to articulate them. Today, even now, they've faded. But this thing hasn't...this feeling. There is some indescribable form of awe that exist in the shadow of greatness. It just has to be found.

Sweet Home Alabama ?

Friggin' Moron

I loved this. There's a link up there if you love it...no affiliation with me, it was just hard to find and I'm feeling helpful this morning! As for which candidate I may be referring to...

Coincidence ???

Camera loser (or the canoe trip)

Saturday 9AM we hit the water for a 9 mile canoe trip. My 12 year old and me along with the youth group. It was a great time! And I took dozens of amazing pictures...with a camera that had no memory card installed. Saturday I was a camera loser. It was hard work, and I'm feeling all of those muscles I rarely use. I also have a theory that when the operated on my neck, they didn't put all the pieces back quite like they originally were : )

I thought it was interesting...perhaps the last photo I didn't take was of my daughter's dance teacher. She inquired in a laughing tone, "so, are we going to end up on your blogsite?!" I think she meant it in a good way, but it did make me think. So Ms. KVK, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) you will not end up on my blogsite...at least not today!

France. Could be many places in Europe, but this is France. A great friend of ours just returned with wonderful photos...and wonderful memories. The pictures were all great: Paris; the mountains; her friends. This picture however really delighted me. It's a church...actually a monastary I think. The architecture is amazing. Perfect lines, proportion, stone, arches and angles. All the classic elements. Each with a specific name, but to analyze the building by the textbook terms really would ruin the point. There's something comforting, something secure in the knowlege that some buildings stand the test of time. That some design is timeless. And that we're all human and connected, and that there are things like this building that bind us together in some intangeable way. I could go on for a long time about what this architecture makes me feel, but what would be the point? Enjoy the building and think about a good friend...and if you ask nice enough - maybe she'll extend the right to steal her pictures to you too!

This entry has no title. Somethings just stand by themselves. I don't know Tom well, but I would consider him a friend. There are some people in your life that you just connect with. I respect Tom...I'll let the obituary for his wife tell the story. If you don't get it, check your heart. And if you can't say this about your bride, it's not too late to start. Me - I'm starting again tonight...

"...She is survived, loved and admired by her husband of 50 years, Thomas Hussey..."

Next blogs and a few changes

This list is mostly for me...next things to write about. It's been busy, and I don't want to forget.

-Breakfast with 5 girls, a man and his father
-Breakfast with another friend
-Homefries and onions
anyone seeing a theme here?
-Buildings (with a guest image from France)
-Traveling friends
-Brookgreen - this one may be a little too personal to put in a public blog
-Refining the Audacity of Hope entry
-Yowza (wonder if I spelled that one right)
-My first 'adult' childrens book "the mouse in the corner" (don't take 'adult' wrong)
-Why I write according to Chuck (he may be right)
-Trophy wives

Oh...I have a long list of places that have visited my site. It's kind of cool, but now I realize a misrepresentation. Some come on purpose, some find my site and linger, and some show up by pure mistake and leave as quickly as they arrive. I'll be thinning the list, and then only adding those places in that remain for more than a few seconds.

Audacity of Hope

I'll throw too many cards on the table at once. I guess it fits my personality...I don't play poker. The posing and the face and the charade of it. I'd rather just throw all the cards on the table and get it out there and over. Somebody wins...somebody loses. Poker really is a game about lying isn't it. It's not who has the cards, it's about what cards everybody else thinks you have. How did I get here?!

A "presumptuous" friend (good friends can be presumptious) gave me Obama's book. So, here are my cards. I don't trust Obama. I'm still waiting for the content behind all the spin to reveal itself. But then, how many politicians do I trust? I like George Bush - a lot. I'm not so sure about his politics anymore, but I like the man that he is. Principled, decisive...George Bush is a good man. I have another good friend who will support that...but his story if for another day. Back to Obama, I don't think I like the man, but I like the things he writes about. For one, "hope." Obama writes about things that are not poker like at all. Consensus, the little people and the little things that make all the difference. He writes in a very real sense. He writes about a world that doesn't have to have winners and losers. A world without Poker. A world where we're all working together to make each other just a little better.

I'm not sure I like Obama, but I like what he has to say...

German is synonomous for "Friendly"

Let me share a dialogue with you...

To the project manager, "...this is the reminder for you to order one Kiosk from the "friendly Germans" at ADA height for the CTL kiosk..."

Interjected by the German architect, "German is synonymous for friendly and (friendly) does not have to be added or in quotation marks! From now on, if say the word German you will visualize a happy German couple dancing in traditional clothing and drinking beer." (See photo).

As for me, I have not yet met an unfriendly German, so I guess I have to agree! But more importantly, as I grow older (but not yet old), I'm blessed to have so many friends. Two of which are in the dialogue above. Life is good!!! Now, about that Belgium Beer?

A dark alley...

How would you like to run into this guy in a dark alley...or see him pull into your driveway on a quiet 4th of July. I grew up knowing the rumble of a Harley Davidson. Learned that a straight 1200 is never enough, that's why you overbore. I've observed that you don't do 80mph around curves when they're cutting silage, and that there are people who measure the calendar by the accidents that almost took their lives. But I also know that in many ways, they're an aweful lot like you and me. Problems with their kids, a little image conscious, maybe just trying to connect every once in a while. On second thought, I just might want to meet this guy on a dark night, especially if my car is broken down. He's a 1st cousin showing off his $1,700 paint job, and it was great to catch up after so many years. And I'll admit it, I really do like that rumble of of 1,560 overbored cc's of American Steel - how appropriate for the 4th of July!

A book?

Some day I'm going to write a book. It will probobally only be of interest to a couple dozen people, half of those I'm related to ; ) But it will be important to me...and to those people. I'll title it, The men in my life. Don't get it wrong - I'm not referring to anything homosexual - not that there's anything wrong with that (thank you Jerry Seinfeld). I'm thinking more along the lines of Proverbs 27:17 "as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." As men, we need others to rely on, to strengthen and to gain strength from. Men to mentor, and men to mentor us. I've been blessed with those men, and someday I'd love to tell their stories. Some of those men have been with me for a lifetime...thanks Dad. Others, only days...thanks Kermet Remele. Others have remained for precisely the amount of time God has wanted them to. Thanks Gary and Chuck and Gene and Chip and Shane and... If you don't understand, you're missing out. And if you do understand, but don't open up to the "men in your life," you're worse than missing out. I know, I'm rambling!

Remembering...It's what I do

I wasn't in Vietnam, too young. Still, I feel connected to this, and any other war memorial - I take time for them. I served proudly and realize now that I was blessed to never see combat. I feel for the men who did, and I try and instill in my children a patriotism appropriate for the future. A respect for those men and women who have blessed us with our freedom at such great a cost. I don't think my youngest yet understands what the Vietnam Wall represents, but she will. What she did understand that day, is that these names are so important. I felt the photo on the left really illustrates what I want them to learn - to know. We may not be familiar with their names, but still we should honor them. Even if with just a fleeting touch of a 7 year old on a warm Memorial Day. And that guy on the right? I'll say a prayer for him tonight...for all of them.

Dance

The picture's fuzzy to protect the innocent, not because the photographer is lousy. All three of my little angels and their mother performed this night. Great coutumes, great routines, absolutely stunning. Michael Jackson has nothing on these girls...