Wednesday, August 31, 2011

We're All From Some Place

A L O H A !







click on these shots!
 My Waikiki home is full of beauty. . .

" It's always good to remember
where you come from
 and celebrate it.
 To remember where you come from
 is part of where you're going. "

 Anthony Burgess








" I think what I've learned
out of this lifetime
 is you should be proud
of where you come from. "

 Kid Rock






Part of me is happiest in the industrial & "less pretty"

parts of Honolulu.  I believe I know why. . . 

 

“ Home is a place

you grow up wanting to leave,

and grow old 

wanting to get back to. ”

 

       John Ed Pearce


 

Because the video below
is where I grew up:
the streets of Philadelphia.


A Philadelphia where
City Hall's William Penn statue
was taller, by statute
than anything else in town.


A place of history & industry.
Workshop to the world. 
Red brick.
Cobbled streets.
Leafy suburbs.

A time and place that will never come again.


And while too much nostalgia is unhealthy
it is also a powerful drug & tonic,
as we walk once more
in that earlier lifetime;

younger, future-dazzled,

pre - disillusionment.

We walk there now,
remembering our dreams,
yet with the God-like knowledge
of how those dreams are turning out.

Intoxicating!
(just ask Proust)


We walk too, `neath vanished skies,
with those 
with whom
we long to walk 
just once more;

Ah when we were young
and the world green!


Fear not the future,
for we've already lived
a beautiful one.
Or even more than one.
And we're still not
done;
You and I.

                          Walk on!   Fondly, cloudia

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Taxi Wisdom

A L O H A !



" Only great minds
can afford a simple style. "

Stendhal










 "How far that little candle throws its beams! 
So shines a good deed in a naughty world. "

Shakespeare
 
 
 
 


" I thought my book was done,
then we went to Hawai‘i 
and the whole last chapter happened. "

 Mariel Hemingway




 > < } } ( ° >

Back in the day
taxi drivers used to say:

"Don't take it personal.

Sometimes,
you pick up people
who bring along
a gray cloud.

Don't carry their mood
or malfeasance
after you have dropped them off.

Just keep driving,

and don't take it

personal. "

Share a tip you have learned in comments!
     
       Warmly, cloudia

 
      

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Passing Storms

A  L  O  H  A  !

" Dogs are not the Uncle Toms
of the animal world. . .
They're the  dignified dual citizens
who plead the case
for all mute creation 
with their human owners. "

Adam Gopnik





 " Cats and birds are wonderful
but they keep their own counsel
and their own identity,
even in the house,
and let us spy,
occasionally,
on what it's like
out there." 

Adam Gopnik


 

" Adapt yourself to the things
among which your lot has been cast
and love sincerely
the fellow creatures
with whom destiny has ordained 
that you shall live.  "

Marcus Aurelius



" All creatures are flawed, 
but out of the flaw 
may come the universe.  "

Marguerite Young
 




" I would look at a dog 
and when our eyes met,
I realized that the dog
and all creatures 
are my family. 
They're like you and me.  "

Ziggy Marley



< ° ) } } > <


   (*)>
/ )
/" 



Glad that Hurricane Irene
has passed the East Coast!

Having ridden out Iniki
here on our boat
(the week we moved aboard)
we know the anxiety,
the uncertainty,
the curtains of rain
and the wind's
H O W L
that I'll never forget.

Glad Manhattan
remains a playground
for our friend Daryl !

Hope you ALL
recover,
and enjoy YOUR
DAY!




Saturday, August 27, 2011

2012 and the Next Big Thing




" Often I think of the beautiful town, 
That is seated by the sea. "

Longfellow








" In all things in nature
there is something of the marvelous. "

Aristotle





" The best place to seek God is in a garden.
You can dig for him there. "

George Bernard Shaw





What do you want for this child? For yours?
Shall she enter the banquet?



" In recent years, 
seemingly technical  economic questions
have crowded out questions of justice 
and the common good. 

 I think there is growing sense to many societies
that GDP and market values
do not by themselves
produce happiness or a good society."

Michael J. Sandel
Harvard political philosopher


 > < } } ( ° >
    

           
                                                                                                         ><}}(°>


We are accustomed to thinking
of the 'next big thing'
as a medical or techno breakthrough. 

 I have an inkling what the NBT will be like,
and I want to share it with you:


The Next Big Thing 
(Breakthrough) 
will not be scientific
or tech.



Rather It will be of the heart.

 it will be sociological,
psychological,
spiritual,
'common sense'

The next big breakthrough
will fix the problems
of all the other passed
Next Big Things.


The next big breakthrough
will be citizens waking up
to all that they share,
and all they have invested
in each other.

All over the world.


"Leaders'
will go the way of the dinosaurs.
It won't take a revolution
or guns.

The NBT will be you and me
trusting one another;

The NBT
will commence
the healing of the world.

Some will call it
"The Kingdom."

Some will merely say:

"It's about TIME!"

What say YOU? Tell us in comments!
                                                          warmly, cloudia

Friday, August 26, 2011

work free

A L O H A !





Welcome to the magical time of day!












Even steel loosens up
 and dances like reeds in the breeze!











What is this picture doing here?
 Inside joke?









Ah, this makes it a bit clearer.  No?












At this time of day, 
beauty presents itself everywhere!






Even here!


Thanks for swinging by;
Smoke 'em
if you got 'em!


        your 'bud' cloudia







Thursday, August 25, 2011

Obama Accomplishments

A L O H A !





"The facts are always friendly, 
every bit of evidence one can acquire, 
in any area,
leads one that much closer
to what is true.  "

Carl Rogers



" This is one of those cases
in which the imagination
is baffled by the facts.  "
 
Adam Smith 




" I am a firm believer in the people.
If given the truth, 
they can be depended upon
to meet any national crisis.
The great point
is to bring them the real facts.  "

Abraham Lincoln
 









" Facts 
are stubborn things.  "

Ronald Reagan


" For a nation that is afraid
to let its people judge the truth
and falsehood 
in an open market
is a nation that is afraid
of its people.  "

John F. Kennedy











(*)>
/ )
/" 
"A little bird told me"



In two years our President has:

1. Averted a scary, world-wide economic melt down
that started before he entered office.
Most reputable economists agree this is a fact,
and that his leadership was key.


2. Saved the US banking, auto, and insurance industries
and all the jobs associated with them
at minimal cost to tax payers.
GM is selling tons of cars in China today!

3. Overhauled the US health system
in a way that CBO says will:
increase access to healthcare
while reigning in costs.
This has been an unsolvable problem
for decades.
Young adults starting out
can now stay on their parents' insurance
for a few years longer.



4. Killed Osama Ben Lame.
Make no mistake,
if the mission had failed,
the President's critics would ride it
every DAY!


5. Imposed tough new rules of the road
on the financial industry.
Credit card companies 
can no longer raise your rates
without 90 day notice.
And they have to show you how long
it would take to pay them off
at 'minimum payments'
AND what you actually pay them in
plain English.



6. He has the overwhelming respect
of our allies.



7.  He ended "Don't ask - don't tell."
Bringing our excellent military
into this century,
and aligning our policy
with our best allies.


8. Made respect & care of military families
HIS family's priority.
He pays his respects
to the fallen and their families
OFF camera.


9. Honorably wrapping up two wars
that he did not start.


10.  He did all this while facing
unprecedented personal attacks,
much economic fear in this nation
and in the world, and
unreasoning partisanship
that would like to see him,
our President-
and all of us along with him-
FAIL.

Let's discuss facts,
like the steady rise
of children in poverty
in this nation.

There is much to be done.

If you cannot help,
at least stop slinging mud
on those doing their best
for US !

Please let us know what YOU think in comments-
Warmly, cloudia



















" -we're hardwired
not to always think clearly
when we're scared.
And the country's scared.  "

Barack Obama