Sunday, September 13, 2009

Average VS Avant-garde

Aloha Cool People!
Welcome to My Pad.
Like, make yourselves at home.


Kick off da footwear - click on da photoArtPalm Trees against the sky - yawn.
Check out THIS view, cats!

“Everything we hear is an opinion not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
Marcus Aurelius

Wow! Like, Skies Are A'Changin` wit da Seasons!

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."
Emily Dickinson

We've seen plenty o` dem together, haven't we?



"Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence

Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance

Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence

Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance."

Yoko Ono, Season of Glass

Still, We Wait Patiently.
Seems everybody's waitin` for something!
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature— the assurancethat dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." Rachel Carson



The "normal" and the "mundane' always stifled me.
It was the unexpected, novel and new
- the DIFFERENT-
that entranced me growing up.




Of course, back in the day,
there was a prevailing impatience with old stuff,
as buildings, neighborhoods, and folkways were obliterated for tall, glass & steel "international style" blocks & towers.
If it wasn't for Jane Jacobs,

and other crazy citizens-without-portfolio, we'd be living in an even more sterile environment. So a rebellious love of "useless" old stuff has always been part of my makeup too.
As long as I'm swimming against the school, I know I'm going in the right direction.




Yes, swimming against the current has always been my default position, so love of the crumbling, archaic, and imperiled (be they people or buildings) came easy to me. It was just another early characteristic that set me apart from the progress-mad land that I grew up in.





I guess you'd say that nonconformity was the air I breathed and just as necessary.
To live buried in a bleached suburb was to me synonymous with death.
a bohemian district to breathe in, and plenty of non-mainstream nourishment like Pharoah Sanders:







But lately,
I notice that I'm finding delight in the most ordinary
people & things.



The very plodding, solid, grimy face of this life seems to me, at last, infinitely superior, fascinating, and worthwhile than the latest avantGard sensation.





Rather than seeking out the latest "exclusivity"
I mine delight from the abundant messiness of a normalcy
that has lately begun to reveal
a harmonious richness
in which the discordant oft provides
the graciest of grace notes.




My longing for belonging has expanded;
I'm not looking for the in-est connoisseurship any longer,
but feasting at the family table,
and enjoying every minute of it!




And thanks to all you fearless bloggers who share your daily bread with me!
A L O H A Cloudia

25 comments:

Delwyn said...

That's nice Cloudia
then I can sit at the kitchen table with you as I am pretty ordinary....

Happy days

wenn said...

ya..ordinary people and things could be more attractive than beautiful ones..

the walking man said...

I found order in swimming against the school and in clinging to the things those around me want to discard. There is beauty in the wrinkles and safety in the folds of time long given over to going against the grain. It only takes but a moment when we realize that coffee is good even if it doesn't cost eight dollars.

Anonymous said...

simply beautifully captured shots along with the lovely words....!

SandyCarlson said...

You and me both, Cloudia. The ordinary lights my fire. Perhaps because I too fully lived my youthful rebellion (in the late 80s of all times)!

Country Girl said...

It's an ordinary day here in Maryland. And it is good.
Nice to visit you! Lots of cool stuff in your post.

Teresa said...

May you have many more ordinary days filled with average doses of wonder! Cool post, Cloudia.

Daryl said...

Ah .. the view around you is always filled with eye openers .. no matter which way I look .. Aloha!!!

Fireblossom said...

Whoa, hip kitty, this post is like sparklesville, man. I dig it and I'm lendin' my lobes to the fine riffs herein.

Idle thought: have you ever heard of Lord Buckley? He used to recite famous things like the Gettysburg address, or Marc Antony's funeral oration, but he did it all in hipster language, it was priceless. Maybe he's on YouTube, though probably no one remembers him , now.

Pharoah Sanders! Wow, next you'll pull out Tim Buckley or Taj Mahal!

I really enjoyed this post. I think my Cool Factor just increased by five, just from being here! ;-)

Akelamalu said...

Ordinary is good! :)

Charles Gramlich said...

I think I'm a relative conformist in public life simply because I don't want to deal with the hassles that interfere with my private life.

Anonymous said...

Love the POV in that first photo. I never get tired of palm trees. Gee Cloudia I never would have figured you for one that would be stifled by the normal or mundane. ;) Loved this post! Aloha dear sister rebel.

Marguerite said...

Always a pleasure to visit you, my extra-ordinary friend. Cool post!

Hilary said...

Your photographer's eye seeks out the ordinary and portrays it in a most extraordinary way. Just lovely - your photos and your sentiment. :)

Bhavesh Chhatbar said...

What a superb perspective of the first photo! Marvelous, Cloudia!!

Building a New Home

Kay said...

I'm loving my days now, too and enjoying sharing it with bloggers as well.

Brother Tobias said...

It takes wisdom and experience to spot the extraordinary in the ordinary. I love 'the graciest of grace notes'.

nonizamboni said...

Your post was so refreshing and hopeful. . .I can identify with the change in the air...
Here's to the adventure of finding the graciest of grace notes, my friend.

Deborah Godin said...

I wonder what Rachel Carson would make of how we've handled things lately...

Chuck Dilmore said...

ordinary can be extraordinary... as you've shown us! great post!

peace~
Chuck

gabrielle said...

The ordinary is thick with wonder! Thanks for adding the grace notes to my day.

Cloudia said...

Thanks each of you for joining the party!

magiceye said...

love your attitude!

namaste /\
aloha!

Anonymous said...

Sharing is Caring.
When we share we grow.

Nancy said...

You have such a wonderful way of guiding us along the path we need to tread. The more extrordinary our appreciation of our ordinary lives the richer we are. Thanks for all of your wisdom, that you share so generously, Cloudia.