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

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

 
      

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!

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

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

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