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

32 comments:

  1. You know what I love about Kid Rock and Eminem? They got all famous by saying they from Detroit and how they were bad to the bone etc. When the truth of it is they were from lilly white burb's and now have either built (Eminem) or are building (KID Rock) massive estates that sit behind ten foot walls Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of Detroit.

    The only way either of them comes here is to make money or show up at an event.

    The past is gone, the now is here and I live now not in some made up dream world of song and fantasy I can release to the press.

    I lived in South Philadelphia for 14 months, it was mostly Italian, Joe Rizzo was mayor and I had a kick ass good time there. But I know it's different now and have no desire whatever to return to it either.

    But I have always liked that Springsteen tune.

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  2. Great post ... i like the first image the best. I love pictures of reflections in water with the surrounding landscape also in view. I think it give a new perspective on ways to view your immediate environment and place in it.

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  3. the people that know you best...know where you are coming from....love that first shot....book arrived.....will be sending it on ...then reading it in Waikiki this winter...thanks for that!

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  4. Che luogo meraviglioso!
    Grazie.
    (From Italy)
    B.

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  5. Oh my the first photo is fantabulous!

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  6. Can't grow without roots .Lovely pictures , wonderful quotes.Aloha Cloudia.

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  7. ALOHA, my friend!

    love all the photos but my favourite is the first one!

    absolutely gorgeous!
    betty xx

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  8. Wasn't Hill street Blues filmed in Philadelphia?

    I agree with the Pearce quote, it totally applies to me.

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  9. The effect of your first picture are amazing. Well done.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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  10. Interesting quotes - and then that lovely Bruce Springsteen.

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  11. I live in the town I grew up in - my kids went to some of my old schools - the street I live on didn't exist then though. Much has changed and much has stayed the same. I would never say that my town is better than anywhere else - it's not - but it is familiar. Familiar is comfortable.

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  12. And while too much nostalgia is unhealthy...

    That is something I wonder about, yeah I find it all neat and super duper about what America did in the 20th century but the world slate has been essentially wiped clean. Time to stop wallowing in past events or like other burned out or even dead countries history will leave us behind.

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  13. I love Philly. I can't tell you how many times I have seen the movie "Philidalphia" with Denzel and Tom. Tear jerker. Wonderful movie. Beautiful city. Cheers!!

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  14. I hated Hawaii when I left in 1968, and loved it when I returned in 1975. Being a wife, mother, and grandmother here has made all the difference.

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  15. well, well, well ... what to say, living about 2,000 miles from home, this moved me more than I'm able to admit, the last quote 'bleached me mind' - thank you. And the song, well again, I owe you many thanks for being able to 'feel'.

    Please have you all a wonderful new month.

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  16. The first photo and the quote by John Pearce get my vote :-).

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  17. the reflection and sky photos are wonderful. yes, walk on.

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  18. You each give me a thrill of happiness with these GREAT remarks,
    Thanks SO much!

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  19. Awesome post and pics ~ Love Kona Island ~ I moved back where I grew up ~ Glad I left and glad to be back under different conditions ~ namaste, Carol (A Creative Harbor)

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  20. Penn was taller by statute? That's great to know. I love this post, and I feel the same about the gritty places!

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  21. Penn was taller by statute? That's great to know. I love this post, and I feel the same about the gritty places!

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  22. Yes, I'm glad I know about those dirty, romantic old cities in the east.
    Hard place, though.

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  23. There's just something about Kid Rock. I really like his new song with Sheryl Crow...it's called Collide!

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  24. Greetings to you Cloudia! I havent heard Bruce Springsteen songs for a long time!

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  25. I cannot get the translation.
    I love the first photo, Cloudia. and quotations.
    In my case, I come from Paris where I am born and live 10 years in my childhood and one year later when I was a young girl , the city of my heart, I remember so much that I go over there in a few weeks spending three days.
    Aloha, my Friend !

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  26. First image is breathtaking. Bruce Springsteen's song is one of my favorites. Moscow - is my favorite, though sometimes I ask "Heaven, why??"

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  27. You put so much into your posts Cloudia, and very thought provoking they are! I grew up in the middle of Africa and loved every minute, but I could never go back there now, it's not safe, too much has changed.

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  28. This post gave rise to some nostalgia in my soul because I have actually been uprooted and replanted in several places during my life, and I actually grew a bit attached to each one of them, and I just do not know anymore which one, if any, I could rightfully call home.

    I know one thing though, something I have felt sure about for quite some time...I would very much like that in the future, when I will grow old and eventually die, (I really hope I won't die young !), my ashes be scattered somewhere over the Pacific Ocean (wherever it would be legal to do so, of course), and I couldn't care less if it's over international waters or territorial waters of some country...from all the possible places in the world where I have lived a bit, it is the Pacific Ocean I have always felt attached to, and attracted to the most, and I have pretty strong feelings about it, even though I haven't yet had the time, the insight, or maybe even the courage to actually clarify to myself why and how did this come about in my case.

    Maybe this post will give me the necessary impetus to start becoming more deeply and usefully self-reflective, (being a rather narcissistic only child I actually DO think a lot about myself, but it is always at a rather superficial level !), and to examine where this longing and affinity I have felt for some time towards the Pacific Ocean is coming from.

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  29. Thanks!

    Now that I think of it, Penn was taller by Gentleman's Agreement, not statute. But the use of statue/statute got me excited!!

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