Painted minds.

What choice of words?

TV on the Radio- "Will Do"

Very beautiful. Easy evening, drinking oolong tea, reminiscent of the rainy mountains in Taiwan, mist drifting softly in the space shared contentedly with friends. Cup by cup, drifting. Editing pictures from the weekend, cloudy early morning pictures of mountain peaks, rocky island shores as we pass on the sunny deck of a ferry boat.

Tired. Quiet time in the office, scratching notes after my evening classes have ended, I can envision a lifetime of this.

Press repeat. Listen again.

Sip of tea. Sift through pictures. Warm the water again, seep in loose oolong leaves, sip, pause, sip.

Content.

Any time will do, my love. Any time will do.

I wish I was a photograph.

Andrea Gibson is an incredible poet and activist.

I cannot tell you enough how much I admire everything she writes, and the passion with which she speaks. She is incredible.

Nobody Ever Dies.

"Then, in the dark on the bed, holding himself carefully, his eyes closed, their lips against each other, the happiness there with no pain, the being home suddenly there with no pain, the being alive returning and no pain, the comfort of being loved and still no pain; so there was a hollowness of loving, now no longer hollow, and the two sets of lips in the dark, pressing so that they were happily and kindly, darkly and warmly at home and without pain in the darkness, there came the siren cutting, suddenly, to rise like all the pain in the world. It was the real siren, not the one of the radio. It was not one siren. It was two. They were coming both ways up the street.

He turned his head and then stood up. He thought that coming home had not lasted very long. "

Ernest Hemingway, from the short story "Nobody Ever Dies." published posthumously.

Truth.

Incredible song. Echoes of our souls, we share together.

"If you can't stand to feel the pain then you are senseless
Sense this:
I've grown up some, different kind of fire
And when the darkness comes, let it beside you.
Your darkness is shining,
My darkness is shining,
Have faith in myself:

Truth."

New solo released by Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.

We don't fear death, and neither should you.

"But the last thing I want to do tonight is depress you. So I have thought of something we can all do tonight which will be definitely upbeat. I think we can come up with a statement on which all Americans, Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, straight or gay, can agree, despite our country's being so tragically and ferociously divided.

The first universal American sentiment I came up with was "Sugar is sweet."

And there is certainly nothing new about a tragically and ferociously divided United States of America, and especially here in my native state of Indiana. When I was a kid here, this state had within its borders the national headquarters of the Ku Klux Klan, and the site of the last lynching of an African- American citizen north of the Mason-Dixon Line, Marion, I think.

[.....]


I asked Mark a while back what life was all about, since I didn't have a clue. He said, "Dad, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is." Whatever it is.

"Whatever it is." Not bad. That one could be a keeper.



And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don't already have one.

I myself just got a dog, and it's a new crossbreed. It's half French poodle and half Chinese shih tzu.

It's a shit-poo.

And I thank you for your attention, and I'm out of here."

--Kurt Vonnegut from his last speech, written for delivery at Clowes Hall, Indianapolis, April 27, 2007