Tonight I attended a retirement party.

It was a very nice party, indeed.  There were many people there, of all walks of life.

Being amid other people… often leads to one thing ….and that is communication.

Talky. Talky.

Tonight, it seems I engaged in quite a bit of idle chat.

Or was it idol chat?

Well.  Let’s seeeeeee….  we talked about some of our favorite TV stars and celebrities…. sports superstars….  and totems…. golden calves… pagan gods…

…. that’s pretty idol chat.

I also prattled about how  my car gets stuck between second and third gear… and the fact that certain people like to waste time… also the behaviors of the unemployed…

…. that’s more idle chat.

I’ll tell you.  Being socially jejune is hard work.

“It’s not the same to talk of bulls as to be in the bullring” – Spanish Proverb

There is a pretty good story about this guy, named Claude.  It starts out with him attending Temple College.  Through that experience… young Claude attempts to broaden his mind and his own world perception.  But, oh-oh.  He is hit with a monkey wrench in the scheme of things.

It was his Dad.  Yepppers.  Old Claude’s father decides to expand the family farm.  So, now….. Claude is obligated to leave university and operate the old Eee-I-Eee-I-Ooooh.

Things go from bad to worse. Once pinned to the farm, Claude marries Enid Royce…. but the whole marriage deal is a bust.  Enid… is more interested in political activism and such. So… Enid tanks on the whole deal and takes a slow boat to China.

But the story doesn’t end there.   Claude moves back to his family’s farm.  Ho freaking hum.

As World War I begins in Europe….the family is entirely fixated on the excitement… and the fighting abroad.  So….. low and behold…. when the United States decides to enter the war, Claude enlists in the US Army.

Now Claude thinks he has found a purpose in life. He thinks he has risen far beyond the drudgery of farming and marriage.  Claude thinks his new quest is ALL that…. and then some.

There is a big old influenza epidemic and of course… all the continuing hardships of the battlefield. Yar.

But old Claude Wheeler feels like he has never, ever, mattered more.

And how does it all end?  Oh… you know.  Claude chases his vague notions of purpose and principle.  And all of this….  culminates in a ferocious front-line encounter with an overwhelming German onslaught.

And that is all I will tell you about that story.

You see…It isn’t my story.  A woman named Willa Cather made it up.  And then she wrote it down.  She wrote it down so good… that she went and won a Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1922 for her work.

Willa was one heck of a woman.  A real free thinker… a bit of a pathfinder… and a very gifted writer.  Her life is filled with interesting  bits and pieces.  She never married.  No rugrats either.  She had several significant relationships with women throughout her life… including Edith Lewis.

Cather’s relationship with Edith Lewis began in the early 1900s.   People probably called them a couple of “spinsters” or something.

The two women lived together in a series of apartments in New York City……from 1908…. until the writer’s death in 1947. For a long time… the two of them lived at No. 5 Bank Street in Greenwich Village. They had to move…. when the apartment was scheduled for demolition during construction of the Seventh Avenue subway line.

Cather died of a brain hemorrhage.  And Edith Lewis handled the Estate.  There are many around today that question whether or not Cather was a lesbian.  I don’t know why it matters, really.  But there seems to be quite a dispute over the matter.

At any rate.  Strong, pioneering woman.  Smart. Talented.  Great writer.  Yes… she could spin a big web of a story.    I think she is one of those people I would like to  talk to… if the Time Machine ever gets up and running.

But back to the point of all of this.  Today is Willa’s birthday. December 7th, 1873.  And that’s all I know about that tonight.

“Put your talent into your work, but your genius into your life” – Oscar Wilde

The sheath of wheat bent gently in the cool afternoon breeze.

It turned toward the tree, and asked… ever so carefully…

“Are we doing this right?”

The tree leaned toward the wheat.  After a moment of great, and deliberate thought, the tree whispered…

“We are doing this exactly right.  We’re doing fine.”

“True religion is real living; living with all one’s soul, with all one’s goodness and righteousness.” – Albert Einstein

We all express ourselves, in some manner or another.  We convey our thoughts, our feelings, our beliefs, our emotions to others.  It is a part of life.  Yeppers…. a big part of being a member in a society.  Social.

Some humans do this through art.

Today, I went with some friends to Columbus. We took in the Art Exhibit at the Wexner.  It was an exhibit of Annie Leibovitz’s Photography.  She is mainly a portrait photographer, for those of you who are not familiar with her name.  She started out with Rolling Stone Magazine, and then Vanity Fair, mostly.

I have a great deal of respect for portrait photographers in general.  I stink at portraits.  Not good at all.

Leibovitz has a great sense for them… for capturing that “something” about each individual.  An intimacy about them.

But seeing an art exhibit always makes me think about how each one of us choose to express ourselves.  Photography is a pretty big venue for me.

A large facet of it… for me… is the “picture” I see in my mind’s eye.  I would like to be able to share that image with others.  To convey to those around me…”how” it is… that I am seeing something.

It is similar to those who perform an opera, a play, or a ballet.  Or someone who tells a story, or paints a painting.  Each one of us has an “interpretation” of a “piece of life” and we want to “relay” that experience.  Yes.  I think all of us have something we want to share with another.

That “something” may be an idea, or a feeling, or a message… or simply a mutual agreement on something entertaining.  But whatever it is… we are sharing a part of ourselves with others.

I think that is a wonderful, and daring thing to do.  Opening ourselves up to others.   Sharing our lives.  Living.  Engaging.  Giving.  Caring.  Growing.  Being a part of one another.

And that, I suppose… is a very good thing, indeed.

“Be around people who have something of value to share with you. Their impact will continue to have a significant effect on your life long they have departed.” – J. Rohn

Tonight, I had the pleasure of watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on TV.

Now, as childhood memories go, that one is pretty stupendous.  Huge.  Enormous.

I think for me, as a kid, that was one of the best nights of the entire year.  It meant a lot of things to me, really.

It was excitement.  Entertainment.   It was imagination. It was dreaming, and hoping, and anticipation.

When Rudolph came on TV it was one very special attraction in living rooms across America.  But in my mind.  Oh the splendor of it all.

The timing of the show…. meant that Christmas was around the corner.  Santa’s sleigh, filled with presents.  That crack of the dawn Christmas morning… with all the trimmings, frankincense, yule tide, chestnuts, comfort, joy and the likes.  Probably a new clothing item… .maybe a new GI Joe with a Kung-Fu Grip.  Ahhhhhh…. the beauty of that phenomenon.

But the Rudolph Show itself was magical.  I marveled tonight when I realized it is just an hour in length.  As a child, it seemed to go on all night.

And the part when the Abominable Snowman peers over the top of the mountain ridge!  As a kid, I thought I would pee myself when that happened.  Tonight was much the same… but for different reasons.  Too much coffee, dang it.

Yes.  But so many lessons to be learned from Rudolph, Hermey, Clarice, Yukon Cornelius, The Snowman, aka Bumble.  And the whole island of misfits.  Maybe this is why I liked the show so much…. those misfits.  King Moonracer, and Charlie-In-The-Box,  and Bird Fish, and such.  Oh, that island was a place where anyone could fit in.

This little film had it all.  Singing, Dancing, Pet Tricks, Career Advice, Drama, Suspense, Comedy.  Not only that…. but good Santa, Rudy, and the gang, figured out a way to find a perfect place in the world for every one of those toys. Every one. Yep.  How great is that?

And maybe that is why I still have the belief that all of us belong.  All of us deserve to fit.  Each and every person has their own perfect place in the world.  I only wish we could figure out a way to make that really work.

So.

Thank heaven for the square wheels on the caboose of Trainer the train.  How else could it be.

It is perfect.

Sometimes life turns this way and that.

It will twist.  It might even twiddle.  Other times… it forges paths we never knew were there.

It winds, and narrows, then broadens, and curls around.

Rarely is it one clear wide open road… a trek we can see from start to finish.

Nope.  It turns around corners.. … . goes over the river and through the woods, and up and down the hills… and the dales.

The curliest of Qs.

There are moments when we have the answers to those Qs.  And other times… it is simply best to explore the winding path.  Bending, always bending.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” – Henry David Thoreau

Dang. The more information I learn about this world… the more clearly I see the whole of what I don’t know. Which is a lot.

Just when I get some clarity… or think I am starting to get a push in the right direction… here comes a big gust of wind from another bearing.

I heard someone say today that their priorities change “like a fart in the wind.”

Now…. I was familiar with the old analogy… “a candle in the wind.” But this fart in the wind thing adds a whole other dimension to life, I will tell you.

But back to the gathering of information. I like to learn knew things… but it reminds me that there is so much I don’t know yet. Which then becomes exciting… because there is so much to learn.

Okay. A few things I picked up on today.

A Pretzelbender…. now that is a good one. A Pretzelbender can be many things. 1. A peculiar person; an eccentric; one who thinks in a round-about manner. 2. A player of the French horn. 3. A wrestler. 4. A heavy drinker; one who frequents bars.

I once was one kind of Pretzelbender… and now I am a different kind of Pretzelbender. How’s that for transitions in life… like a fart in the wind!

Next good thing I learned….the Japanese have some interesting words. Like this: Karoshi (Japanese): Death from being overworked. I think a lot of Americans think they experience Karoshi. But in Japan, I think it is a literal term. Terminally literal. Or literally terminal.

Speaking of terminal. Trees lose their leaves to prepare for winter. I don’t get this. I would think the leaves would keep the tree warmer in the winter… like guys who grow beards. Or Circus Ladies who grow beards. But instead… the trees drop trow. Nakers in the wind. Brrrrrrrr.

On to the lighter side… if you pluck your Glabella… use a tweezers. But if you decide to pluck your Zither… use a pick. I bet if I didn’t pluck my Glabella, I wouldn’t have one at all.

And BOO! Now if you are a left-hander, that probably scared you more than the right handed readers out there. You see… lefties are more affected by fear. That may be because the right side of the brain, which is dominant in lefties, is more involved in the fear response. Sorry I scared you just then.

And finally….

I think it is true that we don’t really need to learn anything at all in order to treat other people fairly… and to walk through this world in a gentle way.

This “know-how”….. this wisdom….. is inside us. It always has been. Very early on, we instinctively know how to treat others. We grasp this…. because we are fundamentally aware of how we want others to treat us. We know it works the same for everyone.

Unfortunately, this primitive knowledge gets buried under the classifications, pigeon holes, and prejudices we pick up along the way…. in this thing we call life.

Yet…. if we stay quiet enough… for long enough…. we can listen to our spirits and trust our hearts.

We can cherish and celebrate this world, and the others in it… while we are all learning… about all the things we don’t really know.

Whelp. That’s all for tonight.   I do know this……   I sure am glad I gave up Professional Wrestling… so that I have more time to practice the French Horn. We Pretzel Benders have to practice good grooming too… like plucking our Glabellas.

“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” – Frank Herbert

I am a football fan.

I like college ball, and I really like to watch the NFL games.  In fact, I like to watch most any football game, truth be told.  I am not sure why… but I do.

So.  NFL.  I have some favorite teams.  Most of my friends know I am a Steelers fan.  But I really like the Kansas City Chiefs.  My two best teams.

Others that I pull for:  St. Louis Rams.  Cleveland Browns.  Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, and Arizona Cardinals.

Still other teams…. well… there are a few that  I absolutely can’t stand.  But for the most part…. a bunch of the teams just fall in the middle of the road for me.

But.. those Steelers.  I like them for a lot of reasons.   The fifth-oldest franchise in the NFL, the Steelers were founded on July 8, 1933 by Arthur Joseph Rooney.  Art Rooney, the Chief.

Originally named the Pittsburgh Pirates… they were one of 10 teams in the NFL.   These days… just four other of the original teams are still around:    Chicago (Arizona) Cardinals, Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears and New York Giants.

When the team started, in 1933  …. they weren’t so great.  In fact… it took them 40 years to win their first Division Title.  So they are a team that didn’t lay down.  They finally got around to winning a few games here and there.

How about that?

But here are two more reasons I like them.

1. No cheerleaders.  That’ right.  No exploitative, scantily clad women, shaking their booties on the sidelines.  Don’t get me wrong.  I think Cheerleading is a great sport.  But when it turns into the Playboy Bunnies with Pom-Poms… well…   just got to a strip joint for that.

2. The Terrible Towels.  Now.  Before you cast judgement on the Towel… hear this. Myron Cope, the Steelers’ announcer, made sure the towels are swinging in the right direction.

Funds from the sale of the towels go to the Allegheny Valley School for the Disabled.  The fund has pulled in more then $2.5 million in royalties… which have all gone to the school.

Go Pirates.  Go.

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein