By Fred Owens
A
woman who lives on Whidbey Island told me I should follow my passion.
Allowing myself that pleasure, I immediately thought of myself in the
shade of an umbrella, next to Laurie, by a hotel swimming pool, sipping a
gin and tonic and reading a book or magazine. No work. That is my
passion. A hotel room isn't home, but there is nothing in it that
reminds me of work. You look at the windows and you don't think they
might need to be washed. Nothing needs to be fixed. No towels to be
folded. Plants and flowers in the garden are tended and watered by
somebody else. And some other somebody takes out the trash. But I don't
give any of that a thought, except to watch the children splash and play
in the pool. I might notice the ice melting in my glass of gin and
tonic. I might have some vague yearning for a sandwich or a snack at
some time. I could lean further back in the lounge chair and rest my
eyes. With my eyes closed, I might more easily hear the sounds of
children and the song of birds, and the hum of traffic in the distance,
all sounds harmonized in the daily symphony of people doing things.
Except me, I'm not doing anything. Not today. That is my passion.
Sweeping the Sidewalk. I
have three very good gardening customers. They have beautiful gardens
and they treat me well. But things are getting a bit routine. Like every
week I go to Keith's house and sweep the debris off the sidewalk --
that part of the sidewalk underneath the jacaranda tree which is always
shedding something. So I sweep it. Every week. I am reminded of Keith's
instructions. "Do not sweep the debris in the street. That is the
responsibility of the city crew." Except the city crew never comes and
the debris piles up and it's a bit unsightly. But I don't touch it. I
just sweep the sidewalk, according to his instructions, every week. Why
doesn't the wind blow all the leaves away into someone else's yard? Then
I would not have to sweep. I would get to weed instead, on my hands and
knees. I did that for two hours last week. A heroic effort if you ask
me. After two hours of weeding I filled the green recycle bin with green
detritus which is my signal that I have done enough for that week.
This
is getting kind of boring. I could use a challenge, a horticultural
challenge, something to stir the energy, some project where I could make
enough money to stay in that hotel mentioned above, the
follow-my-passion swimming pool, which comes after I complete the
horticultural-passion segment.
Sage Ends. Now
for the writing-passion segment. I got 5,000 words into a story about
"Sage, the woman who did what she wanted." The story takes place in 1969
and I found it fully absorbing, going back to a time when I was much
younger. I had thought to make a novel of this story and go to 40,000
words and take several months to complete. But that longer effort is not
possible at this time. I already have two novels and three memoirs
written and unpublished. So why would I write a third novel about "Sage,
the woman who did what she wanted." Because it is not my passion to
write something that will not get published. There is some personal
therapeutic value in this, but the labor is large and the reward is
slight. So we have to bid Sage a fond farewell. The actually real
person who inspired this story -- she is 76 years old and, we hope,
living well, unrepentant, possibly in Santa Cruz near the beach.
Cancelling Student Debt. The
only issue -- many of them are very important -- but the only issue to
get me fired up is this one that we hear from Massachusetts Senator
Elizabeth Warren. Student dept is a huge burden to younger folk. The
terms of a debt can be re-negotiated. You can lower the interest rate,
you can stretch out the payments, you stay in touch with the bank, but
basically they will settle for ten cents on the dollar if that is all
they can get. But I will remind the younger folks with this burden of
debt that Warren is not going to do this for you. YOU will do it. You
will organize your fellow debtors and come up with a plan. Warren and
others will simply stand out of your way and cheer you on.
To Impeach or not to Impeach. I think this is up to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. If she says to impeach, if she sees that path, then I'm with her.
Last minute addition. Joe
Biden is in the race. Go Joe! There are now 18 candidates at last count
for the Democratic nomination. One candidate will emerge as the leader
and 17 candidates will take second place. My purpose in this process is
to ensure that the 17 losers unite in support of the winner, because if
we fall apart into bitter factions we will lose to Trump in 2020. But if
we stay together as a team we can win. Go Joe! Go Team! Beat Trump!
Happy Days to one and all,
Fred
No comments:
Post a Comment