South Of Someplace: December 2013

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Life's Blessings - 2013

I give thanks every day for my blessings. My life has exceeded my most optimistic expectations.

My problems are few and far less severe than the mountains that many people have been forced to climb. I have loved, laughed, traveled, taught, written, and created art in a variety of disciplines. I am in good health and enjoy vigorous activity and exercise. I am honored to be a member of a loving family and to enjoy the company of bright and interesting friends.

Here, with deep gratitude, I list some of the blessings that I received in 2013.

- I toured Belgium and The Netherlands for the first time. The Dutch crowned a new king while I was visiting their country.

- I photographed the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, a remote wilderness in California that has fascinated me for years.

- I completed an adventurous new photo project: New York - City In Motion

- I wrote my very first short story (The Horse Farm), authored dozens of articles on my blogs, and debuted a new photography website.

- I cast a vote for the first time as a citizen of New York and served an intensely fascinating three hours of jury duty. ;-)

- I left the worst job of my career and found a much more enjoyable position in an excellent company.

- I worked diligently on improving my skills in photography and dance, and I finished several movements from a new set of concertos (debuting 2014).

- I enjoyed a lot of running this year, improved my overall conditioning, and dropped a suit size.

- I watched the New York City Marathon for the first time as a spectator. It was fascinating to watch the front runners streak past at great speed.

- I enjoyed the privilege of teaching enthusiastic students week after week.

- I got hooked on some fascinating televisions shows and enjoyed countless gallons of Starbucks.

Wishing each of you all of the best in 2014!

Cynical Soliloquies - Gentleman's Club

Why is it called a "gentleman's club?" How often does an actual gentleman walk into one of these places?

Cynical Soliloquies - Giftwrap

Who came up with the concept of wrapping gifts? The paper industry?

I don't have time for this nonsense. I WORK for a living.

Give unwrapped! Start a trend. Save a tree!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Good News And Bad News

Doctor: I have good news, and I have bad news.

Patient: Oh?

Doctor: You're going to live.

Patient: Is that the good news or the bad news?

Pearl Harbor

As a child I watched movies on television. Television at that time was a black and white set that received four channels with various degrees of fuzziness depending on weather conditions and time of day. A lot of the movies were war movies, mostly World War II.

I knew of the attack on Pearl Harbor. No one ever sat me down and explained what had happened at Pearl Harbor; everybody just sort of knew already. Maybe those black and white films about the war in the Pacific were really effective and absorbing history lessons.

To me, as a young boy, it all seemed as though it had happened a very long time before. Pearl Harbor and The American Civil War seemed equally distant in the shadowy depths of history. The distortion of youth, perhaps.

Pearl Harbor had actually occurred less than twenty years before I was born. It amazes me to think back on it now as we have just passed the 72nd anniversary of the attack. Pearl Harbor was still a fresh wound on the American psyche, not unlike the way that the 9/11 attacks seem to Americans today.

All of those subsequent battles - The Battle Of The Bulge, Midway, Guadalcanal, the trials at Nürnberg, the development and deployment of the atomic bombs - all of that had happened shortly before I was born. But it still seemed like ancient history.

Following close at hand we had Sinatra and Elvis, the Cold War, Sputnik, and the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement.

Now, Civil Rights and the Space Program, I do remember. That was my time. That was my world. Along with the Beatles and Walter Cronkite and riots in American cities, anti-war protests, hippies, and sit-ins on college campuses, JFK, RFK, and MLK, Women's Liberation, the sexual revolution, the rise of environmental activism. I remember all of the above, maybe even a bit too well for a young child. It had an impact.

What will children born into this age think of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Ancient history? Something that happened long ago, like the Civil War? The human mind is an amazing thing. Our consciousness serves as its own time machine as we wander the pages of history in a book that unfolds new, crisp, tightly bound pages with each passing day.

Copyright © 2013 Daniel R. South
All Rights Reserved

South Of Someplace