Summer, a nice place to visit

My wife and I recently went back to Tucson to visit with some family for the holidays.  The Southwest has a unique, exotic beauty.  The sky is never so open as it is in the desert.  My wife finds a certain freedom and joy in such wide open skies and distance horizons.  While I on the other hand find it somewhat...oppressive.  At least during the day.  The sunsets are certainly beautiful in the desert, and at night the stars are spectacular.

An Arizona sunset captured while on vacation

It felt really good to visit Arizona during the winter and get a taste of warmer weather.  A blizzard had just hit the East Coast, and it was nice to have a quick escape.  But it was even nicer to return to glorious winter after our brief vacation.  My world just doesn't feel complete without four seasons.  Enjoying warm weather during winter is like eating breakfast for dinner; it's a fun, exciting change on occasion, but I wouldn't want to do it all the time.  I love summer, but if I get too much it loses it shine.  I spent a decade or so living in Arizona and I grew very tired of summer and sunny days.  Constant summer is like eating your favorite meal everyday, without variety things begin to taste bland and boring.  

But I don't just love winter because it makes me appreciate warmer weather.  Cold weather forces me to live in the moment, which is sometimes hard for me.  The cold can make even an ordinary day an adventure or a battle. Winter tests us all and keeps us sharp and strong.  And how could I go without the beauty of snow or the joy of sledding and snowball fights and building snow tunnels and snow men!  Hot chocolate never tastes as good as it does in the winter.  Yes, my soul needs winter.  Although sometimes, like exercise, I don't realize how good it is for me until I have it.

Our beach shortly after returning home 

I love winter as much as I love summer, spring and fall.  And though I loved taking a brief vacation from winter, it feels so good to return to normal.

"If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work." -William Shakespeare   King Henry IV Part I  Act 1 scene 2

Ghost Towers

I went out to my beach a few nights ago and was treated to a spectacular view of New York City.  I think it's great that something so sad can be remembered with such quiet beauty.  I don't have much wisdom to offer about September 11th other than don't generalize, don't take the easy way out, and forgive others if you truly want to move forward.  This advice applies to most of life, but sometimes we can forget it during times of great fear or anger.

View from my beach on September 10th

Spider-man on Broadway

I REALLY hope this show is good. But I'm a little worried. For one, it's already been cancelled and brought back from oblivion once. Also, there are a lot of big names attached: Bono from U2, Julie Taymor who directed the Lion King on Broadway and also the movie 'Across the Universe', and of course the web-slinger himself. Strong, brilliant personalities don't always work out like Rogers & Hammerstein or McCartney & Lennon, sometimes they crash and burn.

I hope this project (I've heard it's not really a musical, but there is a lot of music in it) does really well, not because I particularly love Spider-man (he's ok), but because I'd LOVE to see more superheroes and geek culture icons in Broadway shows.

Joss Whedon in particular seems to have some GREAT properties well suited for Broadway. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is tailor made for Broadway, and Buffy's already proven it can work as a musical on TV. Do I think 'The Incredible Hulk' would work as some kind of mad, operatic Broadway Musical? Heck Yes I Do!

But perhaps the Broadway musical that would MOST excite me would be a 'Final Crisis' Musical. Imagine a chorus of Darkseid's minions chanting as they drag the Earth down into darkness, Batman's death song as he breaks his two most solemn oaths, never to use a gun and never to kill, and of COURSE the shows-stopping number when Superman literally sings the universe back into existence with a song. Final Crisis is everything a good musical should be: Epic, crazy, and colorful.

If Spider-man works on Broadway, maybe...just MAYBE there is hope for a 'Final Crisis' Broadway musical. And since watching that musical is on my bucket list, I sincerely hope 'Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark' is a spectacularly good show.

Do what you love in front of others

"The thing I remember best about successful people I've met all through the years is their obvious delight in what they're doing... and it seems to have very little to do with worldly success. They just love what they're doing, and they love it in front of others." -Mr. Rogers

I think that might just be the best advice I've ever seen or heard: Love what you do, and Love it in front of others. I went into New York City yesterday, and I found people everywhere following this advice

Whether it was two people in love with each other and not afraid to kiss in a fountain.

Or a ninja and photographer capturing incredible feats of human movement, unafraid of being called silly or strange.

Or a man who loves to commune with nature, even in a big city where many people are too busy to notice or care about pesky pigeons.

Or a future entertainer, trying out his new show on the masses. Unafraid of poor reviews or a disinterested audience. (BTW it was a great puppet show.)

That's something I Love about New York City. There are so many people, and so much diversity, people can do almost anything they want and not seem out of place. When people regularly dress as Elmo or the naked cowboy and take pictures with tourists for money, everyone else can be less self conscious. Because compared to waking through times square almost naked and taking thousands of pictures with strangers, whatever you do seems pretty normal. I've heard camera makers use the same psychological tricks. They always produce a fantastically expensive top line model so that their 'mid-range' models seem more reasonable in comparison. Normal is whatever falls between the extreme highs and lows. And New York City is definitely a place of extremes, so you can feel normal doing whatever you want in public.

Too often we hide who we are from others, afraid of judgement or scorn or ridicule. But if you want to be truly happy, you must be strong and do what you Love in front of others. And don't just do it for yourself, doing what you love in public helps others be more comfortable with who they are.

And my last piece of advice is this: ALWAYS stop to watch a children's puppet show.

The World Needs More Art

I don't care how much art there is in the world, there needs to be more. Everyone should create a piece of art at least once a week. Paint, write, photograph, braid, I don't care. But do it with an artful purpose. Come on world, let's make more art. It's good for the soul. You CAN'T get bored when you're making art. Making art is a growthful (<-- is making up words art? maybe.) experience. And looking at art makes life happier too.

The Beach: A new perspective

I used to hate the beach. Salt water tastes terrible, the Sun gives you burns and cancer, sand traps itself in your pants, shoes and hair fighting any attempt to remove it, and I had a particularly bad experience with a jellyfish once.

But my wife loves the beach. And when you love someone deeply, you get a chance to see the world from a different perspective. I still don't like the sun, but the beach can be a beautiful place. Thanks to my wife, I can see that now.

The Lucky Seagull

You never know when life is going to send you something strange. Here is a picture of the Empire State Building, a Carnival Cruise ship, and a seagull. I don't often smell roses, but I do see strange beauty nearly every day. I love the strange interconnectedness of these things. Pay attention to life, you never know when it will send you a gift or a sign. Click the picture for a better view:

I hope this seagull gets to go on a cruise someday. I'm sure it's already been to the Empire State Building.