UNPACKING

UNPACKING©

By Linda Lee Greene, December 31, 2018

It is one of those days when a pale light in the distance informs that dawn has arrived, but the light doesn’t quite break through the cloud cover and icy rain well enough to properly proclaim itself as “dawn.”  I refuse to switch on lamps just yet because I want to experience the quality of this dark light—to feel its gauzy softness. I go so far as to turn the thermostat of my furnace to the OFF position and to open the sliding glass door to my patio to the sound of the rain dancing on its roof. A train clacks by on frigid tracks; an airplane soars in the frozen Ohio sky, and my defrosting heart rises to these spilling words that I hold in my mind until I am released from this nature’s magic to reach for my laptop. I tilt back in my recliner, wrap my legs and fuzzy-slippered feet in a warm afghan, and know that I am a woman content.

In a half-hour or so, I will gather in the palm of my left hand a collection of pills that I will gulp down with my second cup of coffee, medications to aid and/or protect and/or replace my bodily functions. This is the morning routine of my 75 years old self, a woman enthralled with where I have been and where I am going despite the fact that I have begun to solicit recommendations from my girlfriends of my same age as to the best brand of hearing aids. 

All that aside, tugging at my consciousness is the fact that it is taking me days to unpack from my trip to Florida whereby key members of my family and I sat round-the-clock vigils for more than two weeks at the bedside of my dying youngest sibling. The unpacking is taking me so long to accomplish not because there is so much to put away, but because my rooms have been a milky haze that have sheltered but failed to console me since my return. One cannot go through such a thing and not emerge stunned, shocked, ones essence for a time blank with trauma as stark as erased pages in a book. The contours are reappearing now, though, even in this morning’s reluctant light, and their shapes are welcoming me and showing me how to continue to drop back into my everyday life.

Once my enchantment with this murky morning is satisfied, my morning maintenance completed, and my lamps finally ignited, I will finish my unpacking. This is a good day for me to begin to unpack 2018, as well, to go into those dark and musty drawers and closets, and into my heart and mind, and to clear them of outworn and unnecessary, and especially of harmful, things. I have learned well in my many years of life that the Universe adores empty spaces because they are canvasses on which It brings forth new life, new resources, new ideas, new events. I am hungry for such things.

My hope is that by way of this miraculous forum of social media, you, my cyber friends, and I will go on helping one another to grow and prosper and learn and feel through all the days of 2019. Your friendship helps me so much to get through some lonely days and nights, and contributes greatly to my contentment—and I thank you.

Happy New Year to you, one and all!

***

To date, Linda Lee Greene has authored five novels: “Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams” (http://amzn.to/VazHFG); “Guardians and Other Angels” (http://goo.gl/imUwKO); “Rooster Tale” (http://goo.gl/vNq32g); and “Cradle of the Serpent” (http://amzn.to/VazHFG), which was designated as a finalist in the 2018 American Fiction Awards Competition. It was also awarded a 5 Star Review by Readers’ Favorites. Scheduled for release in early 2019, her latest novel titled “A Chance at the Moon” will be available in soft cover and eBook at Amazon.com. An extensive exhibition of Greene’s artwork can be viewed at www.gallery-llgreene.com. 

The Boy Who Became a Robin

I am always in search of ways of connecting with my Cherokee roots, and in that effort, I belong to several Facebook groups centered on Native American history and lifeways, both past and present. The following, delightful “coming of age” Chippewa legend “The Boy Who Became a Robin” was posted initially by my friend, Katherine Collins (Lady Night Hawk). She is a Reverend, Minister of Peace & Chief Administrative Officer of the federally recognized independent branch of the Oklevueha NAC. It is a universal spiritual church that honors and respects all spirituality and the Native American beliefs and traditions. The church follows the Oklevueha NAC laws & guidelines, especially the Code of Ethics. To get your membership card, go to the following website: http://bear-clan-of-sc.org/

Once upon a time there was an old Indian who had an only son whose name was Opeechee. The boy had come to the age when every Indian lad makes a fast in order to secure a Spirit to be his guardian for life. 

The old man was very proud, and he wished his son to fast longer than other boys, and to become a greater warrior than all others. So he directed him to prepare with solemn ceremonies for the fast. 

After the boy had been in the sweating lodge and bath several times, his father commanded him to lie down upon a clean mat, in a little lodge apart from the rest. "My Son, endure your hunger like a man, and at the end of twelve days, you will receive food and a blessing from my hands." 

The boy was careful to do all his father commanded, and lay quietly with his face covered, awaiting the arrival of his guardian Spirit who was to bring him good or bad dreams. 

His father visited him every day, encouraging him to endure with patience the pangs of hunger and thirst. He told him of the honor and renown that would be his if he continued his fast to the end of the twelve days. 

To all of this the boy replied not, but lay on his mat without a murmur of discontent, until the ninth day, when he said, "My Father, the dreams tell me of evil. May I break my fast now, and at a better time make a new one?" 

"My Son, you know not what you ask. If you get up now, all your glory will depart. Wait patiently a little longer. You have but three days more to fast, then glory and honor will be yours." 

The boy said nothing more, but, covering himself closer, he lay until the eleventh day, when he spoke again. "My Father, the dreams forebode evil. May I break my fast now, and at a better time make a new one?" 

"My Son, you know not what you ask. Wait patiently a little longer. You have but one more day to fast. Tomorrow I will myself prepare a meal and bring it to you." The boy remained silent and motionless beneath his covering except for the gentle heaving of his breast. 

Early the next morning his father, overjoyed at having gained his end, prepared some food. The food in hand, he took it and hastened to the lodge intending to set it before his son. Upon approaching the door of the lodge, to his surprise he heard the boy talking to someone. He lifted the curtain hanging before the doorway, and looking in, saw his son painting his breast with vermilion. And as the lad laid on the bright color as far back on his shoulders as he could reach, he was saying to himself, "My father has destroyed my fortune as a man. He would not listen to my requests. I shall be happy forever because I was obedient to my parent; but he will suffer. My guardian Spirit has given me a new form, and now I must go!" 

At this his father rushed into the lodge, crying, "My Son! My Son! I pray you leave me not!" 

But the boy, with the quickness of a bird, flew to the top of the lodge, and perching upon the highest pole, was instantly changed into a most beautiful Robin Redbreast. Looking down on his father with pity in his eyes, he said, "Do not sorrow, O my Father. I am no longer your boy, but Opeechee the Robin. I shall always be a friend to men, and live near their dwellings. I shall ever be happy and content. Every day will I sing you songs of joy. The mountains and fields yield me food. My pathway is in the bright air." 

Then Opeechee the Robin stretched himself as if delighting in his new wings, and caroling his sweetest song, flew away to the nearby trees.

*****

Linda Lee Greene’s novel “Guardians and Other Angels” is at http://goo.gl/imUwKO

Linda’ Lee Greene's novel “Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams,” co-authored with Debra Shiveley Welch is at http://amzn.to/VazHFG

Finding Blessings in Our Detours

Finding Blessings in Our Detours

In 1960 adapted for the screen from Dore Schary’s, Tony-winning Broadway play, Sunrise at Campobello, starring Ralph Bellamy and Greer Garson as Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt, is a classic film as enduring, elegant, and engaging as its principle characters.  Crippled for life by poliomyelitis, the film focuses on FDRs courageous battle against the disease as well as his political foes, its time sequence several years before his initial run for the White House.  Its name taken from Campobello, a summer home of the Roosevelt family, it was there that FDR was stricken with the illness.

                Two of my forthcoming books:   Guardians and Other Angels and “I Received Your Letter…” are set during the Great Depression and World War II, and since he was one of the principles of those eras, my research has given me enough of a working knowledge of FDR to recognize that embedded within Sunrise at Campobello is an important aspect of the man that is so subtly represented in the film that it is otherwise easy to miss, an aspect that is widely considered the ground of his greatness. 

Among the many other appealing attributes of FDR was his charm, his enthusiasm, his total engagement in his life, but there was another side of him that was off-putting.  He was arrogant and shallow, at least until the poliomyelitis pulled him down several pegs, until it humbled him, until it grew him into an empathetic and a multi-dimensional human being of the sort required in the leader of his nation, the central figure charged with guiding it through the worst era of its history. 

He says it himself in the film.  FDR and Eleanor are sitting side by side on a sofa in their home.  They engage in a small debate over which one of them got the better deal in their choices of a marriage partner.  He says he did.  She says she did.  Seizing their poignant moment of true confessions, he tells Eleanor that during the course of his illness, he had experienced an epiphany, one that revealed to him his deficiencies of character, and that furthermore would have gone unrecognized absent his being crippled.  Simply and sincerely he expresses gratitude for the setback that steered him onto a new and better destiny.      

Carrying a heavy theme in a light-hearted package wrapped in his signature style is Woody Allen’s 2011 masterpiece, Midnight in Paris, a film worth viewing time and again.  Layered with incisive messages that strike you close to home and stab you in the heart, nevertheless it is such fun to watch contemporary performers show up in cameos as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald; Cole Porter; Hemingway; Faulkner; Picasso; T. S. Elliott; Matisse; Dali; Lautrec; Man Ray; Degas; Gauguin; Gertrude Stein, among others. 

                Another coming-of-age story, a young and highly successful Hollywood scriptwriter nursing his dream to write novels, portrayed in a parody of Woody Allen by Owen Wilson, is stricken with “Golden-age thinking,” the romantic but erroneous notion that a life in another time would be better than ones actual life.  Accompanied on a trip to Paris by the mean-spirited and condescending trio of her parents and his fiancée, played true-to-character by lovely Rachel McAdams, the complete incompatibility of the pair unravels as the writer jumps through hoops to extricate himself from McAdams and her entourage to pursue his private love-affair with Paris.   

Wandering the city streets alone one night, in a clever time-warp, the writer is transported to Paris of the 1920s where he hobnobs with famous literary and artist figures of that age.  Even Gertrude Stein, flawlessly played by Kathy Bates, agrees to read and critique the unfinished manuscript of his novel.  Convinced that he is finally in the time and place where he belongs, he indulges his fantasy to the hilt and becomes infatuated with beautiful Marion Cotillard’s Adrianna, the legendary mistress at one point of Braque, then of Modigliani, followed by Picasso, then Hemingway. 

Discontent with her own era, Adrianna entices the writer into traveling even further back in time with her to the turn of the century where in an encounter with Degas and Gauguin, the great Impressionist painters express their desire to have lived in the time of the Renaissance.  Surrounded by such pervasive discontentment, the writer has an epiphany.  He realizes that everyone’s present time, throughout the whole of time, was and is a little unsatisfying because life always has been, always is, and always will be a little unsatisfying, and if he is ever going to write anything worthwhile, he has to get rid of his illusions.

                He breaks up with the nasty fiancée, decides to stay in Paris and follow his dream of writing novels, hooks up with a lovely and companionable French woman, and at the end of the film, side by side they walk in the rain into a blissful future. 

                The primary message I got from both of these films is that we have to try to find blessings in our detours—to make use of them somehow for they just might lead us to better circumstances.

Upon reading Ted Waterfield’s poems in my introductory posting on this site, “He Has As Many Gods As Stars”, my good buddy and master gardener, George Zonders, who turned me on to Midnight in Paris, also turned me onto Ogden Nash’s enduring poem, “Spring is Sprung.”  This is George’s version of it:

Spring is sprung

The grass is riz

I know where

The birdiez iz

Enjoy these first days of spring!  And thanks for the poem, George.

Linda is the author of the soon-to-be-released novel, Guardians and Other Angels, published by Saga Books.   She is also the co-author with Debra Shiveley Welch of the suspense novel, Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams also published by Saga Books, and available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

To view the online gallery of Linda’s artwork, log onto www.gallery-llgreene.com

Aesthetics

In Good Company

             By

Linda Lee Greene

                                                                        “Aesthetics”

My dictionary lists four definitions of the word “aesthetics.”  Number one is given as the way something looks, especially when considered in terms of how pleasing it is [outward appearance].  Number two takes a more general approach with an idea of what is beautiful or artistic [idea of beauty].  Three focuses on academics with the study of the rules and principles of art [study of art], and four the branch of philosophy dealing with the study of aesthetic values, e.g. the beautiful and the sublime [study of beauty]. 

               These definitions suggest to me that not only can we find our individual pathways to aesthetics in art, but also in literature, music, Mother Nature, among others.  One of my living/breathing resources for incorporating it into my life is the Grove City Arts Council.  Town Center of Grove City and City Center of Columbus, Ohio, where I live, are about eight miles distant from each other, and both are vital components of the celebrated arts community of Greater Central Ohio.  My first and brief membership in the council was in 1985, but as circumstances in my life then precluded my continuing commitment, I dropped out.  I found it again though when I just could no longer do without the purpose and the direction it would be instrumental in bringing to my life, and I rejoined it in the fall of 2009, and have been an active member since then. 

I was one among several new members of the council that fall.  For reasons I suspect related to my own, that of needing desperately to find validation as artists, new members have continued to flock to the organization, swelling it from a traditional membership of perhaps fifteen or so to currently approaching forty.  Its mission statement reads:  “The Grove City Arts Council is comprised of a body of artists and art enthusiasts who are dedicated to sponsoring venues for diverse artistic expression, supporting young artists through the Art Scholarship Fund, and promoting interest in the arts in Grove City.” 

                Encompassing a diverse group of highly talented fine artists, photographers, and crafters, we meet once a month to avail ourselves of the networking opportunities brought to the table by our members, as well as by outsiders, showing our artwork in group shows, and raising money through our special events for our Art Scholarship Fund.  Without question the scholarship program is our proudest achievement for we have the opportunity each year of supporting the college art educations of three or four high school seniors slated for graduation from the four high schools within the Southwestern City School District. 

                Our legacy of three decades of investment in the futures of our young people, of enhancing the attractiveness and the quality of our communities, these traces we are leaving of ourselves for the betterment of tomorrow’s world—traces of the beautiful and the sublime, enhance the quality of our individual lives, as well.  When life’s other pressures threaten my commitment to the council, I remind myself that a large part of living life whole and wholly is to “feel pleasure in the pleasures of others…to [have] a capacity for concern about events not directly related to our self-interest,” to quote Judith Viorst in Necessary Losses, and in my own words to respond to that pull of my fellow members and those kids, all of whom rely on me to help them realize their dreams.       

                A busy month awaits the Grove City Arts Council.  Friday, March 24, 2012 will feature our yearly special event, Night on the Town, the total proceeds of the fund raiser, as always, deposited to the Art Scholarship Fund.  Held in Grove City’s Town Center, your ticket avails you of a production of Neil Simon’s beloved play, Lost in Yonkers, to be shown at Little Theater on Broadway, art installations at Sommer House Gallery and Dreaming Tree Galleries, live music, and more.  For tickets, contact Sommer House Gallery, Inc. (614) 871-4620 or log onto www.sommerhousegallery.com

                Old Town East, a refurbished, historic neighborhood in Columbus will find many of us in a group artshow hosted by COBENICK STUDIOS GALLERY & EVENTS, 66 Parsons Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43215.    The artworks will be on exhibit from Saturday, March 31 through Tuesday, April 10, 2012.  Starting at 8:00pm through 11:00pm on Saturday, March 31^st, the event will be launched with an open-to-the-public reception whereby you will have the opportunity of meeting the participating artists.  For further information about the reception and exhibit, call (614) 260-2021 or log onto WWW.COBENICKSTUDIOS.COM

Ranging in age from late eighties to early twenties, the group of first-rate, devoted, and caring human beings of the Grove City Arts Council is infused with abiding vitality and enthusiasm, each one whose life purpose, to an enormous extent, is expressed in his/her Shining Creations as well as in efforts to support young people on the same path.

If you are interested in learning more about the Grove City Arts Council, its programs, and to view samples of artwork of some of our members, log onto www.GroveCityArtsCouncil.org

Linda is the author of the soon-to-be-released novel, Guardians and Other Angels, published by Saga Books.  She is also the co-author with Debra Shiveley Welch of the suspense novel, Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams also published by Saga Books, and available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

To view the online gallery of Linda’s artwork, which includes several recently completed paintings, log onto www.gallery-llgreene.com