A Winter's Day

I am making a New Year's resolution.  Yes, I aim to cut out sweets in my diet, nothing profound, but at my age, this is a near impossibility; this brain is hardwired for sweets.  I am going to try anyway as I never learn.  Not a great feat to start out a new year, but it is something to strive for, however trivial.

On this snowy day, I am become philosophic; remembering a piece of literature I always return to.  Alexander Pope's ESSAY ON MAN was a seminal work in his time and much acclaimed, and, it is profound. The theme being, "what is, is right."  My main go to line though is (not verbatim), we are all part of the chain, whereby one part is broken, the whole will fall.  It is so timely today.  As an aside, another favorite writer/philosopher of mine, Voltaire, wrote CANDIDE (another fav) as a satirical response to Pope's ESSAY ON MAN (and his "what is, is right" theme.)

In the recently read JUST KIDS, Patti Smith writes about her mother's oft quoted maxim, (not verbatim), that what is happening on New Year's Day, so goes the rest of the year.  Well hey, I am going to be busy, painting and reading on New Year's Day (and eschewing sweets just in case that old saw is true.)  Here is more from Alexander Pope's ESSAY ON MAN.  It is worth a study/read again.

"Hope springs eternal in the human breast;

Man never is, but always to be blessed:

The soul, uneasy and confined from home,

Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Hoping 2016 is filled with goodness and light for all of you.

Boom!

That was my head exploding.

Wow!

You know how I've been whining about books lately.  I have said I was tired of reading books I wouldn't finish or thought 'eh.' Then I found JUST KIDS, a National Book Award winner.

I said I wanted to read books that quicken the pulse; make my head explode.  Books that, well, don't take my advice as this is merely my own reaction to this tome.  I am certain it isn't for everyone.  What I'm not certain about is, whether or not you had to have lived it... the times, I guess.

I have heard of Patti Smith.  Rock goddess, poet, actor, songwriter, performance artist - but she's so much more.  My personal favorite song of hers is Because The Night. They don't make them like Patti Smith anymore: she has it all, the idiosyncratic talent of our age.

This is her story of her early years in NYC with her longtime love and muse, Robert Mapplethorpe.  I don't want it to end.

But it isn't going to yet.  I got M TRAIN at Barnes and Noble recently.  It is her newly released book.  I hope it's as good as JUST KIDS.  Hurry out to get a signed copy if you are so inclined, before they are all gone.  Patti performed in Paris as recently as October and you can watch it on Youtube.  I'm a big fan of hers now.