“People have different emotional levels. Especially when you’re young. Back then I guess most of my influences could be thought of as eccentric. Mass media had no overwhelming reach so I was drawn to the traveling performers passing through. The side show performers - bluegrass singers, the black cowboy with chaps and a lariat doing rope tricks. Miss Europe, Quasimodo, the Bearded Lady, the half-man half-woman, the deformed and the bent, Atlas the Dwarf, the fire-eaters, the teachers and preachers, the blues singers. I remember it like it was yesterday. I got close to some of these people. I learned about dignity from them. Freedom too. Civil rights, human rights. How to stay within yourself. Most others were into the rides like the tilt-a-whirl and the rollercoaster. To me that was the nightmare. All the giddiness. The artificiality of it. The sledge hammer of life. It didn’t make sense or seem real. The stuff off the main road was where force of reality was. At least it struck me that way. When I left home those feelings didn’t change.” — Bob Dylan
“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
—
John Lennon (via devincastro)
A pretty wonderful little experiment.
(via mareen)
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Dutch Artist Desiree Palmen, designs and creates her clothing so that they flow together with her surrounding environment. Her work is truly brilliant.
“The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one other person.” — from a fortune cookie
MEMORY. I have always wanted to see a rodeo, and in September of 2008, we did just that. This rodeo was in Okeechobee, Florida, a small rural town right on top of the mighty Lake Okeechobee. We felt very out of place there, but it was still fun! Cowboys, horses, bulls, a cheesy rodeo clown, little kids riding on calves, BBQ….
“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” — William (or John?) Shedd
America's Shame [chronicle.com] -
“If we take seriously the idea that the value of a human life does not diminish when we cross national boundaries, then we ought to be giving a much higher priority to reducing world poverty. I have in mind a broad re-envisioning of what we teach…” — from the above linked article by Peter Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton University and author of The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.
Obamas to Plant White House Vegetable Garden -
On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut. While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.
Yesterday, the S.O. and I spotted a white truck that was driven by a man that obviously decided to start his St. Patty’s Day binge-drinking before noon. I hung back not wanting to even drive next to him, because he nearly side-swiped every other car that did do that. We watched the guy swerving all over the highway going 80-85mph for so many miles before I insisted that my boyfriend call the Florida Highway Patrol and report him. Another truck driver that was nearby did the same thing and we both followed the guy at safe distances.
After a while, we finally spotted a Florida Highway Patrol car. I immediately pulled over to the opposite lane, so the car could get on and pull the guy over. Instead, we watched the Florida Highway Patrol turn around and go in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION!
“Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation.” — Nelson Mandela
Don’t you wish your dad was as creative as this guy?
My First Lady hula-hoops. I love this woman.
(via girlindc:inherbarefeet:toocutebyhalf … etc.)
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