Roxie, the Japanese bobtail and Jean Claude, the black Bombay cat, are back at my house for a bit. CCL brought them into the house in their cages this morning. Once freed Jean Claude went down stairs to ah “take care of business” and Roxie ran upstairs to inspect the premises.
In honor of the late, great Chuck Brown, the father of Go-Go.
While visiting my mom this Mother’s Day weekend, I am in awe at the loving care she provides my younger sister. Sis has MS and needs a lot of help these days. As I write this from my parents’ home, MSNBC blares loudly on the television, although there appears to be in this household, at least a fondness for the “judge” shows, news and information program reigns supreme. Growing up, there were spirited discussions about politics and world events. We taught to be open to other people’s feelings, kindness was premium. While I possess my late father’s temperment to some degree less these days , my mother’s way of thinking and doing balances it– and me — out. Both parents showed my siblings and I that caring and sharing mattered most. They also showed us that getting older requires even more the need to learn and engage in new things. My father pursued his college degree in his late 50s. My mother is champion bridge player and “business” consultant. With embracing the new, I don’t mean just embracing the new technology, social media or different cultural streams although those things can be part of one’s personal expansion. It’s about a desire to learn and to grow internally as well as externally. Last week I witnessed what it’s like to live for years in the world without the will or desire to grow. One can become a zombie in life and principle without loving care and a willing to be open to new and different things. Growing older physically but not mentally and emotionally is imprisonment. A lot of people will never be free.
There’s a lot going on at my job now and there are a lot of challenges. Still I’ve been able to have some fun and plan time with family and friends. That includes Roxie, the Japanese bobtail and Jean Claude, the black bombay. They reside now at CCL’s house which is nearby and I visit them frequently. They pretty much observe my presence approach me for affection and then go on their merry way.
There is a Twilight Zone episode “The Howling Man.” A seemingly innocent man is held prisoner. There is no lock on his cell, only an easily removable wooden stick across the lock. hold. The monks that guard the tower where the man is held tell a visitor to leave the man alone. The visitor having sympathy on the man lifts the bar off the door and the innocent man is revealed to be an evil being who once freed, injures the man, grows stronger and dissapears in a puff of smoke. Sometimes it’s best to leave the stick on the door and let the person who seems to need help stay where they are so they don’t damage or destroy you in the course of you helping them. As a friend said long ago “If a person can’t bring you up don’t let that person bring you down.”
I am a big fan of television program “Mad Men.” It exemplies the culture of years past and captures some the rituals and tension I felt in my own life growing up. There’s been a lot of discussion about women and our rights as women in the news. Some would prefer that things revert to the way they were during the 1960s. A lot of those advocating those ideas grew up in that era, perhaps their backward thinking is waxing nostalgia or a refusal to grow up and accept that things, the way we live are vastly different now.
During the 1960s my sister and I would “go-go” around the house dancing the “swim,” “the cool jerk” or the “pony”. One memorable evening , the week my brother was born, my aunt J, my sister and I had a “pony” procession around the house to go-go song “El Pussycat,” pausing and going completely still at the bridge (where the cats begin to meow). Here’s the song for those of you who have never heard it or those who just want to remember.