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Remembering:
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Today's quotes:
This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before. |
MAYA ANGELO ---------- ADVICE TO MYSELF #2: RESISTANCE by Louise Erdrich Resist the thought that you may need a savior, or another special being to walk beside you. Resist turning your back on the knife of the world’s sorrow, resist turning that knife upon yourself. Resist your disappearance into sentimental monikers, into the violent pattern of corporate logos, into the mouth of the unholy flower of consumerism. Resist being consumed. Resist your disappearance into anything except the face you had before you walked up to the podium. Resist all funding sources but accept all money. Cut the strings and dismantle the web that needing money throws over you. Resist the distractions of excess. Wear old clothes and avoid chain restaurants. Resist your genius and your own significance as declared by others. Resist all hint of glory but accept the accolade as tributes to your double. Walk away in your unpurchased skin. Resist the millionth purchase and go backward. Get rid of everything. If you exist, then you are loved by existence. What do you need? A spoon, a blanket, a bowl, a book — maybe the book you give away. Resist the need to worry, robbing everything of immediacy and peace. Resist traveling except where you want to go. Resist seeing yourself in others or them in you. Nothing, everything, is personal. Resist all pressure to have children unless you crave the torment of joy. If you give in to irrationality, then resist cleaning up the messes your children make. You are robbing them of small despairs they can fix. Resist cleaning up after your husband. It will soon replace having sex with him. Resist outrageous charts spelling doom. However you can, rely on sun and wind. Resist loss of the miraculous by lowering your standards for what constitutes a miracle. It is all a fucking miracle. Resist your own gift’s power to tear you away from the simplicity of tears. Your gift will begin to watch you having your emotions, so that it can use them in an interesting paragraph, or to get a laugh. Resist the blue chair of dreams, the red chair of science, the black chair of the humanities, and just be human. Resist all chairs. Be the one sitting on the ground or perching on the beam overhead or sleeping beneath the podium. Resist disappearing from the stage, unless you can walk straight into the bathroom and resume the face, the desolate face, the radiant face, the weary face, the face that has become your own, though all your life you have resisted. ------------------- Sharing with Sepia Saturday, another old truck! |
Love the top photo and the poem! Take care, enjoy your day and happy weekend to you!
ReplyDeleteI happened upon that ad photo and was really thrilled that it had been used in sales.
Delete...and old truck is like an old friend.
ReplyDeleteI have only had a van, which is somewhat like a truck, but not really. I envy those who have pickups and can carry just about anything.
DeleteThat poem. Copying and sharing on Facebook. It is needed these days.
ReplyDeleteGlad to pass it along, where it may inspire others!
Delete"torment of joy" so accurate! As well as all that you need is a spoon and a bowl and a blanket- a pocket knife maybe in the mix. What a good find, that poem!
ReplyDeleteI have had pick up trucks in y life , making sense! They have been my favorites- Ford made a great truck back in the day. That is what I learned to drive when i was twelve/
Oh yes, everyone knew a Ford 150 was the truck to have. Glad you enjoyed the poem of resistance.
DeleteHey hard-hitting and important poem. And everyone loves these beautiful old trucks. Thank you friend. Aloha
ReplyDeleteGood to share how we all resist, or choose to not resist!
DeleteGreat poem! I had a Ford Ranger for 25 years and it was the best vehicle I ever had.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, poem is worth reading again and again. Good for a 25 year run on your truck!
DeleteA great photo and poem.
ReplyDeleteSusan
The photo of the astronauts sitting on the old truck is wonderful. What a lucky find!
ReplyDeleteThat's a terrific choice for our Sepia Saturday theme. There are very few people who can look up at the moon and remember viewing it from space. As for trucks, I just returned from a holiday trip to Indiana driving my 2006 Nissan Frontier on its first long journey in several years. My son and his wife now have a new house and the truck proved its utility by transporting a large custom desk I made for them. Had to take the twisty US-25 along the French Broad to Tennessee since I-40 is blocked but the truck did just fine. I think of it as my all-purpose wheelbarrow.
ReplyDelete