Thought for the day...

I have been thinking & listening & looking - a lot lately. As I walk I look around me-what is changing-are there any new signs that things are getting worse? As I make breakfast or dinner in my  small kitchen I listen to N.P.R.  and the stories they are telling. They began a very interesting segment today: " Uncommon Economic Indicators"  where folks can send photos and write about the things they are seeing in their own backyards that are indicative of  the current impact of the  recession. It reflects what I have been doing since Christmas , since November  & the election & before-looking at the world and people around me & trying to sense where "all this" is going. Is there a light yet at the end of this tunnel? Will it get worse & if so-how much? My grandparents lived through the depression and I remember some pretty vivid remnants of it's impact on their lives : a ball of (used , saved and waiting to be recycled ) twine and wire, jars of nails and screws-also previously used and  saved for the next need or project. Everything had value. Even the smallest of things that we, today, toss without a thought -  Everything got saved for next time. Is this the next time? I guess my thinking is very colored by my personal view on the environment. To put it in a nutshell and not take up  hundreds of words to spell it out:I am an "Al  Gore environmentalist"= take that to mean I pretty much buy what he is saying including his warnings about the direction we are going in. So I look at all this :at everything that is going on and has been going on for a long time and say : "It kind of looks bad, doesn't it?" 

I am writing this today because I look at this blog and it strikes me as fairly "sunny" in it's disposition. Perhaps I take these photos and write these things to balance out the hard truths going on all around me & the even harder truth that I suspect  is waiting  ahead. 

 I think about my 4 grandparents a lot -more and more as I get older .   Without getting too sentimental, I'll close with the words my Grandfather often said to me, my brother & my cousins as we grew up:  

1. Rome was not built in a day.

2. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

3. He who thinks he can can.

4. There's not such word as can't.

5. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

6. If you don't have patience you'll never get to heaven.

I think we all leave impressions once we are gone and that maybe our real legacy. I hope that whatever legacy I leave behind will be as meaningful as my grandfather's was and I have the feeling my art may not be where my legacy lies...