The Pink Book 2

I used to ride beautiful, gentle horses, giddying-up or lumbering down hillsides, at the Steelhead Ranch near Coquitlam, BC. In my little pink book I wrote this -

I love horses.

"You are a genius. You are amazing. You are fabulous. Okay, sometimes, you get it wrong. But that's a part of learning. You can't always be right. Let me rephrase that: when you get it wrong and know it, you're actually getting it right. You are a genius. No, really, you ARE."

Stop -

1, 2, 3, 4...

Velvet Blue. Midnight Blue. Delarobia Blue.

Sky. Periwinkle. Bluejay.

I loved Something Wicked this Way Comes and Dandelion Wine and some of Bradbury's other work, generally steering away from the sci-fi stuff and favouring the more fantasy-tinged. So, I had not read Fahrenheit 451.

But then I was challenged to write a story blending in the first and last sentences of that book: "It was a pleasure to burn." And: "When we reach the city." Those are inspiring words to work with. (That story, if you're interested is posted at the end here*, although I've since removed those 2 sentences so it could stand on its own.)

My youngest daughter is a Bradbury fan and she felt it was time I read the whole work from whence those sentences came. So she gave me a copy of the classic. I loved it.

Stuff those beginner's eyes with wonder! This will definitely help you tolerate distress. And then you can...

I mean, just...

Yes, you...

Yes, you. And also you. And you and you and you.

"If I say I love you/I want you to know/It's not just because there's moonlight/Although, moonlight becomes you so."

"Alas, poor Yorick! I'm about to bust up his skull, thereby freeing my own skull, such that I might invent new fancies, then to banish them as well."

My 5 or 6 or 20 (culled from my Gratitude Journal):

- Toast

- David Lynch

- the 90 second ferry ride to Billy Bishop Airport

- hearing that my kid's band Oxalis is playing Hamilton (the town not the musical) at a benefit for Trans folks.

- the beautiful moon

- Sondheim's music and his book Finishing the Hat

- my partner for enlightening me on Sondheim; and for his unwavering faith in my talents; and for the great sandwiches he makes

- with closed eyes, big sapphire images before I fall asleep

- sitting at the bar in Jacob's Pickles in NYC, a group of firemen come in for lunch and suddenly the music on the sound system is: "Young man, there's no need to feel down..." It's so appropriate, although I don't think there's a fireman in the Village People (but there should be).

- behind that same bar, a bottle labelled Dorothy Parker Gin

- fireworks

- my sisters

- that kid of mine who makes 'em laugh as his profession and passion

- rain

- a possum sighting: I call her Parsnip: a name from my friend, who notes that their tails look like the root veg

- that friend who named the possum; friends since childhood, I call her Star

- sparkles

- a dream one night: Frank Sinatra sitting at a bar. I debate whether to ask him for an autograph, then remember that he's dead. When I woke up in the morning, I found out that Frank's pal Tony Bennett had joined him in the night. RIP Crooners

- dogs

- watching movies and eating popcorn with my youngest daughter

- the coolness and beauty of the day

- Erin Reed of Erin in the Morning and her wife Zooey Zepher, Montana State Representative

- my friend K who called me a "delicious wondrous jewel" and said that if any of the town gossips hurt me or mine she would "fight them" for me (dukes up, you gossips!)

- all the delicious wondrous jewels out there, like:

- my eldest daughter and her husband and their sweet kid, my grandson

- my guitar teacher

- this story* inspired by Ray Bradbury's writing:

If you missed Part 1, here you go:

Thanks for reading!