Blog 1801 – 08.29.2020

The Gnome from Nome

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17J3LIpiTu548eeJYURrsmnA6gvde8V1K/view?usp=drivesdk

The Gnome from Nome

Many conspiracy theorists suspect that a small band of clever gremlins or evil gnomes are responsible for all the troubles in the world. I think the real culprit is a little closer to home and more obvious – Us. I recall seeing a Peanuts’ Linus quote once in a Sunday funnies colored version of the strip. Linus like myself loved to quote the Bible when remembered words helped with a certain point his creator Charles Schultz was trying to get across. The comic strip frame with the face of a pondering Linus over a campfire read, “Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.”

It is the working out of and through our troubles that defines us. If you are looking for a trouble free life, be prepared to be bored out of your gourd. I am reminded of the wise, if a bit destination challenged, granny’s analogy in the Steve Martin movie, Parenthood. Martin, in the movie, plays a highly stressed and troubled man trying to be a good husband and father, fearful his oldest son is to turning out to be just like him. Grandma says out of the blue: “Some people like to ride the carousel, but it just goes round and round. What’s the fun in that? I always preferred the roller coaster with it’s thrilling ups and downs.”

Life may be like a bowl of cherries or even a melody on Primrose Lane, but few of us get to live there for very long, if at all, before trouble comes knocking at our door. A friend of mine refers to the weather as our stormy sister. She is quite a dancer, this wayward but enchanting high stepper. High winds, torrential rains and blowing blizzards of snow are just three of her signature moves. The property and personal damage she does are sometimes referred to as acts of God. There is just no escaping her performances for long, for no matter where you choose to hide or reside she will find you. She is like they used to say regarding the latest movie release, always, “Coming to a theater near you.”

In a little less than a month in the northern latitudes the trees will put on their party dresses and dance with our stormy sister. Then a couple of months after that regal us clad in their snow white fur coats and dazzling ice diamonds. Attached is a link to a poem I wrote about trees a few years ago:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5UGucaz8iwNcFF3Sk9wQVE0b0E/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword

Instead of cursing the weather or our troubles we could, if we let ourselves, enjoy the roller coaster ride. I had a Gremlin once and it was a fun little ride. This rocky and sometimes stormy ride is home for us, the gremlins, and the gnomes, now. Let’s enjoy it while we can, rumor has it that none of us is getting off this ride alive, so hang on.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JlMFPlqfYX481W78kwnHpARWK7cRuOWD/view?usp=drivesdk

Broken Merry Go Round