Take Back Your Life!

As a child I saw the movie Pollyanna starring Haley Mills and never forgot it, especially the scenes where prisms created rainbows on the walls. As an adult, I used to frequent antique stores looking for a lamp just like the one I saw in the movie. I wanted pretty rainbows to dance  on my walls, too.

Recently, I rented the film in the children’s section of the library. I’ve watched it twice. Even better than I remembered because the moral of the story clearly seemed directed at adults. In the film, Pollyanna Whittier’s parents die, so she goes to live in a huge Victorian with her wealthy, spinster aunt Polly Harrington in the town of Harrington. Polly treats her in a cold manner, even giving her a small, dusty room way up in the attic. But Pollyanna’s grateful for the room because she’s never had her own room. (more…)

Hello wild things,

Real writing, the kind that comes from deep inside, will reveal what you want out of life, what’s missing, what’s in the way. We’ve been so molded from the outside in to conform with the consumer mindset, that we sometimes forget our truer selves live inside and they want something different, something unique.

For me, I had to find a way to get that side of me outside so it could free the rest of me. (more…)

A friend sent me a short film clip that explains why it’s so hard to save things that matter to the heart, like nature. It highlights the book by Charles Eisenstein called, “Sacred Economics.” He traces the origins of money and talks about the need to return to the gift economy, where people actually need each other. In our present economy, nature becomes a commodity we destroy to make stuff, to fuel an economy that doesn’t celebrate our humanness.

A friend suggested I watch Enlightened, an HBO series starring Laura Dern. She thought the half hour format and Laura’s character Amy would be right up my activist ally.

I’d never watched an HBO Series and didn’t know what to expect. Regular TV series all seem to be about folks working like dogs or folks solving murders or folks getting horrible surgeries or folks doing forgettable things. I’ve often said to others, “Why do most TV characters work and not do anything else?” Sends a weird message. (more…)

Hey fun readers,

This week’s post is a guest gig at the wonderful Angie Mizzell’s. Am working on a post about the movie Bill Jack and its theme for next week! So, stayed tuned for that. In the meantime, please check out my post and consider leaving a comment over there. Thanks, G.

You Must Do The Things You Think You Cannot Do.

Always fascinating how column/blog topics enter the psyche.

Was listening to one of my singing idols — Julie London — do her sultry rendition of The Door’s Light My Fire. It’s terrific. Listen to it here on You Tube.

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire

(Lyrics to live by.)

Just my kind of karaoke song. Unfortunately for my higher vocal range, they only seem to offer the original by The Doors. So, I re-listened to The Door’s version and learned from the CD jacket how the band got its name. (more…)

Hi loyal readers,

It took many months of researching,  percolating and writing to finish my educational piece on education, standardization, creativity and imagination. A special thanks to the fabulous commenters who suggested books and shared their own experiences with the world’s educational systems.

Here’s the link to The MetroWest Daily News if you’d like to read it. For those that prefer to stay on this site, I’ve pasted a few choice paragraphs:

“America does not need to standardize its youth. It needs to encourage creative risk-taking and self-reliance. Our economy has stalled because adults do not have enough imagination to visualize new ways way to solve old problems. Our compulsory educational system asks us to don blinders and fixate on answers.

It’s time for America to birth a new educational adventure, one that releases children from age-segregated confinement so they can contribute in a meaningful way to their communities.”

(more…)

I’m constantly dreaming up new life shops. It’s in my creative blood. Sometimes I offer the same life awakening experience twice. More often, I take the “best of” material along with me to a new gig and give it a twist of creative lime or lemon.(Interestingly enough, I do the same thing at karaoke. The thrill of doing a new song, get’s my adrenaline pumping. And travel. Like to keep going to new villages and sites. Almost like I’m a modern day Lewisitta and Clarkitta). (more…)

If you’re old enough to remember Get Smart, then you may recall that when Maxwell Smart and the Chief wanted secrecy they buzzed down the transparent Cone of Silence. Ironically, the Cone louded up their conversation to the point they couldn’t hear each other while inside the cone and often had to communicate through a bystander outside the cone who easily heard everything they said. (more…)

I’ve been doing quite a bit of research for my upcoming newspaper column on education or rather what we call education — it’s really schooling. Two very different concepts. Didn’t even know there was a difference until six years ago when I stumbled on my first book by John Taylor Gatto, “Dumbing Us Down.” Since then I’ve read tens more. (more…)