“Closed Mondays”
is the phrase on my favorite T-shirt that I haven’t seen for ages. It is probably in a box somewhere. I cannot imagine donating my favorite shirt to Casa de los Niños. I have a bit of a challenge letting go. But as I move through life I change, I will not say evolve, as individuals do not evolve, only societies and cultures evolve, and I am more and more able to weed out keepsakes and keep fewer reminders of what has come before. And sometimes we get smarter and more wise as we move along our life’s timeline. Sometimes not.
I have managed to maintain a friendship with someone who irritates the hell out of me largely because there are bits of my past that I now connect with in the here and now only through him. My best friend from early high school years died when she was 21. Memories of those years, especially freshman year, are evoked through interaction with him. He stirs the pot so to speak. I remember her infectious laugh. That is worth untold stacks of gold.
I have already lost so much of my life. Having been isolated as a child, for me, means that only my brother Roger and Mom had any chance of remembering the same events in routine daily life that remember. With them both gone, I have lost my social anchors to those times. I have learned to value connection from a perspective of wisdom. Wisdom is is only acquired through loss and pain it seems.
So people who might seem to be unlikely friends are treasures. And sometimes they come through in the here and now too. One such friend, as I said, suggested I stop in Tulsa today to visit the Gilcrease Museum. Unfortunately the Gilcrease is CLOSED MONDAYS. Sigh.
So the only art I will see today, other than green trees and grass, and the occasional stand out house of a different color with personal touches that thumb their noses at the pretty box phenomena, is the lovely view from my hotel to which I awoke.
Anyway, I first discovered Malvina Reynolds’ song “Pretty Boxes” through a Holly Near cover. Perhaps it was with Ronnie Gilbert? I can’t say for sure as I lost the connection to that part of my life, too.
So I leave you with wonderful word and music art from times gone by as I head out on what I guess is day four of this road trip, though I am only in the third 24 hour cycle.
Trip Log thus far:
Friday 3 p.m. to 8 pm. On the road to Holbrook.
Saturday Holbrook to Rock Art Ranch then on to Moriarty, New Mexico. I still have to review the Mexican restaurant down the street from the Best Western where I stopped for the night.
Sunday was driving, driving, driving (sung to the tune of “rolling, rolling, rolling” from the song “Rawhide.””) I stopped in Amarillo at a Barnes and Noble, conveniently located across the street from a gas station, where I purchased an audio book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, which got me all the way to Oklahoma City.
Today, Monday I am starting the day out just past Oklahoma City. I have to download an audiobook to listen to on the road today.
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