A mixed bag

All posts in the A mixed bag category

WORD SALAD

Published January 4, 2020 by Nan Mykel

Word Salad refers to a phrase

of writings while done in a daze

by tortured souls on vacation

from reality’s stagnation.

Besides, it’s ever so fun

to let one’s ink pen run

–or e’en allow one’s own mouth

to spit out these words uncouth.

So from the loony bin atop the hill,

here’s my midnight rantings spill:

Let’s see–now I’ve said it, what’ll I do?

In tune with trends in our nation

I’ll usurp truth’s validation

and tell you I’m fine and losing weight.

Funny, I wasn’t religious til I seen

the Anti-Christ on the golf course green.

I’m scared to turn on the teevee for fear

I’ll see me on there, shedding a tear.

Their algorithm aimed at all,

like a well-aimed bowling ball.

Now suspicious of my  Facebook Friend,

perhaps this year will see the end.

Hope not.  Where there’s a lucid will

there’s a way, they say….Much more

fun not to have to rhyme, they also say.

Had a nightmare. I heard Trump say

“Tis the morning of Aquarius!”  I know

what that means….Not.

 

 

 

 

 

Surprising Discovery

Published January 4, 2020 by Nan Mykel

Maybe it’s just a fly by night discovery, but it was true today so I thought I’d share it.

I was headed for a fairly big depression–big for me, that is–and I even shed a tear or two.

Then I had to tend to my blog, of course, and a post required a “bird in hand,”  so I clicked on bird images.  And spent perhaps 30 minutes of the best anti-depression therapy I ever received.  It was beauty that did it.  Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.  I’d like to know if  it works for anyone else out there.

Maybe We Could Revive the Devil

Published January 3, 2020 by Nan Mykel

          There’s so much bitterness, hate and rage washing over America and much (most?) of the world today that I think we need a new target to drain away the poison numbing  our hearts. That’s why I think maybe we should renew our belief in Satan, and let the dam overflow down the River Styx and sink hell in the universe’s sewer, and leave a space for love.

 

Image: Manish Dhru on Pexels

How to Change a Lightbulb, an Ecumenical Guide | Bob Shepherd

Published January 2, 2020 by Nan Mykel

So clever I had to reblog.

Bob Shepherd's avatarBob Shepherd | Praxis

Amish: What’s a lightbulb?

Buddhist: The brokenness of the bulb is in the nature of things. By renouncing the desire for fixing the bulb, you can release yourself from the endless cycle of changing bulbs only to have them break, only to have to change them again, only to have them break, only to . . . [Here rest of the text is missing. Western scholars of the nineteenth century suggested that the original might have contained, in this place, directions to the nearest Lowes, but recent studies have cast doubt upon those speculations.]

Calvinist: Because you are human, your perspective is necessarily limited. It may seem as though you are deciding to change the bulb, but that, of course, is an illusion due to your being born IN time rather than existing OUTSIDE time, as God does. The decision regarding whether the bulb will or will not be changed…

View original post 855 more words

I’m Trying to Attract Your Attention

Published January 2, 2020 by Nan Mykel

So after 5 years I have less than 350 followers (and let’s face it, some are businesses).  So many have thousands.  Sure, they’re prettier than me and are more romantically focussed, and just maybe nicer, but hey, I was number One on Miami Jackson’s tennis team, doesn’t that count for anything?  Politics. Maybe that’s it. Just can’t keep my mouth shut when I’m speechless (heh heh).

I just tried out a new avatar–is it avatar or gravatar?–so maybe that will pull in one or two more of you wonderful people…

I’ll quit whining and hinting and tell you I just read my “Diary” page and enjoyed it.  Maybe someone else can also?

GOODBYE OLD FRIEND

Published December 31, 2019 by Nan Mykel

TODAY is the last day of Public Access television in Athens, Ohio, and I am mourning.  It was such a beautiful concept and contributed so much to those who watched regularly and those camcorder artists/enthusiasts who volunteered their time and creativity to the project.  My heart is too involved in it to share a rational unbiased version of causes of its demise, but I’d like to as a townsperson thank Bob and Lois Whealey for their two separate weekly shows, relative latecomer Alexa Ross who bore almost the entire volunteer load to the end, commedienne Jane Penwell , co-producer with me of Athens Kaleidoscope, and backwards in time to the great and talented Ken Dobo, Jamie Tevis and Joe Agranoff for Friends and Neighbors, the Junior Producers and Richard Sams with their call in shows, John Spofforth, and the many creative Athenians who stepped up to the plate as volunteer producers.  …and Charlie Grubbs as Indian Charley and his nature shows; I must stop because there are so many Athenians who welcomed and utilized and watched and produced as volunteers the life and doings of those of us in this small appalachian university town…and the Video Volunteer action group who raised funds in the early days through bake sales and yard sales.

My own introduction to the great creative palette that was Public Access was in 1989, when my son left the house headed for the Rec Center, and within a half hour to my surprise I saw him appear for the first time on the talk fest with Ken Dobo and others on Ken’s  Trouble on the Network Show.  There were annual awards nights and… I’ll shut up and either share a link or present Steve Zarate who sang both early on and recently the song he wrote and played, “The Public Access Song” for the last time:

 

 

 

Philosophical Flash Fiction

Published December 30, 2019 by Nan Mykel

I think I’m one of the handful of our species who still carry a few Neanderthal genes in their DNA (another fantasy, or it could be truth?) I withdraw to my inner cave for comfort, also when frightened by the antics of my universe.

The entrance to my cave is narrow, if not hidden, and its roof everpresent, overhead and revealed by the spirits of the night. Inside I most often experience protection and shelter, but then unpredictably, for no reason, the sky is rent and the displeasure of the spirits falls through.  In 1971, without warning, joy morphed into fear as my precious wombling appeared, both mongoloid and terminal.  Fear had pelted from my sky, so long protecting.

The sins of the fathers, surely not mine?  I watched the rent in the sky, distrusting its false reassurance. .

Years passed, propitiation helping maintain the fabric of the sky, until the sky was rent again and again and the size of my haven shrank.  After years of succor by the cave spirits, fear moved in, and the floor of my cave became unstable.  Retribution was upon both me and the few family and clan mates who also had sought succor.

Expatiation for what?  As we look on, age, disease and a mysterious silence fills the cave.  A shepherd’s crook reaches down and snuffs out its own.  Finally, overhead, rocks begin to fall from the sky of my refuge and we crawl out to discover a frighteningly similar world.

The scene in this sprawling land of mountain crags of cautious and fearful humans creeping out from their places of temporary refuge feels somehow archetypal.  I look up and wonder, is this a new day or a new night?

285 words

c.nanmykel

 

 

THE CATERPILLAR SPEAKS – Postscript

Published December 29, 2019 by Nan Mykel

P.S.  Forgive me–I skipped right through the coccoon stage.  Wonder why?  Wishful thinking, I’d guess.

_____

 

Hi. I’m Joe, an erudite caterpillar

who lives above you on that weeping willow.

You may not know the sky is falling

because I see you’re not bawling.

We caterpillae can see ahead

and oh there is so much to dread…

Shall we two souls just run away

and let the others join the fray?

Leave reality far behind

and link up with the other kind

who stick their head into the sand and

pretend the farce is really grand?

But wait! Hold on! Does this really say

that cowards speak  for the US of A?

Shame used to be a painful feeling

worthy of prayer, seeking healing.

Kindness, truth and compassion?

Weaknesses, now under ration.

Will the worldly rich give a damn

or is honor and heart only sham?

Hard to be true to yourself if you lie;

a lifetime of shame if you don’t try.

Meanwhile erudite Joe on his pillow,

sends hope from up on his willow,

that all our best wishes  come true.

With new wings he flies to the blue.

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