ONCE UPON A TIME- CREATING YOUR OWN STORY 3-23-2020

Once upon a time, those are words most of us have heard or read during our
childhood.. Often, those words were composed of soft tones, gently spoken by
our parents, older brothers & sisters, plus of course our teachers. I know I heard
that phrase hundreds of times. Just in our recent past those words were used as
part of the title of a 2019 film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, written &
directed by Quentin Tarantino, featuring Brad Pitt & Leo DiCaprio. It tells the story
of a slice of life episode, a combination of real people and real events, fully
wrapped by Tarantino’s creative imagination and storytelling, of a slice of life in
Hollywood over 50 years ago- or “Once Upon a Time”. This film was my
inspiration to write a reflective personal essay of my experience. and life’s lessons
that continue to flow for me.
After each one of us dies, what is the story that you & I will leave behind? This is
the story about the memory of our lives, to the life of others. Within this story I
am presenting a snippet of my life as an example of what we may or may not
leave behind. During the Summer of 1972, after my first year studying
photography at art school, I worked at a restaurant in Truro, MA on Outer Cape
Cod for 3 months, where six nights a week a talented young singer and a piano
player, about my age sang songs by Carol King, from her then latest and most
popular album: “Tapestry”. During the day I’d often drive up twisting Cahoon
Hollow Rd. to roads end, a remarkable dune laden beach of the same name, while
first passing a fork in the road, containing a cinematic triangular shaped forested
area, revealing velvety layers of light. After repeating & visually surveying this
route about a half dozen times, I decided to ask some friends and acquaintances
to dress in their most outrageous clothing, and I would photograph them in that
magical wooded world. My idea was to have each of them stand behind a
different tree, and upon my command they would peer out towards me, while I
gently pressed the cameras shutter. After that instant, I planned on improvisation
taking charge.
I remained on “The Cape” until about Sept. 15 th that memorable summer, leaving
to begin my next semester. I never started that self-assigned photographic
project. That was my biggest disappointment and mistake of that otherwise
almost transcendent perfect summer, almost 50 years ago – probably, the best of
my life. Over these many decades, until our present, I think about that road to
the beach, with its dramatic forested area, and my surrendering of the
opportunity to create the images I visualized. Obviously, I could have done it- so
it is a lingering regret! If I completed that project, it would have been for me, but
also for those would-be performers- as some may have recalled that days
shooting, and weaved it into their life’s tale, including me. That is how we live on.
It’s not just evading the self-inflicted wounds, like those of my summer story, but
also defying the limitations that others impose upon us, sometimes even loved
ones, or we are too weak to resist avoidance, or undisciplined, which impedes us
from living our rich & rightful life story. I now know these are the ways we design
and live our fullest life. This is how we can create the best memories of us, as
they become the stories that live on…for those who live on, and the ones who
even come after.

What Do We Call Someone with the Following Personal Characteristics?

LINEAR EXPLANATION of THE POTUS 3/23/20
They are not a healer, They are not a poet, They are not a guardian, They are
untrusting, They lack empathy, They lack humility, They are not a unifier, They are
not a collaborator, They lack respect, They dislike compromise, They dislike
accountability, They disdain inconvenient truth. They dislike conciliation, They
dislike mediation, They probably dislike meditation and I’m sure they require
medication
They like dictating, They like control, They love exaggeration, They love their
decisions, They love boasting, They love bullying, They love convenient truth, At
the close of the second decade of the 21 st century and the commencement of the
3rd, that is good enough to be called the President of The United States. What
does that say about who we are, but more importantly--where we are headed!!!
John Meacham-historian NPR 4/30/20 Trump is the 1 st president to “Normalize
Narcissism” as he has made his presidency about how unfair those who disagree
with him are, which s the real problem, as opposed to what are the problems
facing the people of the US and the worlds issues that affect us.

THE COLLAGING OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION Magazzino Italian Art

MARINELLA SENATORE & the School of NARRATIVE DANCE

Collage, Culture & Community-3/28/20-see event on Cold Spring Video on

magazzino- combination of community & performance - you can learn about
people and yourself as activator and facilitator
Her practice is concerned with empowerment-she tries to create change through
participation -People don’t know about their own possibility unless they are
pushed; or self-motivated

The Failure of Late 20th and Early 21st Century American Style Democratic
Capitalism 5/5/20
The Covid-19 Virus has dramatically illustrated the limits, and therefore the
shortcomings of the U.S. style of our democratic capitalistic system, and its vast
inequities. All we need to do is look at the racial breakdown of those infected, and
those who have died. Also look at the racial breakdown of those who had to
continue working, at low hourly wages in supermarkets, fast food restaurants,
meat packing plants and janitorial workers who were needed in all of these fields,
including medicine. It is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of all these
workers are black and brown people who have been marginalized, underserved,
and left vulnerable. Despite the fact that these fields were considered necessary
to the effort to “flatten the curve”, not only were these workers some of the
lowest paid in our country, many were not covered by insurance, even though
they had to work in close proximity to their fellow workers, and at times without
protective equipment. These occurrences and many others demonstrate the
failure of our government over the last 40 years, and especially since 9/11, when
the 1% got theirs, and everyone else was either treading water or drowning.
Many politicians in the 1960’s &70’s warned of racisms long lasting effects,
climate catastrophe and inequality. Commencing with the 2 Reagan
administrations from 1981-88, there has been wide reaching deregulation within
many industries, plus tax cuts for wealthy individuals and large corporations. That
is when inequality started its meteoric rise, and real wages since then have
basically stagnated. The neglect of the economically lower 70% has hollowed out
the middle class, and has come home to roost during this strange, stressful time.
Donald J. Trump is totally inept, lacks any empathy and his shoe size is insufficient
to capably deal with beginning the process of solving these paramount issues-
though he did not start or cause many of them, but he is the one who is in charge,
as he has been for over 3 years, and all he has done is divide us, making things
worse- even before Covid-19. After the deadly Hurricane in Puerto Rico, Pres.
Trump went there to express his support. While he was talking to a large group of
people; both those who live there and the press. What did the president do – he
tossed a roll of paper towels at the group, as if he were on a basketball court,
taking a free-throw shot. What was he thinking; possibly they could use the
towels to absorb the flood waters? Two other spoiled slices of his presidency
stand out; he refuses to wear a mask, which could have served as a positive
example for the rest of us, while he continually belittled or rejected the findings
of his medical advisers. Then he told people to inject Clorox products to kill the
virus. Does this man have no limit to the depths he will sink? These examples
reveal his total lack of understanding of what it means to be the President of all
the people, and a leader in our time of crisis, and I can add many other examples.
Though I must thank him for making obviously apparent, those malignant
wounds that have spread over these 40 years- so now the people can view this
vile mess and demand to be involved with the changes that must be made.
Sometimes, anger is the proper response to failure, as is the strongest
underpinning of democracy: Our Vote!