Above: My Old North art classroom 2023, my special ed classroom at Westview Middle in 2021.
Change is constant. Episodic as my life continues to be, I keep stumbling into joyfulness. So I just have to think the ups and downs are the way things have to be. Knowing what I have endured, I tend to embrace change. Even if it makes me a bit uncomfortable (especially if it makes me uncomfortable).
My nephew JV asked me to cooperate with his almost 15 year old daughter for her assignment to interview an adult (over 50). He encouraged her to pick me as her subject. She did. She was nervous about conducting the interview as she knew more of me than about me. Anticipating the session, I became a bit reflective. "How did I get to this place in time?" I wondered. Does the sum of the parts really equal the whole person? Is it more complicated than that?
I was having lunch with my golfing pal on Saturday after a round of early Spring Golf, when I bumped into an old friend who happens to be a talented artist. I met him when he moved to Saint Louis from England more than twenty years ago. John had, among other things, designed an album covers for the rock n roll band Boston. That encounter triggered my own personal connection with the band as a recurring soundtrack. I frequented a roller rink in Miami during my undergraduate years. "More than a Feeling" was a perfect tune for me as I cruise the roller rink pondering the future.
My brother Greg was captured in a Miami department store (Burdine's I think) for a skin care demonstration and newspaper story about the same era as when I was a regular at the Roller Rink (listening to among others, the rock n roll of Boston). Funny, he always had a cigarette in those days.
I have an offer to resume as Art Teacher at Old North Academy even as I have mixed feelings about this year before Spring break. Flattering but a little thankless too. Anyway, they're giving me a generous 15 days to think about the offer. (I might give them more than 15 days to think about thier offer.)
"There are always flowers for those who want to see them" - Henri Matisse.
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