--IT’S OKAY TO DANCE OUTSIDE THE LINES

…Apparently there are quite lot of people who have estranged relationships with their siblings.  After I made the Facebook post below, I must have received over 100 messages saying how they could relate because of having a similar situation.

My brother passed away last night.  You could say we were estranged, as he was with most of the family.  All this recent death makes me ponder what was, what wasn’t, what could have been.  When my brother was young he was very handsome, kind of looked like the cousin of Ricky Nelson, brash and full of promise.  For a brief period, he and a few of my other brothers (I have seven) formed a makeshift band.  One of the songs they played was “Windy”, because my brother Darold, who died last night, had a crush on a neighbor named Wendy.  So here’s a little tribute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsY8l0Jg3lY

…But I promised no more sad stuff.

“Because I've always felt, whether the fatwa or whatever, the writer's great weapon is the truth and integrity of his voice. And as long as what you're saying is what you truly, honestly believe to be the
case, then whatever the consequences, that's fine. That's an honorable position.”-- Salman Rushdie

“It's time to start living the life you've imagined.”  Henry James

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it's not
going to go away.”  Elvis Presley

“You are not happy because you are well.  You are well because you are happy.   You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but trouble has come to you because you are depressed. You can change your thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will come to correspond, and indeed there is no other way of working. “-- Emmet Fox

“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, then a sleepy and permanent planet.... I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”Jack London

 "I do think so much of what writers wrestle with is our demons and our fears, and the dream world is dark, and it's not always painful, but it's mysterious." Andre Dubus III

“You can find on the outside only what you possess on the inside.” Adolfo Montiel Ballesteros

"If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week." Charles Darwin

“Waste your money and you're only out of money, but waste your time and you've lost part of your life.
- Michael Leboeuf

“This is your world. Shape it or someone else will.”  Gary Lew

  

“In criticism, I will be bold, and as sternly, absolutely just with friend and foe. From this purpose nothing shall turn me.”  Edgar Allan Poe