On Writing...penmanship that is.

As a kid, and a leftie I had miserable penmanship.  Just couldn't figure out how to hold the pencil without smearing lead... or pen without smearing ink.  The nuns at Saint Peter's Elementary in Huron, Ohio didn't know how to help me and my grades reflected it.  Well, maybe my attitude was reflected in my grades too.

Then one day early in Huron High School, I noticed a girl printing everything and saw how easy it was to read.  Okay, okay maybe I was looking over her shoulder while cheating on a test I don't recall.

So I started printing.  Everything.  I did it for several years and for some unknown reason it put some discipline in my unruly south paw.  Then I tried writing something again and noticed... it wasn't bad!  In fact, some of it looked pretty good.  I carried on from that point taking some pride in legibility.  Cheap thrills I know.

My kids, both lefties, do it too.  Tyler a combination of both and Samantha just about everything...printing that is.

Then.  Computers.  And keyboards.  And the end of a lot of writing.  And my practiced hand went on a leave of absence.  I made a note about it in 2015...I mean a hand written/printed note.  Just came across it in one of my (antique now) notebooks and am posting it here for posterity.  And for the hell of it.

Dakota Summer

1970 - Phoenix, AZ

It was a sixties summer...1967

Peace, war, love, hate

It was all in the air

But that Dakota night I was

Driven by peace and love

To that hilltop nightclub

And your table

To ask you to “...dance with me”

And we have never stopped

First we were friends

And then your heart so big

It found love for me

Then war and hate called 

And I had to go

To serve the cause

Right or wrong

But the distance made our love

Phoenix, Arizona - With sheepdog,
"Mopsy's Aerial Motions"

Grow stronger

And I carried your beauty

In my heart

Then the many years of work and school
Together 

All the while your beauty

All the while your forgiveness

All the while your tenderness

All the while your love

Along the way you gave me a son and daughter

Both captured your beauty 

And your heart

Son Tyler and Daughter Samantha Campbell

We mellowed to togetherness

A bond formed 

From your hard work

From your patience

Now we are in

The September of our years

And I have never loved you more

I will never love you less

I want to dance with you again 

As we did that Dakota night

Many years ago

And I will

I want to hold you again 

As I did that Dakota night

And I will

Your beauty is all around me

Every day, every minute of my life 

I Love you

My inspiration

My hero  

My heart  

God's Round II - Sacrilege? I Think Not

What if God decided on starting over with her/his experiment called "Earth?"  Given the size of the universe, maybe He/She already has and we just can't see it.  What ideas could we share on a new, improved version? (Thank you to those who have contributed.  Your tips for God are marked with your initials. The others are mine...from my mind...if you don't mind.)

1. Don't sacrifice your only begotten for us.  We're not worth it.  Besides, we need Him to stick with us a little longer.

   

   God's Do-Over. Thinking things over...

2. Don't let a bunch of scribes write the Bible.  There is too much left to interpretation.  Besides, we'd rather hear it first hand. I mean, do we really need the book of Job?  We can't even interpret the Constitution. It's only 4 pages and we have had to amend it 27 times for God's sake (sorry).
3. We like peace so please, make us all the same color.  You pick. We'll see if we can do better if we are literally all begin on the same page.
4. "Let's skip a couple of emotions please...fear and hatred.  Thank you.  Or is that cheating on the test?  Also, banana splits in every refrigerator." - DCWC
5. There are certain inventors...guns and nuclear weapons for example, who should remain unborn.
6. "A couple more hours in the day (without making us age faster) would be nice." - SMC
7. Let's dump that chastity vow for priests and nuns okay?  It's just too much pressure for the human brain to deal with.
8. No kid's diseases. You must be 21 to get sick.  If diseases must happen, we'll be better prepared to deal with them then. 
9. Help us all be born with an innate understanding that rampant population growth is harmful to the Earth and causes us to fight among one another.
10. "Let all children have proper homes, nourishment, education, emotional and medical support." - SMC
11. "Benjamin Button the process. Reward a life lived well with play and innocence." - BH
12. Give our intuition a better engine okay?  At least let us be born knowing how to change our own diapers and tie our own shoes...
13. Do not include Saturday mail delivery.  It is a very expensive service. It is 90% junk mail and the remainder is bills.  Those puppies can wait until Monday.
14. Pennies?  Who needs'em?!  And the 545 + 1?  We need a major overhaul there.
15. "I want Matriarchy to be the prevailing social order." - AG  "Smash the patriarchy." SMC - "Just put women in charge and let's try that for a couple thousand years okay?" - TC
16. Clear up the man/woman controversy that surrounds you okay?  I mean if you Google "God" images you just get zillions of photos of a badass looking man.  Conversely, if you Google Woman God...you mainly get a bunch of images of Ariana Grande and we know she's not God...or is she?
17. Hey!  How about taking a "selfie" for us?!  That would sure clear up a lot of speculation about what you look like.
18. "More wine" - DB..."Hear! Hear!" - JO & TC
19. "Equality" - JMC & SW  "... and students taught to understand and respect our differences rather than bullying" - SW
20. "Scratch house flies, mosquitoes, gnats and no see'ums off the creation list." - JO  "...I'd add ticks, chiggers, probably brown recluses too." - SW  "No fruit flies in my old vine zin." - JO
21. "Term limits." - BeeGee
22. One last thing (maybe). I respectfully request that my family and I be born again, literally. Also, please have all our dogs with us, all the way.  And please make me more tolerant of bad drivers this time around.  God knows, I mean You know, I'm not perfect so why in God's name, I mean Your name, should I expect others to be that way. 

All right...this could end up a work in progress.  I kinda like to come back and edit/update things.  You have input? Great!  Have your people get in touch with my people.