Tag: Life

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Build it to last

no-longevitySo, I’m in this conference center. Well, at least the second floor was a conference center. Anyhow, one wall along the entrance consisted of several backlit photographs of famous site around the city of Boston.

Problem: all were faded. That tarnished my impression of an otherwise nice facility. Solution: simply painting the plexiglass panels a neutral color and putting small framed prints in the center of each panel would look much better at a fraction of the cost of getting new photographic panels.

The interior designer may not have known how quickly the panels would fade. Or the panels might have been there for ten years. In either case, putting them there without knowing the colors’ shelf life – or planning for their replacement – was a mistake.

Takeaway: How are you building that project to last? Or how are you planning for its replacement?

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Art history in 1956

art-history-notes

One of the random things I saved from my mom’s stuff was a notebook of art history notes from 1956. (She got an art history degree from the University of Texas, I think after my brother was born in 1957.)

I skimmed some of the notebook. It was fun to read her idealistic college-student perspective… just taking in what the professor said as “that must be true”. It was hard to imagine her sitting in class rapidly taking notes.

I contrasted that perspective to her later recollections of her professors’ teachings – she saw through the nonsense that some modern art is.

Takeaway: How can we retain a bit of idealism in our lives?

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Influenced, though never met

violin-linda-cardone

In fourth grade, I chose to play violin because I had a crush on a girl named Linda Cardone. She chose the violin as her instrument, so I did too. I thought I might get to sit next to her in orchestra.

My youngest sister chose violin, maybe because I had played. (Haven’t had the chance to ask her about that.) If that’s true, my fourth grade crush influenced the course of my sister’s life. She got a bachelor’s degree in viola performance and later a master’s degree in the same.

Thank you, Linda.

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One morning

one-morning

Sieze the day. Carpe diem. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

You’ve heard those all before. But maybe you should think of today as an opportunity to do something new.

It’s only one morning – but what might you do with it?

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Regrets

smashed-coffee-mug

We all have regrets.

The owner of this lovely stainless steel coffee mug regretted that they left their mug on top of their car when they left Starbucks.

I regret that we sold Heather’s grandpa’s shotgun for next to nothing at a garage sale ten years ago.

What do you regret?

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Fun birthday present

sticker-1bsticker-2

Today is my birthday. My friends Alan and Chris took a photo expedition with some of my stickers in downtown Minneapolis. What a great birthday present!

By the way, I’ll be happy to send a few to you to put around your town – if you’ll agree to send me the digital photos. Just request some in a comment and we’ll go from there.

Footnote: the stickers say “shiny bits of life” in the white area. (You can’t really tell that from the photos.)

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You just gotta laugh

jacques-magnet

You can react to something by laughing or by getting upset. I choose to laugh. (I wish I would choose to laugh a lot more than I do!)

This was one instance when laughter won out…

My sister, her husband and three children were visiting. We had a fabulous time together. Jacques, the youngest, is not quite two. He’s very curious – and is figuring out what life is about. (But then I’m not young, and I’m still figuring that out.) A byproduct of his curiosity is that he was into everything. The vast majority of our frig magnet collection disappeared. No worries – I figured they would show up again at some point.

So Heather noticed something out of the ordinary as she glanced at our heater vent. She took it off and discovered the missing magnets! Jacques had taken them and pushed each one through the slots – maybe like a vending machine.

We all had a good laugh!

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I’m too practical

dresser-pix

Some people are artistic. Some people are practical. Some people are both. Even though I am an artist (graphic designer) by training and partly by profession, I tend toward the practical side.

So when we visited this home I was struck by the beauty of the familial display on the master bedroom’s dresser.

My dresser is cluttered with little things that have nothing to do with beauty – and everything to do with life – keys, wallet, sunglasses and camera.

What’s on your dresser?

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Grow old, gracefully

anti-aging-spa

I had to laugh when I saw this business.

We are meant to age. It’s obviously good to try to present ourselves in the best way possible, but some of the most beautiful “older” people I know are those who aren’t trying to make themselves look way younger than they really are.

You know what I mean.

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