more flowers

 

budding

 

More on love.

 

Dear End of the Month of Love and Chocolate,

Here is a song for you- if you watch it, keep your eyes out for Nile Rodgers' beautifully transparent guitar.

welcome back, little flowers

 

be that good

 

Dear Broken Hearts,

Don't talk to me about love.  

make it so

 

Dear Dodos,

It's about the time of the year when I review what the Dodo is doing-  February, 2013 is when the Dodo first started, and this makes 13 years; over a dozen years of Dodo posts.  There have been over 1400 posts.  There are more than 893,129 page views.  Most months, there are a total of 8 posts, twice a week.  

It is a good time to wonder what I am doing here, what you are doing here.  It should feel re-assuring, it should feel like we have witnessed it together, it should feel safe & sane, although an occasional outburst is to be expected; it should feel encouraging.  

There is SO much out there, out here, in here.  I don't really know about you, but it feels overwhelming; there are piles and piles of sites I want to visit and read and listen to and look at.  I cannot get it all done- I don't want this space/place to feel like a thing you need to do- it should not be like brushing your teeth or a big 'should.'  Although, then of course the obvious question is why look here at all, then?  Well, I like to hope that it is a bit curated, a bit thoughtful and not just another place that must provide content to you, dear consumer.  Ugh.  See, I don't really think of you like that, a consumer.  I think of you as a friend, and I want to touch you in that way.  

Even so, things change, and the meaning and purpose of things change.  I like to put the things I am excited about, or engaged in, here, for you to maybe take, maybe not.  Maybe become engaged in, maybe just walk on by.  It's a big world, I won't feel hurt if you don't have time; as a woman once told me, I am not inventing a narrative about why you couldn't be here. (Although, oh!  It is so tempting!  Narrative no. 1:  You were on your way here, going through the car wash, when the machine broke down, and you and your car were trapped in an endless shower of suds!  Narrative no. 2:  You attended a candlelight vigil in your park, to commemorate all that ever was, and you stayed there so late, with all the other beautiful mourners, that you didn't wake up when your alarm went off!  Narrative no. 3:  Instead of coming here, you went and did the three things you have been meaning to do since 2022: schedule your shingles vaccine, rotate your tires, and call someone to have that old piano hauled away!)

Shall we meet here again this year as usual, then?  Make it so.

2800: same old song

 

Sims skate wheel

Dear Skaters,

Today is day 2,800 of daily roller skating.  I am still doing it, and I intend to keep on at it, but today, I don't have much to say about it.  It may be that I have grown tired of trying to induce you to enjoy roller skating; it may be that I have grown tired of making suggestions of any kind, period.  When I think about it, all this unsolicited advice and curated stuff, I wonder that anyone has any time or inclination for such things.  I read a lot of good things on the internet, and there are heaps of good things I don't make the time for, even though I'd like to read them, to watch them, to learn from them.

If there was a purpose, to my dashing off a couple of letters a week to you, here, it might be to encourage you, to let you know that you can do it, whatever it is; that there are no negative consequences- you can try to play the trombone, because, why not?  You can try to make your own paintbrush, to sew a pair of kid gloves, to write a television script.  In fact, I hope you try all four of those things, and roller skating, too.  However, if you are busy defending human rights this week and the next, you might not have the time, and that's fine too.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I have a song for you for today, too.