happiness to his holiness!

this morning when I put up the day's post, I wasn't thinking about today's date - 6 july. today as many mouse readers probably know is tenzin gyatso's birthday. tenzin gyatso is most often referred to as his holiness the dalai lama or simply hh. however, tibetans often refer to hh as gyalwa rinpoche, meaning "precious victor", or yeshe norbu, meaning "wish-fulfilling jewel." hh, as I like to think of him, although I really like "wish-fulfilling jewel," was born on 6 july 1935.

I wonder if ched had hh's birthday in mind when she choose this week's theme for theme thursday! hey, I'm just getting a head start on thursday with this additional post for today. you know how fond I am of themes, geez, maybe I'll just celebrate thursday's theme all week.

this morning my friend nc sent me this interesting link -- robert wilkinson, the author wishes hh a happy 617th birthday. I enjoyed robert's piece, following the links, and of course the hh quotes included.

hh often refers to himself as 'a simple monk' and for that reason I choose the above picture (opposed to this one which is of course my favorite hh picture!). in the picture above hh is in the company of another 'simple monk' who I believe is another great teacher, great soul, and all around great human being. tragically, brother thomas died at the tender age of 53 in a bizarre accident; this picture was taken a short time before he died. by the way, this picture is from the wonderful book "a hidden wholeness: the visual world of thomas merton" by john howard griffin. the photograph was taken by hh's secretary. (speaking of amazing humans john howard griffin is another incredible person; I had the good fortune of meeting him and attending a talk by him many years ago. mr griffin wrote the groundbreaking book black like me. when I live in fort worth, mr griffin lived there. mr. griffin died in 1980.)

happy birthday hh - 73 or 617!!

the water is wide

May all beings have happiness.
May they be free from suffering.
May they find the joy that has never known suffering
May they be free from attachment and hatred.

-buddhist prayer

june tabor singing the water is wide, a traditional song

photo: a squirrel friend on avenue c, july 2008

life is just a bowl of cherries

Life is just a bowl of cherries
Don't take it serious,
Life's too mysterious
You work,
You save,
You worry so
But you can't take your dough
When you go, go, go

So keep repeating "It's the berries."
The strongest oak must fall
The sweet things in life
To you were just loaned
So how can you lose
What you've never owned

Life is just a bowl of cherries
So live and laugh, aha!
Laugh and love
Live and laugh,
Laugh and love,
Live and laugh at it all!

ethel merman singing life is just a bowl of cherries in 1975. the song was made popular in the 1930s. ms. merman sang it in the broadway revue "george white's scandals" - music and lyrics are by lew brown and ray henderson.

photo: fruit at local farmers' market. july 2008

for america

My country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) philosopher and author of Common Sense

for the past twenty years npr's morning edition has celebrated the fourth of july holiday by reading the declaration of independence. just in case you missed it click here

jackson browne performing for america

photo: u.s. capitol as seen from the grounds of the national botanical garden. washington dc

sailing shoes

shoes - how many of you have a thing for shoes? I confess I have a bit of a shoe fancy. it's not as bad as it used to be, in my advancing age I have gotten both practical and cheap. and never has my shoe habit gravitated toward 'fashionable' footwear - I prefer shoes that are a little quirky and colorful.

I have seasonal shoes. currently my shoe du saison is a pair of lime green keen hiking sandals. I had to get a new pair of shoes as I pretty much wore out the pair of knock-off tevas that I wore the past two summers. I will miss the lovely z that pair of sandals created. my new pair of sandals have more stuff going on; however, by the end of the summer I should have a better idea if there is a discernible pattern created by the sandal stuff.
I've always been taken by boots. recently I fell for the boots that I saw worn by various bhutanese folks at the smithsonian folklife festival. when I lived in texas I never wore cowboy boots. ironically, the first time I went back to texas after moving away I bought a pair of tony lama boots. I still have these boots, they still fit, however, unfortunately in 1985 I had an accident where I almost lost my left foot (really - I'll show you the scar if you want) a sequela of this event is that I can no longer comfortably wear my tony lama boots or wear any pair of wooden soled clogs (which for the longest time was my favorite type of footwear). okay way too much information!

if you are a curious cat (or mouse) and want to learn more about shoes, the bata shoe museum in toronto is a destination worthy of checking out. it is wild and you can get a little flavor of its holdings by visiting the website.
this year marks the 100th anniversary of converse shoes. I've long had a weakness for the classic chucks. currently I have a pair of maroon hightops. I really miss my yellow chucks; but my all time favorite was the pair of lime green chucks I got after my yellow chucks had to be chucked out.
croc (and croc knock offs) are very popular these days. they seem like fun to wear - I know ms t loves her crocs (knock offs). however, they aren't completely benign footwear and parents and guardians need to be aware that this style of shoe presents a few dangers, especially on escalators when small feet are wearing them. to read more go here or here.
that's enough shoe silliness for today.

sailin' shoes performed by david dandborn, stevie ray vaughn, maria mckee and van dyke parks jammin' (4:02)


photos: dancing shoes at 2008 folklife festival; insert my current shoe du jour; bhutanese boots; chucks pic taken in 1994; ms t and her friend modeling their pink shoes; snap of shoes seen in ithaca ny in june

by the way

we are rapidly approaching the fourth of july weekend. for us this a weekend heavy of outdoor dining. one of our favorite summertime snacks is stuffed jalapenos - making them is a snap. you just need three ingredients nice big jalapeno peppers, cream cheese, and bacon. of course you also need a grill and some long handled tongs.

some of you may be heading to the beach this weekend. if you going to the beach and have certain equipment, make sure you take precautions and don't end up like the poor bloke in this newspaper clipping. OUCH!

by the way by the red hot chili peppers

closer still

last night we returned from a wonderful long weekend visiting family and friends in metro dc. the days were filled with many delights.

in addition to the joy of seeing our family and friends, another highlight of the weekend was attending the smithsonian folk life festival. the focus for this year's festival: bhutan - 'the land of the thunder dragon'; texas - 'a celebration of music, food, and, wine'; and nasa - 'fifty years and beyond.' the festival runs through july 6th - if you're in the the dc area make sure you check it out.

I've been attending the folklife festival periodically since it began - my family moved to metro dc in 1966 and the folklife festival began in 1967 - I've never sat down and listed how many folklife festivals I've gone to, but the festival has allowed me to 'go to' places that I would never be able to visit if it didn't exist. the festival has never failed to stimulate, entertain and educate. it is indeed a national treasure.

on flickr you can see some of the pictures I took at this year's folklife festival - it was hard for me to leave bhutan when I was there, so my pictures aren't really 'representative' of all that the festival is offering. however, f & I did get in listening to some great texas music! click here for my folklife festival set of pictures.

it's back to reality - I have many projects to attend to (and complete!) not only this week but the whole summer is looking quite full! I expect my time in the blogosphere will be limited - I'll be popping round the cyberhood to visit, but I might not be posting as many comments as usual. here on the mouse the posts may be heavy on pictures and light on words (aren't you relieved!)

photo: prayer flags flying near the temple temporarily on display on the washington mall. after this year's folk life festival this temple will be dismantled and will be taken to it's new home at the university of texas at el paso (utep) - I learned at the folklife festival there is a special connection between utep and bhutan, if you're interested you can read about this here.

tish hinojosa singing closer still