City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York,

Quite a few weeks ago, and if I were being more precise, it might actually be more than a few weeks ago, the wonderful Cait O'Connor passed along to me a few interview questions. I have certainly taken my time in replying.


I am starting with a post of a painting I did many years ago, when I was a much younger person, and carried many dreams in my head. At that point in my life, I still thought that time went on forever, and that dreams would come true, if only one wished for them over and over.

Years later, I realized that more than wishes might be involved. I even began to enlarge my field of dreaming.

Back to Cait's interview questions.

1. Was I ever an art student. Oh yes. My college diploma says my major was in Economics, but I also took enough courses to qualify for a degree in Art Studio. I just, perhaps rightly...perhaps not, that Economics would grant me more employment possibilities.

2. If you had your life to live over again, what, if anything, would you do differently. Ah Cait, this is a tough one. At the end of every week, I have reasons to reconsider lots of what I did in the past bunch of hours.

I was raised in a totally different environment, am just a bit too old to be considered a baby boomer. I think that I was taught as a child to be seen and not heard, and as a female to also be more submissive than my inner nature told me. I turned down several marriage proposals, and wonder about one of those nays. It was ages ago, in the midst of the Vietnam War, and accepting would have set me on a totally different path. I was frightenened to take that path.

3. What do most look forward to when you retire. Ah, this is the joke question! Right now, at age 63, I already qualify for this country's Social Security benefits. These months monetary benefits are stated to increase the later once chooses to sign up for them. I will wait as long as possible, but really feel that the entire Social Security system is yet another Ponzi scheme, based upon the feeding of the base of its pyramid by increasing numbers of willing workers who are involuntarily made part of this system.

Gosh, I have so many interests, and so wish that I could spend every day on them, starting right now! Painting, drawing, printmaking, writing, sewing, knitting, crocheting, reading, gardening ... in my dreams-only garden. Seeing friends, traveling. Maybe I will eventually be able to have at least one blow out year!

4. Where is your favorite place in New York? Easy. Central Park, the very big back yard (garden) for all of us who live in Manhattan. It never lets you down. Just take a walk there ... 30 minutes are enough, longer is better, and your mind is refreshed. I saw a "host" of snowdrops in the Yoko-funded Strawberry Fields area today. And a host of tourists taking photos of the Imagine mosaic.

5. List your passions. Cait, this one is tricky, because it is the most revealing. I really do love kindness. Openness. Great art from all the cultures and centuries that have gone before us. The same is true of literature. Friends who cling together for many decades and let our ridges and splinters show. Fresh flowers, and fresh spring and summer fruits and vegetables. Learning anything new. Having my opinions tested and learning something new.

Thank you Cait, for the opportunity to answer your questions. If anyone reading this would also like to take the time to me interviewed, please do leave me a message. I will try to provide some questions as fine as those that Cait sent me.

Sweet dreams to all.