Do You Ever Feel this Way?

 What is this?

It's a Dragon built entirely with Legos and perched atop the Lego Store at Downtown Disney--night shot, quite incredible.

We had another foray walking Downtown Disney. This time with an old friend and a new one. And it was there at the bandstand that Baby Darling, his first time ever, asked a girl to dance. He is three-years-old, she looked about the same. He took her by both hands and they shimmied and shook and cut a rug, then fell in a dog pile on the dance floor, only to get up and begin anew. I guess now is the time to officially retire the name "Baby Darling" and officially use "Little Boy Darling."

Tell me about life…I’m discouraged. I feel that I’m not a writer although for a long time I have followed the philosophy time that God, the Universe, the Source, the Force whatever you want to call that Divine spark that lives in all of us, will not give us a dream without also giving us a way to accomplish it.

What do you think?

Yesterday I told Daughter Number One to “Expect a miracle.” Her response was, “I should just expect one, I don’ t have to believe in them?”

 Right.

 "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.  Now put a foundation under them."

 ~Henry David Thoreau

How Can We Live Our Lives to the Fullest?

This is Ray Bradbury as I remember him.

June 6, 2012

I feel sad.

I just looked up Ray Bradbury and found that he died yesterday June 5, 2012. Phooey. I wish people didn’t have to do that. I wanted to pin him on Pinterest as he is one of my favorite people, and found that I can grab a picture off the web and pin it, and while doing so I found that he is conversing with the greats, but not on this plane. Who did he say he wanted to talk with? Socrates I think.

Strange that I found him today, the day after his death.  I was driving home from Disneyland when he died—Bradbury loved exuberance, and fantasy, and dinosaurs—probably he loved Disneyland. He almost gave up his obsession with dinosaurs after being teased about it, but then decided to follow his own drummer, and grew up to be one of the great science fiction writers of our time. One day long ago, in San Diego, he hugged me. I adopted him as a mentor that day.

Okay back to the question: “How can we live our lives to the fullest every day we have here on this planet?” Daughter Darling asked me that question yesterday as we wandered around Disneyland. (I rode Dumbo for the first time, Baby Darling’s second.)  Yesterday was the last day we could use our Disney season tickets for the next two months, as those months are Black-out days for Southern California residents. Perfect weather. Wonderful. Baby Darling has been “Star Wars Touring” it ever since.

Oh yes, the question: I don’t know how to live life to the fullest…We live, we try to rid ourselves of past garbage—how many people do you know say their childhoods were perfect? If yours wasn’t perfect, forget it! Or at least say, “Then was then and now is now. Time to wake up and smell the flowers.”

Part of this search for happiness, for fulfillment, for authenticity, for a connection to the divine is to forget about making a fool of oneself, forget about failing. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, easy to say…)

Hey, I don’t have the answers, I just have the questions.

Okay, a change of pace here. I have two movies to recommend. One is Bernie, the other is The Exotic Marigold Hotel.

If you have seen Jack Black in School of Rock, you will be astounded at his performance as Bernie. Both were great, and the performances are polar opposites. In Bernie Black plays an assistant funeral director, and the nicest man you could believe. (True story.)  And then there is Mathew McConaughey, who played a District Attorney—you probably won’t like his character, but his performance is the best I have seen of his since he performed, again as a lawyer, in the movie Amistad. McConaughey’s  inflections and expressions were choice. His hair was graying, he wore glasses—I liked him ruffed up a bit. I nominate him for an Academy Award as best supporting actor.

The Exotic Marigold Hotel played at 10 pm to an audience of two, Husband Dear and me. I loved it. If you love Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nightly and Maggie Smith you will too. Dev Patel, (Slumdog Millionaire), the native of India, and manager/dreamer of the Hotel was superb.

“Everything will turn out in the end. If it’s not all right, it’s not the end.” Best line in the movie.