June  10,  2023

OUTSIDE

 

We find ourselves outside more than inside –

in stories and conversations and situations.

Sometimes we try to get inside the mystery –

if that is what we think it is – or we are simply

nosey. We just want to know! That’s it. Yes.

Or we give up and move onto something else.

Little kids do that all the time. Next. The new ….

Or what’s really happening – maybe – is our

desire to be on the inside? Wondering – just

wondering – are the first moments after we

die – a gathering of questions – the inside?

God. Life. Others. The why question has

to be one of life’s main question. Why’s that?

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 June 10, 2023

Quote for Today

"When I give food to the poor they call me a saint.  When I ask why the poor have no food they call me a communist."

Helder Camara (1909- )

 June 9, 2023

SOUNDS

 

Sounds all around.

Someone beeps their car.

A baby cries.

A dog barks.

I yawn.

I love the sound of trains.

That sound brings me back to my high school days.

That was way before my health problems.

It was way before anyone asked me my date of birth.

Sounds good to me.

Let’s get a milk shake.

“Hi!”

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 June 9, 2023

Quote for Today

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together  through the years.  That is what makes a marriage last - more than passion or even sex!"

Simone Signoret (1921-1985)

in Daily Mail, July 4, 1978

 June 8, 2023

REMEDIES

 

Is life one long search for remedies?

How to fix a broken heart?

How to heal the cut?

How to stop the blood?

How to know what to say

at the funeral parlor?

The best way to raise a kid?

How to forgive a brother or a sister?

Whom do we talk to when we have

to talk to someone?

Is life one long search for remedies?

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 

 June 8, 2023

Quote for Today

"You know more than you think you do."

Benjamin Spock (1903-1998)    

Common Sense Book of Baby

and Child Care (1946)

 June 7, 2023

STATEN  ISLAND  FERRY

 

Way before the Verrazano Bridge

As kids we loved a trip across the Narrrows –

that water way between Brooklyn

and Staten Island – on the ferry.

5 cents, Looking back I never asked

my dad his thoughts – as he stood

at the railing – seeing boats – from

everywhere. Did it bring him back to

his arrival in America by boat from Ireland?

That’s one more question I never asked

him – one more wondering – about his life.

Was there any grammar school teacher

who gave us questions to ask our parents

when we got home from school or are

these just one more of the many questions

we get long after they died?

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 June 7, 2023

Quote for Today

"A great devotee of  the Gospel of Getting on."

George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950]

Mrs. Warren's  Profession [1898] Act 4.

 June 6, 2023

 

WHEELS

 

I have always heard that Native Americans

never came up with the idea or wheels.

Wheels would have certainly made life

that much easier for everyone. Definitely….

When wagons rolled by – when trains

arrived – how would one explain the

obvious – whatever they are, they

certainly make lugging stuff from

here to there less of a burden.

Was that why Who little boys love toys

with wheels? Who invented the wheel

in the first place. Who and where?

The why is obvious. Let’s get moving.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 June 6, 2023

Quote for Today

"Where have all the flowers gone?"

Pete Seeger 1919 -

Title of a Song

June 5, 2023

 

CLUMSY

 

If you don’t mind being clumsy,

you can learn the dance. Yes.

You might worry about critics

off to the side – along the walls –

or still sitting at their tables – but

you’ll learn the shifts and slides

of the dance – or you’ll get your

suitcase up to the fourth floor

when the elevator doesn’t work.

You’ll have night wear for the night

and a clean shirt in the morning.

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 

 

 June 5, 2023

Quote for today

"I know two kinds of audiences - one coughing, and one not coughing."

Artur Schnabel (1882-1951)

My Life and Music (1961)

pt, 2, c. 10

 June 4, 2023

IMPROVISED

 

Sometimes the most interesting part of life

is to improvise – to fix things on the run –

to get it done with what we have at hand.

Grey duct tape helps, So too imagination.

So too experience along with the ability

to laugh at our own creations. They need

a speaker on the spot. Here I am, gang.

Here l am. So too a broken window. So

too a broken toilet seat or venetian blinds.

Was that God’s method on the six days

of creation. And it was good. Good!

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 June 4, 2023

Quote for Today

"Westerners have aggressive problem-solving minds -Africans experience people."

Kenneth Kaunda (1924-2021)

Attributed to Zambian

statesman, President 1964-91