Welcome back to my world. It's been almost 5 months since I died and was reborn after stage 3 lymphoma. Without recanting the tick tock about how cancer changes a life and takes it on a ride you never forget, suffice it to say that it did and it has.The first 2 years of my blog were about raising grandsons in a hectic house full of people, dogs and high energy. I'm returning with a wider lens on the lives we lead here. This time through the eyes of the artist rather than the guardian-grandparent.
I've spent my life in creative endeavors - making flutes, writing novels and screenplays, creating stop-motion animation shorts, playing music, and living through my imagination. My life has been a mosaic of creative choices that include raising my family and directing my business, to writing books, studying music, astronomy, cartoon art, quantum physics, metal chasing & raising, right down to flying an airplane and entering local elected politics (a misunderstood art form if ever there was one). I took on all of these things and more by choice and blended them into the way I want to lead a life, not through peer pressure, or being boxed in by bad decisions, or even convenience.
As luck would have it, my wife and partner of almost 30 years travels her own individual path as well so we understand the need to adapt to changing circumstances and life choices. We are both lousy consumers. We don't follow trends and fashions, don't feel we need the latest car, bigger house, or fancy gadgets, and when we make a bad choice, we step back and correct it rather than follow it to disaster.
I suppose it's much easier to look at the world from a parental, political, or even simply a male/female perspective. But that wouldn't be me. I'd rather show you life through a flawed artist's eyes. We'll talk of grandsons, art & music, family, physics, dogs, town life and all the other thoughts & ideas that whirl around my imagination. Those that have read my blog will recall that I didn't focus on the mundaneries of family life, such as the dinner menu or the cute faces children pull. I tried to bring some solid substance into my posts, some realism that would leave you with something to think about and sometimes leave us a bit exposed. The same holds here. I don't intend to regale cookie recipies and talk about how good the coffee is this morning. That's why I took a break - to gather up and refresh rather than just repeat and report on the nothings that make up most of our days.
Life is a strange and glorious trip. Ride with me for a while and share your thoughts and responses along the way.