Blog Manifesto

Blog Manifesto


This blog is dedicated, as the title would suggest, to the qualities of being young. We are young writers. We are playful and sensitive, fluid and changing. We are unashamed with our art. We wonder at the world, puzzle over the meanings of things and twirl in delight at images and ideas that float by, grabbing at them as they pass. We are curious and constantly inquiring and prying concepts open and taking assumptions apart. We are on the ground, close to the earth. We have bare feet and wiggle our toes into nature. We carry our blankies still and wrap up cozy and comfy with each other and tell ghost stories and shiver at creepy things. We laugh and we cry and we take a lot of naps, drained from our outings and exertions.

We write as gifts to each other, tying them up in ribbon and leaving them around for each other to find, hiding and waiting for the person to wake up and read. Surprise! We weave our stories together to create a bond. One writes, then the other. then another again. We have a shared reality that we have crafted, bit by piece by patch, by string. We write simple, honest authentic things, with our unique voices. You can tell each one of us from the other, without knowing who wrote what. Our voices are clear and gentle and original. We whisper and our personalities roar! Like children, our feelings are strong, our passion for what we write shakes us. We are moved and sometimes left breathless, by our own words or the words of each other. We cannonball into each others spaces. We fall backward into each others writing, like into a pile of leaves or a soft bed. We gobble and grin and ask for more. (footnote kudos to JC)

Then we go to bed, wake up to a new day and do it all over again!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Special Event House

Ten years ago my sister sold her ranch in California and brought the money to Washington on the lookout for a retirement home for herself.  It was going to be something she could decorate and update, a place with room for her collections...dolls, barbed wire, hats, paintings, old farm implements, family pictures, pottery, Indian artifacts, board games, loom spools, antique furniture. Most of these things had been in storage for many years as she had downsized to a trailer when she moved from the ranch.

She ended up in my father's hometown and bought the largest house we remember as kids visiting there. It sits on a majestic hill three blocks up from the main highway, old 101, on Main St. right across from the oldest County Court House in the State, and the Court House's ugly 1980 addition, the County Jail! What do they say?  Location, location, location!

For ten years she has spent the school year in California and every summer in Washington working on the house. It was built in 1903 by a lumber baron. He had money and spent it on this house. Over the years, however, after it passed out of that family it was owned by a dentist, a rehabilitation outreach, a gay couple of directors from Hollywood, and finally, Denise. It is called the Hubble House after the original builder.

For ten years each detail of the home was upgraded, refurbished, renewed or improved.  It is now better and bigger than ever before. She lives in what used to be the carriage house while the main house is the museum. Besides her own collections many townspeople have presented her with items original to the house when the Hubbles occupied it. It is a showpiece. So far in the year it has been open to the public, there have been three weddings, four birthday and anniversary parties, one book signing and a couple of company celebrations.  We have organized tours twice a year and it is available for drop-in tours at five dollars a head. I really enjoy it...

So, the other day my sister comes to me and says... I don't think I like to work with the public! There's a lot of stress getting things ready for an event. I'm getting older and I want to just go away and live in Kentucky in my trailer. ....

Is she crazy? I've devoted the last five years of my life to this project!  Is she sick? Maybe the thyroid thing is acting up...I better get her to the doctor again. Really?  She's going to walk away from her collections (can't take them in a trailer).  Maybe she's just tired.  Geez, the panic...my panic, sets in. I moved here to help her and now she's hightailing it?  What's going on?

She explains...she wants to live debt free.  She wants to simplify. She doesn't want to be so occupied with other people's problems. She loves to show off the house but it's not paying off like she hoped.

I say, you haven't given it a chance. You haven't done any marketing.  In this town they don't understand what you're offering here. Don't give up.  You will be bored without this project. I can see her dilemma.  And, I can see mine. I moved here.  She leaves and I'm alone.  Well, I guess it's time to grow up.  I can live life without her.  After all, I have my friends on DMT and on Forever Young. Am I kidding myself? Nope, I can accept what comes.  Will she stay or will she go.  I really will be fine.




Posted by at
Labels: ,

1 comment:

  1. RosieApril 21, 2012 at 1:26 AM

    I believe you will be fine too. I hope she calms down and you guys have a fun peaceful retirement together.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)