Sharing and Probably Too Much of It

I'm working on an animation for kidlets with my shiny new animation program. Here's a clip. It was a lot more fun with my first musical composition (Garage Band - yet another thing I need to stay away from) - but A. insisted I remove the track that sounded like a 70's cop show. Jeezus. Some musicians. So particular.



Hey, while I'm at it, sharing and all that, I'm going to add to this blog. I wrote a bit the other day because one of Brian Andreas' pieces is up for auction. Both he and Kenny Loggins signed it - and because the proceeds benefit the Unity Shoppe, Brian's going to do an original drawing to make this auction particuarly special. He doing this because I wrote the piece and THEN found out that there's more than one print up for auction. Eeek a mouse. I'm a dope.

Anyway, I am a huge HUGE fan of the Unity Shoppe - so here you go. If you think it's maudlin, you're entitled, but you're wrong. Ha.

** ** **

In just one day, the auction will end on a 'Connection' print signed by both Kenny Loggins and Brian Andreas. The auction proceeds will benefit the Unity Shoppe of Santa Barbara. You can find it right here and bid with gusto. Or cheer on the other bidders. :)

There couldn't be a better story for this organization, a local pearl - you know, one of those gems that isn't shiny and show-offy, but the reward of a lot of grit - and luminous for it.

Allow me to remind you how that story goes:

there came a moment in the middle of the song
when he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room
& after that he never forgot he was
part of something much bigger -

- Connection by Brian Andreas

When it comes to helping each other, people do what they can do. And there are countless reasons why they do it, why anyone steps up at any time to give support or lend a hand.

Nothing is better, though, than the hand reaching out because it knows the hand it's reaching for wants the same warm feeling of safety, the same strong grip of hope.

Or the voice that advocates or negotiates for the one who is just trying to findthe the right way to talk of a future to its children.

Or mind that opens wide and creates solutions and imagines EVERYone flourishing.

This is exactly how the Unity Shoppe operates. There are no halos on parade. There's just a promise that's made and met every day: dignity for the clients. Real dignity.

I don't know if it's in their mission statement or a formal matter of policy, but I'm going to trust my experience and guess it's borne out of a vision of our connection.

It seems as if all involved know this to be true and so, whatever they say, however they assist, whenever they're organizing or distributing - there is nothing but an unfailing attitude of unity.

It's wild and it's wonderful and fills all of us in this community with big gratitude. What other way could you feel when you're invited to be part of something much bigger?

** I've included a few pictures of the grocery store and children's clothing boutique for anyone who wants to be stubborn and refuse to believe it. Ha. Each of them gets a little bigger when clicked.

http://www.unityshoppe.org/
http://www.logginsfans4unity.com/

Rearrangements

Strange - I started this blog a couple of hours ago and got interrupted by phone calls, a cigarette, a post office run, beer retrieval and recording a voice over. I only got as far as the title and by the time I returned to it (which is right now) I'd totally forgotten what 'rearrangements' referred to.

No. I can't remember at all.

I should probably change the title, cut my losses, move on to something slightly more engaging but that's the thing with me. The second I start having to negotiate that territory of 'what's interesting to someone else' versus 'what's interesting to me' - I'm screwed.

I'm screwed reminds me how my credit card company flagged my card this weekend for suspected fraudulent activity - despite the transaction being well within the boundaries of normal. I think they expected me to be grateful for their surveillance, but I thought it was a little over-enthusiastic, principally because I was the one who had to resolve the whole thing. By the time I was on my third phone call with them, I was pissed off.

Here's a curious fact. I swear like a professional swearer. Except when I'm really angry or when I'm in a clearly defined business situation. Mystery, but one not worth solving.

I wasn't furious with the credit card company - just really annoyed. Which, to my little lobe that handles profanity, was good reason to employ standard really annoyed language. This includes 'hell' and 'shit.'

Mister Man at the Credit Card Company warned me that two more infractions would entitle him to hang up on me. Hell, I nearly said, I didn't even know I was swearing. I had to ask him what prompted his warning.

You know, that's the story of the whole world. It's a thin line between not wanting to offend deliberately - emphasis on deliberately - and not wanting to offend at all. There's no end to the shit that some people will take offense to. At. One of those.

Are there criteria - objective criteria - for measuring what's really offensive? Probably not. I wouldn't trust a whole lot of other people to decide for me.

I'd like to know when the offended will step up and take some of the responsibility for being such big pains in the ass.

Do you think, like I suddenly think, that maybe I've had to be too nice lately? Ha.

Recovery

Oh. Here's a cartoon I just finished. Do you think the timing's okay?

Like everyone else, I got a share of the flu - not a big share, but still - enough to count. It didn't drop me, didn't force me into bed and tears, but it made sure I knew it had installed itself and that I should pay attention. It was a lot like the cat. Persistent. Insistent. Demanding. Waking me up at ungodly hours. Curling itself around me while I sat and worked, but howling if I was audacious enough to want to get up and do something.

So, two weeks after it hit, I'm finally nearly recovered. My friend who knows all sorts of stuff about ... healthy stuff was a huge help. You should get one of those, a friend who knows that stuff. Jeeezus. A few good doses of supplements and life got a whole lot better. Wheee.

Yes, recovery is good. But I've got a little more to recover from. Since I was perfectly capable of sitting at the computer, I spent plenty of time learning this new animation program. I also managed to spend way more time than usual doing internet prowling. Probing. Poking. Reading.

Oh, hell no! It was awful. No, no, no. There's just a flood of information out there and, as you'd expect in a flood, a LOT of flotsam and jetsam. (See what reading a little Faulkner will teach you?) In an earlier, less electronic age, I might have been thrilled to read an article - ONE article, one LONG article - about any of this stuff. I'd have been happy to discover a curiosity. I'd have loved to seek out more information.

But I got too much. I really need to recover, but so far, B12's doing nothing.