High Roads ( #AtoZChallenge )

         High roads are pretty great  until you lose yourself in a sudden curve to tumble down the mountainside and pray that you'll survive.  Falling from grace is bound to happen now and then in ones life journey...


       Heck, say anything about roads and you've gotten my attention.  My dreams are often dreams about roads.  Thinking about roads can make me smile.   Those thoughts can send me into a reverie.

         But really it's mostly metaphorical, that is my perception of a concept of meaning of life.  I see my life as this continuing journey. Sure it might seem like a cliche, but it's what makes the most sense.  To me at least.

        Traveling down that metaphorical road means sometime you're going to get somewhere and then continue on to the next place, on and on.  When I can travel the highest road then I am at my best.  I am grateful for the many in my life who encouraged me or lifted me in some way.  I am saddened by others.  But then my thoughts swirl back into a sense that it's all just what it is and I am where I am as are we all.

         And in my mind I see passing road signs:

Hope can elevate the spirit.

  Help can raise morale.

  Hate can destroy everything...

        Then the journey continues on to my next post...



         Are you the kind of traveler who likes to take time to see the scenery?    Or do you just want to get to your destination quickly?    What trope might you use to describe your life story?

Ain't No Time for the Summertime News (#BOTB Results)

I don't mind working while on a vacation so long as someone is paying my expenses.  Come to think of it I'd rather work than do certain summer activities...

       Gosh, it's almost summer.  I've been pondering our travels for the upcoming months.  We'll basically do our same road trip round of going back to the east coast to visit family in New Jersey and Tennessee.   It's a frantic fun time, but so much easier when I've carefully mapped out the route and scheduled rest stops and overnight stays.  We've done this plenty of times now so I've got the routine down fairly well.

        Or do I?   Road trips make good metaphors.  By the way, I'd mentioned that I'd started writing a song back during April A to Z.  Now I've finished it and I think I've got a good one.  Next I've got to get some kind of recording made, but that's just part of the process.  In this post I'm just establishing the fact that I've written this song just in case I need this as documentation for something someday.  I mean--who knows what can happen?

        I might also add that this song I wrote is also a metaphor.  Not only do I like metaphors, I also like the word "metaphor."   But enough of this ramble.  No time for this now.  Must be moving on to some other things.

       Things like...


Battle of the Bands Results

         The musical match between Dinah Shore and Ozzie Nelson was another squeaker with my vote for Ozzie almost making this previous Battle a tied outcome.  Alas, my guy didn't win, but the lady can take her bow for the win.

Final Vote Tally

Ozzie Nelson            7

Dinah Shore             8

Next Battle on Friday June 1st

       In upcoming weeks my Battles will be geared toward summer themes.  Summer gets my mind to dreaming and thinking, but I guess that's the case all the time.  The mind never really goes on vacation.

        How long of a road trip do you think you could endure if all of your expenses were covered?  Do you prefer to travel according to a well planned schedule or just setting out on a blind adventure to see where life takes you?   Are you going to be following the A to Z Road Trip?

Are You A Prisoner of Hope?

The prison cell of Cagliostro, fortress of La Rocca, in San Leo, Italy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Prison as a Metaphor

         Now let's look at the metaphor of prison.   Each of us are prisoners of some force or situation.  Hopefully we have never or never will face literal imprisonment, but oftentimes we feel trapped by circumstance or influence that others exert upon us.  In these times we might actually think to ourselves or say to others that we feel like a prisoner of such and such.  In those times we can become filled with resentment, fear, and hopelessness.

          Imprisonment without any actual barriers of confinement might include addictions, abusive relationships, lack of financial resources, physical impairment, or any number of other difficult situations from which we find it difficult to extricate ourselves.   Sometimes the overbearing influences of a friend, family member, co-worker, or a bad boss can cause us to feel trapped in a relationship that can lead to feelings of fear, self-doubt, and codependency.

           Obligations can also create a sense of imprisonment.   Some might feel that they have to go to school or pursue a particular career path in order to fulfill the expectations of someone else.  Others can feel stuck in a job because they need the paycheck and in doing so they might long for the unfulfilled dreams of the job that they don't have.

          The metaphorical prison can encompass so many things.  It might be money--too much or the lack thereof.  The prison might be our possessions or the people in our lives.   We can be imprisoned by geography--the place where we live. Our symbolic prisons don't necessarily confine us within walls.  Our prisons are shaped by our minds and the perceptions we cultivate about our lives.  Influence is also exerted from the outside, but ultimately we are each the architect of our own prison.

          One who is in love might construct walls consisting of idealistic perceptions, unrealistic dreams, burning desire, or outright lust.  Their time might be consumed with pining, writing poems or love letters, or any other pursuit  of the lovesick soul.  A writer can be a prisoner of word counts, research, the computer, and even their blogs.  Whenever  a passion is involved the risk of imprisonment increases.    Whether it be a significant other, children, pets, a home, a job, or just about anything you can think of, we are all prisoners serving a short term or a long one in order to pay for our passion or for the thing that has managed to ensnare us in some way.
  
          As for me I like the idea of being a prisoner of hope.  That's a term that came from the Bible--Zechariah 9:12 to be precise.   Hope that is not some worthless excuse or some unattainable pie-in-the-sky dream is the greatest drive that propels us forward.  To go through life without hope is to aim toward a future where all is darkness, not unlike one who would drive in their car on the darkest night with no headlights.   To live without hope is to expect to live no longer.

         Hope is that great whatever-it-is that lies somewhere ahead of us; that for which we dream and strive and dream some more as we continue onward toward our personal El Dorado in the who-knows-where.  We can dream, but dreams are nothing without the hope that they can be one day possibly achieved.   And even if the dream is never achieved, hope provides the energy and sense of meaning to pursue the quest.  Without hope there is little to sustain us.
       
          What imprisons you?   Have you become a prisoner of hope?   Metaphorically speaking, what does breaking free from prison mean to you?

What Is This Post Leading To?

     As many of you who follow Tossing It Out already know, sometimes my posts are not just posts, but preludes to more posts.  This one is no exception.  Though I think I've brought up a relevant point regarding a subject that I think is of interest, this post is thematically connected to the posts you'll be finding on this site in the coming week and which will culminate in my song choice for my Battle of the Bands post on Sunday November 15th.

      This current post is a bit of a clue to that song choice--a song that likely few of you will be familiar with even though it is a song well known to millions of people.  This song has been recorded by many artists since it was first released in 1981 when it became a huge hit for the original artist.  This artist has international renown and besides having released several albums he has appeared in movies and on television.   His music has influenced numerous artists.

       Since these clues will probably be of little help to most of you I will be having BOTB contributor Guilie Castillo Oriard from Quiet Laughter actually join me at my blog on Wednesday when she will not only introduce the song to you, but also tell you a bit about her book The Miracle of Small Things which has recently been released.  On BOTB day she and I will present related Battles with songs in a similar genre.   

         This should prove to be a unique experiment as well as a mind expanding learning experience for all of us.   Please be here on this coming Wednesday, Friday, and finally Sunday November 15th when my next Battle of the Bands is presented.

          Gracias.

Where Do Ghost Stories Come From?

It's that time of year once again, Halloween ushers in the best holiday of the Holiday season! Taken at La Mesa Oktoberfest in 2007 but still relevant every Halloween. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

        This post did not turn out like I had planned.  I was putting together a post about evil, but when I started correlating the concept not only to Halloween, but to the world in general my mind began to drift to more pleasantness.  Then I started thinking back on the Halloweens of my past.  I have some interesting memories if not totally fun ones.  Maybe the real evil can wait until another post because it's out there whether we can name it or not. No, not in this post.

        And sorry if my title led you here to read ghost stories.  I don't have any special chillers to tell you, but I just wanted to ruminate a bit on memories.  As some of you know I also have a memoir blog called Wrote By Rote which posts every Saturday (except in unique circumstances perhaps). Coming to that blog on October 31 (tomorrow on the day of this post's publication) I'll be discussing the impact that memories can have on who we are and how those memories can be channeled into writing memoir.   In other words I'll be tossing out ideas to the readers just like I do on this blog you're reading now and then hopefully we have a conversation about the topic.

        Think about how "ghosts" are often a metaphor for our memories of bygone people, things, and events.   When I think of it that way I kind of wonder how many ghost stories are actually allegories or symbolic representations of things in the author's own life.

          Oh, if you want to think on that a moment then here's some background music.   "Memories" from the musical Cats is even more beautiful than I remember.




        If you really got into that song like I did, you might want to hear it again.  How about the following version by Barbra Streisand.   I must be in some strange mellow mood tonight as I write this post.  Anyway, here's Barbra.





          Gosh this is almost like a Battle of the Bands post!  I guess you can vote on one of these if you want, but for my real official Battle of the Bands be sure to come back here this Sunday November 1st.   My song for this next round will be another one about memories, aging, and ghosts.  The song will be a far different style--and a bit scarier--than this song from Cats.  It's a song by one of my favorite rock artists.

          See you Sunday!

         What kinds of memories tend to haunt you the most?  What are the most tangible and sensate memories that you hold?    How do your memories communicate with you?

"I'm the Zombie? How'd That Happen?"

...with Battle of the Bands results!

 Mr Zombie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

        Back in May, Robin at Your Daily Dose got me to thinking about issues she brought up in a post that you can find here.  In my comment responding to her post I contemplated some of  the metaphorical implications regarding the popularity of the zombie genres found so often in modern culture.  Thinking that perhaps my ponderings might make for an interesting blog post, I tucked away my thoughts in my idea file to be pulled out later.  My recent blog series about death and zombies seemed to be a good place to finally bring these ideas out as a conclusion to that series.

        Over the past few posts on Tossing It Out, as well as a post at my memoir blog Wrote By Rote, I've been discussing the topics of death and zombies partly in relation to the Halloween season, but primarily to call attention to my Battle of the Bands installment that featured the song "When I'm Dead and Gone".  I'll be getting to the winner of the BOTB contest shortly, but first I want to present my theory about our increasing societal obsession with zombies.

        This topic has been addressed by many others.   Andrew Leon directed me to one of his own posts, "Zombies: A Cultural Metaphor" from a few years ago at his blog Strange Pegs.  In short, Andrew offers the concept that our fascination and fear of zombies is related to issues regarding the influence of technology, corporations, and government on our society.  You might want to go back and read his post to get the full story behind his theory.  

         Other theories I've found have suggested that the zombie metaphor extends to viruses, contagion, human isolation, paranoia, and the general fears that confront us.  The Ebola Virus crisis has probably made others beside myself think about a future epidemic unlike any we've seen previously that could include reanimated corpses.   Farfetched?  Probably, but it makes for a good scary story.

         Here is what came to my mind as I was commenting on Robin's previously mentioned blog post:

Regarding hope vs purpose. Personally I think internally hope is the force that drives any of us. Without hope we merely act on autopilot to get the days work done with nothing more to look forward to. Goals are the result of hope and the hope provides more meaning to the purpose.

From the outside though, as far as other people are concerned, the purpose is mainly what matters. Our hope may spread to others around us and inspire them, but on the whole the people we deal with are mainly interested in the purpose we serve.

The burger flipper may hope toward vacation time or a college degree and the purpose of the job is to get them to their goal, but the job is not their ultimate purpose. The guy waiting for his burger hopes that his burger is fixed right and the flipper has no purpose to him other to get his burger done.

Maybe a lot of the zombie stories metaphorically represent a world that increasingly consists of people who are losing hope and the burning internal desire to find ultimate purpose only to become hopeless empty shells merely left with the purpose to survive.

          To take this thinking a step further I sense that many people today have a spiritual disconnect and rely on outside forces such as governmental or societal support.   They are burdened with the desire to have more and do more which in turn leads to enslavement of debt, jobs they don't like, and a general lack of direction about where they are going in this life.  Consequently they plod lifelessly from one day to the next from job to the shopping mall to do whatever else everyone else is doing.   We all wait, stand in lines, and face frequent let-downs in our lives.  What we do with these experiences and how we react to everything we encounter determines the amount of actual life we have burning within us.   Some people don't take it so well and spend time complaining and just following the rest of the crowds who have little or no idea what's coming next.

        There is certainly more that can be added to all this but I must move on to BOTB results.

Battle of the Bands:  The Outcome

        What I thought was going to be an essentially uneventful BOTB contest turned out to be a heated  horse race.   There were surprises like those voters who I thought would surely know the original version of "When I'm Dead and Gone" by McGuinness Flint who did not know the song.  Maybe they just didn't remember it since it's a song that is not often played anywhere these days.   A few of you knew the song but most did not.

         As I somewhat expected in the case of those who did not know the song or the original artist several cast their votes based on the greater familiarity of Def Leppard.   I was surprised that some voters did not like the song as I find it to be catchy and quite entertaining, an opinion shared by at least a third of the voters. But like I say it was a horse race all the way.   As I read the comments and tallied the votes I could almost hear the sports announcer detailing the back and forth nature of the contest.  This was one of my craziest BOTB posts ever as far as close voting goes.

        My preferred version is the original by McGuinness Flint for the same reasons cited by some of you.  The instrumentation, especially the mandolin and the solid drum backing, as well as the vocals give the song a better sound to my ears than the version by Def Leppard.   Those hard rockin' Def boys did a fine job with the cover and it's grown on me through subsequent listenings, but I don't think they could ever surpass McGuinness Flint for my taste.   I love this song--it's a catchy foot-tapping memorable romp and I can't understand why anyone wouldn't like it.   But some of you didn't as indicated in your voting.

        So how did my vote affect the outcome of the Battle?  It almost puts McGuinness Flint in a tie with Def Leppard.

The Final Tally

 McGuinness Flint     13

Def Leppard             14


         The next Battle of the Bands posts will come on Saturday November 15th and I've got what will be one of my favorite matches so far.   It's a pop song from a 1969 concept album by a hugely popular artist whose career spanned over half of the 20th century.   The seemingly unlikely competitor is a very eclectic band that came together in the early 90's and is still active today.   Be sure to join me for this one and I don't want to hear anyone say they don't like this coming song pick.   How could you not like this song?  Anyway, be here and find out for yourself.

         Does my zombie theory hold credence in your estimation?   What is your own opinion as to why zombies are so fascinating to so many?    Do you know what my blog post title is derived from?    

Related articles

• Battle of the Bands: When I'm Dead and Gone
• Everybody Loves Zombies? How the Undead Helped Build a Burger Empire
• Encounters with Death

I Wrote This Post Fifty Years Ago

         Before I ever knew that there would be an internet or that I would have a blog, I wrote this post.  I was just a kid--in the fourth grade.  It was 1960 it was.

          I alluded to the writing sample that follows in my post on Monday 12/5.  As I explained in that post, my teacher at the time, Mrs. Kingston, showed us a picture that she had taken from a magazine and told us to write a description of it.

           As I recall, the illustration of what was probably a scene depicting a nighttime sea battle during the American Civil War showed a massive fiery explosion in the water.  Men in a dinghy near the blast are drawing back in terror and shielding themselves from the powerful force of the eruption.  At least, this is what I remember and I will have to rely on this memory since I don't have a copy of that picture.

          Mrs. Kingston gave me an A and some encouraging compliments. She then mounted the paper on a larger piece of yellow construction paper and after reading my paragraph to the class, she passed it around to the other classes in the school and eventually mounted the paper on a bulletin board outside the school office. I experienced my first thrill of having my writing read by others and hearing the words spoken in public.  It was a writer's high that I never wanted to lose.

          The following is the collection of adjectives, metaphors, and similes that was the paragraph that set me off on my course of writing aspirations.

                            Burnt and Salty


       There is a smell of fire and smoke.  You can taste salty water from the ocean.   It was fire from the ocean.  It was like a volcano from the bottom.  It looks like a huge ghost coming out of the sea.  The sky looks like the heavens are on fire.  The sun fell into the sea.  A sea dragon is shooting flamey fire out of the rough water.  It feels like a steaming hot furnace.  The sea looks like thousands of geysers shooting water.  Even though it is dark it is light.   It is a geyser of steaming flamey fire.  You can feel water and fire shooting into your sweaty face.  Your clothing is shabby.  Your face is burnt and scarred.

          So from my fourth grade self here is some sort of insight to my writing style perhaps.  I'm not sure what was influencing me at the time, but I do recall reading a great deal back then.  I'm not sure whether to thank her or curse her, but Mrs. Kingston, you played big role in why I blog today.

           Do you have a particular teacher who influenced your desire to write?   Have you saved any of your old schoolwork or writing samples from childhood?   Did you have aspirations to become a writer when you were a child?

Related articles

• Writing about Teachers That Made a Difference (larrycuban.wordpress.com)
• Thanks to Teachers (teachfromtheheart.wordpress.com)
• The most important thing I learned from a teacher (boingboing.net)
• GUEST BLOG POST: Self-Advocacy Begins with Reflection (twowritingteachers.wordpress.com)