The lid is off the lake behind my house. No more ice and, like a pot of stew, the water is churning with winter's leftovers and spring's odds and ends. Hope the soaring breezes carry the heady aromas to wherever you are. Excitement and inspiration are there for the breathing, and the taste of new life will make your soul leap.
When the Northwest Passage first made a lightning zigzag in the thawing ice pack, I dragged the canoe down and managed an adventure (after chickening out my first couple of attempts), paddling with one arm. The rotator cuff is healing fantastically fast, but I don't want to be back on the surgical gurney for an encore. Now the thing about canoeing in an ice pack is that you can bump your way along like a guided monorail at Disney World, and there are no waves. So while it may sound like the voyage of the SS Disaster, it was breathtaking in the sun-shot mist of a crystal dawn. With only one arm, I didn't bring a camera, but there are two pictures below from another year.
A lot of fascinating mail came in from around the world after last month's column, including a video link from Germany to a hit song dedicated to me in the 1990s (Glenn Frey’s “I’ve Got Mine,” in which he used a phrase from my Pulitzer Prize-nommed novel THE PHASES OF HARRY MOON). Of course I’m biased, but I love this song both for its message and the soft urgency with which Glenn performs it. It’s a sexy package that really drives home the satiric idealism of the words. And the saxophone work by Chris Mostert from Holland is outstanding (I commit travesties with the T-sax, and so the video is sort of a mercy gig for me by association). Glenn sent me an original tape at the time, but it was cool to get this and see it again: http://www.glennfreyonline.com/multimedia/videos/ivegotmine.wmv
There was also quite a bit of response to the last two columns about the white feather and the pink flamingo, including requests for a picture of Flamingo Frank. The update on the white feather is that, yes, it is still there as of March 27, and that means it has lasted a full four seasons. The latest photos of it are below, along with one of Flamingo Frank and I writing at opposite ends of a table on an out island in the Bahamas, and another of Frank standing behind a fire on that same beach (think Buddha) and one of Frank and his daughter Sheri at sunset. Dorie, a reader from Texas (?), sent this amusing limerick:
Some people
like to play bingo
Others enjoy Beatles' Ringo
But then there are
those
who prefer frozen toes
Searching in woods for
flamingo!
The March 27 date found me in another section of Elm Creek as well, and while taking some pictures I caught a tawny streak coming at me from just over my shoulder. I've mentioned before about the cougar sightings in this area, and I thought this was it as I spun around. And then the creature said...woof! Yeah. Golden retriever. Someone was running him for hunting. Minute later heard the far-off tweets of the dude on a whistle.
This month's column over on StorytellersUnplugged.com is all about making life-changing career shifts -- or major shifts in anything, really. Here's a link http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-making-love-or-between-the-covers-of-a-book
In addition to the photos already mentioned, Dr. Foto (folksinger Mark Manrique) weighs in below with his latest aspersion on yours truly. See, we've got this thing going wherein we blame all disasters on each other's cultural heritage -- Irish vs. Mexican. So now he maintains he has traced me back to the Aztecs, which apparently is close enough to blur my ancestors with his. Henceforth St. Pat's day will be celebrated on the 5th of May. (Do not eat the green tamales.) The other photo is a reminder that I will never be featured on "Dancing with the Stars." However, looks to me like I've got lunch on my shoulder.
Finally, a few people have asked me to post
at Twitter, which I am now trying to do at least once a day. It's not intrusive, as I thought it
would be. You can be totally
inactive or interact as you choose.
The posts are limited to 140 keystrokes and you go to them with a single
click, they don't come to you. I
don't officially follow very many, but informally I do as the mood takes
me. Sort of like peeping through a
keyhole anonymously at lots of interesting stuff. Here's my link: http://twitter.com/thomassullivan. And if
you'd like to get this newsletter sent directly to you free each month
(including photos which aren't posted here), email me at mn333mn@earthlink.net. Wishing you all a grand month until we
meet again...
Thomas “Sully” Sullivan
http://www.thomassullivanauthor.com
