1 + 1 = 3

This exercise is from Austin Kleon's Steal Like An Artist journal. You must list or name two objects that add together to make something completely new (e.g. flickr + video = youtube).

To children who know their parents

Recent conversation with my son...

Him: "I went to see the movie "The Revenant" this week".
Me: "What did you think? Is this the film for which Leonardo DiCaprio will finally win an Oscar?"
Him: "It wasn't bad. Just thought that if there is ever a film you don't want to see, it is this one."
Me: "Too suspenseful?"
Him: "Not really, it is just one of those "No Chance In Hell" films you really don't like. There wasn't one moment when you think... this might turn our all right."

I was touched by the conversation... how well he knows me, how well he makes it funny to have a mother who is chicken to see a movie without hope.

Who tip jar would be filled first?

This exercise is from Austin Kleon's Steal Like An Artist journal.

The idea is to name two persons from somewhat comparable backgrounds or professions.


Then put their names on a label of tip jars.


Which jar do you think you tip in?


Which of the jars do you think would fill first?

My heros

This exercise is from Austin Kleon's Steal Like An Artist journal. There were empty picture frames and I filled them up with four of my heroes.


Josephine Baker: multi-talented, multi-lingual, fiercely courageous, and magnificently curious



Jane Austen: fundamentally comic, historically significant, and phenomenal storyteller



Mary Magdalene: historically ambivalent, Apostle to the Apostles, and loyal companion



Hildegard von Bingen: hardly know what to say about her because the largeness of her life cannot be contained. For those of you who do not know her... she was a Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath. She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

Like being in the middle of an ad

Early this morning as I was getting ready to meditate, I looked out our living room window and there was this delivery truck shinning light out into the dark street. It was like being in the middle of a advertisement.