PONDERING LIFE (#13): Woke up early this morning thinking about this series, “LIFE, LOVE, TRAVEL, & PETS”. I made a list of stories that will be fun to tell, and those are just the ones before we came to San Miguel de Allende. There are plenty of great, fun stories to get to us to 2/15/21. Because of your interests, I am committed to finish this series.
Then the series could change to “GOOD, BAD, & UGLY” starting with THE PARK BANK VALENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE OF 1986 (#1). That is a BAD story, and there are several others, but there are plenty of GOOD ones. Some of the GOOD stories are actually great, and even amaze me as I look back.
The really BAD stories start in 1997 with my Mother’s gruesome and painful death from cancer that started as bone cancer in her jaw, and my complete collapse a year later. But those are stories that I probably should share. I wrote a lot of them in 1998 to make it look like I was still working, before I couldn’t even go to the office. I know there are plenty of people who have come through a similar experience and maybe sharing will help us.
NOTE: Cathy has asked me to leave out the bad stories for now. She says we are seeing so many sad stories now, she just wants happy stories. Wew! That makes things a lot easier!
And don’t worry, the UGLY stories are just about my hair, especially after the pandemic started.
It is a little strange to look back and take stock of your life and notice clear patterns. If something didn’t work, I wouldn’t try it again. When I got fired from one of the top law firms in St. Petersburg (that was a GOOD thing), I never practiced law again. When I got fired as Executive Director of the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg (BAD thing), I never worked in St. Petersburg again. When I got divorced, I didn’t remarry for 16 years. When things got so bad after my Mother died that I couldn’t use the telephone, I never worked full time again (BAD thing that turned into a GOOD thing).
I can work incredibly hard and for long hours, but I can’t make myself do anything if I don’t feel like it.
Now, after I was kicked off Facebook for 5 weeks (BAD thing), and CAST OF CHARACTERS Live was nearly permanently banned from YouTube, I find myself enjoying writing these stories. I have a Zoom appointment at 2:00 this afternoon with my website designer to finalize castofcharacterslive.com, but I think I want to put off really pushing it until April 1st. I just want to stay with this, relax and take long walks again, unless YouTube really does ban me.
I am going to make a short video for Cathy and Ojala Niños and a friend is taking photos and short video clips for a 10 to 15 minute documentary that I want to make about a local artist when Cathy thinks it is safe for me to go out more and do some filming and interviews, maybe late March. There are two other longer documentaries I want to make. One was approved, then shot down by the pandemic. The other needs the approval and cooperation of the subject. After the trouble I got into with “The Gulfport Years”, I not going to make another unauthorized documentary.
Below is the first part of a three part documentary I made about being kicked off Facebook when Cathy was sick. Now that trump has been kicked off I’m not so mad, but it was really traumatic at the time. I made it in three parts, with the first part in two segments, because I didn’t know when I would get sick (I never did show symptoms) and wanted to upload what I could, while I could. I know it isn’t very good, but at least it got me in front of the camera, and that helped me understand why so many people don’t wanted to be filmed. The second segment took 14 takes!
If you have time, check out my Tom Paxton and Tonio K. Musically Documentaries on CAST Of CHARACTERS Live @ YouTube (at least for the time being). They really are good and I am very proud that I was allowed to work with such wonderful music.
Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement!