Quote

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.
-Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Updates

Here are a couple of more articles about Arie Taylor. One in the Rocky Mountain News and an editorial in the Denver Post. Both tell wonderful Arie Taylor stories.

I have been going to Gino's website once a day since I found out he died. Sort of the same way I would call my mother's phone number in order to hear her voice on the answering machine after she died. At first the last entry showing was dated October 13th, the last time he wrote anything. Each time he made an entry he would include a face icon next to the date to show what kind of day it had been. Then sometime last week a new entry was made. It was just the date he died, October 18th, and next to this date there was a sad face icon. Today I checked again and Ian has added a tribute to Gino telling us what kind of man he was and how his family will miss him.

Quote

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give
-Sir Winston Churchill

Arie Taylor died Saturday. I hear the news on the car radio as I was driving to WalMart this morning. I hadn't thought of Arie in years but when I heard her name; her face popped into my mind (of course she is wearing one of those big hats she was famous for) and I groaned, "Oh, no."

Arie was a link to my mother and my youth. She and my mother knew each other because they both were involved in Denver city and Colorado state politics. Arie was a state representative for twelve years. The first African-American women elected to the Colorado State Legislature. She and my mother were alike in that politics was their life. Both were outspoken and would fight for anyone who could not fight for themselves. Arie in a big way and my mom more from behind the scenes.

Arie was once described as "a large, fierce, black woman," but the Arie I met was shy and quiet in private. I remember working for a political candidate in the early 70's, I think it was Craig Barnes' Senate campaign, and Arie helped me prepare a stack of sample ballots that had to have some "vote for..." information stamped on them. I remember being impressed that someone as high up as Arie would be doing grunt work with me. She came over and said hi and I said hi back and after that we never said another word. I didn't say anything because I was shy (I didn't even tell her who my mother was) and as we worked I realized she didn't say anything because she was shy too. We started with a pile of ballots and as Arie stamped I would pull each completed ballot away and put it in a finshed stack. We quickly got into a fast rhythm, stamp, pull, stamp, pull, and when we finished we looked at each other and smiled. I could tell by her smile that she found the whole thing as much fun as I did.

Now, Arie is gone and as her niece said, "Her hat is too big to fill."

Arie is gone and with her passing I feel like another connection to my mother is gone. Our lives are made up of connections with other people. Now, in a small way, I understand how older people can give up and die when they realize they have out lived everyone they've known.

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Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more
-Mark Twain

Blog Me Day #5

Well, last day of Blog Me. It has been fun but more work than I expected. I've spent way more time on the computer this week than I normally do reading and writing. I've enjoyed all the stories and thoughts written on everyone else's and my own site. Since this is our last day I thought I would ask your thoughts on one of the mysteries of the ages.


Topic

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
(Bonus point if you can tell us what chuck means. Here to chuck something means to throw it away. As in, "You want this?" "No, just chuck it.")

Comments

Quote

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
-Groucho Marx

Blog Me Day #4

Topic
Free Day. Blog on any topic you wish.

Comments Box

Blog Me Day #3

Blue Witch came up with a brilliant idea: Blog Me. The idea is that she only list a topic on her blog and then has someone else write her blog for her that day in her comments box. This idea makes her a genius right up there with Tom Sawyer. (The chapter where Aunt Polly tells Tom to whitewash the fence and Tom talks his friends into doing it. Only, unlike Tom's friends, we do not have to pay her for the privilege.) Well, the ball on this "Blog Me" thing started rolling and I and some others agreed to do the same thing. All of them are listed in the side bar under "Other sites where you can 'BLOG ME'." If you want to comment on the "blog in the box" you enter your comments in the post titled Comment Box. Enjoy. :o)

Topic

What is your favorite childhood memory?

Comments Box

Blog Me Day #2

Blue Witch came up with a brilliant idea: Blog Me. The idea is that she only list a topic on her blog and then has someone else write her blog for her that day in her comments box. This idea makes her a genius right up there with Tom Sawyer. (The chapter where Aunt Polly tells Tom to whitewash the fence and Tom talks his friends into doing it. Only, unlike Tom's friends, we do not have to pay her for the privilege.) Well, the ball on this "Blog Me" thing started rolling and I and some others agreed to do the same thing. All of them are listed in the side bar under "Other sites where you can 'BLOG ME'." If you want to comment on the "blog in the box" you enter your comments in the post titled Comment Box. Enjoy. :o)

Topic

Quote

Imagine there's no countries
it isn't hard to do
nothing to kill or die for
and no religion too
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
- John Lennon

Comments Box

Blog Me

Blue Witch came up with a brilliant idea: Blog Me. The idea is that she only list a topic on her blog and then someone else will write her blog for her that day in her comments box. This idea makes her a genius right up there with Tom Sawyer. (The chapter where Aunt Polly tells Tom to whitewash the fence and Tom talks his friends into doing it. Only, unlike Tom's friends, we do not have to pay her for the privilege.) Well the ball on this "Blog Me" thing started rolling and I and some others agreed to do the same thing. All of them are listed in the side bar under "Other sites where you can 'BLOG ME'." If you want to comment on the "blog in the box" you enter your comments in the post titled Comment Box. Enjoy. :o)

Topic

That story your parents always tell about you from when you were a child.

Comment Box

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The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: If there is any reaction, both are transformed
- Carl Jung

Gino Pisano

E-mail from Gino's partner Ian:

"On Thursday, September 18th around 9:00 PM, the light of my life, Gino
Antonio Pisano, died at home surrounded by his loved ones including me,
our sonsTrever, Shawn, and Kristopher, Kristopher's fiance Melanie, my Mom and his
Mom, his Aunt Pam, Aunt Toni-Ann and his cousin Kristen.

If you have followed his website www.ginopisano.com, you know he has
chronicled his battle with esophageal cancer since the day he was
diagnosed, December 14th, 1999. Boy did he put up a fight just to be with us! In July he started getting incredible joint aches but we didn't find out until September 2nd of this month that the cancer had spread to his bones, lungs and lymph nodes.

The progression was obviously quick - 2 weeks and 2 days - but he wanted to be able to talk and understand everyone so he took as little pain medicine as possible. That enabled him to talk with us right to the very end when he said he saw his father, our dog Scruffy and his cat Isis from when he was a teenager.

I want to thank you all for being our friend, for caring about us or just for logging onto his website. I always said that if God had given me some clay and asked me to make the most perfect man, I could not have done better than Gino. As a gemini, he was a typical little boy who just wanted to play and have fun. He loved everyone and saw the joy in everything. He loved to just laugh. I know nobody could possible love me as much as he did.

He founded A Stitch in Time, Inc., a charity established to raise funds
for disease research and the board has promised to continue his legacy for
him. In lieu of flowers, we ask that memorial donations be made to A Stitch in
Time, Inc., 64 Plattekill Avenue, New Paltz, NY 12561.

A memorial service will take place Monday, September 22 at 1:00 PM in the Clarion Hotel Oak Room, 90 Route 17K, Newburgh, NY.

Thank you all again for loving us. Ian."


Dear Gino,

Goodby, big guy, I'm going to miss you.

love,
Colleen

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The farther behind I leave the past, the closer I am to forging my own character
- Isabelle Eberhardt

I miss Denver. Part of this is because I miss the choices of big city life. I miss all the different kinds of restaurants. I miss being able to see five different movies in one weekend. I miss going to the grocery store and seeing more than one kind of lettuce in the produce section. I miss the Tattered Cover Bookstore- heck, I miss Barnes and Noble. I miss going into a library and knowing that no matter how many times I check out another new book the library will never run out of books that will interested me. I miss walking or riding my bike on the Highline canal. I miss the People's Fair, Cheesman Park, the King Soopers on 9th and Corona, Capitol Hill, and downtown

I miss the energy of Denver. I miss the trees and the parks. I miss the color green. I miss the mountains. I miss the way the early morning light colors the foothills pink and how that light reflecting off the windows of the homes up there make it look like a hand full of diamonds has been carelessly thrown across the hillsides. I miss the way the air is clear and crisp and how colors are brighter because of this. I am homesick.

I think this is because when I was in Denver last week, for the first time I was not haunted by the ghosts of my younger self. Every day I drove my niece to and from school. To and from the same school my brother, sisters and I attended. It is now called Morey Middle School and covers grades six through eight (ages 11-13). When I went there it was called Morey Junior High and the student body was made up of seventh though ninth graders.

I was a student at Morey for three years but I did not actually go there for that amount of time. By the time I reached junior high I was slowly dropping out of school and by the eight grade I was mostly not there. I figure during the three years I was a registered student at Morey (adding up the days I was physically there) I put in one year. Disappearing was easy. I never really belonged. By the time I reached Morey I had been to eleven different schools. Each new school left me feeling more and more disconnected from the whole school experience until finally I no longer was a part of it at all. Dropping out was easy but it made me feel ashamed and stupid when I got older.

But last week each time I pulled up to Morey to either drop or pick my niece up those feelings never came up. I was feeling nostalgic but that feeling was never tied to feelings of shame and remorse. I think I am learning to accept the past and the fact that I cannot change it.

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Reading is FUNdamental
- US government literacy program

The following was sent to me by a friend and is making the e-mail rounds.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Fcuknig amzanig huh?

My husband's reply after reading this, "Waht's so amzaming aobut taht?"

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I see a bad moon arising
-Creedence Clearwater Revival

Hello, I'm back. I've had a few things happened that caused my break to be longer than I expected. The first week of my break I learned my friend Gino had just found out his cancer had spread to his bones. I cried when I heard. He is doing better emotionally now and looking at his options. I had a mammogram done and a few days later was informed there was something on the film. I was sure it was a cyst (I had one before) but after Gino's news I was a little nervous. I knew my chance of being in a car accident were greater that it being cancer but that word is such a big buggaboo in our society I quickly worked my way up to being very scared by the news. I had an utrasound done and was assured it was a cyst. I walked out of the exam room a little shaky like I had just dogged a bullet. Then last Monday my sister in Denver called and asked me to come and stay for a few days, she had fallen and thought she had done damage to the rotor cuff in her right shoulder. She was in a lot of pain and could not use her arm. She need me to be her chauffeur and drive her to the doctor and my niece to school and back. We thought I would be there for a couple of days but I stayed the week. She is doing better but won't know how great the damage is for another week.

I've been catching up on the blogs I read and I see other people have had a stressful week too. My sympathy to you all. I know last week was a full moon, could that have been our problem? Or is the fact that Mars is so close right now making the world so crazy?

Today is Labor Day so I was going to take the day off. For you out of towners Labor Day is celebrated in the US by not working. It's a three day holiday that started last Friday for some people. The reason I am here is because Enetation is having problems today so the comments are not showing up. Blue Witch has this tip on her website, "Open the comments window and then hit F-5 repeatedly until they appear." Tried it and it works. The number of times you have to hit the F-5 key varies.