I'm Back Jack...

Caption: "Here's to trying new things after 50!" The Toddler showing up in the weird collage goes by the name of JACK LIVINGSTON. So....? Well we can PRESUME I'm letting the future PHD Jack Livingston  know that, "hey I'm back Jack."

A person in a position of authority has ordered me to start blogging again. I've been known to ignore authoritarian demands, but once in a while the order jives with the spirit of the moment. And that's the case here.

I've been busy with getting my classes on track. And that's not all.  I've started this little game with media graduates called "Random Get Togethers."  Nothing terribly original.  I just announce that I'm going to be at a particular location on a certain day at a certain time.  And if anybody shows up?

Now I think this part is new. Well they get a bottle of water to toast our association.  I also take their picture and unbeknownst to them? I go home and DRAW them and they end up in cyber space. (probably not in a recognizable form.)

So I'm down by the Platte River for one one of these random get togethers on Sunday.  I've got my sketch pad out drawing someone.  I'm being vague for a reason. You see this guy who, by the jargon he shared, I'm pretty sure is a former gang member? He approaches me and asks, "what you doin' home?"

"Drawin'!"

"Yo, what ya drawin?"

Timing is everything. I am not putting him on when I say, "someone who isn't there anymore."

My subect had just left.

But you know what? He totally surprised me.  He got it.

"Right. I was just thinkin," he says. " No matter how old I get to be, even 50? I could do something I've never done before."

Wow! The true philosophers are still out there walking the streets.

I often tell my students to never give up their dreams and I try to be an example. Historically I've been told, "Don't Sing, Don't Write, Don't ride a unicycle, Don't play the piano, Don't draw!" And a whole bunch of other "DON'TS!"

Well "DON'T" is a dirty word. I've done all those DON'T things. Right now I'm teaching myself to play the piano, I'm taking pictures, and I'm drawing. The piano and drawing I just started this past year.  And you know what? I'd kill to be 50.

What's in our genetic makeup that we feel compelled to stifle, to squelch, to discourage, to instill fear?

You know that's WHY I quite often defy authority.

Still there are some authorities you don't mess around with. This one?

PEGGY! 

"Yes Dear!"

Whose in the drawings? Okay. Jack's Dad Tom, Dan, Scott, Heather, Michelle, Melany, Stephenie, Karrissa and her SO, and some mysterious ghost like creatures yet to be named.