Away From Shore

Bravery settled into calm
determination to do what was needed

Determination stepped forward
into the muck of what was right

Doing what was right
flew in the face of habit

Habit was given the bum’s rush
when bravery settled into calm.

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you lose sight of the shore.”

~ William Faulkner

And the Reverse is True

Let’s go for something silly
This bravery thing is only for 
the stout of heart
The determined mind
But the soul…..
Now the soul can be positively silly 
If mind and heart get too serious
Lightening things up
With a smile at a 
Bird on the wing
Fish in a pond
Rainbows or ribbons
So all anyone needs is
A little bit of soul!

“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”

~ Lubwig Wittgenstein

Hear No More

I just don’t think 
I can hear the word bravery 
one
more 
time.
because it doesn’t apply to me.

Oh, I’m not sorry 
that I live free of
devastating health issues
financial ruin
wartorn homelands
fleeing from life threatening danger.

Realizing the dangers that others face
while trying to live their lives
seeing the abundance all around me
in grocery stores
so very many clothing stores
sidewalks, roads and electricity
running water and a warm home

So very much more ~
I am humbled and grateful.

“Love, forgiveness, modesty, humility and 

gratitude are most important virtues in life.”

~ P. Remes

Author's Note: Edited January 15, 2024

Bravery on Two Wheels

More bravery on the streets tonight
Some don’t agree
that cyclists riding city streets are brave
only…..(put adjective here)….
I believe those that follow rules of the road are brave
A girl riding ahead of me
Proper signalling
Attentive
Moving as fast as possible.
Her protective glasses flew off
I missed them
The car behind crushed them inadvertantly
A tiny speck on the road.

“The sound of a car door opening in front of you 

is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked.”

~ Amy Webster

Kitchen Creativity

Bought new beans,  red peppers and broccoli for this…

I have felt inspired
when I look in my refrigerator
my cupboards
and see a little of this, a little of that ~
food almost past it’s best before date
(Hurry up and use that….whatever it might be)
and then the staples
flour, pasta and rice
curry, rosemary, garlic, basil and thyme
(and a lot more).
You get it…..
oh and what about the freezer….
lots of meals in there!

Looking at the bits and pieces,
beginning to fuss about
“there’s nothing to eat in this place!”
then remembering my good fortune

not having to wonder which to pay ~ the rent or buy food.

So I bravely set about
creating an interesting dish

with flavours, textures and deliciousness
from all that I have in my very own kitchen.

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above 

hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

~  J.R.R.Tolkein

Look Both Ways

Walkers and wheelchairs
Canes and scooters
Walking aids of all sorts
There is no booklet 
That comes with each 
Reminding that traffic
Cars, buses and pickups
Are bigger and faster and stronger
Drivers responsible 
To watch for
Pedestrians on wheels
Responsible for watching both ways
These pedestrians on wheels bravely
Continue participating in life
While vehicles whiz by.

Today, I came to a stop
To allow them to cross the street
An elderly woman pushing an elderly man
In a wheelchair
Had hesitated to step out 
Watching for traffic
Pulling back suddenly
Just as a vehicle
Roared past me
Without warning
And noisily sped down the street.

“Who or what are you? Besides insufferably rude?”

~ Garth Nix, Lirael

Movie Review - The Big Short directed by Adam McKay

My idea of high finance is transferring money from my chequing account into my contingency fund and hoping there are no expensive surprises in the offing. The Big Short directed by Adam McKay is about the financial crash in 2007 - 2008 brought about by the housing bubble in the United States. Sounds frighteningly boring doesn’t it?  However, the story told was anything but boring. The story started by introducing Dr. Michael Burry played by Christian Bale, an investor with his own company that was one of the first, if not the very first to recognized before 2007 that there would be a crash. Extremely eccentric, but amazing with numbers and finance, he started acting on his knowledge to the extreme dismay of his colleagues. Other investors, Jared Venett (Ryan Gosling), Mark Baum (Steve Carell), Charlie Geller (John Magaro), Porter Collins (Hamish Linklater) and Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), not connected to Dr. Burry, started picking up the scent of money. Each of them traveled in different personal circles. These five characters were based loosely on real people, but the names were changed. 

This movie could have in fact been quite difficult but this story was clevery presented. There were freeze shots with one person explaining a situation. One scene, a blond in a bubble bath with a glass of wine explaining the pending fall was really quite amusing. Another board room scene, when Jared Venett was proposing a deal to Mark Baum, was a very visual demonstration of the pending mortgage crises using stacked blocks.

Well done, this movie was illuminating, amusing and distressing.  Bravery in the face of fraudulent monetary gain was in short supply. Greed was not.

“If we’re right, people lose homes. People lose jobs. People lose 

retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about 

banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here’s a number - every 

1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?

~ Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), The Big Short

Director
Adam McKay
Partial Cast
Christian Bale - Dr. Michael Burry
Steve Carell  - Mark Baum
Marisa Tomei - Cynthia Baum
Ryan Gosling - Jared Vennett
John Magaro - Charlie Geller
Finn Wittrock - Jamie Shipley
Brad Pitt - Ben Rickert
Rafe Spall - Danny Moses
Hamish Linklater - Porter Collins
Jereny Strong - Vinny Daniel

Movie based on novel of the same name by Michael Lewis