gardening, music, art--living the good life in Nashville

After work I finally got into the garden and started pulling weeds, trying to enjoy the zesty, fresh spring evening. The past year I have had little time to attend to the garden and I have missed the zen feeling of working the earth. I had no plan in mind. At first I thought forget the veggies, I'm going for flowers this year.

While talking with folks who are also planting, I thought out loud to Reid (my chicken farmer, special ed teacher friend), "Maybe I'll just plant squash this year and nothing else--I could have zucchini out the yazoo this summer, gifting everyone until they hid when they saw me coming, basket in hand." Have you ever eaten fried zucchini blossoms? Still can't decide...maybe sunflowers!

Saturday morning (tomorrow) I wake to hot tea, muffins, the promise of Katie's phenomenal yoga class, and Lightning 100--the retro show. It's great radio and available online. Last weekend was 1969, I think tomorrow morning is 1986. My husband and I try to listen every Saturday, because Buc doesn't play run of the mill, but seeks out more diverse music for the show. It always ends with a Beatles song, or a song by one of the Beatles from the year featured. Read below from the website:

"Join Fred Buc every Saturday morning from 8am til 12 Noon (CST) when he features music from a particular year in progressive radio history! Also hear lifestyle features, news headlines, sports memories, TV theme songs and movie highlights from that year...plus a special local segment from Nashville's music legends! An original one-of-a-kind series, "Retro Lightning" has been a weekly tradition on Lightning 100 for over 15 years!" ref: www.lightning100.com.

Nashville is a pretty great place to live. When we moved here we had no idea how much culture was in this city. We have the BEST concerts, the BEST groups, EVERYONE comes here to play, because hey, it's NASHVILLE! I mean Johnny Cash was from here, we had Patsy Cline, we have Emmylou Harris, Kings of Leon, David Mead, Ben Folds, John Hyatt, Maura O'Connell, Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Conner, Guy Clark and Delbert McClinton. The list goes on and on. With so much musical talent the city has to be cool, or these folks wouldn't stay. I recently read that Bob Dylan said that his favorite two composer/musicians were Guy Clark and John Prine, also from Nashville (or Tennessee, at least.)

Our art scene is pretty hip, too. Recently historic Fisk University wanted to sell a Georgia O'Keeffe painting, and everyone in Nashville was up in arms about the idea. Heck, I didn't even know there were O'Keeffe paintings in this town. About 20 years ago, when O'Keeffe's retrospective went on the road I was going from city to city, checking out museums looking for her work after reading 4 biographies about her. At the time I saw an awesome video filmed in 1977 when she was in her 90s living at her home in Abiquiu. The video was so interesting that I just had to see her work upclose and personal. My timing was not good, because in each city I went to over the next two years, every major work by O'Keeffe was pulled to be part of this special exhibit. I never was near a city that had the retrospective, so I was truly battling disappointment. Even the Monet Haystacks I saw in Chicago at the Art Institute one of those two summers could not lift my spirits. I wanted O'Keeffe!

Fast forward to March of this year, two decades later, when I found out after living in Nashville 18 years, that two O'Keeffe paintings are right here, under my nose. It happened that our 25th wedding anniversary was that month, so I told my husband, Mike, that I wanted to see the Stieglitz Exhibit at the Carl Van Vechten Gallery. This wonderful place has many fantastic pieces--Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, O'Keeffe, Stieglitz, Renoir, and many more. Some are really famous artists, others little known but all incredible none the less. Also represented were paintings by the Lake George (NY) crowd that ran with O'Keeffe and Stieglitz, like Marsden Hartley and William Merritt Chase. I should mention that all of these pieces were part of Stieglitz's personal collection.

While there, I found out that Stieglitz was the first to collect African masks as art and not novelty. This was an outstanding afternoon, and a must see for anyone who comes to our progressive little city. Oh, and by the way, write to the Fisk University Adminstration and let them know they would be nuts to sell the major piece in this collection--The Radiator Building by O'Keeffe. It is truly the most important piece of the Stieglitz Exhibit. When I rounded the corner and saw it in person, tears came to my eyes and I caught my breath and held it, not wanting to move.

O'Keeffe hand picked every single piece for this collection, and it should NEVER be broken up. I don't care if the Radiator Building painting is worth $23 million! Let the students sit on the floor, but for God's sake, don't sell the painting! (Seriously, the Tennessean newspaper article I read said the university officials stated that they would buy much needed chairs with the money.)

Well enough about the culture of Nashville. Come see for yourself! Adora

When we read and write...

Watching too much TV is an ill of our society. I am curious how Lauryn will come back from India, after 2.5 months without the tube, movies, stereos (she did take her I Pod Nano and a charger) or ready access to a computer. Withdrawals or release?

When I get up in the morning I first start hot water for tea, then I talk to the kitties for a few minutes, and turn on the TV to look at the weather. If anything is unusual in the world I get caught up pretty easily. At work I might check my email 3 times a day, both accounts, work and personal. Then I come home and check the email again before I go to bed. Yes, some of that is Lauryn being gone and waiting for each post of her blog, or her answer to my many emails inquiring about various things--needs she has had fulfilled or not, things she wants or has learned she can do without, and so forth.

The mail? Practically nothing to note, because no one I know writes with substance anymore. Not that I do either--I have literally composed whole letters in my head, and never written them down to send. Sometimes, if there is a special occasion or crisis, I might produce a card or note of thanks, sympathy or birthday wish. Those amenities are little practiced by myself or anyone else--and we know better (at least we were raised properly in our family. In fact, our mom would blow her ashes around the churchyard if she knew how little we practiced what we were taught.)

These past few years I have written little. For a time I wrote book reviews for the Veteran's Tribune here in Nashville and middle Tennessee. I enjoy reading and writing, and thought this little job combined both my loves. A children's activity book and how-to book to accompany it were written and never published, and a young adult book about the Seminole Indians and Florida's first senator was researched and began, but I let the joy go away and never finished the project.

When we read we grow and become more than we were before. Books can change us from the inside out. It's a dream of mine-to write, and here is a new outlet for that dream. Adora

Antiques Roadshow is on, and I am missing my daughter, who is out of the country. She has been working in central India, and traveling in the south in the backwaters area along the west coast-- Chinnia, Mt. St. Thomas, and many other locations. She will be back home on the 5th of May for her big brother's graduation from college.

We are the typical family, man, woman, with a boy and a girl, both growing into fairly functional adults. We live in a middle class Nashville neighborhood, work typical middle class American jobs. We were typical--until Lauryn announced in January of 2009 that she was going to take the semester off from college and go to India. Being the mother I am, I rolled my eyes and thought, yeah, sure! But then she said, You don't understand, I want to go over to work with Dr. Henry at Mungeli Christian Hospital, and help at the school there.

Since I traveled extensively when I was 19-20 years old (only in the US, and as a flower child in the 70s) I had to admire her courage and adventurous spirit, so I retorted that if Dr. Henry said she could come, and if she could raise the money, she could indeed travel to India. So I wrote the inquiry to Anil (Henry) and sat back and waited. From Saturday midnight until Thursday early morning we heard nothing back, but then came the email. "Yes, send Lauryn to us, we have plenty she can do!" (At this point Lauryn had not met Dr. Anil Henry, his wife Teresa, or any of their 3 children at church, as they had been gone since 2004 to rennovate and build up the hospital and school in Mungeli. All she knew was what I had said about powerpoint presentations I had heard at church when Anil was visiting and doing fundraising efforts for the ministry.)

Thus began the adventure of a lifetime for my 19 year old daughter. The child who is sick at the sight of blood is going to volunteer at Mungeli Christian Hospital, and see how she could be of service in a different culture? Would she get an eye full? Sure thing! Since going she has shared about observing at the surgical theatre many, many times, and has seen twin boys born--something she told us she won't quickly forget. She has helped teach English as a second language at the Victor Rambo Memorial School that enrolls 350 children from age 6 to 16. Add to that experience, teaching microsoft word and excel to 20 student nurses in saris and little white nursing caps. Lauryn is not a computer expert, but Anil Henry has a talent for finding your gifts, and putting you to work no matter who you may be.

After Lauryn left I discovered Kyle Packer's blog from his 2 month stay at the hospital complex right before Lauryn went to Mungeli. His blog, Indiaaaaa, was fascinating reading. I don't know if I would have been so open to her going alone, had I read his posts earlier. God, in wisdom, did not let me read this until she was well out of my reach. http://packerk.wordpress.com/

About a week ago Lauryn was available to talk, and we heard of a wonderful visit to an ashram, a theosophical garden, and Mt. St. Thomas. Describing the scene at the ashram she said, "Everyone here wears white, and in the morning, all 3,000 residents rise at 4:15 a.m. to greet the sun on the beach, by singing the 1000 names of God." Breakfast consisted of rice and vegetables, which one eats with their hands. As her Dad said, being taught to wash up before you eat has a whole new meaning to you now, doesn't it?

For Lauryn's 20th birthday, about 150 people sang happy birthday after morning prayers. She was asked to give a speech, but she was too shy to say anything. Imagine, leaving behind family and friends, and going across the world to see how another people group lives, to immerse yourself in their culture, and to live with them for two and a half months. Lauryn is destined for greatness, I think. How can one go so far, do so much, and not be changed for life?