vivre dans l'instant‏

July 11th was one of my most peaceful days ever.












It’s been a stressful last few months.
A terrible break-up started an avalanche of giant, life-altering decisions.
New budget, new maps, new outlook, hair, clothes...
My mind’s been busy either analyzing the past or planning...
Couldn’t recall the last time I was unrushed or content.

Then, it completely snuck-up on me,
as things do when one stops looking...

It was after bicycling around town on a mission for new jeans.
In the most downtown of Seattle,
there’s a clearing on 4th and Pine.
Just a simple open space,
some tables and chairs,
a hot dog joint,
a fountain,
old people playing chess,
teenagers skipping class (during the week).

I stopped and bought a veggie dog,
took a seat and started to eat,
when i found myself in a most remarkable moment;
Instead of worrying or plotting or even thinking,
I was blissfully clear-minded and content.
Happy, even.
Comfortable in my own skin,
with the people around me,
everyone’s kind disposition,
the weather,
my appearance,
my apartment,
where I have been,
where I’ll be going,
and most importantly;
completely present in the moment I was living.
Appreciating every breeze.
Every quiet plane distant in the sky,
the people who are surely looking down from it.
What a great taste Dijon mustard and ketchup make,
thanking whosever idea it was to carbonate grapefruit juice,
that it got made, and bottled, and arrived, and in my hand.
Grateful to each person for strolling by in an unrushed manner,
for behaving and being relaxed together,
for belonging to me, and belonging to them,
for sharing the sun and sidewalk and the city.

Remarkably, on a gorgeous 75 degree Sunday,
there were no tourists around
(you can spot em, once you’ve lived in one place long enough).
It was just for us Seattleites.
Our city belonged to us.
It embraced us.
Even the homeless were in a good mood,
looking up at the birds and such.
Everything is OK at this moment!
It’s warm outside!
We have a neat Space Needle!
Folk music has made a comeback!
Our president is cool!

Completely enjoying the moment,
I took as long as possible to eat my hot dog.

I took these pictures in attempt to capture some of it,
and to not forget (not that I could, but).

I’m already nostalgic about Seattle...
appreciating it as much as I can.

Bobby

Facsinated by Robert Kennedy for the last week or so.
What a great president he would have made.

The footage of him meeting people, and the looks on their faces...
I've never seen anything like it.
Especially black people, and Mexicans.


from wikipedia:

"Kennedy's policy objectives did not sit well with the business world,
in which he was viewed as something of a fiscal liability,
opposed to the tax increases necessary to fund such programs of social improvement.
When verbally attacked at a speech he gave during his tour
of the universities he was asked,
'And who's going to pay for all this, senator?',
to which Kennedy replied with typical candor, ;You are.'"


Here he is with Jack;

Bobby, Jack, and Ted:




RFK quotes:


"All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world,
but we don't.
And if our times are difficult and perplexing,
so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."


"If any man claims the Negro should be content...
let him say he would willingly change the color of his skin
and go to live in the Negro section of a large city.
Then and only then has he a right to such a claim."


"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."


"Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom."


“The greatest truth must be recognition that in every man,
in every child,
is the potential for greatness.”


"If we believe that we, as Americans,
are bound together by a common concern for each other,
then an urgent national priority is upon us.
We must begin to end the disgrace of this other America.
And this is one of the great tasks of leadership for us,
as individuals and citizens this year.

But even if we act to erase material poverty,
there is another greater task,
it is to confront the poverty of satisfaction
- purpose and dignity - that afflicts us all.
Too much and for too long,
we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values
in the mere accumulation of material things.

Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year,
but that Gross National Product
- if we judge the United States of America by that -
that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising,
and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.
It counts special locks for our doors and the jails
for the people who break them.
It counts the destruction of the redwood
and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl.
It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads
and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities.
It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife,
and the television programs which glorify violence
in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children,
the quality of their education or the joy of their play.
It does not include the beauty of our poetry
or the strength of our marriages,
the intelligence of our public debate
or the integrity of our public officials.
It measures neither our wit nor our courage,
neither our wisdom nor our learning,
neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country,
it measures everything in short,
except that which makes life worthwhile.
And it can tell us everything about America
except why we are proud that we are Americans."


"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
(From his last speech, June 5, 1968)




Hs assassination is so awful.
(I'm glad I wasn't alive yet.)

My mom says that Bobby's murder was worse than Jack's.
She said, Jack's death was a shock,
but when Bobby died, it seemed like the end of the world.
How terrible.

Apparently, the first thing he said after he was shot was;
"Is everybody ok?"
So heartbreaking.

Emotionally difficult to look at.
So dark and moving.
But, what an incredible photo.


Ted Kennedy, eulogized him with the words:

"My brother need not be idealized,
or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life;
to be remembered simply as a good and decent man,
who saw wrong and tried to right it,
saw suffering and tried to heal it,
saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today,
pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others
will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation,
to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
'Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.'"

jeans

looking for the perfect form-fitting jeans
for a ride on the yacht this weekend.
...ok there is no yacht.
but still looking for the jeans.



jackie. on her own in new york.



norma jean.



marilyn.

refined

I'm going through a growth-spurt.

I've found great inspiration from
Jackie Kennedy, Grace Kelly, and Coco Chanel.
Their "classic style" was always dignified, elegant, graceful...
Not only in fashion, but in etiquette and poise.
Thinking of what they would do, wear, and behave in any given situation
has helped me become a better person.

Someone once told me,
"A certain type of man will look at Marilyn Monroe,
but every man looks at Jackie Kennedy."
That might have just been one man's opinion,
but there is certainly something to it.
Clothing will draw a specific kind of person to you.
It seems to me Marilyn dressed for men,
and Jackie dressed for herself.
In March of 1957, Marilyn was married to Arthur Miller
and taking classes at The Actors Studio.
The tasteful clothes she wore at this time,
brought out the grace and intelligence in her.


Marilyn in 1957:























Jackie Quotes:

"There are two kinds of women,
those who want power in the world
and those who want power in bed."

"Whenever I was upset by something in the papers,
Jack always told me to be more tolerant,
like a horse flicking away flies in the summer."





"You have to have been a Republican to know how good it is to be a Democrat."




"I have been through a lot and have suffered a great deal.
But I have had lots of happy moments, as well.
Every moment one lives is different from the other.
The good, the bad, hardship, the joy, the tragedy, love, and happiness
are all interwoven into one single, indescribable whole that is called life.
You cannot separate the good from the bad.
And perhaps there is no need to do so, either.”

“You are about to have your first experience with a Greek lunch.
I will kill you if you pretend to like it.”

“Being away from home gave me a chance to look at myself with a jaundiced eye.”

"Something you create yourself is the best kind of present."

Grace:






















Coco Chanel quotes:


"I don't understand how a woman can leave the house
without fixing herself up a little, if only out of politeness.
And then, you never know,
maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny.
And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny."

"The best color in the whole world,
is the one that looks good, on you!"





"A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous."

"A women who doesn't wear perfume has no future."

"Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress."

"Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence,
but of those who have already taken possession of their future."

"Elegance is refusal."




"There are people who have money and people who are rich."

"Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury."

"Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty.
It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity."



"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself."

"A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period.
When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind,
it is never the style that triumphs."

"I invented my life by taking for granted
that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like."

"How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone."




"Nature gives you the face you have at twenty;
it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty."

"A woman has the age she deserves."

"There have been several Duchesses of Westminster but there is only one Chanel!"


Mad Men's January Jones playing lost housewife Betty:

.