Amazing Friends

There is always plenty to write regarding Universities and Education, could probably fill a book or two- but my hand gives me plenty of trouble these days ... dammed hands. So, I write here and there online to remind myself of what is good. Privately, I am slowly –very slowly, rewriting a story titled Blau. And one day I may be finished with the story. Unfortunately I have to be very selective at what I chose to use my valuable hands for these days. But for today –I want to remind myself of what is good about 2010 and what will be great in 2011.

In February of 2010- I was in Chicago and it was really wonderful. Next year I’m completing a short exhibition film about my week there and all the nice people I met and reconnected with while I shot photographic work for an exhibition sometime in the future.

While in Chicago, I revisited the train stop that I fell from the top of. I climbed the cement steps of the train stop arriving at the top- I looked back down to the side walk below where I landed so long ago. It was a long way down. Four cement flights really. Really… I couldn’t believe that I fell so far. I couldn’t remember the actual distance after the fall. No wonder I was in pain for months and lost words for what had happened. No wonder I lost my way then. No wonder my friend bought out the drug store of pain killers for me, and none of them worked.

In 2010, I looked down the stairs –I remember
-my head –it hit the top stair of the massive and solid cement stair case, and then, I awoke at the bottom step on the side walk actually -standing up I should have seen tiny cartoon birds circling around the crown of my head.

When I arrived in East Tennessee to live –it took a while but I jumped back into life. I was made very welcome here very quickly by the nicest people.
I was voluneering for the local museum and was invited to a cocktail party. Still very loopy from my tragic fall that I had actually forgotten, and I arrived at the party not knowing what to wear. I actually brought a second dress with me, and arrived early. When I asked a very nice woman if my dress was okay? She made me feel right at home and invited me to become a member of the guild. I'll never forget how nice people were to me... at the museum, we had a young man who managed the museum shop -one day I walked in and he said,"I have one of our elder members here working the shop today as a volunteer." He said: "I won't be leaving the shop today -our elder member might need me to help her run the cash register as she is in her 80's." "We love having her though and I'll get to complete some work in the office."

It was very nice being apart of the ongoings at the museum. It wasn't about time and money -just the value of spenting important time together was all.

One day I arrived at the museum and our voluteer coordinator said: "We have a member of the museum from France. She is in the hospital and some of us are going to visit." She said: "If you have time?" "Would you like to stop up at the hospital with me and deliver some flowers?"

It was so nice and just because. After my fall off the train stop -I don't think that I could have found a better group of people to just be loopy around. They were all extreemly wonderful to me.

I have a great deal more to say but will finish this article latter.

Later in the story: "though still incomplete"

In 2010 right after reconnecting with some old friends in the city of Chicago -my friends sent great humor and opportunity among other things in my e-mails box and it’s made all the difference in the world in 2011- I left so many friends behind in the windy city and though I do not have any direct stories about them to share with you, I do have direct stories about the general kindness of people... and how thankful I am to know that we're not so bad as a human race in the 21 century.