All posts by Helen C

Nostalgia

My career as a promtrotter

My niece went to her high school prom this weekend. She goes every year. Apparently the whole school does. It all seems very democratic, but don’t you kind of miss that feral atmosphere where only the really popular were sure they would be going to the prom? For the rest of us, it was just survival of the fittest all the way.

I have to smile when I look at photos from my own prom-going history. My brother is going to kill me for this, but here we are with our respective dates, just before the Roy C. Ketcham High School senior prom in June 1977. I was only a junior, but my boyfriend was a senior. Check it out. I’m in peach and my date is in a lovely beige tux with a peach-ruffled shirt. We definitely worked together on the color scheme.

I don’t remember the name of my brother’s date, but it looks like we might have coordinated colors ahead of time, too. We didn’t. We both have typically 70s hairstyles. I’ve got the super-straight Marcia Brady look, while what’s-her-name is obviously going for the Farrah Fawcett feathered ‘do. The dress I’m wearing is actually the same dress I made for my junior prom, but I cleverly removed the long sleeves. I wonder if anyone noticed. This photo does not do justice to the print on my brother’s tux, by the way. And don’t even get me started on those bow ties!

Music, Travels

More on David Bromberg

I can’t believe Dave mentioned David Bromberg playing at the Higher Ground this week in his latest email newsletter without remembering we went to an acoustic jam session in Wilmington, Delaware a few years ago that Bromberg hosted. Now that I think about it, the seeds of the Acoustic Coalition might have been planted that night.

We had a great time and had been meaning to go back. We have missed our chance, however, since the 4W5 Cafe is now closed.

Philosophy

Apropos of everything and nothing

“Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”

– Voltaire

I’ve been continuing on my introspective path, doing a lot of reading and thinking. And, this year, after almost 20 years of dabbling, I’ve finally made time for a daily yoga practice. It’s interesting how my day seems to flow more smoothly on days when I’ve had a “good” practice and seems to move in fits and starts on days when it was “bad.”

All this pejorative thinking is hard to root out. I know I’m not supposed to get attached to it being one way or the other, but I really do like those good days! On top of that, I think I’m attached to being attached. Clearly I haven’t got the hang of it.

I’ve been reflecting on the Voltaire quote above. On the surface it seems like good advice–don’t wallow, you’ll make it worse. I wish I could identify the source. My guess is it comes from a story, like “Candide” and is a philosophic expression of one of the characters. If this is the case, is it Voltaire’s philosophy or the character’s?

I’m thinking in particular of the character of Pangloss, whose philosophy is that everything always happens for the good in the best of all possible worlds. I always understood that Voltaire thought Pangloss was a bit of a dunderhead, but now I’m not so sure.

I think I need to re-read “Candide,” and maybe a biography of Voltaire.