Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson born today in 1803. American essayist, poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century. Here with his grandson Ralph Emerson Forbes.

Emerson was also a cultivator of pears.

This is his house in Concord Mass.
Emersons dentures!
His grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Mass. Many key figures of the time were buried there. The Alcott family, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Thoreau a very close friend and associate of Emersons'. It is a lovely cemetery for strolling around in. Very atmospheric.

Concord was a hotbed for new thinking about education, human beings' relationship to nature etc. It was a cradle of new philosophies that we can still gain from today. Forever learning and observing. A key concern for all living beings.

Bob 66

Bob Dylan is 66 today. I like the moustache! Patti Smith sang a cover of Bob's last night at the silver peanut and stumbled over the words. Who wouldn't except for Bob?

PATTI SMITH

We saw Patti Smith in concert with her band including Lenny Kaye and Jackson Smith at the Sage, Gateshead! WOW. She is touring for the release of Twelve the new album of covers. WOW.There we were, thousands of us with her in the silver peanut, like we were in a space ship on a trip all together. WOW. Her cover of Smells like Teenspirit from Nevermind by Curt Cobain was to die for, no, to live for! WOW. So happy to have been there, so grateful that when I came of age as a young woman Patti Smith was there right beside and ahead of me. Patti Smith. I love her. Went to see the Horses tour at the Round House, London in 1975! I was lucky and went in to the first row after a woman came out and handed me a ticket as the concert was sold out and I was just listening outside! Whoever you are, thank you! WOW. Is almost all I can say. WOW.
Recently I took my son to see her play in the Berkshires at Mass MOCA in the courtyard one summer evening. Magical absolutely magical under the summer starry sky. Lenny Kaye sipping beer from a bottle, oriental carpets on the floor, it felt very intimate.
I met a love of my life at a Patti Smith impromptu concert at CBGB's in the late seventies when Ronnie Spector joined on stage in Be My Baby! That was WOW!
I was transformed (renewed) by the concert and found some of the energy and hope that I had as a young woman, filled with idealism as I was then, but I thought of it as realism! Of course. Today I feel just that much more myself again. Thanks Patti.

Giacomo Matteotti

Giacomo Matteotti was born in 1885. He was a socialist activist and member of the Italian Socialist Party. After the publication of his book The Fascisti Exposed in June 1924 he was brutally murdered and Mussolini was implicated. Italy is full of streets and piazzas named after him and there is a large monument in Roma.

Silence

Silence is the beginning and end of listening.
Silence this rare state.
Reflection.
Serenity.
Meditation.
Openness.
All come to mind.

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope born today in Lombard St in London in 1688. The most well-known poet of his time perhaps. This is a representation of his house. I like his hat/turban.

Library

This house is the former library in Truro, Cape Cod! Noah and I loved going there to browse and borrow books and get a boiled sweet, the suckie ones. We went every week whenever we were in Truro or on the Cape. It is propably the cutest of all libraries I have been to and I am a library fiend! We both are actually. A home away from home.