“Worth It” from Mary & Keith

A LOVE LETTER FROM KEITH & MARY

WORTH IT!

Greetings! It’s Keith and Mary wishing you were sitting across from us at the kitchen table sipping something and chatting about the stuff of life. Between April’s showers, color returning to the landscape, and an addiction to bird-watching, we are immersed in Spring’s blessings and shaking off the rust of hibernation. I wrote a haiku for you (see above left).

Like the other animals, Keith and I are infatuated with nesting these days. I am obsessed with Spring cleaning and he has started his warm weather projects, of which there are always too many to complete before snow. I surmise it’s one of the anti-perks of living in a very old house and being very old people. Entropy always seems to outrun us. Here are some of the things that make the struggles WORTH IT. — m2

WORTH WONDERING

Earlier this month, we celebrated Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday which conveniently coincides with World Art Day. Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most brilliant minds in history, and the quintessential “genius.” In alphabetical order, he was an anatomist, architect, astronomer, botanist, cartographer, engineer, geologist, historian, inventor, mathematician, musician, painter, scientist, sculptor, writer, and likely a few more I’ve forgotten. And he didn’t just dabble, he excelled. Da Vinci made key discoveries and important innovations that endure to this day.

Michael Gelb is the author of the book “How to Think Like Leonardo,” which Keith and I explored by working through the exercises over the course of about a year. By analyzing Da Vinci’s works, inventions, and famed notebooks, Gelb devised seven da Vincian principles, which he believes embody the keys to Leonardo’s genius. For each of the seven principles, Gelb offers exercises for the reader which are intended to stimulate the expression of each step. Many of these exercises are based upon the actual practices that da Vinci employed in his own life.

At one of our April parties with the youngest grandkids, we shared the first principle, Curiosità, Italian for Curiosity. The practices for this principle rely heavily on a Da Vinci style notebook for ideas, observations, drawings, questions, a lexicon, etc. The girls started their first notebook and worked ardently through some of the exercises.

As you find yourself looking for ways to be more creative, to expand your thinking, or to cultivate some of your hidden talents, please allow The Maestro to mentor your efforts. We highly recommend “How to Think Like Leonardo” and the companion notebook. I am putting together a summary of the book for my older grandkids, and noodling on some ways to get them excited too. I’ll let you know if anything interesting materializes. Over 500 years later, there is still much to learn from this truly inspiring man. Happy Birthday, Leonardo. HERE is a link to the book on Amazon.

"Learning never exhausts the mind." — Leonardo da Vinci

WORTH RHYMING

Yay! April is National Poetry Writing Month. The cool kids call it NaPoWriMo, I suspect to make it less nerdy, though I think their efforts are in vain.

I enrolled in an online poetry challenge: 30 Poems in 30 Days. I’ve been reading and writing more poetry than I ever imagined I could. Everything in my life is becoming a poem. I’m worn out, to be honest, but I rhyme on!

“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” – Emily Dickinson

WORTH CELEBRATING

Speaking of poetry, Golden Week starts April 29th and runs through May 5th. It’s a Japanese celebration of several bundled holidays throughout the week. We use it as an excuse to write haiku poetry and celebrate all things Japanese. If all goes as planned, there will be some Japanese themed clothing, a trip to the museum to see some Japanese art, sushi, origami, maybe anime, and a Haiku contest with fabulous prizes including boxes of Japanese candies - the kid’s favorite. I am hard at work getting it pulled together. Tingles abound.

“Make your life a haiku: simple, elegant, and full of meaning.” - Francine Jay

WORTH PAINTING

The inspiration for the color palette of this month’s love letter to you is this painting by our “Artist in Residence,” Keith May. It is done with only red and green paint (with a tiny touch of ochre for warmth). If you look at the shadows and siding, for instance, you can see how he dropped in the colors. I especially like this painting because Keith did the whole thing from his imagination. This almost never happens. He is a rigorous planner with a lengthy development process for his paintings, so I think this was a fun change for him. I include it for your viewing pleasure as the subject matter befits the Spring season and honors one of our favorite leisure activities, watching birds. The painting is watercolor on Arches paper. The original hangs in our downstairs Powder Room, where nothing has ever been powdered, to my knowledge.

"The bird who dares to fall is the bird who learns to fly." — Preksha Jain



	WORTH LISTENING Admittedly, a lesser known musician, but my personal favorite female vocalist/guitarist is Eva Cassidy. You may not have heard of her. She died over 25 years ago of cancer (age 33), just as her career was on the cusp of greatness. Because she is frozen in time, much of her brilliance lives on in her live recordings at bars doing covers of other musician’s songs — mostly folk, blues, and jazz. Particularly poignant is the live recording of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Listen to it free HERE. I recently watched a new video (50 min.) released in January. It is about the making of her first album “Live at Blues Alley.” Watch it HERE. “Music finds its way into the secret places of the soul.” - Plato



	WORTH HIDING Since we are “The Mays,” our special holiday is, of course, May Day. This year, Keith and I will celebrate our 53rd May Day together. That’s a lotta baskets! Here’s a collage of a past celebration. I just put together my shopping list for this year’s baskets of candy, gifts, and flowers. As the tradition goes, our baskets are left at the door (hanging on the knob if practical). The bell is rung with extra knocking for good measure. Then we run to a great hiding place to watch the discovery unfold. Easiest holiday ever! No tree to take down. No rotten eggs left in the yard. No dishes to wash. Happy May Day! ”Let all thy joys be as the month of May.” - Francis Quarles

WORTH BROWSING

Each evening, I don my blue-light blocker glasses and shore up the day. Maybe a little time with my journal, or planning tomorrow on my calendar. Maybe writing some quick love notes or reading a few emails or a little reading. When a couple perfunctory tasks are completed, I feel I’ve earned my heavenly browse through the Louvre’s art collection. At the beginning of April, the entire collection of almost a half million works of art were made available completely online. Access is free. If you like exultation, excellence, and ecstasy, click HERE.

“I love that wherever you are in the world, you can feel at home in a museum.” - L.C.

MORE STUFF THAT’S WORTH IT!

WORTH CHEERING
Having grown up in the age of Star Trek, Carl Sagan, and the Space Race, Keith and I are forever gobsmacked by the wonders of our universe. On Monday, 173 million miles away, an $85 million helicopter drone flew on Mars for 40 seconds. The rotors spun at more than 2,500 rpm because, well, there’s no freakin’ air, Buddy! “Ingenuity” is the perfect name for this engineering wonder. Oh, what marvels await from this little bird’s camera! You can read more about it HERE.

WORTH JAIL TIME
According to Wikipedia, “guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening on land that the gardeners do not have the legal rights to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, areas that are not being cared for, or private property.” Keith and I enjoy the fruits of guerrilla gardening on our walks through our neighborhood where green-thumbed folks have adorned their terrace, and areas around fire hydrants and street signs with beautiful flowers and even the occasional berries. This is the loveliest criminal act I can imagine. Love it! You can read more HERE.

WORTH BAKING
I used to be a compulsive buyer of cookbooks, which I found infinitely more satisfying than cooking. I am in the process of going through my bloated collection to pare it down to under four shelves. Unfortunately, I am discovering so many interesting things to cook, I’m not sure I can part with any of them. I am ever watching for interesting recipes for cookies I can make for my grandchildren (although I always sneak a few for the baker). My newest discovery is so easy. The cookies are made with chocolate fudge cake mix. The frosting is a mixture of a can of fluffy white frosting and peanut butter. A few Reeses’s pieces on top consummate the happy marriage of chocolate and peanut butter. HERE is the recipe from Miss Betty Crocker herself.

WORTH FOLLOWING
There seems to be much anxiety about a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence and what it could mean for humanity. Elon Musk says it’s a threat to the survival of our species. A friend of mine who is a physicist can’t wait for AI. He believes it will do a much better job of running the world than people. No matter how it unfolds, a part of it will surely be entertaining, for awhile anyway. Imagine what AI could do as you check out this rudimentary silly bot. Every four hours it writes a one-sentence story line. It has its own Twitter account called Magic Realism Bot. Scroll through some of the tweets and feel your mind twist. Check it out HERE. For your amusement, I offer these examples from the past few hours.
• A 4th century BC sultan passes a law against Happy Meals.
• A Mesopotamian child owns a pair of spectacles which let him see every
swan’s death since the birth of Christ.
• A panda bear made of cuckoo clocks is born in Borneo.
• A cynical woman discovers a tiny glass sphere that lets her talk to beauty.
• An ancient Chinese temple dancer appears in the White House Situation Room.
She feels out of place. (Yes, AI will be a mirthful overlord).

WORTH REMEMBERING
When I lived in Brookfield, I had a mentor when I was in junior high and early high school. Her name was Josephine. She was worldly, elegant, and polished. She was about the age of my grandmother and became friends with my mother. They both worked in the same building in Elm Grove, Josephine in a law firm and my mom at an engineering firm. You see, Josephine and my mother were both graduates of Holy Angels Girls Academy in Milwaukee. Even though there was a significant difference in their ages, they shared unwritten rules that you supported alumni and you mentored young girls. Aside from the girls’ school, they were both Irish and had similar backgrounds and childhoods. She seemed very exciting to me. Josephine let me call her by her first name. That was rare back then. She would take me to lunch at very fancy restaurants and talk to me as if I were a peer. Her cousin was Spencer Tracey, the actor. Every visit with Josephine was like a sermon, only more fascinating and inspiring. She was brilliant, independent, and single. She taught me to ask bigger questions, ignore fame, be my own inspiration, focus on a God I could understand rather than a religion I couldn’t, and she encouraged my mom to send me to finishing school. Blech! I have always been humbled that she took time from her very busy life to show me such loving kindness. Those types of allegiances say an awful lot about a person’s character. Maybe Josephine didn’t teach me to have good character, but she surely taught me to recognize it. Thank you, Josephine.

WORTH POSING

These are my youngest granddaughters’ photo entries for our Mona Lisa Look-Alike Contest. It’s very hard to make a “not-smiling smile,” but I think they both delivered a respectable attempt. We’re sorry but voting is closed.

UNTIL NEXT TIME

And now we’ve come to the end. Although it feels contradictory, these past few weeks I’ve felt deep gratitude for the joyful and inspiring things unfolding in life — but I’ve also been wading through an undercurrent of sadness. Maybe it’s a Covid thing, or an old age thing, but it’s definitely a thing. Being cloistered for this past year has allowed us all to look at life from a bit of a distance. In the context of the vast universe, in the context of time, in the context of humanity, much of life’s triumphs and worries can seem superficial and meaningless, because they are. They fill up our head, squeezing out space for things that are truly important. A part of me is tired of swimming so hard in this river, always trying to reach some island or shore. I just want to float without judgment or expectation. Just see where life takes me for a change. I watch Keith each day. He’s always floating. There is so much I can learn from the people I love. Thank you for being one of them. We’d love to hear what’s going on in your corner of the world and hope you are floating peacefully. - Mary and Keith

“TO HAVE FAITH IS TO TRUST YOURSELF TO THE WATER.”

- Alan Watts