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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Wednesday's Wisdom: "....a time to mourn"


My father died twenty-one years on this day of November 30th in 1995, which was the Monday after Thanksgiving. In any event, from the moment I first knew him, as evidenced in the image above featuring one of our earliest encounters, I loved him dearly. And I'm told that he was very excited about my coming into the world, which is demonstrated, to a certain extent in the following picture.


The image features him with my mother and was taken a little under a month before I was born. In it he's comparing his belly to hers! My dad had a great sense of humor as well as a quick wit, and he often put a spin on the lyrics of songs, which is a fact, I've written about in prior entries here on Blogger, including one that I published six years ago on November 29th 2010.

In the aforementioned post, I wrote that, "Most people when recalling my father's antics will remember him for having his own takes on "Top-40" music hits. For example, with the song, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden," the lyrics go,"I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden . . ." but my father's take on it was,"I beg your pardon, I never farted in your rose garden . . .

"As for the once-upon-a-time hit song,"Bad Moon Rising," the lyric-line is,"There'a a bad moon on the rise". My father's version? "There's a bathroom on the right." And with Paul McCartney's, Band on the Run, where the lyric-line,"band on the run" repeats over and over again, my father's rendition was,"band with the runs."

"My father's sense of humor, and apparent relationship with songs, remained with him throughout his life. Even at the very bitter end, when he had hoped to be out of a hospital where he had been for treatment due to severe consequences of emphysema, he recorded a tape giving Louis Armstrong "a run for his money".

"In the tape, my father expresses what the doctors had hoped to do: have him out of the hospital the Monday after Thanksgiving. Sadly that was not to be, as he was still in the hospital the "Monday after Thanksgiving" and declining quickly: dying that week after Thanksgiving instead," which was on November 30, 1995.

A year later, November 30th, 1996, the world lost another person with a sense of humor and who had an appreciation for songs. That man was Tiny Tim, who was known for many reasons, including getting married to Miss Vicki on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in December of 1969, as "documented," in the web-photo that is posted directly below.


Of all the songs he is known for, his rendition of Tip Toe Through The Tulips, is probably the most famous. In bygone years the tulips which I grow in my urban garden (which is on a rooftop in NYC), paid homage to Tiny Tim in a mini movie, produced by yours truly. I've posted it in cyber venues over the years, and it's on my Vimeo Channel, but for your convenience, dear reader, I've posted a copy of it below.



Tiny Tim is hardly the only one who appreciated tulips, my lovely cardinal, Cam adores them too, as evidenced in the following picture.


The picture is from both the iBook and ePub version of her book, Words In Our Beak Volume One.


The e-Pub version of Words In Our Beak Volume One is dedicated  to my father as it was being edited in November of 2015, near to the anniversary of his death. Cam was inspired to make this dedication in the ePub version because during the time she was formatting it, Cam gave birth to another girl! And since she and I were busy at work on this edition of her book, Mac, Cam's husband, spent a lot of time with their newest child whom she named Peanut (see picture below).


Father daughter relationships are truly valuable, and, alas, I wish my father would've let me get to know him, but that was not to be, for reasons I won't get into within this blog entry. And even though, he died twenty one years ago, I still mourn that loss! But mourning is important, for as it is written:

There is "A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; ... The Biblical text posits there being a time and place for all things: laughter and sorrow, healing and killing, war and peace, and so on."

Therefore today, while realizing there is a time to weep and mourn, I also realize that there is a "time to dance" and "a time to laugh" — a time to be joyful and grateful. 

At this time, as I've been expressing here on Blogger (in previous posts), I'm most grateful that the collection of fauna-flora-insect-themed postcards that I've produced (using images from Cam's book), are now being sold at the shop, More & More Antiques, which is located on the UWS in NYC.

One of my postcards features a tulip, and apropos of paying homage to Tiny Tim on this day, I've posted an image of both sides of the card below.




The other postcards feature an image of cardinals, house finches, mourning doves, roses, dragonflies, butterfliescaterpillars, and the foliage of the kiwi vines. You can see images of them within a prior entry here on Blogger or within a page on my web-site, which was designed by Chris Deatherage.

However, it's usually better to see merchandise in person. Therefore, if you find yourself in NYC, dear reader, I encourage you to visit More & More Antiques (at 378 Amsterdam Avenue) to check out my postcards and other items in his amazing store! What a treat for me it is to have my cards represented in such a magnificent place!

And what a blessing it is or me to have inherited my dear dad's wit, this trait has gotten me through many rough times; it's also how I carry on his legacy!


ADDENDUM FALL 2018: 

The non-hardcover version (or versions)  of Volume One within the Words In Our Beak book series that are mentioned in this entry may only remain available for a limited time, but hardcover versions of Volume One, Two and Three can now be found wherever books are sold. Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.

MY BOOK SERIES

Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

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