Gayle Markow: As I am… “starting out, yeah”

Welcome to my new blog! I’ll be posting a short essay each week.  Maybe some pics too!  There is a lot in the world to read these days, books And lots online, and occasionally looking at Netflix (I got rid of my TV a few years ago after becoming a Law & Order addict. It was on almost every channel at all hours, and since I hadn’t watched it in the first ten years of its existence, I had a lot of catching up to do. I think I lost a couple years of my life to L&O. So I got rid of my TV. Then I discovered Netflix streaming!) Beyond reading and streaming, there are important things to DO in the world, both personally and as a citizen.  Work, play, contributing to the greater good, rest. Love, did I say love?

I needed a name for my blog. There are so many cool ones  – seems the good ones (like men) are already taken!  I came up with a list of names. I asked FB friends which they liked.  Then, I didn’t like any of them.  I came up with a new list.  I struggled with how to not be hopelessly out-of-date, unless I could somehow be vintage.  Born in 1947, I/we “baby boomers” are perhaps a little delusionally attached to thinking of ourselves as perennially “cool” — the rule-busting hippies, anti-war activists, and revolutionaries many of us were when we came of age. “The Sexual Revolution” with the advent and availability of birth control pills and Before AIDS.  Marijuana, mescaline, LSD, eventually Ayahuasca.  The Beatles, Dylan,  Jefferson Airplane,  more.  (sex, drugs, and rock ’n roll).  It was a wild ride, but not really my favorite time. In future posts, I’ll tell why.

I couldn’t keep up with the slang of my teen daughter 20 years ago, and I’m certainly not up-to-date with a lot these days. (except Cheryl S. and Lidia Y, and FB, and now trying this!)  So… a blog name — how for it  not to be hopelessly old-fashioned, sentimental, or maudlin?  I love Swedishly spare-and-modern or chunky & graceful calligraphy.  Swedish spare, not quite me. Calligraphy, yes! But I’m not there yet.

One friend suggested a name that lets people know what I’m offering.  Oh, that! I’m hoping to find out along the way.  For sure I have nothing to sell you! I once heard the Zen Buddhist teacher Yvonne Rand, who teaches at Goat-in-the-Road in Mendocino County, California, talk about how quickly we label ourselves and each other, and don’t allow ourselves to be different than we think we are.  She said generally we’re labelled by our first mistake in our family or where we work; she said it’s really difficult to get out of the box people get put in by others. AND we do it to ourselves!!  We can live our whole lives in a box too small for us, or entirely (and unkindly) mis-labeled! Then when we die, we get put in our final small box, and get our final labeling  with eulogies, true or not.  As my nephew Harrison used to say “Don’t do it!”  So, IF I’m gonna make a box for myself (a name, a label), I want it to reflect something true, not too small, and with room for growth and change.   For now, there’s the name I landed on, up at the top of the page.  I welcome your kind comments and/or questions.

xo,

gayle