Ben’s Bells
I haven’t been getting into Tucson sparkliness nearly enough. However, I experience some things and feel the need to put them out into the universe with a scream of delight. This morning was one of those such days.
In light of the recent shooting horror/hooplah/focus, Tucson has been licking its wounds, forming together, and making sense of the situation (most of the time this has been in positive ways, although it’s seemed at times that things were getting a little too engrossed in the tragedy). In an extremely uplifting memorial, Ben’s Bells (bensbells.org) decided to do a 1,400 bell distribution and to increase the call for intentional kindness to others.
Huddled together at 7am in the plaza, we listened to a beautiful speech with tears glistening in our eyes as the mother of Ben who died 9 years ago talked about some of her stories with kindness to herself when she was in need and later to other strangers. She said she wanted to tell the person who held open the door, “You just saved my life” on some days, but didn’t.
Then we dispersed with maps and bells to take certain neighborhoods and hang about 5 bells per team. We hung the bells from trees and fences in cemeteries, parking lots, and parks… trusting that the person who finds the bell will be in need of a little kindness. (Aren’t we all?)
For whatever reason, this January I’ve been more into trying to change my life (I hate the cliche of “New Years resolutions”). One of the things Jeanette said was that in order to be more kind, we need to take more time. Leave for work 5 minutes earlier so we aren’t rushing through traffic and can let that person out in front of us. If we’re rushing, sometimes we don’t take a moment to look in another’s eyes and connect. This isn’t hard and it’s what breathes life into everyone’s experiences.
Graceland Too
In a completely unrelated post to anything about Cameroon but everything about awesomeness, I feel the need to attempt to delve into the greatness that is Graceland Too.
In Holly Springs, Mississippi Paul McLeod lives in a large house. This mansion has been painted various colors, including pink, but had black accents when I visited. The gated in lawns were filled with old Christmas trees and wreaths. Two concrete lions grace (pun intended) the stairway and they are draped with Christmas lights and tattered red plastic bows. Due to Graceland Too being open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why would anyone go before midnight?
My friend had been there 4 times before so he knew that even though Paul didn’t answer the door after 2 rigorous knockings, he had to be home. I stood on my tippy toes and peered through the window on the door, tantalized by all the posters and photos covering every square inch of ceiling and walls. The third knocking did the trick, sending my down-trodden spirit soaring. And inside Paul began to clear his throat (consequently he didn’t really stop throughout the entire tour). We stepped in to pay our $5 fee (after 3 visits you get a Lifetime Membership card and no longer have to pay) and Paul started his spiel. Paul is in his late 50s, with crazy eyes and he talks out of the side of his mouth.
There are pictures of the actual Elvis mansion, Graceland. Paul repeats time and again that Graceland Too is not out to “duplicate it, just resemble it”. For the next hour and a half, Paul highlights his collection of …assorted goods. It takes me 5 minutes before my brain can wrap around his continuous stream of Southern speech with no consistent intonations. He’s turning on a huge set of colored lights, loud record recordings, and pointing out a gold suit in the corner. In between outrageous stories and offers of fantastic amounts of money for his items, he slips in jokes about his ex-wife and sex (“And I said to her, are those carry-ons?…I’m talkin’ ’bout titties!”). I’m literally agog and he’s whistling at me to get my attention so he can point out a pile of books all containing every moment that Elvis was ever on TV, he’s grabbing my arm to show me all the guns Elvis used to own, he’s saying “Yo!” and telling me to check out his vast array of Coke cans and bottles featuring Elvis. Room after room, all covered with photos that he claims he took in Elvis’s last performance. At one point he pulls out a tiny Magnum that the cops gave him… I think that’s what he said, I was too stunned that there was suddenly a gun. Some of what he says are ridiculous jokes, some of them are just lies, some of it is his family history (“and don’t my son look like the spittin’ image of Elvis?”) and then some of it is an insane amount of crap he knows about Elvis.
Overall, it’s the type of house that could have ANYTHING tucked in corners behind dusty statues and plywood boards filled with polaroid photos of all the visitors to Graceland Too (he claims over 480,000 I believe). Our tour ended when another group of college students stopped in at 1am to have the grand ol’ tour. My friend said it could’ve gone on another hour otherwise. I left feeling amazed that Paul spends his life giving this tour, for years and YEARS this has gone on. That there simply IS that much stuff about Elvis. And a little bit violated through his bullying speech and the ridiculousness of it all. I’d say not half bad for $5 in the middle of the night.
Ruminations of Jumpers and Jackets
Galway, Ireland
Charmed, I’m sure.
We took a delightful bus ride from Dublin to Galway (we’d been informed by an Irishman that Dublin had nothing to offer and that we should head for Galway instead), still enraptured by the comfort of padded seats where you each get your OWN seat and no one accosts you through windows with bags of water and roasted snails. We giggled over sheep chasing each other across the surprisingly flat landscape dotted with adorable pubs and “off-licences” (sidenote: they call bars in Cameroon off licenses, and I never realized that it had probably come from the UK).
Currently I’m sitting across the room from a pony-tailed Irishman singing along to his guitar playing. His Russian wife tells me that she’s surprised at how all the Irish people she meets are talented in some way, singing, dancing, music instruments, poetry, artists. Galway is a magnet for musical artists, the streets reverberate with drums, saxophones, and guitars. It’s laced with quaint lochs, canals, and rivers. This morning we took a long stroll along the seaside, basking with the other 70,000 residents in the rare sunshine breaking up some of the clouds.
I can’t seem to restrain myself from being charmed by fantastic phrases like “potato jackets”/potato skins, “jumpers”/sweatshirts, and being called “love” by the 25 year old scruffy bartender. Why, oh why, have Americans lost all the glories of the English language’s accents? (sidenote: today in Ireland’s answer to the Dollar Store – the 2 Euro store – I met 5 lovely older Texan ladies buying light up “Ladies On Tour” sashes for their pubbing tonight… I knew them by their drawl, we bonded over saying yall and aint)
In yet another joy of couchsurfing, we were introduced to the phenomenon of the Silent Disco. Or the Headphone Disco. Kim and I having been out of the loop for so long, we’re amazed at nearly everything. But this is just plain The Future. You go to the club. You put on a pair of wireless headphones with a switch. You tune into one of the 2 DJs. The club is quiet, except the sound of lots of energetic moving people and singing along. For those like me who love to dance for the sake of movement, this is pure brilliance. Everyone loosens up because you somehow are in your own world with this delicate bubble of personal space. Even nervous white boys, gangly Irish kids, break loose. Everyone sings along, sometimes to 2 different songs at one time. And if you want to have a conversation, it’s not nearly as difficult as the loud rucus of a normal club. And kudos to the DJs, they played an amazingly diverse set with songs such as…
- “Anyone Else But You” from Juno
- “Walk Like an Egyptian” The Bangles
- “Hey Ya” Outkast
- “Jolene” Dolly Parton
- “Fire in the Disco” Electric 6
- “Fight for Your Right to Party” Beastie Boys
- “Paint it Black” Rolling Stones
For those of us without portable music players… this was ecstasy. And no one dances all up on someone else, because you don’t even know if they’re listening to the same song as you. Well done, technology, well done.
Full disclosure
We’ve managed to get some of the pictures up from the trips – Kim’s pictures (click on the right albums of the European trip). More will be arriving.
Excuse the inordinate number of pictures with just me and Kim making strange faces with something that we deem important in the background. When it’s just the 2 of you, this becomes high quality entertainment. Also excuse my ridiculously bad hair.
Riding Furniture
Along the way, we’ve met a few people who had some doubts about couchsurfing .(See the site for how it works.. it’s not too complicated) I wanted to throw out an unsolicited shout-out to this crazy idea.
We have had an amazing variety of experiences in the short time we’ve been tripping through Europe. I regret that I never put my couch in Buea up on the site. A few highlights with couchsurfing hosts…
Italy
-We met swingers. Italian swingers.
-We luxuriated in a jacuzzi
-We had a host go with us to the piercing salon
-We exchanged homecooked meals (I really want that recipe for the lentil soup)
-We went to a local favorite bar that played “Mr. Boombastic” with cheap drinks (go to Italy and you’ll see how sweeet this is)
-We saw the local makeout spot that overlooked all of the valley (but, no we didn’t make out)
Germany
-We enjoyed a weekly large multi-course group dinner
-We discovered a Nepalese restaurant
-We stayed in a beautiful, high-ceilinged, hardwood flat a short stroll through the playground in the snow
Turkey
-We went out to an amazing array of side alley bars and clubs
-We learned about a vast variety of Turkish dishes
-We stayed in a 4 star hotel on the gorgeous coast, where the general manager took us out on the town (and made us try Raki – anis flavored liquor): .
The Golden Age Hotel
In general, we got linked into an international community and saw things that we never would have found on our own. Thank you to all of our hosts and their kindness for making this trip uniquely unforgettable
