Sunday, February 17, 2019
All babies are beautiful.
Not a physical standard.
A concept: all babies are beautiful.
That carries over to our reaction the appearance of the infant.
How beautiful, sometimes exclaiming it before we’ve had a good look.
Because baby’s beauty doesn’t stem from a face or expression
But from its being.

Beautiful irrespective of an abstract standard of beauty.
Or of a subjective standard.
Our concept of and reaction to the infant propelled by the basic instinct: the preservation of the species.
All babies are beautiful.

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Carry forward to twenty-year-olds.
All twenty-year-olds are beautiful.
Beautiful irrespective of an abstract standard of beauty.
Or of a subjective standard.

Our concept of and reaction to a twenty-year-old propelled by the acknowledgement that they are the hope of our civilization.

They, at twenty, going forward.
Finishing their preparation to ease into power.
Naturally. Beautifully.
Physical attributes notwithstanding.

And older people are beautiful.
They are we, gone through the paces.
Some clear winners.
Others less so.
But all veterans, having fought the battles.
Now stretched along a continuum of involvement.
Older people, all beautiful.

Beautiful, all of us.
All that’s required to be Christlike is for us to accept that.
To bath others in a flattering glow.
Color others in warm, rich hues, an endless supply of which is provided by our love for each other.

All of us are beautiful.
Each of us is beautiful.
Not a physical standard.

My 311th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.

Time is 12.01am.
On Sunday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 36* with a feels-like temperature of 32* under mostly sunny skies.

Dinner is a Steak Sandwich with cheese, chili pepper, and sautéed onions and sweet red bells. Bread is Iggy’s small Francese loaf, a crusty sourdough.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

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Tick Tock

311 posts to date.
Today we’re at the 6.22% mark of my commitment,
the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.

5,000 posts will take 13.69 years, taking me to a new phase of my life.
Will see thirteen “Winter-Spring Shoulder Season Calendar, Feb 14 to April 7.”

This shoulder calendar features a panoply of weather conditions, from stormy winter to lovely spring, the latter somewhat rare.

The most important takeaway this calendar is to avoid delusional expectations.
Accept that we will not see a mild day.
If we get one, hoorah!
But, basically, accept that for a while yet we will be dressing for wintry weather.

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Question of the Day
Who was Loretta Lynn?

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Elephant Jokes to tell at a bar:
How did Hannibal disguise his elephants from Roman spies?

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Love your notes.
Contact me at existentialautotrip@hotmail.com
This one from Victor responding to the post on Tue, Feb 12, 2019
“A plentitude of friendships. How wonderful.”

His comment:

Dom,

How wonderful is right..a plentitude of friends.
And a timely essay as well.

On March 2 the 11th annual reunion of the Friends of the North End South will be held in Boynton Beach, FL.
It's a gathering of friends, mostly contemporaries, who grew up in the North End and now spend some time in the pleasant environs of a warm climate during part of the winter.
We will have approximately 70 guests and among them I will meet up with some old boyhood guys and gals and indeed some bosom buddies.

Sta bene,

Victor

Web Meister Responds: And this is only one wedge of the pie of Victor’s friends.

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Answer to Question
Who was Loretta Lynn?

Loretta Lynn (née Webb; born April 14, 1932) is an American country music singer-songwriter with multiple gold albums in a career spanning almost 60 years.
She is famous for hits such as "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)", "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)", "One's on the Way", "Fist City", and "Coal Miner's Daughter" along with the 1980 biographical film of the same name.

Lynn has received numerous awards and other accolades for her groundbreaking role in country music, including awards from both the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music as a duet partner and an individual artist.
She is the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade (1970s).
Lynn, has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide, scored 24 number one hit singles, and 11 number one albums.
Lynn continues to tour, appear at the Grand Ole Opry and release new albums. She is recognized by the strength and quality of her voice still today, as well as her down to earth, quick wit and humor.

On January 10, 1948, 15-year-old Loretta Webb married Oliver Vanetta "Doolittle" Lynn
(August 27, 1926 – August 22, 1996), and the two soon relocated to northern Washington in the Pacific Northwest.
The happiness and heartache of her early years of marriage would help to inspire Lynn's songwriting.

In 1953, Doolittle bought her a $17 Harmony guitar.
She taught herself to play the instrument, and over the following three years, she worked to improve her guitar playing.
With Doolittle's encouragement, she started her own band, Loretta and the Trailblazers, with her brother Jay Lee playing lead guitar.
She often appeared at Bill's Tavern in Blaine, Washington, and the Delta Grange Hall in Custer, Washington, with the Pen Brothers' band and the Westerneers.
She cut her first record, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl", in February 1960.

She became a part of the country music scene in Nashville in the 1960s.
In 1967 she had the first of 16 number-one hits (out of 70 charted songs as a solo artist and a duet partner).
Her later hits include "Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)", "You Ain't Woman Enough", "Fist City", and "Coal Miner's Daughter".

Lynn focused on blue-collar women's issues with themes about philandering husbands and persistent mistresses; her music was inspired by issues that she faced in her marriage.
She pushed boundaries in the conservative genre of country music by singing about birth control ("The Pill"), repeated childbirth ("One's on the Way"), double standards for men and women ("Rated 'X'"), and being widowed by the draft during the Vietnam War ("Dear Uncle Sam").

Country music radio stations often refused to play her music, banning nine of her songs, but Lynn pushed on to become one of country music's legendary artists.
She and contemporaries like Tammy Wynette provided a template for female country music artists to follow.

Her best-selling 1976 autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter, was made into an Academy Award–winning film of the same title in 1980, starring Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones, with Spacek winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Lynn.
Her album Van Lear Rose, released in 2004, was produced by the alternative rock musician Jack White; Lynn and White were nominated for five Grammys and won two.

Lynn has received numerous awards in country and American music.
She was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983, the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1988, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008, and she was honored in 2010 at the Country Music Awards.
She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013.
Lynn has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since joining on September 25, 1962; her debut appearance on the Grand Ole Opry was on October 15, 1960.
Lynn has recorded 70 albums, including 54 studio albums, 15 compilation albums, and one tribute album, and over 48 million of her albums have been sold worldwide in her career.

As a duo, Lynn and Twitty had five consecutive Number 1 hits between 1971 and 1975: their first release "After the Fire Is Gone" (1971), which won them a Grammy award; "Lead Me On" (1971); "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973); "As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone" (1974); and "Feelins'" (1974).
The hit-streak kick-started what became one of the most successful duos of country history. For four consecutive years (1972–1975), Lynn and Twitty were named the "Vocal Duo of the Year" by the Country Music Association.
The Academy of Country Music named them the "Best Vocal Duet" in 1971, 1974, 1975, and 1976.
The American Music awards selected them as the "Favorite Country Duo" in 1975, 1976 and 1977.
The fan-voted Music City News readers voted them the No. 1 duet every year between 1971 and 1981, inclusive.
In addition to their five Number 1 singles, they had seven other Top 10 hits between 1976 and 1981.
Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty are the most successful and most awarded male/female duet teams in country music history.
Conway and Loretta, their duo name, released an album in 1977 titled "Dynamic Duo", and they were considered that by their many fans.

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Good Morning on this Sunday, the 17th day of February.
We embraced a discussion of human beauty.
Spent a moment on the calendar.
Read a comment from Victor.
We presented another elephant joke and we asked and answered the question of who was Loretta Lynn?

And now? Now gotta go.

Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom