Day 3382: Beautiful people

Yesterday, I saw this quote about beautiful people from the beautiful Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Because I was seeing so many beautiful people in group and individual therapy yesterday, I didn’t have time to capture many other beautiful images for today’s blog.

Besides all those other things, today is also the first night of Passover. For years and years, I celebrated Passover with many beautiful people, including my late parents and my wonderful cousin Lani (who I hope is reading this post). Tonight, I’m celebrating it with my beautiful husband and my beautiful son.

I find this when I search YouTube for “beautiful people” …

… and this:

I look forward to comments from beautiful people, below.

Thanks to all the beautiful people who help me create this daily blog, including YOU.

Day 1783: The world’s scariest places

Last night, when I was at an American supermarket (which was one of the world’s scariest places in the Robin Williams movie “Moscow on the Hudson”), I saw this:

I don’t know what’s included in that magazine of the world’s scariest places. Perhaps it includes places where there’s

• genocide,
• prejudice,
• sexual abuse,
• physical abuse and/or
• emotional abuse.

What do you think are the world’s scariest places?

Are there any scary places here?

Hospitals can be some of the world’s scariest places, so I’m glad that the hospital where I work has a string quartet playing near the entrance.

There are so many “World’s Scariest Places” videos on YouTube that it’s scaring me, so here’s that scene from “Moscow on the Hudson.”

I hope the comments section here is not a scary place and that you’ll place a comment, below.

Thanks to Robin Williams, the hospital where I work, magazines, supermarkets and every other place, person, and thing that helped me write this world’s-scariest-places post. And thanks to you — of course! — for helping to make this blog one of the safest places I know.

Day 1726: Different perspectives

Because I’m a group therapist, I often encounter different people expressing  different perspectives. For example, earlier this week I invited people to practice mindfulness by focusing on a vase of flowers in the group room.  After the mindfulness exercise,  we heard these different perspectives:

• “I love flowers.”
• “I’m not a flower person.”
• “Flowers help me relax.”
• I wondered if those flowers are  fake.”
• “Flowers remind me of funerals.”
• “I need to remember to stop and smell the flowers.”

Yesterday, I thought about different perspectives as I was taking this photo:

All the different perspectives in that photo may not be clear, but several people are taking pictures there and each of us has a different perspective on Boston’s Fenway Park.  I wish I could show you all those different perspectives.

Lately, many of the different perspectives I encounter include  expressions of anxiety, depression, stress, uncertainty, worry, concerns for others, and concern for self.  Different people also express and learn different perspectives on how to feel better and take the next right step. Sometimes, I suggest trying on this different perspective:

It’s safer than it feels.

Every person who is reading this post has a different perspective and my perspective is that I would love to know all those  different perspectives.

There are different perspectives about “Different Perspectives” on YouTube, but this is the most popular one:

 

Thanks to all the different perspectives that help me create different blog posts and thanks to you — of course! — for all your different perspectives.

 

Day 1177: What if the concept of failure did not exist?

What if the concept of failure did not exist?

… is a question I’ve asked people who describe themselves as failures.

What if the concept of failure did not exist?

…. is the title of the shortest blog post I’ve ever written.

What if the concept of failure did not exist?

… was the first sentence I thought of when I woke up this morning.

Now I’ll ask you. What if the concept of failure did not exist?  How would life be different?

No worries about how you answer that, if the concept of failure does not exist.

What if the concept of failure did not exist for each of these photos?

Speaking of concepts, here’s a clip from Robin Williams’s first album, “Reality: What a Concept!”

I’m including that performance titled “Shakespeare” for many reasons, including this: My son is trying out for a part in a play by Shakespeare — Henry IV, Part 1 — tonight.

What if the concept of failure did not exist about trying something new?

Conceptual thanks to all those who helped me create today’s post and to you — of course! — for successfully visiting here, today.

 

Day 595: Punchlines

 

My 16-year-old son, Aaron, and I are really enjoying the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where there are always many performances of comedians, comic actors, and other funny people available, in any particular moment.

 

It’s funny, how I’m not taking a lot of “good” photos during this trip, so far. Here’s the punchline about that: I am focusing on the current moment, rather than focusing my shots.

 

Here’s what’s happening in the current moment, as I am composing today’s post: I am waiting for 10 photos I took yesterday to load into WordPress, so I can show you — with very imperfect images — some of the funny people Aaron and I saw yesterday.

 

In the meantime, I’ll share some random thoughts, inspired by the title of today’s post.

 

Punchline is a movie about stand-up comics, starring Tom Hanks.

I sometimes have trouble remembering the punchline of jokes, especially if I’m anxious about impressing somebody with my sense of humor.

Despite my imperfections, many people I respect have told me they think I’m funny.

 

Hey!  It seems like WordPress has actually loaded all the photos, although I can’t see them.

I am now going to attempt to insert 9 photos into this post (in order of appearance). Drum roll, please ….

Phew! That seemed to work.  The punchline, there, is that the very low data-transfer limit at our hotel did NOT seem to get in the way.

Here’s my next punchline: I want to finish up this post soon, so I can start another day enjoying the festival with my son.

I would like to write a little more, though, before I wake up my son.

I am not going to try to remember punchlines, right now, from all the great comics we saw yesterday.  And I’m not going to tell you the names of all the comedians pictured above.

I will tell you this. Yesterday, my son and I saw Ron Lynch, my stand-up comedy teacher from the 1980’s (previously appearing on this WordPress stage, here, and shown above in the next-to-last photo),  in his midnight show, called “Tomorrow.”  And we saw a special edition  of “Tomorrow,”  where the comedians not only did their routines, but also shared their personal, non-routine memories of Robin Williams.

All of those memories about Robin Williams shared a common punchline: Robin Williams was a genius AND he was truly nice, humble, big-hearted guy.

Okay!  Time for me to end this post. I’ve got to get my son and myself out into the Edinburgh air, so we can spend another funny day together (which will most likely include shows with many hilarious people, like Eddie Pepitone, shown in the last photo, above). Also, we’re planning on having dinner with Ron.

One more punchline, before I publish this.

After we finalized plans, yesterday, to have dinner with Ron, I said to my son (who started doing stand-up comedy six months ago), “Well, Aaron!  Having me as your mother has finally paid off.”

Aaron’s reply, “It’s already paid off.”

Thanks to Aaron, Ron, Eddie, Robin, and other funny people, who have enriched my life in many ways. And for my last-but-not-least punchline … many thanks to you, for your appearance here on my WordPress stage, today.