Memories "light the corner of my mind" this Easter Springtime....

I watched an old movie, something I seldom do.  The movie was “The Way We Were” and what I found most interesting was the mini documentary that went along with the movie.  The most part that interested me most was the discussion of finding the right song.   They needed a song that would transport the viewer back to memories. 

The composer chosen for job was Marvin Hamlisch and the wordsmiths… the Bergman’s.   They describe in the documentary their work to craft the perfect “vehicle” to set the mood.  They said the title, “The Way We Were” was wonderful all in itself, but that they had the first line originally “daydreams light the corners of my mind”.    When they presented the song to Barbra Streisand she changed… one note and one word, a word that became the most important change …  the word daydreams to “Memories”.

Picture of my Mothers Family..Her Father & Mother and her!

The song won the 1973 Academy Award for best song in a movie, a Golden Globe and became one of the songs of the century!   To this day I am sure many of us enter a little piece of reverie as we listen to it… since memories are a haunting part of our life; they are something that comes back to us …sometimes good, sometimes bad…sometimes happy…sometimes sad.

                                           Rare photo of my Grandfather and all my Messere Cousins

My memories seem to start in the  Spring, which is supposed to be a new beginning, a time of rebirth when the earth wakes from the sleep of winter.  The sap has started to run and the great giants on the hill have started to sprout buds that will soon bring leaves that will last until fall’s last call.  Added to this are my memories of the many summer days spent by the lake, by the glimmering water, with the brush of soft sand against my feet when I walked the shore dreaming of the future.  Never expecting it to be where I am today.

Spring for me brings both my best memories and my saddest memoires. 

My best are the many childhood weekends around Easter… since most members of my family shared April time birthdays.  Grandmother, grandfather, aunts, uncles, mom, dad, myself… these birthdays all turned into weekend parties, one after another.  Parties where everyone got together and cousins played at life.  Easter meant seeing some cousins from a long distance that came to the city to visit Grandma.  These were fun times to be sure.

Then things changed and I moved to the country where – ironically - all of the new neighbors shared April birthdays and the parties began again. 

Those times and people have all passed as well… and I am left here with only memories of them.  Lingering sad memories… as death end life.  In the past some of my best friends died on the three days around my birthday… and their memories though certainly fond ones, are wonderful… but they are sad.   They leave me with a feeling of being alone…. like sad memories all of my family who are no longer here. 

The wise man said that you can never go back… you can only go forward.  And so we must… we can only relive that past as “Memories” that light the corners of our mind.

Eaton Memories ..listen to the music and enjoy

My backroads trip into Vincent van Gogh and a Starry Night!

The floods have subsided for now and the heat index has risen causing the moisture to hang in the air.  Sunday morning I decided to take a drive to look for the neighbor’s missing dog.  The light filtering through my window made me wish I had my oil paints, brushes, canvas and could find a country setting to sit and paint.  That feeling has not come over me for a while and unfortunately... I have had no money to invest on this former pastime.  So instead I took my new artist tool of sorts… my camera... and escaped with the car windows down searching and enjoying back roads and summer colors.

 It was on these back roads that I found deserted walkways, bridges and buildings, certainly links to Madison County’s history, but now entangled in a multitude of vines and overgrowth.  As I snapped I thought about how unreal I could make them look using a simple trick application.  Yes, today we can make paintings by clicking a shutter and then clicking a mouse on a computer.  So back home I went to play with color.

Being a fan of impressionism I dabbled with a few effects and finally picked what they called palette knife… photos that actually look like oil painting.  This actually brought me to thoughts of Vincent van Gogh…the light…that special light he found with bright colors and sought in Arles, France.

Van Gogh’s story is a famous one … stories of his bouts of mental illness, of being supported by his brother Theo, of Theo’s wife saving his letters and in a way- after his death, making him one of the most famous painters of all time.  When he died at the age of 37… he had painted over 2,000 paintings…. but had in reality sold only one.

Today Vincent van Gogh’s paintings have commanded some of the highest prices at auction…many for close to 100 million dollars.  Yes… and his painting and style are recognize by school children and older people alike.  He is noted for having painted 200 pictures in 200 days at the end of his life… some of his most recognized subjects include himself, sunflowers, irises, and my favorite painting “A Starry Night” … which, I have seen in person.

 Van Gogh died on July 29, 1890…but his influence on painting continues even to this day.  He was a man who worked hard to master his art but in the end was unable to master his inner demons. 

Today on Facebook some one posted a cartoon that expressed the desire for all of us to go out and look at the stars.  Tonight I will.

This video is a must watch… it features Don Maclean’s tribute to Vincent van Gogh and his pictures put together by an instructor at a mental illness facility… Van Gogh’s paintings come to life to the words… enjoy and take the time to go out and see the starry, starry, night!!

***The pictures above are the ones I took on Sunday!