Crowspun... Crow Johnson Evans

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Where do I start? just got broadband.

Which blogs do you read? Are there DIY how-tos that make a difference? Recipes?

Your time is precious… where do you get the best value and amusement?

We just got broadband to our house in the woods. And there is so much out there. Where to begin?

What do you love? I like about 20% of Youtube videos showing how to do things. Friends have suggested a couple of blogs in the fiber world.

Storytelling, music, thinking, reading, knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing, drawing, painting, writing…so where do you suggest I begin?

In return, I’ll share the ones that shine with ya’ll.

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The Trick of Knowing About Why and Because…

Miss Henrietta announced, “The two most dangerous words in the human language are why and because.”

She sounded like she was answering a person I couldn’t see. Me and Miss Henrietta were down by the creek. (Oops, I should have said Miss Henrietta and I were the only people at that spot on Howard creek.  grrr. It’s hard to remember to talk right).  

So I bit and asked her a question.  “But, I hear people say those words all the time. I don’t git it. How can why and because be dangerous?”

“Well, Lil, why implies that there is only one obvious reason for each experience in our lives. Let’s try an experiment. I’ll ask questions and you can answer.”

“Why did you fall down?”
“Because I tripped.”

“Why did you trip?”
“Because I caught my big toe on a tree root.”

“Why did you catch your toe?”
“Because I didn’t see it.”

“Why didn’t you see it?”
“I wasn’t looking.”

“Why were you not looking?”
“I was looking at the sky instead of my feet.”

“Why were you looking at the sky?”
“Because I wanted to find the durn hawk that was screaming.”

“Ahhh. So tell me, Lillian the Fearless, do you think you fell down because of the hawk? the tree root? the sky? your toe? or the hawk’s urgent call?”

“Miss Henrietta, are you just trying to get me confused?”

“No, I’m not. Okay, let’s consider the word because.”

“Why did you fall down, Lil?”
“Because I was not watching my feet.”

“Do you always fall down if you are not watching your feet?”
“Well, no.”

“So, because you were not watching your feet isn’t the answer either, is it?”

“You are just messing with me. I knew it. ”

She gave a little laugh like she does.

“Oh, Lil, every action doesn’t have only one predictable result. We human beings crave easy answers. The sensation of knowing something makes us feel safe and superior to the chaos we face in this crazy life.”

After she threw a pebble in the creek she said, “Me?  I like not knowing.”

“Why do you like not knowing things, then?”

“Because it makes me pay at-ten-tion.”  She said that with a twinkle. Yup, she did it. She tricked me into thinking again.

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What about unexplained connections?

You share DNA from your ancestors; however, the math proves that each of us is statistically pretty unique. (not counting identical twins, etc) This is my reasoning behind believing that each person has different wiring and experience of life and therefore each has a unique voice. Everyone is qualified to create art.

But coincidences in our lives leave us with goosebumps wondering about magic or woo-woo stuff. Just because science has not yet proven the existence of phenomena, are our experiences invalid? Everything from saying the same words simultaneously with a friend, imagining danger, and braking your car before someone runs a red light. And there are behaviors…

My maternal grandmother died when I was 8 years old, but I still feel somehow “close” to her. Connected. Nonsense? Looking at photos I had one of those woo-woo moments. A picture of me and Arthur first in love (photo copyright Judy Weiser Ostiguy) juxtaposed a photo of my grandparents (photographer unknown).

 

 

Have you had experiences you couldn’t easily explain? How do you feel about them?

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For the Birds?

Do you enjoy watching birds and figuring out which ones they are? How young were you when they first hit your radar? Were they objects in the sky or did you see living creatures? Did you discover them only after getting new glasses? Or learn about birds to attract the attention of a birdwatcher you fancied? How many times have you told the untruth, “Oh, yeah, I think I see it now.”

I’ve gone through so many changes of attitude and awareness of Avians (birds). In college, they were a grade in a Zoology course and an excuse to go out into the woods.

When I later lived in the Ozarks, birds became living creatures with personalities, and yes (I confess) I talked to them.

After marrying Arthur my viewfinder changed again. We started going on foreign birding trips with a guide as a small group of four or five. We’d often camp out at ecolodges or youth hostels.

If you are thinking, “oh, come on. A dove is a dove is a dove, so what’s the big deal?” Try seeing it this way:

You get off a plane, with a very small suitcase (3-4 changes of clothes, socks, boots, binoculars, camera, notebook, medicines, raingear, and snack bars). Need a bathroom? What language do these people speak? What time is it? How do you ask?

Crossing your legs while jumping around and looking distressed often works. (And I wonder how the expression “dumb tourists” came about?)

The very next day you are hiking through forests of trees you don’t recognize, feeling a different climate or elevation with each step. Being somewhere new, makes me expect to see new things–so I pay more attention.

Then.. look there’s a crow. Big deal, I’ve seen crows before. But wait there are around 40 different species of crows. They may look similar to you, but if you are in South India where crows are revered as spirits of the ancestors…you don’t shoo them away when they steal a packet of sugar from your table. And if you carry a plate of food for any distance, it’s a good idea to cover it with a large leaf or cloth–so you won’t be dive-bombed and robbed of a delicious morsel. In New Caledonia not far from New Zealand, the Crows can make tools and solve problems. Honest.

Being able to put a name on a creature, doesn’t mean we understand them. I’ve read The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman at least three times. It’s fascinating whether you are a birdwatcher or not.

On a trip to Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia that’s east of Borneo, I was completely entertained by watching the local kids watching our little group of birdwatchers! There’s a children’s picture book in those moments.

Have you thought that a bird you see in your backyard could have wintered thousands of miles from your house!

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Seagulls and Woodshed Time

As a music duo, PJ (my ex, who I have referred to for years as “old number one”) and I took woodshed time. It was a block of time to be isolated from each other and the rest of the world. A time to make space for our creative residues to bubble to the surfaces. I think the expression came from taking a guitar

out to the woodshed and making lots of noise to learn music.

The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow in Eureka Springs, AR, is set up with that same goal in mind, but it’s more luxurious than your everyday woodshed. If an author is flooded with ideas… there is nothing to interrupt the flow. The resident can put life on hold and follow the muse. http://www.writerscolony.org

 

One of the times we did this, I camped my way between Gibraltar and southern England in a little NSU Prinz. PJ went to Morocco on a Velocette motorcycle he’d restored in Gibraltar.

Months later we met up and began working on our songs and performance, with an eye toward finding our niche in the amazing British scene.

What kind of songs did we write while we were on woodshed? Some of the songs carried an immense longing for something we couldn’t identify, something just beyond our reach. Others songs showed the frustration of living in a world we didn’t understand.

One of the most fluid and dreamy songs that PJ wrote was “Seagull”. I think he was in Casablanca Morocco where the European Herring Gulls, the yellow leg, and the Kelp Gulls soared along the Atlantic coast.

Arranging his song together, setting out harmonies, tempo, and bass lines felt like flying. I think it is one of his finest songs.

Seagull by Paul PJ Johnson

Seagull follow me, lend your eyes to sea

Way up in the air, help me find it there

Bankin’along on a cold winter’s breeze on the sea
Carry the dreams of a man here who won’t let me be
Seagull fly away…. You and me someday.

You up in the air, let me take you there

Past a thousand years of sorrow and of tears

Where time is a dream that is splinterefd on sunshire for free
Love is a lamp that allows everybody to see
Seagull fly away…. You and me someday.