have you ever PonderedAbout those little bipeds
that walk amongst us?

you know, the ones that are about half our size

if not for their giggles and ear-splitting shrieks, these creatures
would go unnoticed

but they are worth our attention, if for nothing else,
they are strange

for example, they see the world very differently than we do -

they are apt to tell us that fluttering leaves create the wind;
the moon follows us when we walk; and the stars are little
moons

tell us, that is, if we take the time to look down, get their
attention and ask them to tell us what's on their minds

check out the video below to get a sense of the answers
these little ones (aka, children) might give if we were to
ask them a question -

a simple question like, "What did you learn today in school?"



the sound track of the above video is an excerpt from
WNYC's The Next Big Thing podcast

how many times have we PonderedAbout those rare
and improbable moments when a chance encounter
with a stranger marked a turning point in our lives?

when we look back, these first meetings seem magical,
synchronistic; and we are likely to wonder what course
our lives might have taken had we just walked past that
someone

one such life-changing meeting is the subject of the
video below; here, Pete Shotton of The Quarrymen
tells of the time John Lennon first met Paul McCartney



the soundtrack of the above video is an excerpt from
Westwood One's The Lost Lennon Tapes

there are very few times in our lives when we encounter
something so mind-boggling that it can, and does, change us -

change the way we see the world; change our expectations -
our notions of what is possible

for many of us, one such time occurred on July 20, 1969
when Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong  first set foot
on the moon

these rare events stay with us; we recall them often and
PonderAbout their impact

in the video below, humorist and author Jean Shepherd
recounts one such event; a "life changing" evening in his
16th year

in dreams, water often represents emotion

both water and emotion can: nourish or overwhelm;
flow or be contained; change and transform

in dreams, stormy seas may reflect the emotional turmoil
that the dreamer experiences in waking life



dreams of calm seas may come during times of
relative peace



snow and ice may reflect emotional numbness,
a sense that feelings have been suppressed or
“frozen”



water that is contained may represent emotions
that are blocked



an oncoming flood or tidal wave may signal emotions that
are breaking loose and threatening to overwhelm

just about all of us who read this post have had the
sounds of our childhood recorded and preserved

these sounds are sitting somewhere in a box that
is gathering dust

for some of us, this box contains DVDs, MiniDiscs,
Digital Audio Tape, VHS or Betamax Tapes

those who grew up in the 1950s may still have
the original reel to reel magnetic tapes that captured
the sounds of their childhood

but what about those of us who grew up in the first half
of the 20th century?

if not magnetic tape, what recording medium held,
and may still hold, their childhood hoots and hollers?

the most likely candidate is steel wire -

7,200 feet of hair-thin wire that is wound on a reel
that looks like this



for more on this extinct and almost forgotten recording medium,
check out the video below; its audio track is an excerpt from
a WNYC The Next Big Thing Podcast