Three Beautiful Things 11/21/13: Lionel Ritchie's Not the Only One Who's Easy, Takin' the S95 to the Streets, Velvet Merkin Imperial Stout is Brewed in Heaven

1.  A few of my students today thanked me for being "easy".  They were thanking me for being flexible and understanding, for making it easy for them to do their writing and, I hope, to be successful.  Many, many years ago I gave up the hammer, for the most part (well, did I ever really have the hammer?), and decided that students do better work in school when they aren't under unnecessary stress, don't have work piled on them, have my support, and can work in a variety of ways, not in some single way that I dictate.  It all goes back to the Gerald Stern poem, "Her Right Eye Catches the Lavender" when, as one aging, the poem's speaker asks:

. . . . Why did it take so long
for me to get lenient?  What does it mean one life
only?. . . .

I read that poem over twenty years ago and began to think all the time about being lenient, first as a teacher, then, over the years, with friends, with my mother and sisters, and then, finally, the harder areas of my life to be lenient:  with the Deke and with our family.  I had failed the leniency test in previous marriages and in other relationships, and it's taken me many years to be lenient at home.  But I am.  Why did it take me so long?  One life only.  Right?  Why not make it a lenient one?  It's such a better way to live and a better way to be with the people I know, work with, and teach.

2.  When I do it, I really enjoy riding the bus from LCC to the University of Oregon.  Today I had a 4:00 meeting at church so I had time to ride to the University where I ate a ginger stir fry at Sweet Basil Express and then I had a blissful hour or so walking around the campus and the nearby streets taking street pictures with my Canon S95.  It's not jamming!  (How excited was I?  Well, the Deke and I went to Billy Mac's around 7 p.m. and Russell was just leaving as we were coming in and I was in a state of ecstasy after drinking Velvet Merkin Stout at 16 Tons and I think I sounded like an Elliott Bay ferry fog horn, I was so loud bellowing to Russell about all the fun I had taking pictures on campus.  I hope I didn't frighten Allie....) Bringing the S95 back into action is reminding me how much I enjoy taking covert portraits and pictures of things happening on the sidewalks and the streets. I'd forgotten how much fun such picture taking is with this camera, to shoot from the hip, often with surprising results.  The pictures I took will never make into books about street photography.  They'll never be considered great examples.  But, I'm lenient with myself, and here are three (of many) pictures I really like:

Taking these pictures and enjoying them leniently is a Private Eccentric Pleasure.  Now it's more public!

3.  So, after the meeting at church, the Deke and I went to Sixteen Tons and we didn't know (or remember) that it was a Firestone Brewing night.  I love Firestone's beers and look forward to the fall when they release their Velvet Merlin Oatmeal Stout.  Sooo, I went to the counter and gave Matt my order and he thought I wanted Velvet MERKIN (not Merlin) because the MERKIN is very limited release beer and is adored by stout lovers.  I didn't know any of this and when Matt handed me the MERKIN and I tasted its oaky chocolatey bourbony angel cake sweetness, I nearly passed out with pleasure.  I've never been so happy for a beer server's mistake.  The Deke joined me in drinking half pints of Velvet Merkin and we marveled at our good fortune to be drinking such delicious beer, to be enjoying one another's company and conversation.  I was on a picture shooting high.  I'd been very happy with the meeting at church.  I was really happy to be with the Deke.  And, then, Velvet MERKIN.  I was giddy.