1. I drove Christy uptown this morning for a 9:00 appointment. While she was taking care of her business, I strolled up Main Street to the Mountain Gem Coffee Bar to give it a try. It's a cozy interior and there's a seating outside on the south side of the building. I opted to drink my latte indoors on a stool, resting my drink and my book (The Dog Stars) on one of the wooden bars affixed to the wall.
I especially enjoyed reading this book. It's lyrical. The narrator, Hig, is a poet and the language he uses to describe and tell tales about his life of survival in the aftermath of a pandemic that has devastated most of the human population is rhythmic, not flowery, but musical. I like that he cites poets like William Stafford and Li Po. Hig's loyal companion in this post-apocalyptic landscape is his dog, Jasper, and I'm getting attached to him.
2. Debbie subbed at Pinehurst Elementary School today. She had a great day. She baked a coffee cake to have put out in the teachers' lounge, but she forgot it. So when Christy was done uptown and Carol came over to drive Christy to PT in Christy's car, I borrowed Carol's car and delivered the coffee cake -- and Debbie happily reported to me when she arrived home that the staff loved the cake.
3. As I thought might be the case, Debbie decided to stay home this evening after a day of work.
I drove to Spokane alone to attend tonight's Northwest Passages' evening with Disney imagineer Joe Rohde. He's touring with his new book, Floating Mountains.
It was a perfect evening for me, given what I enjoy in my life, namely learning about things through reading or attending lectures that I know next to nothing about.
For starters, I've never been that interested in all things Disney.
I know almost nothing about the Disney company. Aside from being aware of longtime animated characters and having seen some older Disney movies and knowing that Disney is the majority owner of ESPN, I am ignorant about Disney theme parks and other Disney ventures.
That changed tonight.
Joe Rohde's work with Disney started at least forty years ago and tonight I learned about ventures, like Animal Kingdom and the Hawaiian resort hotel, Aulani, that Rohde has been in a leader in conceptualizing and bringing into being.
Joe Rohde's intellectual prowess fired me up. I wasn't expecting this evening to be a deep dive into theories of creativity, the power of collaboration and the near non-existence of individual genius in all walks of life, the desirability of dissent, the indispensable value of the world of nature, the vital importance of the experience, intelligence, and wisdom of indigenous people (much like in the book I just finished: The Plant Hunter), aesthetics and how we perceive reality (and how art shakes us out of those perceptions), and more.
For me, Joe Rohde's ideas and experiences connected to books our book club has discussed, to Japanese haiku, to ideas Spokane Symphony conductor James Lowe has presented about aesthetic theories, and, most delightfully, to discussions Debbie and I have had over the past twenty-nine years about creativity, the collaborative efforts, including dissent, of Babes with Axes, and so much more that Rohde discussed.
I really couldn't retain all that I heard tonight.
Thankfully, these Northwest Passages interviews are saved on YouTube and I look forward to replaying what Joe Rohde had to say, possibly several times.
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