Memorial Day stories and discoveries-II

Santa Fe National Cemetery

Untold stories on Memorial Day in Santa Fe National Cemetery--Pvt. O'Leary

At Santa Fe

Cemeteries draw my attention, like magnets, because they prompt curiosity and imagination as well as a sense of mortality. And national cemeteries bring humility and admiration, especially for me at Santa Fe where we buried my favorite uncle, Michael Henry Clark almost eight years ago.
Mike, a long-time resident of Santa Fe, world traveler and U.S. Navy combat veteran of both WWII and Korea, had rescued me during a dark period of my life, and as the  years passed, I was able to care for him also. Visiting him was always an adventure in story telling of family, of travel, and living.
He lived within sight of the cemetery where he's now buried, and I often visited the cemetery looking at the names on the grave stones. He mentioned one of a  soldier that is a particular source of wonder and untold stories waiting to be discovered.
I've written about Mike and this cemetery many times. So this is abbreviated, for today, in memory, with a salute.
I've photographed it many times, in good weather and in snow. I come away asking myself, "I wonder, I wonder." There are often fresh flowers on this grave. I'll leave you to wonder also.
Next--An unexpected veteran's grave in Waurika.
Earlier--(Or just type "Cemeteries" in the search box for more posts):
https://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-soldiers-rest-memorial-day-and-rose.html
https://clarkcoffee.blogspot.com/2015/05/p-rowling-cemeteries-on-backroads-i.html

Memorial Day discoveries and stories-I

Prologue

A Civil War veteran's grave at Oakwood

A month of stories have built up since the last post on this blog, and while I've not had "writer's block," I've been almost repelled from sitting down to blog.
Art and life have helped push me away, not ignoring, but delaying so many of the stories I've encountered this month. And blogging takes time, time I've not been willing to spend.
This one comes from duty...duty to keep this blog still somewhat alive, but mainly, duty on Memorial Day, to the American veterans whose graves are decorated with American flags today across the nation and world.
It's also prompted by coincidences, continual curiosity, and sentimentality, including a discovery on Mothers' Day in the Waurika, Oklahoma, cemetery. I also think often  of the several Civil War and other veterans' graves only about six miles from here in the pioneer Oakwood Cemetery on the edge of Lake Arcadia, where families are still burying loved ones. It's one of my meditation places, and prompts the imagination with so many stories and discoveries.
I was also prompted this week by a favorite former student, Emily Bullard Lang, of Price Lang Consulting who mockingly challenged me when I told her I just couldn't seem to sit down and write.
Having recently completed a news release writing refresher course for she and Charlie Price's employees, she smirkingly threw my own words back at me that I'd used for them: "This is a story about...and it's interesting because...." Just fill in the blanks and start writing.
Then my wife Susan prodded me to just sit down and write, especially about Sgt. McMurtry, CSA.
So many discoveries and stories. Next--Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Errors are always lessons

When one painting's problems  prod you for another. The first is just too dirty and busy. Second has faults in sky. Third is better. Still not satisfied. You've not seen the last of these.

All  are 8 x 10 on 140 lb d'Arches cold press paper. 

The watercolor paintings of April

"Windy Day on the Great Plains," 10 x 14

"Blood on the Lintel," 5 1/2 x 10 1/2

"Desert Sentinel," 8 x 10, sold to Emily Lang

When Books Choose You

Books that chose me

I think books are sometimes like cats...they choose you, not the other way around.
I said that  to a dear friend last week, referring to a book she'd recommended that I was rereading.
And then Tuesday, wandering around town, I stopped in Best of Books in Edmond www.bestofbooksok.com, just browsing as I often do, and to get a free cup of coffee.
The friendly staff asked what book I was looking for, and I said I wasn't.
Then as I wandered back to the coffee pot, a book on the shelf chose me, Austin Kleon's latest, "Keep Going." This Austin, Texas artist, is a delightful departure from the routine. https://austinkleon.com
It's his third unique book on creativity, and I've read and kept his previous. They're written with a sharpie, including some of his sketches, blacked out poetry, and more--and easy to read, though deep in provoking thought and perspective.
Just what I needed as I stumble through every day, and also provoking me to return to this blog after more than a month, as it stumbles toward its tenth birthday next month.
The blog is almost comatose, changing from writing to more than art. Not sure of its future as I'm close to having an art web page soon, but then, the older you get, the more you know you don't know the future.
It's not the only book that has chosen me this year.
The other book I referred to above was Parker Palmer's "On the Brink of Everything," about aging, and it helps me as I stumble on.
Another book chose me this spring, suggested by another  good friend, "Ace in the Hole" by Annie Proulx, a novel set in the Texas Panhandle, full of accurate description and McMurtry-like characters.
Made me think of McMurtry enough that I pulled his book "Roads" off the shelf and reread it, helping spur more travel fever.
Other books that chose me this spring, sort of, were the "Killers of the Flower Moon," and "Boomtown," both about Oklahoma, because my wife was reading them and they were the selections after I'd joined the UCO faculty emeritus monthly book club.
Best of Books called last week, telling me Anne Hillerman's new novel, "The Tale Teller," had come in, which I'd pre-ordered. It's set in New Mexico and Arizona, so of course it chose me.
Currently on audio books chosen to listen to in my car, when I was driving across West Texas, is the book "Sapiens," about the history of the human race, full of science and biology and perspective on our continuing evolution as another animal on this planet. Did you know there's some evidence that our brains are getting smaller?
So those are the eight books that have chosen me this spring. They've provoked thought, new ideas, creativity, and a routine of every night, writing down a few quotes and thoughts from those books in a journal.