365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)

Sunday, August 25, 2013

T-shirt #157: Gull Lake

T-shirt #157: Gull Lake

I needed a quick post today or I am never going to catch up let alone get ahead.

Home.

I grew up in Gull Lake, Michigan. I had the pleasure to return and live there with my wife for the first two years of our marriage in the house I helped build with my family on West Gull Lake Drive. I shared a bit about this house in T-shirt #94 and our BAT POLE.

For me, Gull Lake is home.








Living in the beautiful place on West Gull Lake Drive from 1979-1981 and then from 1985-2003, and then to return there in 2009 and live there until 2011 with my wife and kids makes me a very happy and a very lucky person.




The West Gull Lake Drive house is a beautiful architectural model. My kids called it the "Vampire Tree-House." I am not sure about the vampires, but it is very much a tree-house.

I count myself so lucky to be able to live there with two families: my parents and my sister, and then my wife and step-kids.

Just looking at the pictures make me nostalgic and wistful.

It is a magical place and a home filled with memories both good and a few that are tragic.


I am grateful.

Thank you to all my readers.

But, I am warning you now, I am going to cheat again and re-publish content here that I originally published as part of T-shirt #78: Suzanne Vega.

You do realize that I cross-reference my blog posts like this because, while I have your attention, I want to try to catch your interest in postings you may not have read. For a few of you, this is not an issue as you have told me that you have read the whole thing. This is a feat I find very impressive, and I am honored. Thanking you for making me part of your daily or weekly life (not sure how often some of you who read it all read it).

Anyway, this chunk of text seemed worthy of a repeat. So here we go.


LAST WORD ON THE GRATITUDE THING: I got the idea for the gratitude prayer (meditation, list, incantation, catalogue, rumination, reflection, or whatever you want to call it) from a movie called The SecretI am not quite promoting the movie as a "true" exposure of an actual science. In fact, many of the stories in the film are a bit fatuous. However, I like watching it. I showed it to a class (my second viewing) about a month ago, and the idea of the daily gratitude thing struck me. In the movie, one of the interviewees (I forget which one and it's not important) explained how he had a rock in his pocket. At night, he would set it on his dresser with the other contents of his pockets. The next morning, he would retrieve it and remember to list the things for which he was grateful as a daily routine, like a prayer. He had a visitor from South Africa and told the man about his rock and gratitude practice. The man called it a "gratitude rock." After returning to South Africa, he wrote his American friend and asked for some gratitude rocks to be sent to him because one of his children was very sick, and he did not have the money to seek medical care for the child. The interviewee balked at sending "gratitude rocks" because, after all, "they are just rocks," he said. But he found three nice rocks and sent them to his South African friend. Months later, the South African wrote back. The rocks worked! His son was healed and recovered. They paid for his medical treatment by selling a hundred gratitude rocks. People believed in the power of the gratitude rocks.

I found this story inspirational. I do not use a rock, but every day, I make my gratitude list. I send energy into the universe. I focus on the positive and try to limit or dismiss the negative.

I think it's working.



"Home is where I want to be
Pick me up and turn me round
I feel numb - born with a weak heart
(So I) guess I must be having fun
The less we say about it the better
Make it up as we go along
Feet on the ground
Head in the sky
It's ok I know nothing's wrong . . nothing....
Home - is where I want to be
But I guess I'm already there
I come home she lifted up her wings
Guess that this must be the place "

Talking-Heads Naive-Melody live1984









Home.

- chris tower - 1308.25 - 18:09