Happy HAL-loween

Harrowings' favorite holiday.

Inspiration arrived just before 10 PM from Patti Smith who provided us with a silly if not timely show-and-tell from her office - since the noise audible from the streets was quite - noisy! Revelers near her abode were certainly giving it all they had.

Here in DC, things are quieter and Lynn has turned in after a nice dinner out at Alero.

We were splurging - celebrating - the sale of her house up in Burtonsville, Maryland which has been something of a weight on us for a while now. Initially it served as a retreat from our city digs on S Street NW just above Dupont Circle. We were fortunate to buy into the neighborhood in 2010 just as the market was beginning to come back from the tragic downturn of 2008 which coincided with the end of the second term of George W. Bush. We thought we’d had a bad run then with having been lead into the endless war footing that we’d be on through the next 20 years. We had hope as a new president was arriving on the scene - but it turned into more of the same in terms of our foreign policy. One might even make the case that things went further downhill.

I hadn’t set out this Halloween evening to write about the history of the recent past.

Harrowings isn’t really about that kind of harrowing - although it is harrowing to see how things go with the human community. Same as it ever was, some might say.

I spent a good bit of the day taking care of my health starting it out in a dentist’s chair. I get to go back on Election Day, November 5, which, coincidetally is also Guy Fawkes Day. The irony is not lost upon me. However, dental health is so important. I have no desire to lose my teeth. This gets me reflecting on our good fortune to have well-developed dentistry and the ability to take care of these things without much concern about being able to pay for it. It’s a part of our system of insurance attached to our employment; services we render. Our artists, musicians, and writers serve also.

Along those lines - the service provided by writers, artists, and musicians in particular, I’m off on a venture, just getting off the ground. My collaborator in this has a vision for a series of podcasts - and live-streamed events - in which she and I will interview touring musicians with a focus on her forte, bringing out the potential by helping musicians mitigate damage done to their bodies and prevent problems before they crop up. Her knowledge of the human body helped me overcome chronic pain I was experiencing at the beginning of the pandemic. We started working together before it hit with full force, in fact - in January 2020. Now, nearly 5 years later, we’ve been on life journey’s that have at a different place and well-positioned to launch this new initiative. Lisa Joy Glassman, proprietor of activepotential.com is the brains behind this. I’m going to provide my own perspectives with my appreciation for the power of connection and amplifying signals through the noise of cyberspace.

As a great believer in the power of the network, I’m going to do some writing about the process of launching this alongside the launching of the Harold B Gill Foundation and the balance between these efforts. We’re pretty excited about the possibilities as Lisa Joy’s business has been operating now for 6 years as an LLC and 16 years overall.

So come along on the voyage into the known and the unknown - provide us with feedback which is always welcome and don’t be surprised if it might take the world by storm. I’m certainly enthused and, from where I sit, enthusiasm is what is required for any initiative to be successful.