Ice Cream (Sarah McLachlan)

From today's Gimundo:

'Ice Cream Man' Hands Out Free Frozen Treats

7/16/2008

Nothing says summer like the cheery tune of the Good Humor Truck. You've probably got fond memories of a childhood spent begging your parents for extra change to buy one of those jumbo chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, then wolfing it down and licking your sticky fingers.

Well, Matt Allen, otherwise known as the Ice Cream Man, is here to bring your childhood fantasies back to life. For the last four years, Allen has spent his summers driving around in an old ice cream truck dubbed "Bessie," handing out free frozen desserts to boys, girls, and grown-ups alike. He's traveled to dozens of music festivals, children's hospitals, and even an Air Guitar Championship, logging over 15,000 miles, and handing out more than 125,000 free ice cream treats.

Allen wasn't a pure altruist at the start: He actually got into the ice cream man business to make a few bucks, as most people do. But after his first season selling, he hadn't made much money, and had lots of leftover ice cream that he wasn't sure what to do with. So he threw an ice cream social, advertising free ice cream for all. It was a hit, to say the least.

"There was a line the length of a football field, all ages, waiting for free ice cream, and everyone was just so happy," Allen told the Austin Chronicle. "If I'm not going to make any money selling ice cream, why not find a way to give it away?"

So, traveling coast to coast across America in beat-up old Bessie, that's what he's done every summer since. He relies on corporate sponsorships from brands like Levis to cover his gas costs, and web surfers can sponsor the Ice Cream Man to help him hand out more free treats on his website, helping him reach his goal of handing out half a million ice creams.

That may seem like an ambitious goal, but the Ice Cream Man abides. "Either you go through your life thinking you can change the world or thinking you cannot," he said. "If those are the only two options, how can you not at least try?"

SONG: Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan

BOOK: Everybody Loves Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop on America's Favorite Treat by Shannon Jackson Arnold

POEM: Bleezer's Ice Cream by Jack Prelutsky

I am Ebenezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
there are flavors in my freezer
you have never seen before,
twenty-eight divine creations
too delicious to resist,
why not do yourself a favor,
try the flavors on my list:

COCOA MOCHA MACARONI
TAPIOCA SMOKED BALONEY
CHECKERBERRY CHEDDAR CHEW
CHICKEN CHERRY HONEYDEW
TUTTI-FRUTTI STEWED TOMATO
TUNA TACO BAKED POTATO
LOBSTER LITCHI LIMA BEAN
MOZZARELLA MANGOSTEEN
ALMOND HAM MERINGUE SALAMI
YAM ANCHOVY PRUNE PASTRAMI
SASSAFRAS SOUVLAKI HASH
SUKIYAKI SUCCOTASH
BUTTER BRICKLE PEPPER PICKLE
POMEGRANATE PUMPERNICKEL
PEACH PIMENTO PIZZA PLUM
PEANUT PUMPKIN BUBBLEGUM
BROCCOLI BANANA BLUSTER
CHOCOLATE CHOP SUEY CLUSTER
AVOCADO BRUSSELS SPROUT
PERIWINKLE SAUERKRAUT
COTTON CANDY CARROT CUSTARD
CAULIFLOWER COLA MUSTARD
ONION DUMPLING DOUBLE DIP
TURNIP TRUFFLE TRIPLE FLIP
GARLIC GUMBO GRAVY GUAVA
LENTIL LEMON LIVER LAVA
ORANGE OLIVE BAGEL BEET
WATERMELON WAFFLE WHEAT

I am Ebenezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
taste a flavor from my freezer,
you will surely ask for more.

QUOTE: "I doubt whether the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream." ~ Heywood Broun

Possession (Sarah McLachlan)

Feeling swamped - this seems to segue nicely into post-Halloween... :-)

My friend M told me the backstory of this song many years ago - spooky indeed...

Tell me about writing "Possession." Were you writing from a male point of view?

Yes. I tried to put myself into their shoes, into the mind of someone who is so obsessed with another person that they could conceive murdering them. It took me awhile to justify that one. As a woman, living with that fear in the back of your mind every day with the possibility of being raped. And so, it's kind of weird for me, but then I save myself in the third verse by saying I'd never really act on it, except in my dreams. And maybe that's putting me into a false sense of reality, but it did help. Not just that, but writing the whole song, was kind of a cleansing thing for me, because I had two people in particular who just became incredibly intense with the fantasy world that they created, and demanded that that was reality and we had to be together. And they went to great lengths to make this happen. It became frightening, but it ticked me off that I had to look over my shoulder every time I walked out the door. There was one point where I was told I'd have to have a bodyguard. It was like, screw that, I don't want to live in fear. It makes me so angry.

Full article here...

SONG: Possession by Sarah McLachlan

BOOK: Possession by A. S. Byatt

POEM: Her Kind by Anne Sexton

I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind.
A woman like that is not a woman, quite.
I have been her kind.

I have found the warm caves in the woods,
filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves,
closets, silks, innumerable goods;
fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves:
whining, rearranging the disaligned.
A woman like that is misunderstood.
I have been her kind.

I have ridden in your cart, driver,
waved my nude arms at villages going by,
learning the last bright routes, survivor
where your flames still bite my thigh
and my ribs crack where your wheels wind.
A woman like that is not ashamed to die.
I have been her kind.

QUOTE: "Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sweet Surrender (Sarah McLachlan)

Today's DailyOM:

October 10, 2007

The Truths Within

Value Your Own Wisdom

Throughout our lives, we will encounter individuals who presume to know what is best for us. The insights they offer cannot compare, however, with the powers of awareness and discernment that already exist within us. From birth we are blessed with wisdom that cannot be learned or unlearned. It exists whether or not we acknowledge it because it is a gift given to us by a loving universe before we chose to experience existence on the earthly plane. Yet for all its permanence, it is vital that we value and honor this incredible element of the self. It is when we do not use our inborn wisdom that we begin to doubt our personal truths and are driven to outside sources of information because we are afraid. What we know to be true in our hearts is invariably true, and we discover how intensely beautiful and useful self-trust can be when we recognize the power of our wisdom.

Inner wisdom is not subject to the influences of the outside world, which means that it will never demand that we surrender our free will or counsel us to act in opposition to our values. We benefit from this inspiration when we open ourselves to it, letting go of the false notion that we are less qualified than others to determine our fate. The wisdom inside of us is the source of our discernment and our ability to identify blessings in disguise. When we are unsure of who to trust, how to respond, or what we require, the answers lie in our inner wisdom. It knows where we are going and understands where we are coming from, taking this into account though it is not a product of experience but rather a piece of our connection to the universal mind.

In the whole of your existence, no force you will ever encounter will contribute as much to your ability to do what you need to do and be who you want to be as your natural wisdom. Through it, you reveal your growing consciousness to the greater source and discover the true extent of your strength. If you heed this wisdom with conviction and confidence, the patterns, people, and fears that held you back will be dismantled, paving the way for you to fulfill your truest potential.

SONG: Sweet Surrender by Sarah McLachlan

BOOK: Mountain's Stillness, River's Wisdom: A Compassionate Guide to the Art of Being by Philip M. Berk

POEM: Brilliance by Mark Doty

Maggie's taking care of a man

who's dying; he's attended to everything,

said goodbye to his parents,

paid off his credit card.

She says Why don't you just

run it up to the limit?

but he wants everything

squared away, no balance owed,

though he misses the pets

he's already found a home for --

he can't be around dogs or cats,

too much risk. He says,

I can't have anything.

She says, A bowl of goldfish?

He says he doesn't want to start

with anything and then describes

the kind he'd maybe like,

how their tails would fan

to a gold flaring. They talk

about hot jewel tones,

gold lacquer, say maybe

they'll go pick some out

though he can't go much of anywhere and then

abruptly he says I can't love

anything I can't finish.

He says it like he's had enough

of the whole scintillant world,

though what he means is

he'll never be satisfied and therefore

has established this discipline,

a kind of severe rehearsal.

That's where they leave it,

him looking out the window,

her knitting as she does because

she needs to do something.

Later he leaves a message:

Yes to the bowl of goldfish.

Meaning: let me go, if I have to,

in brilliance. In a story I read,

a Zen master who'd perfected

his detachment from the things of the world

remembered, at the moment of dying,

a deer he used to feed in the park,

and wondered who might care for it,

and at that instant was reborn

in the stunned flesh of a fawn.

So, Maggie's friend?

Is he going out

Into the last loved object

Of his attention?

Fanning the veined translucence

Of an opulent tail,

Undulant in some uncapturable curve

Is he bronze chrysanthemums,

Copper leaf, hurried darting,

Doubloons, icon-colored fins

Troubling the water?

QUOTE: "One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything." ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg