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“…of telephones, and managers, and where you’ve got to be at noon…

…. You are living a reality I left years ago….” – Crosby, Stills, and Nash “You Don’t Have to Cry”

I was thinking about contrast tonight.

I attended a Pleasanton Art League/Livermore Art Association meeting with the guest artist, Gerald Brommer (1), who for some reason is not in Wikipedia. He said something akin to “… life is contrast…” as he painted a watercolor landscape that “felt Hawaiian” to him. The house in the painting was based upon a real house (of a different color) on Maui, but the landscape was totally constructed, from the mountain in the background to the foliage, which used “every color on his palette,” in contrast to the real foliage, which was mostly green.

Brommer is, in addition to a master watercolorist and acrylic painter, a wonderful showman who explained to us that art is one thing that you keep getting better at, as you age (in contrast to many of our other endeavors). He is 83 and looks like a man in his 60s.

Today I heard from a friend in high tech who has learned that he has a very serious illness, and from a friend in art who also has a very serious illness. Both seem undaunted, hopeful, and full of life.

In contrast, my friend from high tech told me that he spoke with a mutual friend, who is still living a reality that we both left years ago. My friend described that reality as “Madness” (with a capital “M”). The song goes on to say “… it quite nearly killed me….”

Maybe not literally… but maybe a bit of my soul.

As Nietzche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”

As I made my way home on this cold (by end-of-May-in-California standards), clear night, I contrasted my current life with the reality that I lived in high tech. I contrasted (and compared) the personalities of some of my good friends from both “places.” There is perhaps a greater variety in my new life, but I treasure all of the friends… even the ones who, left to their own devices, would make their own lives a living hell. :-)

In my new life, there are no managers, and there are telephones that are conveniences and labor-saving devices, not telephones that ring and MUST be answered.

And when I think of where I’ve got to be at noon, it is a happy and creative place, filled with optimism and hope for the future….

-Bill at

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