The Morning, Brilliant Blue
Issue #11 - Human Kindness Issue
In this issue, scroll on down to:
Dear Reader
Flag of Human Kindness - song/video
Songwriting Workshop on Zoom Sat July 12
The Happy Herd
Stuff I Lost Recently
Bunny Logic
Biking Across Wetlands
Dear Reader,
I have written stories almost my whole life. And I’ve shared them on basefook for many years. Since 2007 I somehow felt this drive to create a chuckle here and there or to spread my imagination throughout the land. Many of these stories, essays, etc., I have posted again through the years — always with a rewrite or current take on what I’d written years before. Most people never remember that they’d read them three years ago. So hey! I get to be funny twice with the same story!
I also do that with some of my stories here on Substack. The truth is, I’m the one that hardly remembers writing them. I always give them at least a little rewrite, seeing things that could be funnier or kinder or more interesting. And then I add them to the mix of what I wrote today or yesterday and send to you in The Morning, Brilliant Blue.
I have been told — only by a few, and always in a kind manner — that my Substack letters are too long, there’s too much content. Because most other authors the person subscribes to write one thing per issue. I did not know that. But also, it’s just that I love to write and share with you.
I think of The Morning, Brilliant Blue as a kind of small magazine. Remember the Weekly Reader? And I know people are busy, but there may come a day when you’re home with a cold and you think, “Dammit, why did I get sick!” And it may occur to you that you have not had nearly enough sweetness, fun, laughter and heart warming stories in your diet.
So you drink your Sprite and you thumb through some of my many short stories you never got around to. See? There is no expiration date! All of the issues I send you are Archived on the Substack site. So you don’t even have to go digging through your emails to find them. Just find me on Substack and read away!
And just a thought about the fact that we are rapidly becoming a short-attention-span world. It’s true. We are. We are missing something which may be much more important than we realize. When we read — or write — we use our brains in the most marvelously fluid ways. Our memories are sparked. Our ways of thinking and conversing are sparked too. And maybe most importantly, our own creativity is enlivened. There is nothing that compares with living this life with a great imagination. It is the child in us — still alive. It is wonder still flowing and blossoming. Please keep yours going. I’m gonna need people to talk to and there won’t be any if we just fade away into texting and emojiing for communication.
I like you. Other people do too. We need you all happy and talkative. That’s when you’re at your best.
Thank you for reading my stories, Michael Tomlinson
Flag of Human Kindness - song/video
FLAG OF HUMAN KINDNESS ~ I began writing this song in 2003 because Saudis had crashed planes into towers full of people in Manhattan — and because some in our government had too many long-time money connections in Saudi Arabia, it was decided that our country would drop bombs somewhere else — on the country of Iraq. We all know that story of the devastation and that they never found weapons of mass destruction. And of course, the years of turmoil that followed our attacks.
At the time there was still hope that we wouldn’t go through with it. I don’t know what I expected my song to do, but I was writing it anyway. But the war began before I had finished my song, and so I just sadly left the unfinished, unheard parts behind, believing that I had failed to do this one effort toward opening our hearts and minds as a nation.
Two years later I fell into a beautiful love and all my songs poured out of me. One day I played her the half-song I’d written and told her the story. Patricia burst into tears and urged me — or maybe she just made me promise — to finish the song. As I started writing again, I realized, that maybe it wasn’t for nothing. There were probably going to be times when Flag of Human Kindness would once again be about the moment we are in. It was released on my The Way Out West album.
I wanted to share with you the song and the video I created, in hope that you might hear something in it which is heartening and reassuring. We have to hold together as a nation and see this time through without being devastated and so depressed that we have no energy. Please keep breathing and loving each other. ~ Michael Tomlinson
FLAG OF HUMAN KINDNESS by Michael Tomlinson
From the wild Alaska Sky
To the muddy Rio Grande
To the stormy shores of rocky Maine
There lies a country
I was born here in this land
Under the flag of hope and freedom
Now it seems such a faded dream
Like a dream that’s lost its meaning
In the early morning sun
There are many men and women
Waking up in more ways than one
To say where are we going?
There’s a time in every life
There is an age for every nation
When her patriots must stand aside and say
First, we are Human. Are we not Human?
And in the dawning of this hour
And in a clear undoubting voice
If we can heal this ever raging noise
For our human race, I know we must
Who will mend this sacred place?
It’s surely us
We can cast our bitter blame
Or we can just do what is needed
Pray the embers that still remain
Become once more a beacon
It’s not us against the world
No, it’s everyone or no one
There is a braver flag to unfurl
It’s called The Flag of Human Kindness
And in the dawning of this hour
And in a clear undoubting voice
If we can heal this ever raging noise
For our human race, I know we must
Who will mend this sacred place
It’s surely us
Oh beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain
America, America, God shade his grace on thee
And crown they good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea
~ Michael Tomlinson
Songwriting Workshop on Zoom Sat July 12
IT’S STILL EXCITING TO ME, when I’m writing a new song. You’d think that running out of ideas would be a big problem after 40-something years. And if I had to sit and think of a new idea for a song, yes, you’d be correct. But songwriting is letting go. It’s allowing something to flow that you might never have dreamed of. And that is why it remains exciting and joyful to me. As long as you can write a song, you can experience that feeling you felt as a child when you opened presents at Christmas. A new song is always a surprise.
Yes, it’s also hard work once you get going. In most cases the entire song does not present itself to you in fully realized form. But enough of it is revealed gradually that you realize mid-stream what it could possibly be. And that is when you have a reason to write it. It is often at that point that we get bogged down, frustrated, and sometimes leave it behind. The idea seemed great, but the task seems impossible.
I have found ways to follow through, not some simplistic recipe, but how we can recharge and WANT to write a song. Sometimes it’s a few words that come through. For me, it’s often a changed chord or a slightly melodic event that seems almost an accident. But that one little melody move sparks delight in me. And then the song is brand new and I have reason to give it more attention and time.
In this afternoon together, we’ll explore some exercises that will show us that we’re not really stuck. And we are not limited to how we’ve written before. I’ll share some of my songs, including the early recordings of the first spark of a song idea — and then I’ll show you how it became a song that you may already know.
There will be time for others to share a song if you wish, but there is absolutely no putting you on the spot. It’s volunteer-only.
Also this: all who register will be invited to email me a song — or even part of a song — you’ve written. If you’d like some feedback, I will offer that. Or maybe you just want me to listen. That’s fine too.
I think you’ll be inspired, it will leave you wanting to write your songs from new perspectives, and that you may let yourself be freer lyrically and musically than you ever have been. This workshop is for all levels of experience and imagination. Sometimes even non-songwriters attend because the sparks of imagination apply in any creative art. I hope you’ll join us.
Your friend, Michael Tomlinson
How I Write My Songs
Songwriting Workshop on Zoom
Saturday July 12 from 11- 4pm Pacific
Read more and register at www.michaeltomlinson.com
The Happy Herd
The Happy Herd at Les’s House
Meet Annie. Or Annie Ornery, as my Texas friend Les suggests. Les has adopted somewhere around fifteen horses and donkeys at last count. Gives them the best home you could ever imagine — and a whole lot of personal time and attention. Not the sort of life you’d imagine for a retired music professor, but I admire him for the life he leads. At least a couple of times a day he leaves the horse barn and heads into the house to play a little guitar or Hammond B3 organ or grand piano. If it’s a really tough day, he can always bang on the drums for an hour and feel brand new again.
We were good friends in high school. Made comedy films and big practical jokes together. A little while after, our lives took widely diverging paths and we went fifty years between hearing each other’s voice again. It’s a very heartening thing to see your young fun-loving friends become some of the people you most admire over the years. I’m lucky that way with my friends. ~ M
Stuff I Lost Recently
I RECENTLY LOST a big pile of my driver’s licenses and I’m wondering if anybody may have found them. My pocket had a hole, apparently. I have lost some credit cards too. Also, my Bawb’s-BBQ-Bowling-’n-Bait discount card is missing and my World of Pillows Ten for Nine card is totally missing. My neck will get super sore if I don’t find it, pronto. Then I’ll be cranky and that’s not gonna help nobody at all. People don't like to see a man stumbling up their walk with his head leaned over parallel with the earth.
I will miss my library cards, but my driver’s licenses are the devastating loss I am most concerned with, as I hate to be driving taxis and ferry boats and locomotives and sky cranes illegally unless I really have to. In which case it would be an emergency and I don’t think there’s a law officer in the land who would blame me. Obviously, I am a reluctant law breaker and even then I don’t think of myself so much as an outlaw, but mostly just a fella tryin' to find his way through this tough ol' world. I certainly hope you agree, especially if you are in the jury pool.
About fifteen of my Birth Certificate cards are gone too, dammit. They were good 'uns. I forget some of the names, but two were Baby Boy Johnston and Baby Girl Kittle. Them are pure gold! I would sure hate to lose 'em 'cause they offer a lifetime of imaginative opportunities! NOTE: One of my main biggest impressive talents is that I can scrunch up my face and go full fetal and suckle up on a nipple and you’ll swear I’m little SweePea herself! A rubber nipple, I mean. Please don’t bring that other kind of thinking to this page!
While I would sure like to get back them driver’s licenses and bank cards and that Tuscaloosa County Get Outta Jail Free card and my One Free Cotton Candy card from Ruth’s Chris Steak House, I could live with just the Fandango Movie Discount card if I had to. I was up to 49 movies in six months and would have gotten a free Super Giant Popcorn with neon-colored "buttah" after only 51 more. So if you find any of my lost-but-absolutely-legally-possessed-and-on-the-up-and-up cards, please reach out to me on the Cregsleast under, “IDs Made for Cheep in a Herry.” They might remember me there. ~ Michael Tomlinson
Bunny Logic
Please do not disturb the bunny until she is finished with breakfast — and lunch and dinner. All your expensive potted plants on your deck are a small price to pay for the cuteness which appears every single time you plant another one! Please pause, take a breath and repeat after me; “Bunnies is so danged cute that I refuse to ever get angry at one again. In fact, I shall head back to the nursery right now to spend $256 all over again and buy the same exact variety of flowering plants which bunnies apparently love. Bunnies is cuddly.”
If you will, repeat this mantra upon awakening each morning, then again every time you start grinding your teeth as you look at the odd leafy matter left scattered upon your lovely deck. And then of course, once more just before you drift off that night, all stressed about the stuff that really matters. Perhaps what you need is a stuffed bunny toy. That has made all the difference for me. I sleep like a baby now. ~ Li’l Mikey Tumbleton
Biking Across Wetlands on a Spring Evening
That’s what I call this photo. Of course, you may doubt me. Probably several thought, “Is that doofus just leanin’ down a little to keep his britches from getting pinched in a grocery cart? Cause I seen that happen before.” Nope podna, I’m really riding a bike.
Or someone else might think, “Why does he always try to make us think he is pedaling a bike? Clearly, he gets little to no exercise at all. I seen him hide his belly in concert before with a huge guitar!” Well, I’ll let that one slide.
Somebody wrote me last time, “You don’t have to keep pretending that you know how to ride a bike. Equilibrium is not for everybody, so don’t feel less-than. Just be glad you can lean out your car window and hold a selfy-stick.” I AM glad about that, but I still really do ride my bike.
Well, this is the kind of online fussing that happens when you reach the Super Galactic level of 63 Paid Subscribers On Substack! The Galaxy is mine!
Thank you for reading some of my stories, podnas. Keep breathing and being gentle with yourself.
Your friend in the wind, Michael Tomlinson