"The I am Thankful For Book"
Hello there. It's been a long time, hasn't it? The snows have gone...and come back this week with a vengance, which is a good thing. They brought with them a new friend and an old concept and old friends. Ah. During my cacooning at Owl Farm this winter, I've been in close contact with George Stranahan and Hal Haddon who hooked me up with Jim Caruso of Flying Dog glory. We have teamed up and put Jim on the Board of Directors of the Gonzo Foundation. Yes, we are partners and friends and Ralph Steadman is our angel with a pen, and Sam from Fulcrum pulbishing for our next book project.
Becuase of the strictest confidentiality agreement ever agreed to, I'm not at liberty to tell you all the plans that Jim and his people at Flying Dog, along with the Gonzo family that stretches far and wide and me have come up with for the summer schedule at GF. But I believe I may mention what a perfect note Ralph sent after a few days of daytime and evening meetings. As many ideas were flowing and some crossed off, some TK, I'd like to share a part of Ralph's note:
...about the meetings you have been having these past couple of days/nights? I have just been to our local school to draw with the kids and draw them a picture of a man pouring hot- NOT boiling!! - custard over the battlements onto a marauding invader. They all did their own castles - a GOLD Castle, a RAINBOW Castle, a BLACK castle and lots of other castles. [It was quite charming and I have an awfully good hunch that they will ask him back.]
What a lousy future we are offering these little critters. Maybe some of them will be Accountants and Bankers but we should not condemn them with our attitudes and pollution.
This should be part of the HST legacy- the Foundation.
Compassion and Freedom from religious constraint should be paramount. We must live on equal terms. We must be allowed to believe in whatever the damn well we want to believe in- OR NOT!!!
We must only believe in being HUMAN! That is our basic fault....
Ah yes. That is our basic fault. So being human, I had forgetten one of my most basic surviving guides that I started when I was 25. A few months before I met Hunter, actually. It's a tiny little empty book, (now many books) that I would write one thing per day that I was thankful for. Don't underestimate how powerful it is, And how powerful it can be when one forgets to be grateful on a daily basis. NO, this aint rocket science, but it does fulfill my pomise to a dear friend and coach that before anything else, I will get out of this cacoon, and at least write one thing per day on my blog.
It's supposed to be short. Looking through my little books that I've been writing for over 12 years, I see things like, rasberry mochas, my family, my cat missy, my other cat Dede, my friend Shelby, Julie, Jackie, my dog Athena, and of course Hunter, thankful for not being late to work (when I worked at a coffee shop). So today, I am simply thankful for Jim Caruso and Ralph Steadman George Stranahan and Stacey Hadash for sharing their art and advice with me and prodding us all to be the best we can be. And that ain't no cliche. I love you guys. Long live Gonzo.
Your friend at Owl Farm,
Anita Thompson
After three
