Random | The Direction of Intention

Low Cost Hilarity[David’s blog on Not So Thawed Wednesday]

Posted on December 10, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“The fear of appearances is the first symptom of impotence.” ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

“Never pay for car repairs again!” the spokesperson beamed. “Coverage is available on all vehicles less than 20 years old! Call now!”

“That leaves us out,” she said. “None of our vehicles is less than 20 years old.” Recently, she calculated that the combined age of our cars this year is exactly 100 years. We might not qualify for coverage but you may have noticed that we’re constantly whooping it up these days; our combined-car-centennial is reason to celebrate so we’re having 365 days of raucous festivities.

Craig once told us that LBS had “Milwaukee rims”. The faux chrome has long since peeled off and LBS now sports a mostly rusty-rim-look. “Are you staring at my car?” Kerri asked the young attendant at the recycle center who was clearly horrified with our rims. The poor guy sputtered. “We love our rims!” she smiled, putting LBS in gear and driving away.

In the late fall, when the sun sets early, if we time it just right, on the drive home from our trail, LBS casts a remarkable shadow on the road ahead: our silhouettes seated in a toaster-shape that seems to have enormous ears. Kerri always enthusiastically slaps my shoulder, “Can you see it? Can you see it?”

When I moved to the midwest I was amused by the ritual of the windshield wiper. When the storm is a’ brewin’ people run outside and stand-upright their windshield wipers. I learned the hard way that windshield wipers in the midwest, unlike windshield wipers in Colorado where I am from, freeze to the windshield. Now I have joined the custom. If you’re looking for me I have probably raced outside to spare the wipers from imminent freeze-ation. When LBS is covered with snow, the upright wipers make it look like a bug with cute antenna.

Milwaukee rims. Funny shadows. Winter bug cosplay. We might not have high priced insurance to protect against repairs, but we’ve mastered low cost hilarity and loyal love of our LBS, Big Red, and the ’71 Beetle nestled into the garage that will someday ride again.

read Kerri’s blogpost about UPRIGHT WIPERS

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Identity, Random | Tagged: appearance, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, old vehicle, snow, story, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

Walk Lightly [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on July 31, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

I believe Dr. Seuss found inspiration in teasel thistles. How could he not! They are quirky, whimsical and overflowing with personality. They populate our trail like a fanciful reception line of fantastic beings.

I imagine that they freeze as we approach, pretending to be plants. After we pass by they relax and talk about how weird human-bipeds are. From their vantage point we must seem droll. I agree with the teasels: from my vantage point, human beings seem zany. I wish they’d include me in their conversation.

Kerri thinks that some look like playful layer cakes. The others are like characters from the Despicable Me movies – only fastened to a stem. In any case, they radiate mischief.

Sometimes Kerri and I talk when we walk our trail. Sometimes we are quiet, listening to the birds or our thoughts. When listening to my thoughts I try to remember a universal truism that I most appreciated when stated this way: what you think is the mother lode of comedy. Don Miguel Ruiz wrote as his 5th Agreement: “Doubt everything you think.” I am guilty of taking myself too seriously. I could use a dose of doubt.

I keep on my desktop a piece of advice by Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly…”

I imagine that Aldous Huxley and Dr. Seuss are hidden among the mischievous teasels and whisper to us as we pass by: “There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly…”

Looking for Light (sketch), tissue, charcoal and medium on board

read Kerri’s blogpost about TEASELS

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Random | Tagged: 5th agreement, Aldous Huxley, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, don miguel ruiz, doubt, Dr. Seuss, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, light heart, story, studio melange, the melange, wild teasel, zany | Leave a comment »

Bolt! [David’s blog on Not So Flawed Wednesday]

Posted on July 9, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“The caterpillar ate the dill,” she said. I laughed. It sounded like the first line in a children’s book. “No matter,” she said as she watched the caterpillar munching, “With all this rain and heat the dill has already bolted.” I raised my eyebrows. Not being up on my garden lingo, “the dill bolted” also sounded like the first line in a children’s book: the dill sprinted from the garden bench!

I thought but did not say: “I’d bolt from the room, too, if I discovered a caterpillar was gnawing on me.” Kerri puts up with enough of my random-mind-wander as it is. I’ve learned to keep some of it to myself.

Though, in my silence, I wished I’d had a pencil and paper to jot down the ideas but my hands were covered in mud. With the recent heat and rain, the weeds were eating the yard (I know! I know! Another great first line for a children’s book!) and I was waging a fruitless campaign to hold back the onslaught. No matter. Ideas come and go. I’ve let plenty of good ideas – and bad ones, too – slip by unrecorded. My muddy hands probably saved me from myself.

It’s worth mentioning that one of the many definitions of “bolt” is to “eat quickly.” To gobble or gulp. Watching the caterpillar eat I think it’s fair to suggest that it was bolting. Essentially the caterpillar and the dill both bolted and neither of them left the yard. It was a reminder to never assume to understand a single word someone else utters. Kerri might have meant that the dill was gulping rather than what I presupposed, that the dill was now dormant. I confess to looking up from my weeding to make sure that the dill was still in the pot and that the pot was on the bench.

Someday soon the bolting caterpillar will possibly fly through the yard as a Black Swallowtail butterfly. It quite literally will have bolted from one way of being into another way of being. Do not assume that you know what I mean. After all, I used the word “bolt” with clear intent to scramble the possibilities.

On the day we see the butterfly I will say to Kerri, “Hey! Look at what your dill produced!” She will give me “that” look and I will, of course, have no alternative but to make-like-dill and bolt.

read Kerri’s blogpost about CATERPILLARS

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Filed under: Flawed Wednesday, Random | Tagged: artistry, black swallowtail butterfly, bolt, caterpillar, children's book, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, dill, gobble, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Lift [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on February 27, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

An Ode To Lift.

To raise or hoist. To heave or haul.

Dissipating fog, cloud dissolve.

Upward force, curved surface of a wing.

Pump up the volume, make eardrums ring.

Buoy the spirits, sing the reprise.

Pick a pocket; go ahead, plagiarize!

Boost the revenue, Jack-up the price.

End the embargo, melt political ice.

Stop. A thumb’s out, give it a ride.

Encouragement, boost, stimulus, pride.

“Which floor?” Push the button. Soon you’ll arrive.

***

“Lift” is one of those words. A noun and a verb. Four letters, when combined, result in many more than four definitions, some completely contradictory. Lift a spirit/Lift a wallet.

Somewhere in time, it occurred to a human mind that flight did not necessarily include flapping but the opposite. Lift. In my imagination the Wright Brothers flapped their arms in excitement when their theory took flight. Lift: the upward force that allows an aircraft to stay airborne. “The curved upper surface of a wing causes air to flow faster over the top than the bottom, resulting in lower pressure above the wing and higher pressure below, generating lift. According to Bernoulli’s principle.”

I nearly flunked physics in high school so don’t ask me to expound or explain. In fact, I try not to think about lift when I board an airplane. It’s enough to know that I am willingly entering a tube that will hurtle through space while a kind person offers me coffee and snacks from a rolling cart. I flap my arms in excitement every time the plane safely lands.

Each and every time, sitting very still, buckled into my seat, I close my eyes during the moment of lift.

And really, it all boils down to this: “People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.” ~ Michelle Obama

read Kerri’s blogpost about FLIGHT

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Language, Random | Tagged: artistry, Bernoulli's Principle, boost, buoy, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, encouragement, flight, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lift, Michelle Obama, physics, pride, raise, story, strength, studio melange, the melange | 5 Comments »

Meet Guttah [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on February 20, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Meet Guttah. He is no ordinary snowman. He is made from snow scooped off of the roof.

A snow-rake and a wobbly ladder were necessary to acquire the makings of Guttah.

I did not climb a ladder on a bitter cold day with a snow-rake in hand in order to make Guttah. Had Guttah been on my mind, had Guttah been the original mission, I would have used the snow on the ground. There was – and is still – plenty of snowman fodder in the backyard. No. The conditions were perfect for ice-damming. A wet snow followed by a sunny day. And then a freeze. We jumped into prevention-mode since historically an ice dam on the roof is capable of channeling water into our house. “Is that a waterfall…on the wall?” I asked the first time I experienced it.

“Damn it!” Kerri exclaimed, jumping into action.

You might say that Guttah is a side-effect of ice-dam-prevention. With plenty of snow on the roof, standing on the icy rungs of an old wooden ladder, with every pull of my snow-rake cascading snow and ice onto the deck far below, rather than think, “I could die,” I chose to ask a question of distraction: “What will I do with all of this snow piling up on the deck?”

Like much of the art created across time, Guttah was borne as a distraction from death-fear. Not that I consider Guttah art (he certainly does not view himself with such hubris) but thoughts of a snowman sculpture kept me scooping and gave me the necessary focus to stay safely perched upon my shaky rung.

My favorite part is his hair. It is how I imagined my hair under my hat while scooping snow from the roof. Guttah, after all, is my doppelganger, my double-walker, the outer-snow-image of my inner-snow-scooping-self.

read Kerri’s blogpost about GUTTAH

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Filed under: Art, DR Thursday, Random | Tagged: art, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, death, doppelganger, double-walker, ice, ice damming, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, polar vortex, snow, snowman, story, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

Still Standing [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on December 27, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Yesterday our walk in the fog and wet took us by the x-mas tree recycle drop-off. The morning after Christmas and a tree was already stripped of lights and baubles and dumped in the lot. On to the next, I suppose.

No matter how I spin it, the story of the tree-in-the-lot is not happy. Used and discarded. Maybe there was an argument. Maybe this lonely tree was in the home of a lonely person and it was just too hard…

There is a post-holiday return-to-reality akin to returning home after a vacation get-away but it seems a bit too soon for that. We have yet to ring in the new year and I want to stay in the escape-from-reality-zone as long as possible. I want to store-up some positive vibes for the certain chaos and sanity-drought that lies dead ahead.

This morning I woke up exhausted. The fog is still with us so I’m not harboring any hope of a spirit-lift from the sun. I found it impossible to focus so while Kerri was on a call I crawled under a blanket on the couch and appreciated all the beauty we created in our home these past few weeks. A visitor on the Eve said our house was warm. It is. It warms. I’m not sure my appreciation tour gave me a lift – I’m still exhausted – but it definitely pointed me in the right direction.

While enjoying our decorations and lights I thought of that lonely tree dumped in the lot. I wondered if the person or the family that so quickly discarded their celebration also consciously – or unconsciously – discarded the very thing that might boost their spirit. I suspect we are all at one time or another guilty of sabotaging our peace, undermining our joy. As a nation we just successfully chucked out the baby with the bathwater, proof-positive that anything is possible – individually and en masse.

A rush of idioms just poured into my brain-pan but I will spare you – and me – the disruption. In the meantime, like us, I hope your tree is still standing and you are still standing in your house that warms spirits.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about a HOLIDAY LIFT

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Filed under: KS Friday, Random | Tagged: appreciation, artistry, christmas tree, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, each new day, holiday season, idioms, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, right now, Right Now by kerri sherwood, spirits, story, studio melange, the melange, warmth | 1 Comment »

Diamonds In The Cold [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on December 6, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

The already cold temperatures are dropping like a stone. The weather app described tonight and tomorrow with a single word: frigid.

Kerri and I have a dilemma: as we age she is getting more sensitive to the heat. I am getting more sensitive to the cold. “What are we going to do?” I asked. She gave me “the look.”

Do you ever marvel, as I do, how much can be communicated in a single look?

For now, we are staying put. We will dream dreams of mountain homes in temperate zones. Places where horses roam, where trails are aplenty, where both hot-flashes and cold-shivers are nowhere to be found. We will practice the art of compromise.

I suppose it is easier for me to pile on more clothes than it is for her to find more layers to take off. I won’t get arrested if I move through the public looking like the Michelin Man but she will certainly raise eyebrows if she strips to the original layer. “I’ll get my sweater,” I say, as she dials down the thermostat.

Henrik Ibsen wrote, “The devil is compromise,” but I am learning that compromise – healthy compromise – doesn’t live in an either/or world. It is not populated by devils or angels. That is a strategy of loss, a begrudging middle-ground arrived at by settling. I’m discovering that it is possible for compromise to paint from a broader palette. Middle ground is just as easily arrived at by giving. Generosity can be mutual. Peace is a creation. Compromise begins with making offers. It’s called “relationship.”

“All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals…” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Perhaps the most relevant insight of late into compromise is something I am only now understanding and my teacher is the politics of the day: the art of compromise is a terrific way of discerning what is fundamental and what is not. A few weeks ago I wrote that I’d discovered my intolerance. I found through this election that I have hard lines that I will not cross. In other words, I’ve found my fundamentals.

The rest of Gandhi’s thought is this: “…Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take.”

I believe that a good many people in this nation surrendered their fundamentals. Or, they never had them in the first place.

And so, here we are. And while we wait for the nation to either dissolve or find its hard line, we will hunker down in our happy home, control what we can control, and through sweaters and thermostats, practice the fine art of generosity, offering the mutual gift of compromise. Diamonds in the cold.

Kerri’s albums are available on iTunes and streaming on Pandora

read Kerri’s blogpost about CHALK DIAMONDS

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Filed under: KS Friday, Navel Gazing, Random | Tagged: artistry, Compromise, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, fundamentals, generosity, intolerance, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, mahatma gandhi, peace, relationship, story, studio melange, surrender, the melange | 4 Comments »

Make Room for “Wow!” [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on October 21, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” ~ Alan Watts

My inner schoolmarm just marched me to corner where I now sit wearing the dunce cap. Apparently I have been taking myself too seriously. I am confused since I started my campaign for serious-thinking after last week when I was marched to the corner and made to sit wearing the same dunce cap for not being serious enough! My inner schoolmarm is hard to please!

Quinn used to talk about course corrections – learning – as smart-bomb behavior. Rather than “ready-aim-fire” he suggested the correct sequence was “fire-aim-ready”. Too much of life is wasted on the notion of readiness. Live-and-learn rather than learn-to-live.

I laughed aloud when I read the phrase on the wall of an airbnb: “Live your life as an exclamation rather than an explanation.” I wonder how much of my inner air-space has been dedicated to explaining my life choices to myself in the guise of imaginary conversations with others? Why do I spend so much time telling myself the story of myself? You’d think I have nothing better to do and no one else to talk to. I’d much rather fill my inner air-space with a constant, “Wow!”

That must be why I’m sitting in the corner. Perhaps my inner schoolmarm is not so unreasonable after all. She may have something of value to teach me. An inner “Wow!” is the response of someone who is looking out on the gorgeousness of the world. Focus out. A rolling inner explanation is self-absorbed. There’s no room for “Wow” amidst so much “MeMeMe.”

No wonder I currently don a dunce cap and sit by myself in this sad little corner!

Maybe wearing this silly dunce cap has nothing to do with my seriousness or lack thereof! Maybe, to escape my punishment, all I need do is ask, “How can I help?” Or, “Who can I help?” Or maybe I should look out the window at the autumn trees and witness the “Wow!”

Or, maybe I should sit here for awhile longer, invested in the impossible, and continue trying to explain myself to myself.

read Kerri’s blogpost about BE THE GOOD

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Filed under: Identity, Merely A Thought Monday, Metaphor, Random | Tagged: alan watts, artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, exclamation, explanation, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, learning, other focus, readiness, self absorbed, self reflection, story, studio melange, the melange, witness, wow | Leave a comment »

“I Am!” I Said. [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on September 10, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

Un-momentous Breaking News! I’ve just decided – just now, right this moment – that my personal symbol, my identifying-critter-crest, should from now and for all time forward be…The Bumble Bee!!!

“Wait!” you yawn. “What?” you ask-to-be-polite. “You can’t possible make so un-dramatic a dramatic claim without a comprehensive explanation!”

True. Yes. An explanation. Fortunately, I came prepared for this moment. The word “bumble” – relative to the bee – has two definitions that, lately, fit me like a glove. First, to move ineptly through the world. To blunder, lurch, or wobble. The second (as is proven by this very blog post), to buzz or drone on and on. To babble, ramble, gibber, and burble.

But wait! In case you are suddenly concerned that I am hosting a festival of self-deprecation, let me assure you that you are misguided. Wrong. Filled with wild assumptions. Your concerns could not be further from the truth of my new personal-symbol-bumblebee-rumination. I’m actually quite pleased.

Creative processes never follow a straight line. Bumblebees get the job done but their path is nearly impossible to follow. They appear like a flying-happy-accident, a reeling wanderer that is surprisingly efficient. It’s the real trouble with my resume (or any creative person’s resume): HR people, family and friends expect to see straight lines and are highly suspicious of anything expansive, eclectic, or exploratory. I will be quite pleased with myself, when the next stranger I meet at a party asks me what I do for a living, to answer, “I’m a bumblebee.”

As for droning on an on. Well. Look at the archive of this blog. Good god. Or the drafts of plays, the ideas for books, the organizational ruminating, the stories…, the opinions I have not-yet-learned to keep to myself (this is your cue to send condolences to Kerri. For some reason she married me so now I have a captive audience…). “Gear-down!” she says, when my esoterica runs amok and she needs my mind to express a simpler path and be less bumble-bee-like.

And, to prove that I am actually capable of controlling my drone, I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Bonus track. This popped into my mind as I wrote the title of this post]

read Kerri’s more coherent blogpost about BUMBLEBEES

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Filed under: Creativity, Random, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, babble, blunder, bumble, bumblebee, burble, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, drone, efficient, esoteric, gibber, happy accident, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lurch, ramble, story, studio melange, symbol, the melange, wanderer, wobble | 3 Comments »

Give Over [David’s blog on KS Friday]

Posted on September 6, 2024 by davidrobinsoncreative

In the pontoon boat I give over. I do not drive so I make no significant decisions. I sit in a sunny spot. I laugh with good friends or am quiet. There are snacks. I open myself to whatever comes my way. I give-over.

It seems so easy on the pontoon boat. To relax. To go with the flow. To forget the all-important-lists. To drop the illusion that I am more than I am. No need to achieve, to prove, to strive, to become. On the pontoon boat I am just this. I am with friends. We move slowly. We chase nothing. We circumnavigate the lake. On the pontoon boat I am enough – and I know because I do not think about it at all. I measure nothing. No need to measure up.

I wonder why I reserve this kind of living to time on the pontoon boat.

Yesterday was an exceedingly hard day. I filled my cup with discord and self-loathing. I was a wasteland.

The boat is not magic. The peace I feel is not given to me by the boat. I give it to myself. My friends are with me whether we ride the boat or not. The reasons for my discord existed only in my mind. A very dark cloud. In my mind I did not measure up. I withheld peace and chose inner-enmity. Why?

You would think the grace I afford myself when riding in the pontoon boat would be available when riding on the earth as we circle and circle the sun. Why is my ride on this earth any different than my ride on the pontoon boat? Why would I choose anything other than grace?

When not on the pontoon boat am I not capable of opening myself to whatever comes my way? What – other than myself – prevents me from giving-over?

I measure illusions against illusions to fully achieve my misery.

The illusions and incessant measurement are what I drop when climbing onto the pontoon boat. They are what I easily-give-over when taking my seat in the sun with friends. How much more important is it to give-over the illusions with the same ease while inhabiting this seat as I circle and circle the sun?