[Oe List ...] I Thought I Would Share Some Thoughts

Fri Jan 31 08:31:48 PST 2025

Milan, Really appreciate the Jan 6th poem (great pperspective shift, gives
room to exhale) and your 88 year song. May. You Continue this story
telllling gift. Judi White💛🧘🧡

On Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 10:17 AM Nancy Lanphear via OE <
oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:

> Dianne,
> I remember your brother Al from the early days in Kawangware. His spirit,
> organizational and leadership skills created a solid team of young men from
> the Community. It was the Public Work Corps, a key to the development of
> Kawangware.  Greetings to you and Salvatore.
> Love, 🎶❤️. Nancy
>
> On Jan 31, 2025, at 5:49 AM, Sunny Walker via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
> wrote:
>
> 
>
> What a treat to wake up to! Much gratitude.
>
> On Fri, Jan 31, 2025, 6:23 AM Dianne Greenwald via OE <
> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>
>> This made my day.  My dear brother, Al, just wrote the world needs us to
>> have fun and laugh.   The depth of that action as an elder is marvelous!
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Jan 30, 2025, at 8:16 PM, Leah Early via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> How delightful, Milan! I appreciate your humor and energy at 88 years of
>> age. And I ,too, love the notion of keeping our stories alive.
>> Thank you,
>> Leah Early
>>
>> On Jan 30, 2025, at 3:55 PM, Milan Hamilton via OE <
>> oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
>>
>> First, I want to say a big heartfelt thank you to those of you, my
>> colleagues and friends, who responded to my earlier GoFundMe request on
>> behalf of our local Neighborhood Climate Action Redlands (ANCA Redlands)
>> efforts.
>>
>> Second, I want to say thank you to all of you, who are now members of my
>> collegial council as we try to navigate the turbulent and heating-up waters
>> of the 21st century. We have done marvelous things as a body. I just
>> remembered the night Lyn Mathews invited Dave McClesky, Frank Knutson and I
>> to her little retirement community apartment and said those words or
>> something like them. And our good friend and mentor Georgianna McBurney was
>> constantly expressing similar sentiments. I am thankful for all we have
>> done as a people, trying to keep alive the dream MLK spoke of so eloquently
>> just before he was struck down.
>>
>> Third, I am thankful for all you as the Order dispersed have accomplished
>> and been able to share in vicariously through the gift of the internet and
>> social media, with all its flaws and pitfalls.
>>
>> Fourth, I am attaching a copy of the vision and goals our ANCA Redlands
>> crew have been operating out of and implementing for these past two and a
>> half years. If anything we are doing at the local level looks like it might
>> be of value in your piece of the globe, we are happy to share it. It was
>> the work of our colleagues in Denver who started this ANCA thing that
>> inspired us to give it a go here in Redlands. You can Google ANCA
>> Redlands or click the link <https://redlands-anca.hub.arcgis.com/> if
>> anyone you know might be interested. And just in case anyone missed my
>> GoFundMe appeal, I am happy to share that here as well—Click Here!
>> <https://gofund.me/58b7b70b>
>>
>> Fifth, and last, I am sharing a couple of poems. The first one was
>> written and read to my writing group on the occasion of the mass pardoning
>> of the January 6th insurrectionists. The second was in response to Linda
>> asking me if I had written my birthday poem yet. (Our gang here was in the
>> habit of composing birthday songs for milestone birthdays and sadly, as the
>> gang has dwindled, so has our practice). So the poem I wrote seemed to be
>> more fitting for a song. The reason for sharing is that we all have a story
>> to tell. I don’t want any of yours to be lost. The inspiration for the song
>> is the great Merle Travis immortal hit “Sixteen Tons.” I have included an
>> attached MP3 file to the version I chose with a little help from AI.
>>
>> *A Very Personal Poem*
>>
>> (on the occasion of the pardon and release of 1500 January 6th
>> Insurrectionists)
>>
>> I woke up this morning.
>>
>> Does that mean I’m woke?
>>
>> I’m approaching number 88,
>>
>> Grateful that I ain’t broke.
>>
>> I may be badly bent.
>>
>> I feel like something’s missing.
>>
>> I can’t tell where it went.
>>
>> If you know, don’t tell me.
>>
>> Maybe I’ll give it up for Lent.
>>
>> Can’t find my rose-colored glasses.
>>
>> Maybe I’ll borrow yours.
>>
>> I watched them all get passes.
>>
>> They just walked out the door,
>>
>> To join the huddled masses
>>
>> Still yearning to know the score.
>>
>> Milan Hamilton
>>
>> January 23, 2025
>>
>> *Eighty-Eight Years*
>> 1.         I – was born one mornin’ in the Great Depression,
>>
>> Raised on the plains on a reservation,
>>
>> Got an education but I’m still not done,
>>
>> My life rolls on ‘til the setting sun.
>>
>>
>>   Chorus: Ya live eighty-eight years and whatta ya get?
>>
>> Another year older and ya ain’t dead yet.
>>
>> St. Peter’s still a-waitin’ for the dice to be rolled.
>>
>> But I’m not goin’ ‘til my story’s been told.
>>
>> 2.    It’s 2025 and where have I been.
>>
>> The years flew by – It’s beyond my ken.
>>
>> I better get a-writin’ ‘fore I’m too damn old,
>>
>> Before they lay me down – stiff and cold.
>>
>>
>>   Chorus: Ya live eighty-eight years and whatta ya get?
>>
>> Another year older and ya ain’t dead yet.
>>
>> St. Peter’s still a-waitin’ for the dice to be rolled.
>>
>> But I’m not goin’ ‘til my story’s been told.
>>
>> 3.    My life is a song – hasn’t been sung yet,
>>
>> No one to sing it but there’s no regret.
>>
>> I’ll sing it myself when the darkness comes,
>> And go out dancin’ on the grim reaper’s drum.
>>
>>
>>  Chorus: Ya live eighty-eight years and whatta ya get?
>> Another year older and ya ain’t dead yet.
>> St. Peter’s still a-waitin’ for the dice to be rolled.
>> But I’m not goin’ ‘til my story’s been told.
>> *Milan Hamilton, January 25, 2025, Thank you Merle Travis*
>> -
>> Mellow Milan Hamilton
>> 80 North Center Street
>> Redlands, CA 92373
>> Phone: (909) 943-1667
>> email: mellowmilan2 at gmail.com
>> <ANCA Vision & Goals_20250128_0001.pdf><Song.mp3>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OE mailing list
>> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OE mailing list
>> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> OE mailing list
>> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
>> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>>
> _______________________________________________
> OE mailing list
> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> OE mailing list
> OE at lists.wedgeblade.net
> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20250131/69ab286d/attachment-0001.htm>