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A Publication of M2 Communications
jack-daw [JAK-dah], n. 1. a glossy, black, European bird, corvus monedula, of the crow family, that nests in towers, ruins, etc.; has a proclivity to collect bright objects that attract its attention; can include bits of ice, things round or square, twigs, filaments of light bulbs; specialist on the lookout of what fits the construction of its nest.
jackdaw journal [JAK-dah JERN-al], n. 1. a repository of bright objects — wit, wisdom and whimsey — collected and/or created by Michael McKinney. 2. a web log or blog
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October 2024 Archives
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Happiness is a Decision
October 11, 2024
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 The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by 8 am, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.
“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
” Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room...”
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it. Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.”
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No Regrets
October 15, 2024
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You can’t change the past, but the future holds possibilities. Our choices shape our lives, and although you can’t change the past, the future is full of possibilities. Japanese writer Toshikazu Kawaguchi makes a case for not leaving things until later in his book Before the Coffee Gets Cold:
Don’t leave anything for later.
Later, the coffee gets cold.
Later, you lose interest.
Later, the day turns into night.
Later, people grow up.
Later, people grow old.
Later, life goes by.
Later, you regret not doing something…
When you had the chance.
Life is a fleeting dance, a delicate balance of moments that unfold before us, never to return in quite the same way again.
Regret is a bitter pill to swallow, a weight that bears down upon the soul with the burden of missed chances and unspoken words.
So, let us not leave anything for later. Let us seize the moments as they come, with hearts open and arms outstretched to embrace the possibilities that lie before us. For in the end, it is not the things we did that we regret, but the things we left undone, the words left unspoken, the dreams left unfulfilled.
Social entrepreneur and podcaster Raj Jana also reminds us that the time is now to act to create the life you want:
There is no rewind button or do-over on life. Time spent is forever lost – but that doesn’t mean today can’t be the start of something beautiful. True; the best time to start may have been 10 years ago, but the second-best time is now. So, grab the mic now and make a choice right now to squeeze everything you can out of this beautiful thing called life. Remember, you don’t have to finish where you started. Things don’t have to stay as they are because they’ve always been that way. You can make your own rules, choose your own path, and win big with whatever you want for your life. Live from your heart, create through the lens of love, and stay forever curious. Dance with every aspect of your being and allow every part of you to shine. Find your version of wholeness.”
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How Creativity Works
October 18, 2024
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Creativity is the culmination of everything you know and experience. Old things presented in a new way. If you want to be creative, fill your life with dots you can connect together.
Bob Dylan made this point in his 2015 MusiCares Person of Year speech, honoring his music.
I’m glad for my songs to be honored like this. But you know, they didn’t get here by themselves. It’s been a long road and it’s taken a lot of doing.
These songs didn’t come out of thin air. I didn’t just make them up out of whole cloth. Contrary to what Lou Levy said, there was a precedent. It all came out of traditional music: traditional folk music, traditional rock ‘n’ roll and traditional big-band swing orchestra music.
For three or four years, all I listened to were folk standards. I went to sleep singing folk songs. I sang them everywhere, clubs, parties, bars, coffeehouses, fields, festivals. And I met other singers along the way who did the same thing and we just learned songs from each other. I could learn one song and sing it next in an hour if I’d heard it just once.
If you sang “John Henry” as many times as me — “John Henry was a steel-driving man / Died with a hammer in his hand / John Henry said a man ain’t nothin’ but a man / Before I let that steam drill drive me down / I’ll die with that hammer in my hand.”
If you had sung that song as many times as I did, you’d have written “How many roads must a man walk down?” too.
I sang a lot of “come all you” songs. There’s plenty of them. There’s way too many to be counted. “Come along boys and listen to my tale / Tell you of my trouble on the old Chisholm Trail.” Or, “Come all ye good people, listen while I tell / the fate of Floyd Collins a lad we all know well / The fate of Floyd Collins, a lad we all know well.”
“Come all ye fair and tender ladies / Take warning how you court your men / They’re like a star on a summer morning / They first appear and then they’re gone again.” “If you’ll gather ’round, people / A story I will tell / ‘Bout Pretty Boy Floyd, an outlaw / Oklahoma knew him well.”
If you sung all these “come all ye” songs all the time, you’d be writing, “Come gather ’round people where ever you roam, admit that the waters around you have grown / Accept that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone / If your time to you is worth saving / And you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone / The times they are a-changing.”
You’d have written them too. There’s nothing secret about it. You just do it subliminally and unconsciously, because that’s all enough, and that’s all I sang. That was all that was dear to me. They were the only kinds of songs that made sense.
You can read the full transcript of his speech on the American Songwriter website.
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