This is rich indeed… holiness has its own simplicity!

(original source unknown)

Banff, Alberta

I’ve just returned from a 12-day road trip with Bettie Blue (my 1988 VW Westfalia) and my lovely girlfriend Evelin Richter, who was able to accompany me on my annual pilgrimage to the mountains for the first time in half a dozen years. We had a great time, incredible weather, and a raft of good experiences… as you can likely tell by the pics above. (To see more, visit a gallery on Facebook here).

Above images: Bettie Blue and Ev at Tunnel Mountain campground; Mount Rundle, with the Milk River and Hoodoos in the foreground; a 3-year-old black bear munching on berries; the summit of Cascade Mountain; Ev playing ‘tourist’ at Lake Louise; the incredible turquoise of Lake Louise (as seen from the Big Beehive); three young Osprey fledglings waiting for their next meal of trout, atop a bridge over the Bow River; and, Bettie Blue with Mount Hector in the background.

I love, and collect, and often share wise words and quotations. The following showed up a while back as I was rummaging through some paper-stacks that lay relatively undisturbed for years in my somewhat-organized home library…

I quote others only the better to express myself.

—Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

—Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

We are no more than God’s imagination about himself.

—Thomas Mann (1875-1955)

The world is a tragedy to those who feel,

but a comedy to those who think.

—Horace Walpole (1717-1797)

A child of five would understand this.

Send someone to fetch a child of five!

—Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.

—Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

To him who is in fear, everything rustles.

—Socrates (469 BC-399 BC)

Education is when you read the fine print.

Experience is what you get if you don’t.

—Pete Seger (1919—  )

He of whom many are afraid ought to fear many.

— Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Everything has been thought of before—

the problem is to think of it again.

—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

There is no such thing as a pretty good omelette.

—French proverb

Many a scarecrow serves as a roost of the enlightened crow.

—(unknown)

The man who can’t visualize a horse

galloping on a tomato is an idiot.

—André Breton (1896-1966)

Please feel free to share with me the quotations that touch your own soul, tickle your fancy, or blow your mind, OK? You can contact me here.

—Nelson Mandela

Toronto, Canada

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message. Enjoy, here…