Hello!

Welcome to PattyTakes…

In certain restaurants with polished (or wanna-be-polished) chefs, there’s a little morsel served to diners called an “amuse-bouche.” This bite-sized hors d’oeuvre is given gratis to amuse — or titillate — our appetites.

That’s the reason I’m launching PattyTakes — to amuse your mind as well as whet your appetite for thoughtful conversation. Writing my take on topics — and inviting your personal take — is a way for us to connect. Sure, my particular viewpoint may differ from your own unique perspective, but I think we can all get along. Even if we don’t agree, I still want to amuse you in the ticklish or peaceful places in your mind.

Maybe even elicit your laughter, chortle — or snort.

Are we kindred spirits?

Let’s see…things I revere are humor, most all critters (except for fire ants, chiggers and mosquitoes), books, libraries, book shops, simple and delicious food, friendship, family, walking in pretty places, birds that sing in the dawn, words, flowers that unfurl into jeweled color, ancient trees with tales to tell — and books. I know, I know, I already mentioned books but I’m doubling down. I do care for them so very much. And you? The same?

If you’ve piles of them, shelves of them, both read and unread, waiting to be opened, then we are similar. And I welcome you with open mind and a happy spirit.

If you don’t care for libraries, book-shops, a turn of a memorable phrase, a poem that hits your heart with a jolt of feeling, and don’t want to honor your wisdom years with an open mind and heart, then I suspect you’ll find PattyTakes a land too far. Not your cup of tea — or kombucha. Go in peace, my friend.

Being a Boomer (no jokes, please), I remember back to a simpler time (ignoring, for the time being, the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, duck-n-cover, a certain Russian banging his shoe on the table and telling us he’d bury us, the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War, Kent State, Nixon and Reagan, the Golden Age of Rock n Roll, 9/11 and other such life-shaping events) — somehow life was more simple. And the times, they were a-changing. And now they’re changing back?

Was it because it was the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius and we still had hope in our hearts for a better world? Or was it because we viewed life through a filter of Purple Haze?

So low-tech, those days. Dial phones. No carrying around a small computer in our pockets. No butt-dialing. No passwords to forget. No data breaches. No internet scams to ignore. Life before texts. Life on the party line. Our Siri was “O” for Operator.

Damn, I do grow older.

My mind seems untouched (again, no jokes, please) but the hide grows somewhat weathered with interesting growths like a stalwart tree. But most mornings, when I take my cup of coffee out onto the porch and listen to the birds greet the sun and fight over bath-time in bird-bath, I feel alive to the possibilities of a Brave New World of harmony and peace.

The birds of a different feather work out sharing the bath — can we not?

If I do my best to avoid the morning’s harvest of hard news, if I’m successful in finding all my passwords, and if I discover a cartoon in The New Yorker magazine filled with wry and darkish wit that makes me smile, or nod in recognition about our silly human condition, then I am happy. Life is good.

I feel possibilities

A bit of magic is a-foot. The mourning doves are murmuring secrets. A certain renewal fills the unsullied morning air, the diamond dew shines on the hardy centipede grass.

So come, dear Reader. Let us journey together. Let’s talk. Ponder. Wander a bit in our minds. Your (constructive) comments are always welcome. Let’s learn from one another.

But no ugliness, please. I aim PattyTakes for sociable media. Book-haters need not apply.

Thanks for joining me on this maiden voyage. You’re most welcome here.

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Wishing you much joy, one meatball at a time. Hope you enjoyed this post. Please share your comments/thoughts. Always, Patty