Different Ways #12 Life in Little Egypt, Part One
I've had a lot of good fortune in my life and one of the most fortuitous aspects of it has been the opportunities to reinvent myself. I've had chances to do some things completely new and start over. This magic act is thanks to my being a free, white, American, female, admittedly. Billions would love this opportunity and I do not take this liberty lightly. To have the freedom to reinvent oneself has to be the best evolutionary liberation since resurrection from the dead.
So it was that reinventing myself was what I had in mind when I moved to the Arizona desert in 1988. It was the work that called initially. I come from a clan that moved with the idea of gainful employment as a priority. There was opportunity in Phoenix that wasn't present where I lived in California. It was the opportunity to play, however, that captured me the first seven years I was there. A long overdue sense of creative observing was let loose within me there and the experience realigned me. In Arizona, I managed to set myself up with necessary skills and confidence that would provide a foundation for my life for decades through the work I learned how to do. Thank you for listening.
Different Ways; Revealing the Feminine, Chapter 20 pp. 148-151
Music: As I stated in the book, referencing Phoenix as Little Egypt became a bit of an "other life" joke later and, as you can see, Elvis is giving me a sly, knowing smirk as he reaches through time to laugh with me at the punchline of this song. I'm reminded that this is, essentially, a lark and but a spot in time even though it appears otherwise. This clip from the movie Roustabout has it all; it has the theater, it has a carnival midway, it has tickets, it has the desert, it has Egypt, it has dancing girls, it has rubies, it has tattoos and...it, Cracks. Me. Up...EVERY time I see it! Well, perhaps you had to have been there...
Thank you for joining me here. The memoir Different Ways: Revealing the Feminine can be purchased through my website using a link to Village Books at AlltheDifferentWays.com. There will be an e-book available soon via the website, as well.
The blogCast that outlines my intentions for this series of readings from my book, Different Ways, Revealing the Feminine can be found here on the post, Between the Lines.