The Bumper Sticker Anthology - Part II - Everyone's an Artist

My friend Mark Miller gave me this one.  “Everyone's an Artist” it proclaims.  It meant a lot to me that it came from Mark who is a master guitar player.  We became dear friends in late 2004 just as the first relationship I’d been in since my husband’s death a few years prior was ending.  Mark and I decided to be friends.  A very good decision for so many reasons.  I love Mark dearly as a friend but I knew from the start that I had to be free to make an immediate exit whenever he'd start up his neurotic Mark bullshit, and I didn't hesitate to do so.  But when Mark was being his true self, he was such a beautiful and sensitive person and a joy to be around.  It often involved him having a guitar in hand, taking us on soft and elegant musical journeys while we talked.  His guitar wept . . . and then danced with ecstasy . . . beautiful . . . soothing . . .   He would finish a gig at 1:00, be completely wired and needing to stay up until 4 or 5.  The schedule worked well for me at the time as I had become an incurable insomniac, staying up that late with or without him, especially on the weekends.  

And I can't think of Mark without thinking of Tom whom I met shortly after Mark and whom I dated for about 5 minutes - another very good decision for so many reasons.  I introduced the two of them and we would spend evenings at my camp on Cobbossee Stream, them playing their guitars, with bullfrogs and peepers screaming in the background. Betty and others joining us at times. Starry nights with a campfire crackling.  The music and friendship was very healing and rejuvenating for me. 

My friend Maya left a djembe at my camp after spending a weekend once, and Mark encouraged me to beat on it.  Solo nights at my camp I'd thump away on it, wildly at times, and gently for hours.  I think it called in some critters and scared away others.  Being a positive person I chose to believe the loons and tree frogs were voicing their approval, not screeching at me to stop.  And during that beautiful summer Mark gave me the bumper sticker, “Everyone's an Artist” it declared. . . . Mark at his sweetest.