My Vivid Memories: Star Trek

On 03/26/202303/26/2023 By Susan St.PierreIn My Vivid Memories13 Comments

It’s becoming evident to me that I have a vivid memory of many events in my life. Are they accurrate? I don’t know.
They are based upon my feelings and mental pictures associated with certain moments.
I’ve tested those that I could and found that the people and places were real. I also know my feelings about them are strong and unchanging too. So however I interpreted an event, I can often figure out that it actually happened by investigating the time period with other clues like naming the people involved even small things like their pet’s name or describing the buildings.

With that said, I want to describe some of MY moments to document them in my blog. I’m able to trigger other family members to recall some events just by my detailed descriptions on occasion but sometimes they think I’m just making it up. I’ve come to trust my memory more than theirs because their inability to remember things isn’t any kind of conclusive evidence that they never happened.

I saw the following post about a Star Trek episode this morning. I loved the ‘out of this world’ ideas in Star Trek even as a child.
I remember sitting on a neighbor’s couch watching the episode and enjoying it. I was eleven and my parents were friends-as a couple-with the neighbors. Their name was Jensen. The adults were in the kitchen making small talk. The neighbor’s son, Steve, was being distractive and goofy, and I was watching this very episode at his house on his TV. I don’t recall if my siblings were there, but they probably were.
It’s not that the memory is something worth telling, it’s the vivid aspect of it. All of it surrounding, and brought back, by this episode of Star Trek which I was thoroughly involved with when it aired in 1967. I had tuned out my surroundings and focused fully on it. Pun intended, I was transported back to being eleven years old and I can “see” the characters on the TV.
Recalling the event has been a surprising delight. Right down to the butterflies in my stomach over the story which I found ‘fascinating’!
I assumed for years that everyone saw numerically sequenced displays in 3D maps in their heads and around them because I did. But over the course of my life, I couldn’t find others who knew what I was talking about. At 60 years old, I discovered that I have Spatial Sequence Synthesesia. I’ve made other posts on the topic.
Now, I’m trying to figure out if other people have detailed vivid memories like I described because my family gives me the same odd looks when I bring them up as they did when I once talked about ‘seeing’ numbers.
The link to the post that ‘triggered’ my memory is below. It’s not important unless you’re a Star Trek fan. I just wanted to document it for my granddaughters’ sake.
Let me know if you have such vivid memories.
I’ll be starting a new category to document some of my own as part of my blogging journal.
Happy Sunday!

https://powerpop.blog/2023/03/26/star-trek-the-devil-in-the-dark/

Art Awakenings

On 03/13/201303/13/2013 By Susan St.PierreIn Keeping Kids Creative, Sideshows7 Comments

It was from listening to the school-aged kids talking among themselves, that I came to this “train of thought”. They were discussing their favorite subjects and had the same ones that I had always enjoyed…Art, Music and Gym class.

As my mind considered a profound post requesting the incorporation of all early childhood subjects into the “fave three”, I realized it is already done in the better schools (including home schools).

Another impetus to this post, was last night’s longing to dabble with art again. I’m no professional but have sold a few pieces and enjoy the act of visual art creation, very much. The computer has allowed my creative juices to be released in writing to the extent of overlooking a “lost love”. It is easier to sit down to a computer than to drag out art supplies in the company of children. An art studio would fulfill many dreams, indeed, but isn’t happening in the near future.

Then I began a mental journey. Just when, where, why and how did I become an artist? I realized that there was one moment that gave me a “sight” that would give me pleasure for the rest of my life.

First, I have always wanted to be art artful. I have guided many preschoolers in their elementary art. Some kids, just aren’t interested. But, offering them the “sight” is what I’m really after.

What is the “sight”? It is the ability to disengage our minds from what we are looking at. Remember when kids draw their first pictures of pets? They put two eyes on one side of the animal’s head and the legs always count to four even when they are not really visible. They have yet to learn to “see” only what is there, not what they know is there.

I was lousy at art. I can still see the red-letter “C-” on a fourth grade diagram of a house fly. Then in sixth grade, and amazingly with a not yet dead interest , our class was given a science/art project on behalf of animal conservation. It is amazing that my Art classes had been devoid of Art learning to this point. In those days, it was all about producing a picture suitable for sending home, more than an education in the Arts.

I chose to reproduce a poster of a squirrel. As I struggled with the seemingly enormous task, my science teacher recommended that I turn the poster upside-down and try to draw the lines as I saw them. Eureka! That is where, when, why and how I learned to “see” the whole world differently.

I can attribute the ember of art desire, that I still had, directly to seeing country artists on hillsides with pads and paints. I specifically recall pressing my face to the car window and admiring them while thinking, “I want to do that.” Makes me wonder how they learned to “see”?

You want to hear something really cool? When I have spent a day drawing or painting, I see things especially clearly. Another world opens up! If I ride along in my car, everything becomes color and lines beyond notice to the average “eye”. Having experienced this, enlightens me to one reason why the “masters” wanted to stay inside that “world”.

I’d like everyone to have the opportunity to see the world just like that, now and then. I offer this to my kids and hope they are able to use their eyes separate from their minds. Heck, we already know kids use their mouths, that way, all the time. 😉

Art teachers no… (kidsbehindthelens.com)
Art Space for Kids :: 6 Simple Ways to Make a Creativity-Inspiring Space (artfulparent.com)

“Tuning in” on Nature

On 01/11/201301/11/2013 By Susan St.PierreIn In my humble opinion..., Sideshows2 Comments

I spent most of my Autumn getting caught up in the political debates. It was a depressing time for me. I felt agitated and angry, as well as, without hope. My journals and photography went from plentiful and bright, to almost nothing.

Today, I posted in my Nature Knowledge category for the first time in months. It made me feel good. Then I happened upon 2 articles that gave definition to my happier endeavors. I’ve entitled the 2 links:

Seeing is Believing

and

Connecting with Nature

Disconnecting from social media in favor of being outdoors is a prescription for true happiness. One of my status posts during the political rumble of last Fall asked everyone to stop labeling each other and look at their neighbors. I dared them to find bigots, baby killers and ugly Americans. In taking my own advice, I noticed charity, compassion and goodwill surrounded me.

The first article, linked above, clearly states that what we see is too often predicted by what we expect to see. The second article is a scientific experiment about our brains and what technology does to us.

I believe spending time with Nature is an awesome learning experience. Mother Nature has no agenda but for life. She can be cruel but never hateful. She can be beautiful but never vain. When I feel depressed and without hope, I choose to listen to Nature with my eyes and heart wide open. I suggest we introduce our children to that wonder for their own happiness and future.