Finer Things Challenge: Carolyn

Last month I posted a piece about the “finer things in life”, suggesting that such things are not necessarily expensive items, but rather “unassuming moments when you are caught by surprise and taken on a spirit-soar”.

I asked readers to free-fall back into memory to find their own “finer things” and to share them with me.

Friend Carolyn Shobe sent me the following piece 

in response to this prompt:

       

           As I read your entry on the finer things of life, I was taken back to the Pow-wows I sponsored at Hoke High School in the 1980s.  Many of the Lumbee students were disinterested in school academic subjects, but they came alive when I was granted permission to have a Pow-wow for the whole school.  Connie, a gorgeous, petite, young lady of 14 dressed in plain brown garb and performed the Lord’s Prayer in sign language.  Never had those 1400 students been so quiet.  We all sensed the presence of the Lord.  Male students donned their fancy dancing garb and re-created out of their lost past dances and drumming which touched the soles of our feet.  There is truly something special about the rumble of drums and the flash of dancing feet. The feathers floated gracefully as they bowed their heads imitating buffalo hunts long forgotten.

        

        I think this affinity for drumbeats started when I was young and went to high school football games.  I have never understood football nor have I wanted to.  I went to feel the stadium bleachers shudder when the band started.  Drums speak to something primal in each of us; those who are too shy to dance or drum reach out for the beat and live vicariously through the drummers. 

          Only once have I drummed in public.  At Storer, the elementary home where I spent 9 years, we were visited by dancing, drumming African members of a troop.  I was so mesmerized that I forgot about my size or my age and went forward with the young and old volunteers to pour my soul into the stretched rawhide and the hollow wood.  The song and rhythm transcended my lack of talent and pulled me into the mystery of the moment.

          These drums are truly part of the finer things you’ve touched on in Japan.

Finer Things Challenge: Norma

Several days ago I posted a piece about the “finer things in life”, suggesting that such things are not necessarily expensive items, but rather “unassuming moments when you are caught by surprise and taken on a spirit-soar”.

I asked readers to free-fall back into memory to find their own “finer things” and to share them with me.

Following is an excerpt from Norma’s blog, 

Scrappy Grams, in response to this prompt:

Linen table cloths, fabric place mats and cloth napkins are some things I picture when I hear the phrase fine living, or the finer things of life. It connotes to me old movies (a fondness of mine) with the romantic couple sitting at a table covered with a fancy linen tablecloth, beautiful lacy napkins and crystal wine glasses filled with sweet red wine.

My uncle David got me started on using place mats and cloth napkins, even for everyday use, when he was a salesman of kitchen and bath items to retail stores in Texas and surrounding states.  One year when my family visited him, he stocked me up on samples he no longer needed.  I've used place mats and cloth napkins ever since then.  No plastic mats and paper napkins for me or my guests.  Using these things fits in with my "green" side too.  No filling up the dumps with my napkins and mats!  

The FINER Things: An Invitation

Photo Credit:
www.leapfrog-
entertainment.com

Once exposed to the “finer things in life” it becomes difficult to live without them. I put the phrase “the finer things in life” in quotations because I am well aware that what I define as “finer” others may not see it that way at all.

Photo credit: destination360.com

There are three “finer” things I crave on a regular basis: 1) a Japanese bath; 2) Negro Spirituals; and 3) drums. 

Having been exposed to these things, feeling fully their tight grip on my soul, I feel a nostalgic longing to once again spirit-soar – that spontaneous flight that is gifted to me by these “finer things”.

When you think of the “finer things in life” you probably think first of decadence and expensive items like champagne and caviar; jaguars and diamonds.

But think again.

What indulgences do you enjoy that are hard-to-come-by and true one-of-a-kind gems?  I’m talking about things that cost no money, but also cannot be created or attained by giving yourself an uninterrupted afternoon full of time.

Free-fall back into your memory and find unassuming moments when you were caught by surprise and taken on a spirit-soar. Those are the “finer things in life”.

Maybe now as we approach the closing of this year it is a good time to contemplate these things. Let me present this as a prompt and an invitation:

Describe one or more of your “finer things” and send it to me

with permission to post it here on the Nitty Gritty of Writing.

You’ll be a featured guest blogger!