May I have the floor?

Thank you.  

Now, that I've had the floor, I'd also like to request a chair.

Specifically, this chair.

I love this chair.  It took a lot of convincing to get this chair into our home.  Actually, there are two of these chairs in our humble 19th century farmhouse here in the Hudson Valley.  Dr. Thompson felt the hot pink faux velvet chair might be a little pretentious for our house.  This chair definitely has a toe-hold in the side of furniture that might be considered frou-frou.  Heck, not just a toe-hold.  This chair is squatting in the land of frou-frou--unapologetically downing bons and macarons and cake--lots of cake--with Marie Antoinette.

So no, it doesn't really belong in a humble farmhouse and maybe that's why I like it.  This chair is a rebel.

I've recently discovered it's also a great zoom chair.  The height is just right and I can tuck my legs underneath me and sit crosslegged in the Lotus position and do a little yoga stretch while I'm zooming, and no one is the wiser.  

All this is to say, I appreciate this chair.

Actually, I appreciate all chairs!

Chairs are an amazing invention.  

I don't know if I would truly appreciate this fact, if I hadn't lived for two weeks without a chair.  Back in the early nineties, my daughter and I moved across country from L.A. to Connecticut and the moving van that carried our meager belongings (well, not so meager, because it did carry several chairs!) got lost, or waylaid, or detoured somewhere in Colorado, perhaps the Rocky Mountains or the Tennessee River Valley, maybe downtown Milwaukee?   I'm not sure.  All I know was that we were not going to get our furniture for two weeks.  And this was even after I had carefully timed our journey across country so that the arrival of the furniture would coincide with our arrival in Connecticut.  But, not such luck.

And so, we sat on the floor.  We did have sleeping bags.  My daughter was ten at the time, and I tried to make it seem like a game.  We're on a picnic!  Oh, look, we can go to Caldors and buy sheets and make a tent!  We will go to the movies--they have air conditioning and discounts if you arrive before five o'clock.  Plus, we can sit in chairs!  

This camping out, was fun at first, but not having a chair grows old quickly.

And when the furniture and more importantly the chairs finally did arrive, I was so grateful and happy to sit down in our apartment.  A chair, a chair, a chair.  It's a genius invention!  

I would go around telling this to anyone I met at the time.  Aren't chairs amazing?!  Don't you love chairs.  We have to appreciate our chairs more.  We take them for granted, but a chair is a thing of wonder!  

I'm sure people in Connecticut thought this is just how people from California talk.  

Recently, I was in my improvisational dance class on zoom.  The teacher plays about seven songs and each song has a theme and its own music to go with the dance.  Our teacher often plays jazz, which I like very much.  On this particular morning, she asked us to dance to a chair.  I'm not kidding.  At first, I thought--that's crazy.  How am I going to dance to a chair?  But then, my hot pink chair was right there in the room, so I brought the chair to the center and when the music began, the chair called out to me in gratitude and delight.  Why have you not thought to do this before!?  it seemed to be asking me.   

And I replied--Oh Chair, I embrace you.  I love you.  I circle around you and celebrate you!

Please keep in mind that my zoom video is on mute.

Anyway, I do my dance and I try making a leap --well, as much of a leap as this old skeletal system can handle without falling on my face and breaking my nose.  

Oh Chair!  Oh, Chair! I do appreciate you.  I honor you and love you and I'm so glad that I'm not sitting on the floor on our sheets from Caldors.  Thank you for being a chair, Chair!

Creative Friends, do you have a chair?  Do you have a table?  Do you have a bed?  Creative Friends, your assignment for this week is to honor your humble (or not so humble) chair with something artistic.  Improvise a dance to your chair.  Paint a picture of your chair.  Sing a song to your chair.  Write a story about your chair.  The truth is, there is no such thing as a humble chair or any humble furniture.  It as all regal and royal and special and beautiful and worthy of praise. 

And as always, have fun.

Love,

Jamie