All in Good Taste - End of August

Dear Friends,

Yesterday I crossed the Mississippi River into Louisiana, the 15th state I’ve visited since I left Kauai exactly two months ago. I’ve traveled over 5000 miles, and glancing at the United States map, I’m still a long ways from Seattle, where I need to be in two weeks.

Leaving Memphis, I was going to drive straight through to Monroe, Louisiana, but after missing the Memphis Pyramid and other attractions there I decided to rest at a Best Western in Canton, about ten miles north of Jackson, and take in the sites of Jackson in the morning.

Just south of Canton is a huge Nissan manufacturing plant. The building is a good quarter of a mile long. Except for Boeing in Everett, Washington, I’ve never seen a bigger building. This no doubt greatly fuels the Jackson economy. On the north end of Jackson I stopped in at one the nicest malls I’ve ever seen. (below left)

It was designed like a small town, with trees and several blocks of cobble stone roads, fountains and a central clock tower. Each normal mall business - like Banana Republic - had its own separate village building, each with a different design and painted in warm yellow and orange pastels.

I'm really not gay.

I can’t help myself. I’m an artist. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been drawn to architecture. I remember in high school how I was blown away when I first saw the work of Frank Lloyd Wright . Fallingwaters in Pennsylvania (shown below) was finished in 1939. Believe that! 1939!!!

I'm always thinking of design, color and space, and how the whole composition works. It doesn’t matter to me if the building was designed in 1903 like the Jackson, Mississippi Capital (below), or the new Mall I visited, or Fallingwaters from 1939; tasteful architecture inspires me. Tasteless architecture like Graceland doesn't. Simple as that.

Blind Justice in the Mississippi Capital Rotunda

Justice Tarot

Looking at the Justice stained glass window reminded me to balance my words and judgments carefully.

I’m not through with Elvis. Bless his soul.

I had to sleep on him, and re-evaluate my attitude. Looking at his Human Design chart also tuned me into what made him tick. In Human Design there are Nine Centers, depicted in squares and triangles placed around the human body. (shown below) Elvis was pretty wide open, with the top six of the nine centers undefined. In Human Design, if the Center is undefined, then you don't have a stable or preferred way of dealing with those qualities. (open head = open mind) If an undefined Center is "open," then it is more susceptible to outside influences, because it is not "cast in stone," like a defined Center. Those with undefined Centers will seek to learn the qualities of the Center. Some of the greatest singers, like Elvis and John Lennon, have an undefined Throat Center. Elvis had a defined Sacral Center (basically doing what he wanted to do - owning his power), Root Center (protecting his home - never forgetting his roots), and Solar Plexus Center (guarding his privacy and emotions) Those things were most important. to him. He had to rely on others for everything else. (Colonel Parker or Hal Wallis running his career for instance) I could write all day on what everything else means.

Elvis was a great artist. His voice painted canvas after canvas of songs like no other. Down to his core he was a good old Christian country boy, who always did the best he could - which usually proved to be exceptional. He was the King, arguably the best vocal artist in the 1950‘s. But being the best in one thing doesn’t mean you’re the best in all things. With his first movies, Jail House Rock and King Creole, they wanted him to fill the shoes of James Dean; to be the next great actor, in the league of Marlon Brando and Clark Gable. But, that wasn’t to be. Hal Wallis decided he was foremost a musical entertainer, and cast him in a different variation of the same sing song movie over and over again. In the late 60’s he did all the required singing and acting, taking only one month to complete each of his 31 movies - then retreated to Graceland, hiding in his little upstairs bedroom for up to two weeks without coming down. When he wasn’t acting or resting he was recording his thousands of songs, or touring. Anyone who examines the volume of work he produced in 22 years will wonder how he did it. He apparently was too busy to move from Graceland. He was comfortable there and that was all that mattered. Graceland was the place where he was in total control of his power, emotions and roots.

So I begin my first day on the bayou, staying with my old friend Chante (Jan) Quiett. I will attract experiences, such as: Minding my own business at a Starbucks on the University of Louisiana Monroe campus, a man came up to me who introduced himself as a Cherokee Jew. I wrote what appears to be a judgmental blog about the same linage man I met at the Davey Crockett Museum in Tennessee - and life presents me another opportunity to look at my judgment. This time in a Jesus loving Cherokee Jew video maker, good hearted, outgoing man.

Life is full of wonders, and you never know what new one lurks around the corner.

With continued blessings,

David Dakan Allison