A feel good story
In a recent email newsletter from The Epoch Times, I got an inspiring story about Donald Gould. Unless you subscribe to the site, it’s difficult to read the articles but if you’d like to try click here. Basically, it’s about a homeless former Marine who plays a piano on the streets of Saratoga Sarasota, Florida blowing folks away. Someone recorded him, uploaded the video to YouTube, and it went viral! Everything changed for Donald. I found a YT vid very similar to the one in the article.
I invite you to read his short bio at his site. I so do enjoy reading such moving articles. Hope is always around the corner if we don’t ever give up and sometimes that hope comes in unexpected places as it did for Donald on the streets of Florida. I’m sure he had no idea how important it would be to him when he sat down to play that piano. I sure do hope things are continuing to go well for him.
Here are my responses to Joyce’s Wednesday Hodgepodge questions this week.
1. January 25th is National Opposites Day. ‘They’ say opposites attract…do you agree, and if so is that a good thing? Or do you subscribe more to a ‘birds of a feather’ philosophy? I do agree to a point that opposites attract. We all can’t have the same traits or even the same opinions but there has to be a common thread that holds a couple or people together for a longer, stronger relationship. Personality-wise DH and I are quite the opposites even. He’s always been shy and private whereas I’m more outgoing and an open book. He’s the logical thinker and I’m more emotional. If course over time we’ve both taken a little from the other becoming a bit more rounded. We actually compliment one another with our differences and strengths unifying our relationship to a deeper level every year we spend together.
2. Something you’re glad to have behind you? Something you’re glad is ahead of you? I’m glad to have one month of winter behind me and so naturally I’m super charged about the coming of spring just ahead.
3. Your favorite hot food? Cold food? Are you a fan of breakfast for dinner? My favorite hot food has to be pizza and my favorite cold food is ice cream. Yes, I’m a fan of breakfast for dinner. I love to fix home-made whole wheat pancakes with maple syrup and a side of sausage or a real southern breakfast of gravy, fried eggs, grits, sausage, and biscuits. Oh my Cathy, now I want one of these breakfasts!
4. Are you someone who always arrives to appointments/events early or do you tend to run late? Last thing you were late for? Now that we are empty nesters we tend to arrive early or on time for engagements. At the moment, I can’t think of our last time we ran late for an appointment. Wait, yeah I think it was last fall. Traffic was horrible for reasons unknown but luckily I was only late by a few minutes.
5. “What good is the warmth of summer without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?” John Steinbeck….Your thoughts? The seasonal changes do give one a better appreciation but at this stage of life I’d savor the sweetness of the warmth of summer year around if I could afford to have multiple homes to enjoy at various times throughout the year to suit my climate preference. 🙂
6. Insert your own random thought here. Recently, in another email newsletter from The Saturday Evening Post the article Way Before Uber caught my attention. I never thought about modern day transportation and how it got its early start but non-traditional taxi fares got its initial start in the summer of 1915. Aside from this cool look through pages of time, I enjoy reading the vintage comic clips. Here are a couple that cracked me up.
I’ve rambled enough and so I’m going to leave you with Donald Gould Walk On Water playlist.
I invite you to join the linky party where just about anything goes on Wild Wednesdays. This is your opportunity to self-promote your current post or another favorite. No rules to follow, except to keep things family friendly and for only personal bloggers to use this link up. Violators will be taken down.
More Wednesday link up connections… Sandee, Natasha, Marie, & Wordless Wednesday!
This is CAAC signing off, I’ll be back tomorrow with a new TAD illustration. I hope you’ll join me. Have a wonderfully Wild Wednesday!
17 Comments
csuhpat1
Great funnies and such a cool story.
Brian
Those were great funnies! I’ve seen that piano playing dude on YouTube, he’s so talented.
messymimi's meanderings
It’s always fun and entertaining tobstop here!
It’s good when people who have some opposite tendencies marry. It’s good to agree on the big issues but you need one morning person to make the coffee and a night owl to check the door locks. As Larry Burkett, the Christian finanacial counselor used to say, if two people just exactly alike get married one of you is unnecessary.
Alana Mautone (@RamblinGarden)
I stopped by to read the story of Donald Gould. An amazing talent and it makes me so angry when I read about the homeless vets out on our street after having given their youth over to defending our country and our way of life. I read online that he had made connection with his son; I hope it is true.
Cathy Kennedy
Alana,
It’s terrible to see our vets homeless. From the little I know about this fella his drug addiction probably expedited his misfortune leaving him without a home. I was telling DH, you have multi-dollar millionaires who are drug addicts. The only difference is these people usually don’t wind up on the streets because they are so wealthy whereas the regular fella doesn’t have the luxury of huge bank roll to support that lifestyle. You’d think the VA would have a program in place to help these people. I think there are other social programs available to those who qualify probably income-based but the biggest thing as we know you can’t help a person like this until he/she is ready to make that change or else he/she will be right back doing the same junk all over. It’s such a shame how people allow chemical dependency to control them to this extent. I’m so thankful I never had a desire to experiment with drugs on a recreational basis and alcohol…well to me it smells and taste bad so I had little interest in taking it up. Give me a good chocolate bar and all of my cares go away for a short while. Isn’t that how drugs/alcohol work, too? Yes, I read that he reunited with his son which is awesome. That’s something to give him further incentive to stay on the right track. He sure looks a lot better now. I wish for him nothing but smooth sailing!
Birgit
I had seen this man on youtube quite a while back but didn’t know his success story. I am so very happy he went to rehab and I pray he is able to stick to it. He looks so much better now and his playing is so good not only technically but with feeling.
I like your first answer to the question because I thought of my parents and even myself. My parents came from different sides of the planet-my dad was born in Ontario, Canada and my mom in Germany. My dad fought in WW2 while my mom tried to survive WW2. My dad was more shy while my mom was more outgoing unless you invited someone over and not tell her. She could easily have been a hermit whereas my dad enjoyed company. The thing is that their basic philosophy was the same. They had differences of opinion but they had true support for one another as well as respect. The same can be said of me and my hubby.
I am so glad the operations are behind me as well as losing my job and my niece telling me I am insensitive and judgemental in every conversation we ever had (This all happened in Sept). Looking forward to better health.
I love rouladen (a German meal) with red cabbage (cooked in wine) and a nice chocolate anything..actually any dessert except not a fan of traditional pies. I love having breakfast for dinner on occasion…so yummy.
Oh. I would love to say I am always on time but..nope, I seem to always run a few minutes late. Well, not always, there have been times when I was early but that is rare.
I love that quote and agree with it but the dead of summer makes me long for the crispness of winter. We are Canadians! Yesterday, I saw a man in a Toronto Maple leafs shirt, runners and shorts…it was about -8C (17F). I was in a parka:))
Cathy Kennedy
Birgit,
It’s nice to hear of others who are like DH & myself. Your parents sound like such interesting people. It would’ve been nice to hear their stories. I love cabbage but it’s very difficult on my stomach. I still eat on occasion and pay the price afterwards. lol My late mother-in-law made a corned beef and cabbage soup with mixed veggies that was really good. Corn bread went really well with it. I used to make it but haven’t in years. I’m sure the processed canned corned beef with the cabbage would be a double whammy for my tummy. With weather, we always want what we aren’t having but I don’t think I’ve ever desired for wintry weather. I like looking at the snow (from afar) but hate the cold and as much as I hate the extremes saying the sizzling days of summer, I try to not wish them away to quickly because I don’t freezing. 17º is too cold for shorts even if you are active. I always wonder about football players that do not wear long sleeves when it’s really cold. They are probably warm enough but I worry about exposure to the skin. That can’t be good.
Kathe W.
Great funnies and thanks for sharing Donald’s story. I ordered one of his CD’s- folks like that we all need to support. Hopefully all goes well for him! Cheers!
Cathy Kennedy
Kathe,
Ahhh, how sweet! It’s also available on iTunes for those who prefer to stream their music. I agree, I hope all goes well for him, too.
Sandee
I always love your funnies and what a rags to riches story about the piano man. Fabulous.
You and I are both ready for spring.
Thank you for hosting the fun.
Have a fabulous Wild Wednesday and rest of the week. Love and hugs. ♥
Cathy Kennedy
Sandee,
I love feel good stories as this and I truly hope the best for Donald. No one starts off using drugs recreational or prescribe thinking they might get addicted. Chemical dependency is scary and often times quite tragic. It takes real determination to get clean. I can’t speak from personal experience but I know people who had to fight this demon coming out on the winning side and yet I’m sure there are days when that devil tries to take control. It’s has to be a struggle. In my mundane life God is my anchor. I can’t imagine walking through the turmoils of every day situations with Him. Hopefully the Donalds of this world have a good support system and deep faith to help hold things together.
Eugenia
Happy Wednesday, Cathy! I love the story about the piano man and got a chuckle from your funnies. Have a great day and rock on! ❤️
Cathy Kennedy
Eugenia,
I’m happy you enjoyed the story and funnies. 🙂
15andmeowing
I always enjoy the answers to your questions. That was a heartwarming story about the piano man. Thanks for hosting. Have a great day. XO
Cathy Kennedy
Ellen,
Thanks, my friend. It’s joy to share myself with others and vise versa. I love learning more about each of my peeps in Blogosphere.
Thomas Anderson
Hi, Cathy!
Happy Wild, Wacky and Almost Wordless Wednesday, dear friend!
I appreciated the introduction to homeless piano player Donald Gould, who experienced a reversal of fortune thanks to caring bystanders who shot a video that went viral, precipitating a string of happy events in Donald’s life leading to widespread fame, a record deal and album release. If I may offer a minor correction, Donald was discovered in Sarasota, Florida, not Saratoga. Sarasota is my neck of the woods, but I never spotted Donald playing during my visits to the city. Based on that video, it looks like he might have been playing outside an eatery in St. Armands Circle, an upscale shopping and dining district that always has a lot happening on the sidewalks.
In addition to what could be called Donald’s signature song, “Come Sail Away,” I loved his playing of The Beatles hit song “Something,” the epic Don McLean song about “The Day the Music Died” – “American Pie,” and Duke Ellington’s jazz standard “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore.” I can’t take time to read those side articles right now, Cathy, because I have a morning doctor appointment and need to get ready and out the door soon. I will check them out later today.
I enjoyed reading the Hodgepodge Q&A segment. You and DH are very lucky to have found each other and to have struck a balance that works. Sometimes, people are too opposite, so much so that they can’t stand the other’s personality and habits. Your happy relationship with DH is an inspiring success story., Like you, I have always enjoyed breakfast for dinner. I wish I could dig into a mile-high stack of your whole wheat pancakes! Ever since I took motivational training courses in the 80s, I have made it a point to arrive early for appointments. We were taught that if you arrive 15 minutes early, you are “on time.” If you arrive at the exact designated time, you are “late” if making a good impression was the desired goal. We’re enduring brutal cold down here this week, and this weekend the coldest air of the season is scheduled to arrive, with a daytime high of only 46 and overnight low of 29.
I enjoyed your Sillies. “Overactive fork” is a good one. I need to run now. Important note: I will be late arriving at CAAC tamale because Mrs. Shady’s son is returning home late tonight on a cross country redeye flight that arrives close to midnight. The airport is far away and therefore we will be up much of the night. I will need to sleep later than usual tamale. I will be over to see you later in the morning, okay? Until then have a wonderful day, dear friend Cathy!
Cathy Kennedy
Tom,
Thank you for correcting me on the city in which Donald was discovered. I meant to write Sarasota but somehow my brain commanded my fingers to do differently. I love reading stories like Donald’s! Not everyone is fortunate to get a second chance, so I hope he’s taking this opportunity to use it to its fullest. I appreciate you letting me know you will be by later tomorrow so to not worry me. 🙂 I don’t blame you for wanting to sleep in in the morning with today being a long one for you. Have a wonderful day, my friend!