Author: Stacy Horn

I’m taking the day off today to read. I’ve started Going Clear, but I also want to read the most recent Tufts Magazine (where I went undergrad). The whole issue is devoted to 1964 and looks quite interesting. But man oh man, Going Clear (about Scientology). Lawrence Wright is one of the best non-fiction writers/researchers alive, and this story! It’s so entertaining … wait. Why isn’t it being made into a movie??

A screen grab from a short movie I made of the fireworks last night. That does it. Mark my words, next year I’m going right to wherever the fireworks are. I want that moment, like when we first got a color tv and saw the opening to Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. I forget how old I was. 9? I just remember a feeling of: OHMYGOD, life is going to be so exciting!!

I wish I could remember where I just read about it, but there was a study. It’s similar to something I already do. At the end of the day I write down three things that made me happy. It’s almost never BIG things, but smaller things, like the clouds, or Finney on my lap, or a good tv show. In this study people were asked to dwell on these things a little bit. I forget for how long. 30 seconds maybe? The study theorized something about brain chemistry, or plasticity, I forget! But this tiny bit of dwelling seemed to create a lasting effect on overall happiness.

So at least three times a day I do that. I’ve only been doing it for about 4 days and I swear I notice a difference. Try it! Here’s one of the moments I dwelled on yesterday.

I got caught in a terrific rain and thunderstorm in the early evening. I’d been swimming and I walked out of the pool and right into the rain. I just went with it. Since I’d just spent the previous 45 minutes relishing being complete immersed in water it seemed wrong to shrink from it now, just because it had been presented to me in a different way.

As I walked home, without an umbrella, not rushing, people huddled under awnings just looked at me. I wanted to explain. “I was mostly wet anyway, I was swimming.”

Anyway, it felt good to surrender to it.

The sun sets on One World Trade Center. I love the subtle beauty of these colors. The universe give us those colors, for free.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m addicted to the rescue efforts and videos of Eldad Hagar, who founded Hope for Paws. I’ve always had cats, but I love all animals, and it just lifts my heart to watch these videos, like this one. If you are ever having a bad day, watch a bunch of Eldad’s videos. It’s pretty much impossible to not feel at least a little better afterwards. For the record, although Hope for Paws focuses on dogs, he rescues other animals and even once rescued a donkey.

But I was thinking about how even if a dog has been abused and abandoned and has been living on the streets for years, they rehabilitate quickly. Very soon they are loving dogs, living happily in someone’s home. It’s the best part of the videos, watching them get bathed, and all their wounds taken care of, and then seeing them in their lives afterwards.

I know cats who are born feral will most likely stay feral unless there’s some sort of human intervention while they’re still very young. But what about lost or abandoned cats who were once someone’s pet? I just don’t hear much about them. Do they die? Get subsumed into a feral colony? Do the ones who are found and rescued live happily with us again?

A missing dog from my block. Very sad. The owners put flyers everywhere in the neighborhood. I wonder what happened. The flyer says he was taken. Very different than lost.

For the past few years Nigel Lythgoe, who created the best reality tv show ever, So You Think You Can Dance, has sponsored what he calls National Dance Day. They create a few routines and upload instructional videos, people around the country learn them, and then on National Dance Day everyone dances them together in various parts of the country. This year it falls on July 26th.

There’s never been anything in New York until this year. Now it’s going to be part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors and people are going to gather in front of the fountain and dance the routines. What a fun spot to dance! I can’t think of a single friend who will want to do this with me though. No matter. I’ll see if I can get someone to film me doing it.

I just checked my blog to see if I ever took a picture of the fountain and I found this. You don’t see the whole thing unfortunately.

It feels like our country keeps sinking and sinking and sinking. We’re behind so many countries in just about everything. What is there to celebrate about us?? Seriously. On the 4th of July, what can I point to that our country is doing that is truly great? And please don’t name things other countries are doing, and better.

I know I sound so negative, but I’m still reeling from the recent revelations about Blackwater, and the supreme court decision about Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby will still pay for viagra and their male employee’s vasectomies. How is that fair and just? I know this is a very difficult issue to find a middle ground on, but the Affordable Care Act was amended so birth control could still be provided by the insurer, but without direct involvement by the religious organization. I don’t understand why this wasn’t sufficient.

This makes me thoroughly committed to the idea that government should now be the sole conduit for healthcare.

The pool where I will soon be spending all my evenings going back and forth and back and forth, 140 times a night. 140!!