Last Wednesday Wisdom for January 2018

On the last Wednesday of every month, I serve up a potpourri of advice, inspiration and other tidbits I've come across in recent weeks. On this wintry Wednesday, I've gathered up an assortment of thoughts about the season and the pastimes--reading, writing, music, laughter, gatherings with friends--that help us get through it.

And if all of that doesn't warm you up enough, I'm throwing in a winter getaway at the end: a little jaunt down to Memphis to recap our visit to Graceland a few months ago. Believe it or not, there's a connection here. Though this isn't something I would normally have on my calendar, I happened to hear on the radio that Elvis's birthday was January 8. So come on along to Graceland for a belated birthday celebration. You just might get a taste of peanut butter-banana ice cream. It's never too cold for that!

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Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
-- Victor Hugo, poet, author, playwright

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
​-- Haruki Murakami, author

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
-- John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything . . . It's the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it's a cactus.
-- Enid Bagnold, author and playwright

My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.
-- George R.R. Martin, A Feast for Crows

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.
-- Christopher Morley, author

Music brings a warm glow to my vision, thawing mind and muscle from their endless wintering.
-- Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world.
​-- Anne Lamott, author

I want to watch the blue mist of the night come on, 
The windows and the stars illumined, one by one, 
The rivers of dark smoke pour upward lazily, 
And the moon rise and turn them silver. I shall see 
The springs, the summers, and the autumns slowly pass; 
And when old Winter puts his blank face to the glass, 
I shall close all my shutters, pull the curtains tight, 
And build me stately palaces by candlelight.
-- Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal

There are more truths in a good book than its author meant to put into it.
-- Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, author and playwright

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I'm not even going to try for a graceful segue, except to say, "And now, for something completely different . . . "

The stone wall that borders the Graceland Estate was one of the first things Elvis added

Now it's a tribute wall where fans leave inscriptions

A whole lotta love and a fair amount of "I was here"

Elvis paid $102,500 in 1957 for this home on nearly 14 acres

The formal living room

Elvis and his parents, who lived at Graceland with him

Dining room

Decorative accents in Elvis's media room

The jungle room

Before spangled jumpsuits, there were overalls

Burial site in the meditation garden

The full Elvis Experience includes a tour of the mansion, plus a vast exhibit complex

In case you were wondering where to find a larger-than-life photo of Elvis getting a haircut, this is the place

Inside, a collection of Elvis's cars . . .

(including Caddies)

and quotes . . .

and cycles . . .

and costumes.

Oh, so many costumes!

Gold record for "Heartbreak Hotel"

And a few more hits

He sold it, all right

For those whose Graceland experience isn't complete without a hunka hunka souvenir Elvis

Elvis liked his peanut butter and bananas in a sandwich fried in bacon grease. We had ours in ice cream (without the bacon)

For an add-on fee, you can tour Elvis's airplane

. . . and imagine you're flying like the King

If you're totally into Elvis, you can even stay at the new Guesthouse at Graceland luxury hotel. We opted for this Days Inn down the street. Funkier, but still very Elvis-inspired, with a 24-hour Elvis movie channel and portraits of Elvis in the guest rooms.

Even the neon rocks

and rolls

Of course there's a guitar-shaped pool

And abundant photo ops

Best of all, Elvis never leaves the building

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All Graceland photos by Nan Pokerwinski