Susan Parcheta's blog

The Walking Man turned 90 in 2009.

It was a helluva year for Fowlerville’s Clayton Klein, who completed his fifth annual walk for Hospice of Michigan (a 420-mile, three-week trek each September straight down the heart of Michigan from Paradise in the Upper Peninsula to Hell and beyond to Ohio).

The hometown hero not only reached nonagenarian status, he inspired Michiganders of all ages last year -- with the magnitude of his walking accomplishments -- from a class of fourth graders to the Governor of Michigan.

“I SEE YOU.”

Will the Na’Vi greeting in the 2009 holiday blockbuster film kindle our hearts to do just that?

Really SEE each other?

You could discuss Avatar the movie until you’re “Blue” in the face. Hmmm…does anyone say that anymore? It fits, though. There are countless points of view; I’ll just reflect on what it meant to me.

Soft as the whisper of angels, the New Year settled in gently this January…unlike last year when my elderly parents were in and out of hospitals…once even at the same time…and my father succumbed to cancer in a valiant fight at year’s end.

He was buried on Jan. 6 – Epiphany – a year ago, on a bitter winter day. Fittingly, the cemetery’s name is North Star.

All during December, thoughts of angels whispering tantalized me. It began with a faded and yellowed recipe, clipped from a newspaper long ago, in a box we were going through with my mom.

“Mr. Art Critic,” meet George Bailey.

There you have, in my opinion, the essence of John Lepard...actor, and executive director of Williamston Theatre, a professional theatre in Williamston, MI.

Lepard, who appears in the delightful, made-in-Michigan film, “Mr. Art Critic” – now out on DVD -- triumphs this December in his one-man show, “This Wonderful Life,” at Williamston Theatre.

Fowlerville fiber artist Lynne McLean and I both moved to the area in the early 1970s, yet decades would go by before I would meet this talented wool artist and master gardener, better known to her Black Sheep Weavers Guild friends as “the Dragon Lady.”

You hear plenty of stories about backstage moms.

When the Drew Barrymore roller derby film “Whip It” was released in October, I sat down with Laura Bickel and her seven-year old son, Austin, at Kahuna Coffee in Hartland. The Bickel family was just getting used to the idea of seeing Austin up on the big screen.

Roller derby was something way off my radar until Drew Barrymore brought the movie “Whip It”to the big screen this October.

But then, a strange thing happened on my Facebook forum. I kept seeing references to “Whip It” on my wall. People were discussing it. There were comments about the sister of a young Facebook friend of mine, saying how great she was in the movie.

“Just make it good,” she said.

Usually, I never have a problem with words. Nor in coming up with ideas for something to write about. Or talk about.

My friends know that. They know that I'm always thinking...ideas are always forming. And they, if they've decided to be my e-pal, tend to become wary that at any time they could be hit by a Sue-nami. Inundated with words. A hurricane sweeping through their inbox.

“Just make it good,” she said.

My editor at Livingstontalk.com, Maria Stuart, surprised me the other day. “I'm creating a blog page for you.”