Look For Light

Just finished a perfect end-of-the-year article from the NYT. By Catherine Price, she espouses the idea of finding delight (instead of gratitude). 

I immediately thought of the little girl I saw as we drove to family on Christmas day. A much warmer 25th than normal, she was outside in a light jacket and a pale yellow 50s type dress - tight at the waist and flared below ending just at or a little above the knee. (We all had them if you're a female of a certain age.) With a stick in hand she was on her own, queen of the land and enjoying the moment. 

I smiled and later shared what I'd seen; in fact, I shared it three times. 

As a confirmed Pippi and Pollyanna, I try to be a thing finder and a positive person. Finding delight, well, is there anything better to find and share than that?

A Resolution Worth Keeping

Comics

Are Worth a Thousand Explanations

An Apt Description

A little after 4, dusk approaching and I'm going through town heading home. I see the SUV in front of me with a sticker. At the stoplight I lean forward and down, it being only 3" by 4" with smallish print very near the bumper. Looking like a state park sticker, I begin to read .... and burst out laughing. 

Me

Exactly

 

How I feel about IPA beers.

How I Look

One Man's Beliefs

I read an article in New Yorker this week that mentioned one of my favorite (but intellectually a bit above me) writers, Marilynne Robinson. On a poet and a christian, Christian Wiman, who has been living with and fighting cancer for 14 years, I saw why. His faith was of a piece with hers, at least as I read it. A professor, parent, husband and writer, it was a great article, bringing one man's beliefs to me in a way that, once again, like Robinson's novels, almost made me want to believe again. 

All that and then, one of Wiman's poems given in the article coupled to a moment I'd had. Just the day before, waiting at a red light in town, looking ahead and to the left, I saw a flock of birds rise from a tree and fly away. Certainly not as profound a thinker as he, I had been taken by the sight.  Wiman's poem captured my feelings.

Between the man portrayed and the poem, I felt I knew him, and most importantly, liked him.

Invites Connection

Same Cat

Biggie and Gus love the front deck. Two stories up, they survey their world and enjoy life in the wild, even if it is a contained wild.  During the summer we keep our two doors open so they can come and go as they please. In the winter, it's in and out and in and out and still, in and out. I count it as part of my morning exercise. 

This past week we had two mornings of snow. The first, Biggie was caught with his paw up. Unhappy with the cold and snow? Maybe. 

The next day, though, having gotten used to the climate, he released his inner pup, spied an adversary and attacked

                                                         .... a stick.

Different Days

AI: Safeguards

This week's New Yorker has an article about the debacle in the tech world of a few weeks ago. I, of course, knew little about it, the people, the upheaval and even which side was in the wrong, and in the right. 

In keeping with what the magazine tends to do, it took a few people, used their perspective, and then took us through the history of the people and the topic, to, finally, the conclusion (for now). My take-away was on the safeguards put in place building their AI and, also, their hopes for what it can ultimately do, not now but with slow and steady tweaking. 

If true - slow progress with rules, like laws (as they said) - we can hone our use and development to better human kind. 

Key words being, if true.  

And Usage

The Conclusion

Reading a review of a new play today, I'm reminded of another, not a play, but a person: Norman Lear, who died this week at 101. He was the force behind many of the sitcoms of my high school years, and so, a part of my past. 

The most important being All in the Family, a show with a father as a bigot who had a daughter married to a hippie, or, in today's terms, a progressive, and a wife who was a dingbat, as he called her (or a woman who has learned to keep her wits about her even while with a husband who constantly espouses nonsense). The show used humor to work at changing the norms of the day. If we could see the absurdity, we could change, and with that, life could also. 

From what we see, what we watch, what we listen to, what we read, we learn. 

The review said the same. 

Art Matters 

Showing My Age

Time came out with their Person of the Year. I have agreed with some and disagreed with others over the years. I'm not into highlighting the devils of the year, and I do tend to lean toward figures of import of import. 

This year it's Taylor Swift. And while amazing in her ability, her influence and her business savvy, and a woman, not a man, I still say, 

Really?

With all that's happening in the world, they choose an incredibly talented pop singer. Ukraine spending their country and lives to stop Putin, the trauma in the Middle East, our own disfunction here in America, and that is their choice. 

Wow.

Creative

And True.

True

Only, I'd add, and daughters.

Ukraine has its finger in the dam and what do we do? Quibble over money. Sad. So sad.

So True 

My Reading

An interesting article in New Yorker this morning on the CEO behind the company powering AI. 

But what did I get from it? With all his successes in high school, it's what he didn't have that he commented on. And that took me back to a friend's comment one Thursday night at the Glenwood after volleyball and pre-kids (So that says something right there, a long time ago!)

My friend basically said to me, when I said I never had a boyfriend in high school, that I was a nobody, because only nobody's had none. Funny then and still funny now. I guess I had a different perspective, or maybe I'd gotten past that idea, because, of course, during our teen years we do tend to define ourselves by what we don't have. 

It was my first laugh of the day. My teen me is in good company!

My Takeaway

Perfection Preferred?

Looking at some information sent to me last night (much of which was beyond my scope), I awoke with one thought, and like I am wont to do, it was on a random statement, not the gist of the article.  

Speaking of imperfections, my first attempt at highlighting

Perfection. Good data can be used even as it is being judged, tweaked and changed.  This from a company that works with fine-tuning output. Too often, to paraphrase, a quest for perfection leads to lack of progress. Later, reading a piece on one author finishing a deceased friend's novel, I came across another.  

I am a fan of effort and improvement; perfection, not so much.

Not Necessarily

Sharing, To You

Reading the New Yorker the other morning, I read an article on AI, except, as so often happens, while learning about the history of computers, it gave me so much more on humans and being. As I said to my friend when I sent it, "Who'd have guessed a tech article to do that!"

But, like good life, my friend texted back a few minutes later with a drawing I'd already taken a photo of. She'd thought of us when seeing it. Unlike years ago, when I wouldn't share my fries with anyone (and, when pregnant, once scoped out whose fries I might get), we do share now. 

On this Thanksgiving, share and be thankful. I know I am. For family, friends, fries and so much more, I am grateful.

To Me

Twenty-Seven (Part 3)

To finish: Passenger with two. The first, defiance. His song, 27, could be any youth's song of rebellion, purpose, and lament loaded with desire. That trail I walked listening to Adele, I danced to with this song. Such courage, such assuredness, such strength! 

Passenger made me feel every bit of what our twenties were like. Sometimes singing to the trees and sky, I could be young all over again. I love this song.

But then, I also love his song When We Were Young. Passenger is young but conveys all we might be when old. We look back, at 27, at 67, and, hopefully, even at 87 and we remember. We know. Our life. In all its iterations it is ours to live and remember.

With friends near, beer in hand, and music in the air, it's ours. 

Remember When We Were Young

When We Were Young (Part 2)

Adele's song, When We Were Young, is the saddest of the songs I think of when thinking about being young, but it, too, takes me back to my 20s. Those days when we were weary, when love wasn't working, when nothing seemed to be going right. When looking back seemed to be better than looking forward. 

But then, of course, time didn't stand still; it evolved. Love was found, sunny days came and a life was made, and it was good. 

Thirty years later, a friend was turning some number of old and decided that, once again, reminding me of the song, it was all in the past, seeing and seeming that everything was being viewed across a room or across the years, and what was best had already been. Now we were just old. 

I wasn't buying it. I argued the case that we still had time, lots of life in front of us. And if we didn't, we had what we had and we could enjoy it. I could walk the trail, listen to music and remember being restless and reckless, all while trying to capture those long ago moments because someday they'd be my memories, but for now with those times, I could also add new ones. We might have felt old in our 20's but we were babes in the woods compared to today. 

And guess what? As I tell my women friends all the time, damn we're doing good. Any 90 year old would see us and think, "Wouldn't I like to be them!"

Across the Years

I Used to be Young (Part 1)

My song of the week is a Miley Cyrus tune, Used to be Young. Singing lines of it for days, it also took me back to two other songs I've liked about being young. All from artists in their 20s, they capture how I have felt in my 60s. That's a pretty good trick.

I wonder if I was ever as smart when I was in my twenties. Maybe, but I doubt it. Now, I listen to songs about looking back and nod, but smile also. 

I smile because while these writers are so right, I also know that there's a lot more living and learning to be done in their lives. Knowledge comes, stays and, sometimes, is learned again....and again...and again. But if we're lucky, we are able to look back and know it all to be true.

To have our memories, while also seeing them from the lens of today, is a wonder. It's a perspective I'm grateful to have, and to have given to me. 

A Good Run

From React

While going through my emails late morning yesterday, I realized I was sitting far too long. I needed to get moving. Telling myself I would come back to an interesting Time article later, from it I took react to use as my Wordle word. To my surprise, react turned to think and think gave me a score of 2. Wow!

Going back to the article in the evening, I read about reacting versus responding. When we react, we have two actions, one to start and the other to continue. When we stop and think, we respond, lowering the chance of conflict. Another wow. And while the article was as much on technology and its problems - teaching us to react rather than think - the one paragraph was what mattered most to me.  

The world needs less reacting, more thinking and in doing so, will have less conflict and more compromise and resolution. It'll be a win win for us all.

To Think

And Still, Roses

 

in November.

Veteran's Day

Maybe a year ago, a number of friends told me about a signboard that had this: "Stop trying to make everyone happy; you're not tequila." I was the recipient of those mentions because, of course, after 20 years of not drinking the stuff, I have become a fan of it. Oh, not full shots, but I do like them, and I like sharing them with others....but only at their say so and their desired amount. I'm not a pusher, but a lover of the happy drink. 

This week, though, from that same signboard that had that, there was another one. This time the message was more serious but still spot on: 

"Live your life worthy of the sacrifice that made your life possible."

Knowing this is there for Veteran's Day, I've thought of my parents, both veterans of WWII, and, of course, one other in my life. It was the admonishment to me, though, to "live your life worthy," that has resonated with me. 

My parents were wonderful, caring, loving parents who did what they could for me and their community. Have I lived my life to honor their sacrifice, and all those who have served? I hope so.

The flag flying where "paying it forward" is exemplified

As a teacher, perhaps, I also think of others, people who haven't been as lucky as me, who haven't had parents who could give of themselves in ways to raise children who could understand that sacrifice given is sacrifice where one should 'pay it forward.' 

Veteran's Day is a day of remembrance but should also be a day to contemplate what we could do to make this world a better place. Veterans gave, or as one quote aptly summarizes, “All gave some, some gave all.” To honor those who served and gave of themselves, we need to think how we can serve to make our communities a better, more equitable, and more generous, understanding and loving place. 

For Today and Every Day

Love of

I do so enjoy the written word. I guess that's no surprise since I'm better at writing than speaking, and hey, I love to read. Words on paper are tangible; I can read them and keep them. 

Here at home, still today, ten years after retiring, are all the quotes - the little slips of paper, the lists, the words of wisdom found or given through my 33 years of teaching. On my computer is the list of quotes of my retirement. Most are from one site, A.Word.A.Day. 

Anu Garg selects a topic, finds five words for the week, gives the definition and anything else he wants before giving an example. Honestly, usually it's the quote that I connect with more than the word. But, yesterday, it wasn't the quote but the sentence for fractal that I enjoyed. 

“After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shιt. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on, ad infinitum.”

                                                       ~ Nate White; Why Do Many British People Not Like Donald Trump?; London Daily.

Look at all that's in that example...and then, what isn't. The topic. It isn't until we read the notation that we find that.  What good writing and yes, what fun!

Today, there was another, another good example for the word that, today, I didn't know, glabella, the area between the eyebrows. Because of that fun bit, who knows, I might just remember it. 

“‘Kiss my glabella,’ she said.

‘Sure.’

That’s not my glabella, silly, but, mmm, mmm, go ahead. I like that too. The glabella is the spot between my eyebrows.’

‘Not in America it ain’t.’”

                                                                         ~ Curt Leviant; Zix Zexy Ztories; Texas Tech University Press; 2012.

But, no matter, reading and words are fun for themselves. The added bonus? Actually using them.  😉

Wonderful Words

Cat

credit: cph

One takes a great photo.

credit: aac

Another a great connection. 

Total: lots of laughs.

Doppelgänger

Finding Sustenance

Don't wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.                                                                                                                                                                  ~  Albert Camus  (A.Word.A.Day)

In Today's World

Education

I'm just finishing a YA novel, The 9:09 Project, about a high school boy whose mother had died. His way of staying connected to her was with this project. Photography, writing, family and friends with, of course, a focus on finding himself and love, it's a great read. But, like literature can do, it's connected me to my younger self, but also to other books I've longed for teachers to use as a spring board to their content. 

This is from the past when a student suggested Speak for my room library. A book with an art project ultimately helping to heal and give strength to a girl in crisis, I've continued to see it as one of the best. 

John Green's novel, An Abundance of Katherines, uses math as a focus for a boy prodigy in high school learning to navigate relationships.

For science (and history), there's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate (the first of three books). Set at the turn of the 20th century with a young girl working to find her place in the world, it made a fine impression on me, a non-science person.

And only one of so many through sports, there's The Crossover, by Kwame Alexander, on basketball, growth of self and place in family.

Education can be about gathering and knowing facts, yes, but so often it can be so much more. Novels can be the gateway for finding ourselves, learning empathy, and seeing the world in a new perspective, all while learning some important facts along the way.

Novels Connect 

In the MInd

...of the beholder

Reality

This Day

The beginning of a day but the ending of a season, all while reading an article about gardening and the same.

Extracting