My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and asking deep questions.
Finals were this past week and graduations were going on most of the week and weekend. So this weekend was time for students to pack and head home for the Christmas break. There were large buses at the transit center both Saturday and Sunday taking students to the airport. So we saw a lot of scenes like this one at the coffee shop.
I imagine my books to be my children, each with its own profile and way of walking through the world… It helps me remember that though they are made by me, they are not ultimately mine. They leave home, travel, have their own relationships, and leave their own impressions. I’ve learned it’s best to, as much as possible, stay out of the way and let them live their own lives.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
With all the turmoil in our country, and in the world, I have found it vital to spend time in the pages of my journals and on this blog. The words I write, as well as the books and blogs I read, are important to me and life sustaining. It may be one word or sentence that lifts me in a time of sadness, or brings some clarity to my confusion or the words someone else shares can express what I have been trying to say but couldn’t. How some of these books and blogs find their way into my life is a comfortable mystery. It’s not that I go looking for them but I try to be present so when they do show up in my life I can be nurtured by them. I like the metaphor that Coates suggests books are the authors’ children sent into the world to spend time with us in some impactful way. In that context I hope my words, whether written in my journals or on this blog, have some positive impact in this world, and living their own lives.
This is Curtis, one of the irregulars at Mugs and actually worked for Mugs at one time. He’s an awesome young man with a beautiful soul which is why I like to hang with him. He graduates this month with a degree in Construction Management. He’s already had a couple of interviews for jobs that hopefully will pay him millions of dollars. I personally hope he finds a good job locally so I can still meet with him once in awhile and also so he can be close to his family. Good luck, my friend!!
Teachers and other adults too will tell you a lot of things you may argue with eventually – you may well have your own different ideas, and perhaps better ones. But about the importance of learning to write and read, easily and fluently, you will never argue. Such wonderful people will speak to you – to YOU – from the pages. Such adventures you will have through their telling, that you would never otherwise have! And all because the words on the page are not a puzzle but a door to many worlds. To write is delight, to read is to plant the seed of endless excitement. I promise you.
Mary Oliver
It is not, I think, a question of when and how the white people will “free” the black and the red people. It is a condescension to believe that we have the power to do that. Until we have recognized in them the full strength and grace of their distinctive humanity we will be able to set no one free, for we will not be free ourselves. When we realize that they possess a knowledge for the lack of which we are incomplete and in pain, then the wound in our history will be healed. Then they will simply be free, among us—and so will we, among ourselves for the first time, and among them.
Wendell Berry, The Hidden Wound, 1989
Is his observation accurate? Do we want to see the wound in our history and have it healed? Do we want to be simply free? How deeply ingrained is this wound? These are truly questions each of us must answer individually and live accordingly. May you enjoy your Saturday!!
I leave at O’dark-thirty tomorrow morning (4:05 am shuttle pickup) to spend a few days in Phoenix with my 95 year old dad and my sister and brother-in-law. We will celebrate Thanksgiving a week early and I will probably overeat. I’m not expecting to post anything until I get back on Sunday. We have had blue skies with scattered clouds but it’s been a cold, blustery day, which makes for a good day to stay inside and pack for the trip.
What the government will or will not do is finally beside the point. If people do not have the government they want, then they will have a government that they must either change or endure. Finally, all the issues that I have discussed here are neither political nor economic, but moral and spiritual. What is at issue is our character as a people.
Wendell Berry, The Hidden Wound
The above quote is near the end of Wendell Berry’s book, called The Hidden Wound. Even though the book was written in 1989 this quote seems to aptly apply to our situation today. I’m not a believer in looking to a government, a new legislation, or some leader to make our social, political or economic situations better, although they can help. For several years our real issues in our society, its government, and I will include the world, are really moral and spiritual. He’s right: What is at issue is our character as a people. What is sad to me is that people do not want, or even know how, to look internally at their character. Or, worse yet, many have no idea what character means. It’s much easier to point a finger elsewhere. Anyway, I will be off line for a few days.
“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
A brisk 31 degrees this morning in Colorado. I met Jeff for coffee and conversation. When I got home I found out I had an issue with my website. After a chat session with Bluehost all seems to be working again. I find myself feeling overwhelmed with technology even after years working in engineering. I know some of that is immediate panic and a voice that says “I’m screwed now.” I don’t consider myself a techy person but prefer sharing stories of our lives with a friend, reading a book, journaling or enjoying the few moments with this nice buck I saw on my bicycle ride this morning. Each of those is about what I am doing with the time that has been given me while living in these times. Happy Friday!!
I received an interesting email this past week from attorneys in California “demanding” me to remove images from my website because I was infringing on copyrighted images belonging to their company. They had a link to a file listing the images but the link was incomplete. I did some research on the attorneys and discovered they deal with estate and trust litigation. I was sure it was a scam of some sort because as far as I know I have no images on this blog that are not mine. I was concerned that I may have posted a quote or poem that someone was wanting me to take down, which I would do, so I called them. I found out they were aware someone was using their company name and that I could ignore the email. So confusing that people can think of doing something like that, then acting on it and never see the results. Anyway…
The other morning at Mugs I discovered one chocolate eclair sitting in their pastry case. I was flabbergasted because they normally do carry them except in the downtown store. I knew immediately some poor unsuspecting customer, maybe even a friend, was going to see that eclair and be tempted buy it. So, I quickly made the sacrifice and bought it, thinking only of them of course. Damn, it was good!