dual personalities

Month: November, 2016

November 5, 2016

Keep yore bat strate boy and all will be all right in life as in criket.*

by chuckofish

Despite the increasingly absurd presidential campaign and the inescapable feeling that “‘Reality is so unspeakably sordid it make me shudder'”*, I’m feeling happy.  It was a good week.

On Thursday son #2 gave us great news: The University of Exeter (in Devon, UK) awarded him his Masters degree in English Literature (with a Film concentration)! Here he is a little over a year ago, presenting a paper at the Tolkien conference at Oxford.

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Doesn’t he look masterful? We’re very proud of him!

Then,  yesterday, we celebrated my DH’s birthday.  I won’t divulge his age — let’s just say a few years have passed since his “Thunderbirds are Go!” glory days.

circa 1965

circa 1965

We had a quiet evening at home. For dinner, I served this salmon recipe from Bon Apetit with new potatoes and white wine. Much to my surprise, the dinner turned out perfectly. To top it off, all three boys called to wish their papa a happy birthday.

Now, add to those milestones the completion of our cottage renovation and you can see why I’m feeling cheerful.

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Not bad for a wintry week in the North Country!

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I like the way the taller trees are leafless but the smaller ones are still turning. It almost looks like the woods are on fire.

Remember, no matter what the upcoming week throws your way, if you keep your cricket bat straight, all will be well!

* Geoffrey Willens, How to Be Topp (1954)

 

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November 4, 2016

“You ever been in a chickie-run?”*

by chuckofish

The Star of the Month for November on TCM is Natalie Wood. Every Friday this month they will be showing her movies, including a few favorites of mine.

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Rebel Without a Cause (1955) with James Dean

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Love With the Proper Stranger (1963) with Steve McQueen

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The Searchers (1956) with Jeffrey Hunter

Natalie’s career was a little uneven, but she was in some great movies, both as a child (Miracle on 39th Street) and as a teenager and an adult. It was a sad day indeed when she drowned at age 43 in 1981.

I am happy to toast her tonight and watch a movie with one of her dreamy co-stars.

And this news made me very happy:

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For those of us who have trouble sleeping at night, here are some no-brainer suggestions from the National Sleep Foundation:

  • Practice yoga, meditation or deep breathing before bed, to help you feel more relaxed.
  • Avoid TV or computers before bed, These devices can stimulate your brain and make it more difficult to fall asleep.
  • Enjoy a soothing mug of chamomile tea.
  • Take a shower or bath.
  • Perform leg exercises, such as squats, to promote blood flow to the legs.
  • Count sheep or breathe deeply. Or imagine yourself already asleep.
  • Earlier in the day, make time to exercise.
  • If there’s something you’re worried about it, think through it during the day.

I particularly like that last one. I mean seriously. Thanks.

Have a good weekend! Don’t forget to turn your clocks back on Saturday night!

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*Buzz Gunderson in Rebel Without a Cause

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November 3, 2016

Variations on a theme

by chuckofish

Photo courtesy of the Missouri Dept. of Conservation

Photo courtesy of the Missouri Dept. of Conservation

“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.”

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

We’ve quoted Bonhoeffer before on the subject of thankfulness, but can we ever say it often enough? Probably not. It is so central to our well-being.

November is a good month to take a look at the things for which we are thankful, so I plan to do that.

Meanwhile, here’s a poem by W.S. Merwin:

Thank you my life long afternoon
late in this spring that has no age
my window above the river
for the woman you led me to
when it was time at last the words
coming to me out of mid-air
that carried me through the clear day
and come even now to find me
for old friends and echoes of them
those mistakes only I could make
homesickness that guides the plovers
from somewhere they had loved before
they knew they loved it to somewhere
they had loved before they saw it
thank you good body hand and eye
and the places and moments known
only to me revisiting
once more complete just as they are
and the morning stars I have seen

And I am thankful for the flyover view.

“Grumbling and gratitude are, for the child of God, in conflict. Be grateful and you won’t grumble. Grumble and you won’t be grateful.”
―Billy Graham

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November 2, 2016

“We could be confidantes. Confiding confidentially.”*

by chuckofish

It is November, but it doesn’t feel like it, that’s for sure!

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I mean really.

We had a quiet Halloween. No one knocked at our door. I watched the Halloween episode of Angel, season 5–“Life of the Party”–the one where Lorne works around the clock to throw the ultimate Halloween party at Wolfram & Hart, but problems arise when he has his sleep removed. Then I watched two more episodes for the heck of it. Not a bad way to spend Halloween.

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I guess it is time to put away my festive (and very vintage) Halloween candles.

I should note that today is the birthday of the great American pioneer Daniel Boone (1734-1820)

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Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer,
Who passes for in life and death most lucky
Of the great names which in our faces stare,
The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky,
Was happiest amongst mortals any where;
For killing nothing but a bear or buck, he
Enjoyed the lonely vigorous, harmless days
Of his old age in wilds of deepest maze.

Lord Byron wrote those lines in Don Juan, Canto 8. Old Dan’l was a pretty famous guy! Anyway, I will remind you that Boone spent those latter days in my flyover state in the appropriately named town of Defiance.

As Boone said, “I firmly believe it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he is. This consists in a full resignation to the will of Providence; and a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewed with briars and thorns.”

I concur. Discuss among yourselves.

*Fred in the “Life of the Party” episode of Angel, season 5

The portrait of Boone is by John James Audubon.

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November 1, 2016

Rescued from oblivion

by chuckofish

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Even the most cursory of diaries can be of incalculable value. What the weather was doing. Who we ran into on the street. The movie we saw. The small boy at the dentist’s office. The dream.

Just a handful of the barest facts can be enough to rescue an entire day from oblivion — not just what happened in it, but who we were when it happened. Who the others were. What it felt like back then to be us.

“Our years come to an end like a sigh . . . ” says Psalm 90, “so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (w. 9,12).

It is a mark of wisdom to realize how precious our days are, even the most uneventful of them. If we can keep them alive by only a line or so about each, at least we will know what we’re sighing about when the last of them comes.

~ Frederick Buechner, Beyond Words

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The illustration of parked cars on a residential street is from This is New York by Miroslav Sasek.

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