dual personalities

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April 26, 2013

She dwelleth and abideth on the rock

by chuckofish

“Your house, being the place in which you read, can tell us the position books occupy in your life, if they are a defense you set up to keep the outside world at a distance, if they are a dream into which you sink as if into a drug, or bridges you cast toward the outside, toward the world that interests you so much that you want to multiply and extend its dimensions through books.”

― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Or all of the above, right?

Furthermore, there are plenty of people who read, but do not have books in their home. Books, after all, gather dust and some people never read a book twice, so why would you want to own it? It is just entertainment. But for some of us, books are old friends whom we visit and re-visit.

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The world can always be divided in two. You know, between people who collect and people who don’t. People who buy books and people who never buy books. People who buy a house and furnish it and never think of it again and those who are continually feathering their nests.

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I spend a lot of time in my nest. Having my things around me (and my mother’s things and her mother’s things and so on) makes me happy. I appreciate them and enjoy them.

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This is not to say, I don’t believe whole-heartedly in “editing” and being organized. But I had a friend once who lived like she might have to move out of her house overnight and she wanted to be ready. That meant no extraneous possessions–like last month’s magazines. The minute her son outgrew something, she got rid of it. If he didn’t play with a toy for some designated time, out it went. (This begs another question–Are children allowed to have their own things and should their mother be getting rid of them?) I could not live that way, but to each his own. You do what you have to do.

It is never a good thing to get too attached to our things. They are, after all, just things–not people.

But I always told my children: in case of a fire, someone grab the sampler!

It went without saying that the priority was getting oneself out the door!

The key, of course, is enjoying what you have. Don’t you agree?

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January 11, 2013

The end of the week approacheth

by chuckofish

This has been my first full week back at work since the holidays ended and my daughters returned to their far-flung homes on the east coast. I have half-heartedly assumed my usual routine–and I am a routine person–but it is always hard to get back into the swing of things after an extended time off with my girls.

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I try to keep in mind what Emerson wrote:

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety. Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt, crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.”

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So I do my best to own the day!

Did I mention that it rained all day yesterday? Thank goodness it was in the 50s, so no snow. Today they say it may get up to 66-degrees. Hello. Carpe diem.

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April 10, 2012

Who doesn’t love elephants?

by chuckofish

I’m not sure what made me think of elephants. Perhaps it was the boy’s recent visit to the flyover zoo and his reacquaintance with Raja and his newest progeny, Kenzi. Raja was the first elephant ever born at our zoo. Now, at age 18, he has started his own dynasty, with daughter #1, Maliha, and daughter #2, Jade. Anyway, I have always loved elephants.

I am a big fan of this elephant:

Babar, a French elephant

And an elephant in a movie is always a plus:

Doris Day and Jumbo

Cary Grant has an elephant for a friend in Gunga Din, and she comes in handy once or twice, although not in this scene. (Yes, you guessed it. She wants to follow Cary onto the rickety bridge and hilarity ensues.)

Tarzan always had cool pachyderm friends. Elephants are something you definitely want on your side, because they can do this:

Cecil B. DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (1932)

One movie with an elephant I am not fond of is Disney’s Dumbo (1941) where in typical Disney fashion the child is torn from his mother’s loving embrace. When the elephant-mother is enraged, she is summarily punished. Boo.

It is very disturbing, and who needs that from a children’s movie?

I have blogged about my needlepoint elephants here, and I have a few other elephants at home:

Daughter #1's first needlepoint effort

I have elephants in my office:

I have actually touched an elephant. Flora, for whom the one-ring Circus was named, came to visit our church once long ago, when one of the Church Service ladies was on the board of directors of Circus Flora. Flora was still a baby then and came right into the Great Hall. She had long wiry black hair which was a surprise. Pretty neat.

Who doesn’t love elephants?

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