nothing to suggest distinguished or interesting yet was important
From the description of Dr George Abbershaw in The Crime atBlack Dudley by Margery Allingham (1904-1966) (published by William Heinemann Ltd, London, 1929).
I have to love the writing of the 1930s.
I think they thought, wrote and inexpressibly expressed themselves like this, leaving me grasping for the now non existent thesaurus.
Ms. Allingham wrote:
He was a smallish man, chubby and solemn, with a choir-boy expression and a head of ridiculous bright-red curls which gave him a somewhat fantastic appearance.
He was fastidiously tidy in his dress and there was an air of precision in everything he did or said which betrayed an amazingly orderly mind.
Apart from this, however, there was nothing about him to suggest that he was particularly distinguished or even mildly interesting, yet in a small and exclusive circle of learned men Dr George Abbershaw was an important person.
shovel them under let me work, two years, ten years ask where are we now?
Adapted from Carl Sandburg’s poem, Grass.
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work— I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this? Where are we now?
I am the grass. Let me work.
Frustrated at the lack of change when I thought everything had changed.
Then I realize it has only been a couple of weeks.
This is going to take time.
But I do believe that after two years or ten years, passengers ask what place WAS this.
As Mr. Willy Wonka said, “Oh, you can’t get out backwards. You’ve got to go forwards to go back, better press on.”
unconnected goal outside all is darkness, all is invisible
I based this haiku and several others like it from the writing in the book, The Art of Travel (2002, Vintage Books) by Alain de Botton, and the passage:
On entering a new space, our sensitivity is directed towards a number of elements, which we gradually reduce in line with the function we find for the space. Of the four thousand things there might be to see and reflect on in a street, we end up being actively aware of only a few: the number of humans in our path, perhaps, the amount of traffic and the likelihood of rain. A bus that we might at first have viewed aesthetically or mechanically—or even used as a springboard to thoughts about communities within cities—becomes simply a box to move us as rapidly as possible across an area that might as well not exist, so unconnected is it to our primary goal, outside of which all is darkness, all is invisible.
*Adapted from the book, The Art of Travel (2002, Vintage Books) by Alain de Botton.According to the website, GOOD READS, Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why.
As I said in the section on Architecture , what I find irresistible in reading Mr. de Botton is his use of language.
To also quote myself, I get the feeling that if you made a spread sheet of all the words, adverbs and adjectives used by Mr. de Botton, you just might find that he used each word just once.
classic example someone who rediscovers joy on their own terms
I am not a fan or follower of the sport of gymnastics.
Like most of us I am aware of this sport every four years because the Olympics are on in my face.
That being said I am AMAZED and AWED by Simone Arianne Biles and have no problem saying she is the greatest athlete I have ever seen.
I also find it easier to believe that her routines are created in movie maker or photoshop as I cannot understand how a human body can be trained to do what she does.
Watching a floor exercise by Ms. Biles is like being at a fireworks display when you say WOW then WOW WOW then WOW WOW WOW then … just watch because you are out of wows.
So I was intrigued when a video filtered into the Information Highway that was billed as MUST SEE VIDEO – GYNMASTIC ROUTINE.
I was able to avert my eyeballs and not watch but this clip kept popping up in the oddest of places.
Not just the those link farms and such but New York Times, ESPN and Wired.
Today when it popped up on the Guardian I gave in and said OKAY lets see how great this was.
By the way you could tell I was reading a paper from Britain as the first line read “The latest entry in the surprisingly robust YouTube subgenre of viral college gymnastics routines dropped over the weekend, flooding timelines everywhere and generating national media attention rare for the parochial sport.”
Truly when I write I wish the words came out that way on their own.
But I digress.
It is a very very very cool clip.
It is NOT Ms. Biles and this is in no way a slam on Ms. Biles.
It IS Nia Dennis,
It is not the Olympics, where the world balance of good vs. … well, the other guys, hangs on every misstep.
This was college.
This was UCLA vs ASU.
This was … fun to watch.
It seems the sport in college is a lot differnet.
There are rules about Olympic Gymnastics.
The article stated “College gymnastics, which operates under different and more accessible rules than what you see in the Olympics, is a step down from the elite circuit, but the fewer difficulty requirements leave gymnasts more time (and stamina) for choreography and showmanship. The gulf between the two classes has only become more pronounced since Simone Biles came along and raised the bar for everyone: these days every single thing an Olympic gymnast does on the floor has to add difficulty. It’s almost a different sport altogether.“
And, “There’s also a less restrained, more team-oriented culture in NCAA gymnastics that permits the athletes to express themselves more.”
If you watch the clip, watch the team and Ms. Dennis’ teammates.
They are having a good time.
They are having a great time.
This was … fun to watch.
Feeling this way it was also fun to read the article about Ms. Dennis.
Dennis, a former US national team member whose own dreams of competing in Rio were undone by an achilles injury.
The article talked about another gymnast at UCLA, Katelyn Ohashi
Ms. Ohashi had been “earmarked for Olympic stardom as a 14-year-old junior gymnast before injuries and burnout intervened.”
Ms. Ohashi, the article said, is a classic example of someone who rediscovered the joy of enjoying the sport on her own terms.
Ms. Dennis is following the same path according the article, but, doing it her own way.
Rediscovering joy your own way.
Can there be a better meme?
All together now, “BOY! HOWDY!”
Okay so maybe you never lost your joy so there is no need to rediscover it and that is great and I am happy for you.
But for everyone else in the room the chance to rediscover joy on your own terms?
Not by following a book or a plan but your own terms!
Recent changes in my life have let me rediscover so much joy.
oral history of these places is written in piano bars
In the book of essay’s, by, Joan Didion wrote, “The oral history of Los Angeles is written in piano bars. “Moon River,” the piano player always plays, and “Mountain Greenery.” “There’s a Small Hotel” and “This Is Not the First Time.” People talk to each other, tell each other about their first wives and last husbands.“
I changed Los Angelo’s to these places.
The places where anyone and anyone gather because there are no other places to gather.
No Haiku For You 