tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71572499124736800442024-03-07T23:01:07.186-06:00the dark & the lightUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger346125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-56964462386454525252016-10-05T19:42:00.002-05:002016-10-05T19:42:48.811-05:00big small fast slow<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There is relativity of size:<br /><br />The tiny sugar ant marching through a horse's mane is unsure what a horse is.<br /><br />Could there be creatures so big we humans don't fully notice them? <br /><br /><br />And how about relativity of the experience of time: <br /><br />Is
it possible a ninety-nine year lifetime for a human could be equal to
only half a second in the life of a rock or something else that seems
unmoving? The rock-beings likely would not notice us at all, our tiny
blinks of melodramatic existence against a life 6 billion years long.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-71039087889662655702016-10-04T16:47:00.002-05:002016-10-04T16:47:08.629-05:00I am yours<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">I am yours<br />However distant you may be<br />There blows no wind but wafts your scent to me<br />There sings no bird but calls your name to me<br />Each memory that has left its trace with me<br />Lingers forever as a part of me<br /><br /> </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">(Eric Clapton's adaptation of material by 12th century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-91531331384989997602016-10-03T15:27:00.005-05:002016-10-03T15:27:32.795-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">'What's it like,'<br />the little child asked,<br />'to be the fish<br />in the fish bowl?'<br /><br />The goldfish darted<br />away and near.<br />'I don't know what to say,'<br />he thought,<br />and looked at the<br />giant face near him.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-84525146997416480042016-09-30T16:31:00.003-05:002016-09-30T16:31:46.946-05:0011 at night<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">It
was 11 at night, 1975, I was wearing a parka, the wind was blowing,
there was snow mounded here and there in the grad center parking lot.
The moon was full, the night was quiet, clouds like translucent silk
floated swiftly across the shining face of the moon. I stood there,
my face turned up to the moon, my feet safe but cold in crepe-soled
hiking boots. The sky was black, and ice hung from the bumpers of the
parked cars.<br /><br />My mind was empty of thought. The guitar performance
ended an hour ago and the network of intricate sound and varied timing
was a key that opened the lock to a dormant part of that mind, wordless,
letting me hear at another level, and see another dimension of the
freezing sky and I still need no words for what I learned. A door to a
universe expansive Godness was open, and I absorbed all that my teaspoon
of brain and heart could hold.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-35775020423376543792016-09-29T18:23:00.002-05:002016-09-29T18:23:14.991-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">'Be-eeee Good!' E.T. the extra-terrestrial said to the teary-eyed little girl who had helped save his life. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">(Little girl - hmmph. E.T., old and wise, was smaller than she was!) </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">He boarded the disc-shaped spacecraft that was flashing colorful beams of light. It quietly lifted up, and away.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-87864624690081207852016-09-28T13:16:00.002-05:002016-09-28T13:16:04.370-05:00Connecticut Yankee<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Mark Twain is perhaps best known for his children's books, <i>Huckleberry Finn</i> and <i>Tom Sawyer</i>. Some forty years ago or so, I read one of his adult novels, <i>A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court</i>,
the story of an American of the late 1800s traveling back in time to
England to experience Medieval life. The only part I now remember is the
Yankee saving his own skin by predicting a darkening of the daytime
sky. The sun then blacked out on the day he predicted. The people were
astounded. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">How
was he able to do that? The event was a historically memorable solar
eclipse that the Yankee had learned of during his life in America. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-12617949934884131152016-09-27T17:56:00.000-05:002016-09-27T17:56:00.138-05:00Samson & Delilah<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Why did Delilah cut Samson's hair?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-31306265045073017292016-09-26T17:37:00.002-05:002016-09-26T17:37:58.308-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">'Soap
opera is daily serial melodrama that originated in the United States on
radio and then became popular on daytime television in many countries.
Soap operas received the name because soap manufacturers first sponsored
them on radio. For many years, a number of critics considered soap
operas, though popular, to be a low type of mass-market entertainment.
However, many critics have re-evaluated soap operas, assessing them as
one of the few original American art forms...'<br /><br />(quote from The World Book Encyclopedia<br />2015 edition<br />Volume So-Sz<br />18)<br /><br />During
the 1960s, soap operas were on daytime TV, the same time each day from
Monday through Friday. On Monday, the episode summarized and provided
some closure on the previous week while opening up a new storyline.
Friday episodes were 'cliffhangers', leaving the audience anxious to
return to the show come Monday. 'The Guiding Light', 'As the World
Turns', and 'General Hospital' and 'The Edge of Night' are four that
were very popular across many years, social phenomena. Many a homebody
refused to miss a single episode of their favorite soap.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-70797855577428996612016-09-24T14:21:00.003-05:002016-09-24T14:21:41.735-05:00the sun<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">what if the sun</span><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">were not a ball of fire<br />but a sphere of light?<br />How would such light <br />translate into warmth<br />on a place like earth?</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-86710806071768826062016-09-23T15:48:00.002-05:002016-09-23T15:48:27.513-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">autumnal equinox 2016<br /><br />the feast<br />of vegetarian pig<br />is over <br />the glass of white wine<br />drunk<br />the sun<br />melts orange<br />from behind a bank<br />of steel gray clouds<br />it glows across<br />the quiet valley<br />of cedar trees<br />and gnarly oaks<br />brushing all with gold<br />i listen for druids<br />or angels<br />and hear the rumble whine<br />of an air conditioner<br />from the house nearby<br /><br />of equinox past<br />and equinox future<br />and equinox on this day<br />the sun, <br />so slow to set,<br />hastens pace<br />in blazing silence<br />touches the far horizon<br />and sinks<br />to a fine point of light</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-67575335717231703752016-09-21T15:40:00.001-05:002016-09-21T15:40:10.836-05:00grackle's planet<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">grackle flies by<br />bearing<br />a blue and white planet<br />on his shoulders<br /><br />turtle calls up to him<br />from the floor<br />of the creek below<br /><br />that looks so heavy<br />my shell is strong<br />let me carry that planet for you!<br /><br />grackle circles wide<br />and sails back to the creek.<br />he lands next to turtle.<br /><br />the planet eases off <br />the bird's shoulders<br />and turtle holds still<br />waiting to bear its weight<br /><br />but the planet rolls instead<br />into the creek bed.<br />grackle pushes and nudges<br />with his beak<br />but cannot roll <br />the heavy sphere onto<br />turtle's back.<br /><br />turtle wades <br />around the planet<br />steering through the shallow water<br />with his flippers<br /><br />it starts to rain<br />the grackle and the turtle<br />stand watch<br />side by side<br /><br />the planet does not wash away<br />it rocks and sways<br />and rocks and sways<br />in the creek current<br /><br />the planet gets wedged; <br />creekweeds and stones<br />secure it to the floor<br />and it grows still<br /><br />it does not budge<br />home now<br />a planet on a planet.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-20393285796707350352016-09-19T15:55:00.002-05:002016-09-19T15:55:06.502-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The dashboard, door handle, and steering wheel of your car left out in the sun are too hot to touch. The pavement is hot. Sometimes it gets, as the colloquialism goes, hot enough to fry an egg.<br /><br />Before you take your shoeless kids and dogs outside to race to the car, or feed the birds and squirrels in the parking lot on a 100 degree summer afternoon, or drive a horse and buggy around the town square to give visitors a tour, try removing your own shoes and socks and stand on the heated surface for a few seconds. Well, maybe not that long. Ouch.<br /><br />We usually wear shoes, so it's easy to forget our companions' feet can blister from contact with the burning paved surfaces around us. This summer, I've seen dogs and horses in pain, and since they are speechless, thought I'd put this into words. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-5144932520774028672016-09-17T14:11:00.005-05:002016-09-17T14:11:36.681-05:00family triangle<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There
is a generous amount of discussion about how a child feels and behaves
when a new baby brother or sister arrives. Some children are pleased and
excited, some are not, and almost all experience some jealousy
regarding the attention the new infant receives. The older child is
accustomed to receiving lots of notice from the parents, and now he or
she has to share that attention. It's not unusual for signs of sibling
rivalry to show up.<br /><br />What is discussed less is the nature of the
family before the second baby, when the family consists of only the
parents and one child, what a family triangle is like. This is an
interesting system in and of itself, whether another child ever arrives
or not. When another child does arrive, though, there are adjustments
for everyone, not just the firstborn, as the triangle takes on a new
geometric shape.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-88674229994307422172016-09-17T14:11:00.001-05:002016-09-17T14:11:10.032-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">There is a generous amount of discussion about how a child feels and behaves when a new baby brother or sister arrives. Some children are pleased and excited, some are not, and almost all experience some jealousy regarding the attention the new infant receives. The older child is accustomed to receiving lots of notice from the parents, and now he or she has to share that attention. It's not unusual for signs of sibling rivalry to show up.<br /><br />What is discussed less is the nature of the family before the second baby, when the family consists of only the parents and one child, what a family triangle is like. This is an interesting system in and of itself, whether another child ever arrives or not. When another child does arrive, though, there are adjustments for everyone, not just the firstborn, as the triangle takes on a new geometric shape.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-50315375683125072082016-09-16T11:10:00.001-05:002016-09-16T11:10:11.650-05:00Ostrich and Lark<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">'Every day, all day,<br />over the cicada's drone,<br />a drizzle of buzzings fell,<br />and a downpour of birdsong.<br /><br />'Hornbill, Bee-eater, Hoopoe, Diederik,<br />Mousebird, Whydah, Canary:<br />from gray-light-come to last-light-gone,<br />the fancy-dressed suitors of the veld<br />warbled their rain-shower jazz.'<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(a couple of poetic paragraphs from the book <i>Ostrich and Lark</i>, by Marilyn Nelson and illustrated by San artists of the Kuru Art Project of Botswana, 2012)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-87422063575804585472016-09-15T15:51:00.003-05:002016-09-15T15:51:46.712-05:00poetry within lyrics<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Some of America's most unrecognized poetry<br />is tucked within the lyrics of our songwriters.<br /><br />for example<br />from Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel<br />in the 1960s:<br /><br /><br />'What a dream I had<br />pressed in organdy<br />clothed in crinoline<br />of smoky burgundy<br />softer than the rain<br /><br />'I wandered empty streets down<br />past the shop displays<br />I heard cathedral bells<br />tripping down the alleyways<br />as I walked on...'</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-79155273997740591062016-09-14T18:26:00.002-05:002016-09-14T18:26:32.283-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">'Do we throw away the apple core?' he asked his dad. 'I already ate the good part.'<br /><br />'Are you kidding, Son?' said Dad. 'Give me that apple core! It is the BEST part. Inside this apple core are seeds that might make trees that can grow for a hundred years or longer. Thousands of apples for you and your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren could come from these little seeds.'<br /><br />Dad shook out two of the seeds, and set down the core. While he showed the seeds to his son, a squirrel came up behind him and carried away the apple core.<br /><br />'Dad! Catch that squirrel! He's taking away the BEST part!'<br /><br />They watched the squirrel leap up a pine tree and stare down at them, holding the core in his nimble little fingers.<br /><br />Dad stared back and thought for a moment. 'Not to worry, Son. You and I can plant these two seeds. Squirrels are wonderful farmers. He'll take care of the rest. There may be apples not only for us, but for his great great great grandchildren, too.'</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-92201700777073801012016-09-12T12:53:00.003-05:002016-09-12T12:53:31.579-05:00Muppets and Rogers<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The news today from the Muppets who live on Sesame Street is that: You Are Important!<br /><br />You have something special to offer in your time and place and current physical shape that is all you. You may not know it yet. (You may envy this person and that cat.) Your family and colleagues may not know it yet. But: You Are Important!<br /><br />(And, as Mr. Rogers has always said as he puts on his sneakers and sweater, he likes you just the way you are.)</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-47983270792762650272016-09-10T16:20:00.003-05:002016-09-10T16:20:40.654-05:00lollipops<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">When I was a kid in the 1950s and 60s, lollipops, also known as suckers, were abundant. There were Dum-Dums on paper sticks with paper wrappers, a small sphere of hard candy made only of sugar, and varied flavors and food colors. There were Safety Pops, wrapped in cellophane, that had a string-like loop for a handle. The loop was less likely to cause an injury than the sticks. The candy itself was transparent and came in a number of colors and flavors. Dum-Dums and Safety Pops were relatively small compared to the white disk on a stick you might find at a carnival. It was striped with a rainbow of colors, was opaque and had more sweet substance to it.<br /><br />Lollipops were given at the completion of classroom projects, at special celebrations, and just for an afternoon treat. They could be found, bright red and green, in Christmas stockings. I remember toddlers with red or purple saliva running down their faces as they cheerfully followed older siblings around in the yard.<br /><br />The magical thing about lollipops that we rarely acknowledge is how quickly they can relieve pain and distress. Nurses gave them to children at the doctor's office after surviving vaccinations and tetanus shots (injections). A child runs up wailing because of a bleeding brush burn on the knee. Give him or her a lollipop as you clean the wound, and crying and moaning stops almost immediately. A little sugar can be very comforting.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-38491973818175117822016-09-10T05:11:00.000-05:002016-09-10T05:11:28.391-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Almost everyone who has a few birthdays under their belt has experienced a crisis or distressing event in their lives. We have great successes, and happy events, and also pain at times. As a psychologist, I have helped clients process emergencies as they occur, and helped them find ways to seek comfort and weather grief. Of interest is I also came to observe that clients sometimes suffer on the anniversaries of such events. Without awareness, they might report a kind of depressed state of mind had occurred for a few days, with no reason evident to them. Over the course of the session, or perhaps a week or two later, something would click. That was the week their father had died, or the very date they had experienced a serious injury. Our inner wounds heal, but come the anniversary, they fester a bit, consciously or unconsciously. They call for some attention. We acknowledge what has been lost, through thought and/or action, seek the comfort we need, and move on. The pain fades once again.<br /><br />This same process can occur with communities as well, as a University of Texas psychologist and professor, Dr. Pennybaker, has written about. The whole village grows sober or anxious as the date of a past major hurricane or fire approaches. This kind of anxiety will gradually lessen as the years pass, but initially can be a true annual disturbance, with return of the fears and agitated state that arose with the event, and some of the defensive behaviors that resulted. Memorials, prayers, letters, newspaper articles, commemorative public parks and libraries, are ways we handle such situations as a whole. Ideally, we also take care not to stimulate overreaction.<br /><br />Perhaps I write this now because of my own physical awareness of the approach of September 11th. I extend my sympathy for all of us who experienced losses on that date in 2001. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-51310684472806507482016-09-08T14:35:00.002-05:002016-09-08T14:35:26.160-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Three miniature trains were winding along three sets of tracks at a railroad museum in Kingman, Arizona. They coursed around towns and farms made of plastic, stone, and wood. Cows stood here, and grain storage structures there. Somewhat like watching vehicles at cloverleaf highway intersections, the trains were mesmerizing. The sounds and speeds were varied, but at some point, the motions of three separate trains become connected, as though they are separate entities, yet also one whole entity as in an orchestra.<br /><br />Riding on full-size trains can be like a song. The background beat is clickety-clack as the train moves over the tracks; you can feel the pulse and bumps. The train itself is like a melody, fast, in swaying motion, separate from the countryside, and connected. The song slows as the train slows down, and sometimes halts, at the stations, then picks up momentum once again.</span><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-83326415457251738422016-09-07T16:45:00.000-05:002016-09-07T16:45:01.288-05:00<br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Moody Blues was a British band of the 1960s - 70s that created wondrous sound, using techniques that were new to the time. They made an album called 'Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'. My dad had once mentioned a similar saying 'Every Good Boy Does Fine'(?), and explained that it was a mnemonic device, the first letter of each word being the note of a line of the treble clef of western written music. <br /><br />I don't know a whole lot about guitar strings. They do change over the decades, and here I am mumbling about this and that. In learning to play guitar in the mid 1980s, for some reason I could not hold on to the popular mnemonic saying at that time for tuning guitar strings. So I made up my own: Every April Ducks Go Back East.<br /><br />Guitar strings are interesting. Electric guitars, classical guitars, and acoustic guitars use variations of metal and nylon strings. The bass strings tend to be heavier; the higher pitched strings lighter in weight and smaller in circumference. But the materials and specifics evolve across time. And if all the strings were the same material and circumference, one could still tune them to the desired pitches.<br /><br />There is something so fascinating about the fretboard, the surface of the neck of the guitar where the strings abide. There is this intersection between the geometry of the half-step dividing lines (ie, the varying distance between the frets), the qualities and tautness of the strings, and the sounds that emerge that make for both visual and auditory fascination and satisfaction. There is the physics of different aspects of the instrument and of sound. With some guitars, the location of the frets is precisely and systematically closer together as they approach the soundhole. With some guitars, this is not so. It's not as obviously logical as one might think, and some people adjust these properties in creative ways that might keep a mathematician and a musician awake at night.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-33864953724709846802016-09-06T13:26:00.003-05:002016-09-06T13:26:59.402-05:00visual effects<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Computer Moose<br />faces the ancient user.<br />His antlers hold<br />the keyboard.<br /><br />Superman<br />all dressed in blue<br />stands atop the library shelves<br />arms uplifted.<br />hallelujah<br /><br />Ghostly Goat<br />of peeling paint<br />and shredded paper<br />shines and stares <br />from a weathered brick wall.<br /><br />Startled Doe,<br />like her Sisters of the Woods<br />who peek from behind trees,<br />peers from triangles of street lights <br />and stray trinkets of three<br /><br />Spirits nod<br />from book covers<br />and patterns in the rugs.<br />They yearn for attention,<br />and imagined hugs,<br />offer yeses and nos<br />and flickers of cheer<br />to the eyes<br />of one old hermit<br />bearing bundles of years.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-62051964332242181072016-09-03T16:50:00.002-05:002016-09-03T16:50:34.970-05:00<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">The
first time I went abroad, it was to France when I was in my 40s,circa
1996. The first thing I noticed was the currency, a paper bill. I don't
recall how many francs it was worth. It was colorful and it featured an
engraved image of Antoine de St Exupery, the author of Le Petit Prince
and other remarkable writings of the first half of the 20th century. Our
United States of America currency was green, and featured portraits of
our presidents. I was fascinated to see a writer commemorated in such a
way.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7157249912473680044.post-67396929968386543082016-09-02T15:50:00.003-05:002016-09-02T15:50:36.431-05:00fundamental ethics<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;">Some of the fundamentals for humans, to survive, to live, include air to breathe, water and other fluids to drink, and food to eat. Shelter, reproduction, and sleep also rank high among essentials.<br /><br />There are also fundamentals in how we humans live, what we call ethics, morals, good not bad, right not wrong. There are religions with commandments and rules, governments with laws and ideals, clubs (such as Scouts, Rotary, Shiners), schools, and professions (such as medicine and science and military) with ethics codes and honor codes.<br /><br />I read once in a book regarding the ethics of psychologists a review of such codes and regulations. The authors reported that the first ethic in the majority of such undertakings is 'Do no harm.' This usually comes before the second most common ethic, which includes variations on the theme: 'Do good.'</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0