Hubbie here.
I haven’t written much lately. You may have noticed that I tend toward the less serious side and lately things have not been particularly lighthearted. Today has been about the same, some good some bad, nothing funny…………except to Lewy. For some reason my conversations with Lewy of late often end with him laughing. I don’t know why he is laughing. Heck, at least half of the time I have no idea what we are talking about. The other half of the time I have a vague idea of the topic but I’m puzzled by the words. He still talks about the other people. He still wants to get out of bed. Basically what you and I would talk about if we were confined to bed and strange people kept coming by.
There does seem to be a lot of business going on. Pauline and I are often urged to watch over the workers and to let Lewy know when we will be gone so that he can keep an eye on them. I don’t worry about them so much. I mean really, they are imaginary so anything they steal is imaginary. If they start stealing real stuff, then I’ll be pissed.
We have talked here before about “relative age”; childhood age as it equates to how we act when we are ………”up there”………”senior”………..”elderly”…………you know…………….old. It is an easy comparison to make. At what age did you learn to walk? At what age did you learn to talk? At what age did you stop wetting the bed? At what age did you feed yourself? At what age did the drywall guys start working over your bed? At what age did they install the elevator in your kitchen?
I think we can add another question to the list; At what age did your sentences start making sense? Of course the relative age question is the opposite; At what age did your sentences stop making sense? Pauline has shared some of the conversations with Lewy. He hasn’t made it to Crazy Aunt Tom’s level yet but he has offered up some interesting observations.
“We got to paddle as we go.”
“Paddle as we go?”
“Yeah. We got to keep our paddle feet moving.” (Pauline says that this means to move your car in Flintstone fashion.)
“I’ve ordered seventy thousand dollars worth of dogs.” (We love dogs but….Come on!!)
“Eating puts me in danger of the highway department.” (Don’t eat and drive.)
But then, was it not President Bush that said……………………..
“I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off.” (See that way the Iraqi citizen doesn’t even have to be there. Makes for an interesting visual doesn’t it. I mean, would you shake the hand like there was a person attached or would you wave it in the air?.........Maybe do it like a martini shaker.........Hey………….Don’t look at me that way,……………. it was the President’s idea.)
Of course none of the above holds a candle to Crazy Aunt Tom’s declaration that……….
“I can’t use this phone. It has the wrong language on it.” (Our phone was just one of the reasons that she refused to live with us when Lewy’s Twin Sister came to live in her head.)
All of us say stupid things. Some of us say smart things. So, not having much place else to go with this post let me offer you a few of my favorite quotations.
"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image, when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."--Anne Lamott
It needs to be stated again and again that the fundamental job of the president is not to protect the people of America, but to protect their constitution. – Andrew Sullivan
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests. -Gore Vidal
"There are many in America today who have little sympathy with those we torture and torment. They are our enemies, they say. They would do worse to us if the situation was reversed. Maybe so. But those young men and women who we have turned into torturers and inquisitors, they were soldiers once. What are they now?" - Jay Elias, Daily Kos
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain
Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.Confucius
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.Abraham Lincoln
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin (1706-90)
Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.-Robert A. Heinlein
Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try. -Yoda
Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. - unknown
It’s only seems kinky the first time. – Bumper Sticker
And this one from a book that I read several years ago but I lost. All I have is a copy of this passage. If you know the piece please let me know. I would love to give proper credit.
“Ah,” Tagore said, raising his eyebrows. “It is magic you wish to perform.”
“Your kind of magic.”
The old man nodded. “Come’” he said. He led Justin to a small stream near the thicket of rhododendrons and picked a hand-sized rock of the ground. “If this rock were made to disappear – not hide, but disappear completely, never to exist in the form of a rock again – would you consider such an act to be magic?”
Justin looked the rock. “Yes,” he said.
“Very well.” Carefully he placed the rock in the middle of the stream.
“What did you do that for?”
“It is the magic you requested,” Tagore said. “I have placed the rock in the water. You see it now but in a century the rock will be gone, disappeared forever. The flow of the water will have worn it to nothing.”
“I get it.” said Justin, disappointed. “There’s no magic.”
“You are wrong, my son,” Tagore said quietly. “It is all magic.”
As for the most purposeful, most touching, most beautiful collection of words I have ever read please see Stella’s reply to Pauline printed in the 3-27 post, called “Letters”. I kneel in your presence Stella. You are an Angel. Capital “A” intended.
5 comments:
kddove said...
Grandmaster, Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran
Page 75
"Your kind of magic." The old man nodded. "Come," he said. He led Justin to a small stream near the thicket of rhododendrons and picked a hand-sized rock ...
Stella said...
As an adolescent, I kept a scrap book of sayings by important people. I didn't understand half of what they meant but it sounded important. Your entry of today brings that back to my mind. Oh, I wish I had that book. Your words about my thoughts to Pauline are too kind. Pauline has helped me more than either of you will ever know.
Hubbie said...
kddove, I am VERY IMPRESSED. I did not expect an answer but the minute I saw the title I knew you were correct.
Stella, I kept the same information. I hand copied it into a notebook. To this day I have to read from paper, I can't read more than one page from a monitor. But the notebook I wish I had not lost is the one where I chronicled the graffiti in the Undergraduate Library. there was some good stuff there.
But my dear Stella, my words were in no way too kind. Help is a two way street. Pauline's writing help her, and you, and me, and hopefully, many other people. But your words in that letter....Oh my god......Stella they were perfect. Bless you my dear lady. You and Freddie will stand beside your God. I have no doubt of that. No doubt at all.
kddove said...
google is amazing. i put in "tagore, justin, magic" and it went there...
i wish i had all that in my head!!!!