Simple Foods are the Best

I made granola the other day and it is delicious. I just pressure cooked a batch of chic peas. I had tomato and onion and olives for dinner on toast with tea. All of these simple things are so extraordinary to me. Is it because I went swimming?

Battle of the Scents

The other night I had to shut all of the windows because my neighbor was using perfumed dryer sheets. Then my other neighbors were smoking cigarettes causing me to have an asthma attack. Sensitivity to scent was not just when I was 5 years old.

When I vacuum I put a drop of mango oil on a tissue and suck it up into the machine making the dirt bag smell better. I do my baking after my laundry and house cleaning so the good smells override the bad.

When I was a kid perfumed and dyed toilet paper was all the rage. My mother bought yellow, pink and blue perfumed toilet paper. At the time I had a pet gerbil named Silky because his fur was so smooth and healthy. Silky scratched his nose every day and I wondered if he had an irritated nose from the perfume. I replaced his bedding with cedar and unscented white tissues and he recovered.

Impact of Alcohol on the Spirit

Article

Full Circle

When I was a child living in Larchmont NY my mother would often take us on the commuter train into Manhattan. I would fight my sister for the window seat and press my face against the smelly double glass to see as much as possible. I especially loved Harlem. I examined the boarded up tenements, fire escape windows, clotheslines and people from the moving train, trying to gather as much as possible from this secret world before the big black tunnel. I was fascinated, enthralled and I wanted more. It was a city of miniature tenement houses and we were speeding by from a high and all too safe vantage point.

After we arrived in Grand Central Station I would take in the dark oily machine smell of the train tracks and the sparkles in the platform. The smell of newspapers. The sounds that echoed. The cold air. Everyone was rushing. For me New York City was all about scent. The smell of black vinyl in taxi cabs, roasted chestnuts on street corners; New York City was an amusement park for my nose.

We would be all dressed up to visit to my step-father's gigantic midtown office. There was a switch board operator and lots of cool posters on the wall and a row of men at drafting tables. There was a distinctive comforting smell of ink and new paper, the same one that is in my office today.

I realized the other day that I now live in this very neighborhood, in the doll house tenement city I spotted from the moving train. I still look up at the windows and fire escapes but now I live here. I talk to my neighbors, walk with them, share bread with them and know their names.

Dominique Browning

Article

I’m happy to have a body that is healthy, that gets me where I want to go.

What matters most is the work. Does it give you pleasure, or hope? Does it sustain your soul? My work as a climate activist is the hardest and most fascinating I’ve ever done. I’m too old for the dark forces, for hopelessness and despair.

Dominique Browning is the senior director of Moms Clean Air Force. She blogs at slowlovelife.com.

“Entendez-vous dans le feu, Tous ces bruits mystérieux?”

“Entendez-vous dans le feu, Tous ces bruits mystérieux?” (“Do you hear, in the fire, all those mysterious noises?”)
My Favorite Vacation: Summer Camp

By DOMINIQUE BROWNING NYT

Uppermiddle Class Problems

Here!

Maria Montessori

It's the birthday of Maria Montessori (books by this author), born on this day in Chiaravalle, Italy (1870). She was a bright student, studied engineering when she was 13, and — against her father's wishes — she entered a technical school, where all her classmates were boys. After a few years, she decided to pursue medicine, and she became the first woman in Italy to earn a medical degree. It was so unheard of for a woman to go to medical school that she had to get the approval of the pope in order to study there.

As a doctor, she worked with children with special needs, and through her work with them she became increasingly interested in education. She believed that children were not blank slates, but that they each had inherent, individual gifts. It was a teacher's job to help children find these gifts, rather than dictating what a child should know. She emphasized independence, self-directed learning, and learning from peers. Children were encouraged to make decisions. She was the first educator to use child-sized tables and chairs in the classroom.

During World War II, Montessori was exiled from Italy because she was opposed to Mussolini's fascism and his desire to make her a figurehead for the Italian government. She lived and worked in India for many years, and then in Holland. She died in 1952 at the age of 81.

She wrote many books about her philosophy of education, including The Montessori Method (1912), and is considered a major innovator in education theory and practice.

William Shawn

Today is the birthday of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, born William Chon in Chicago (1907). He started working for The New Yorker as a reporter for the "Talk of the Town" section in 1933, and was paid $2 per column inch. He took on some editorial duties after a few years as a writer, and became managing editor in 1939. He convinced the magazine's founder, Harold Ross, to devote an entire issue to John Hersey's in-depth coverage of six survivors of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was radically different than the magazine's usual fare, but it was a huge success. When Ross's health began to go downhill in the early 1950s, he bequeathed the magazine to Shawn. Some people were skeptical that Shawn could pull it off; after all, he was a Midwestern boy, raised in Chicago and educated in Michigan, and his first real journalism job had been reporting for a small paper in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He didn't like a fast-paced lifestyle, crowds, elevators, or power lunches. He was a small, shy, extremely courteous man whose feet didn't reach the floor under his desk. Ross died of cancer late in 1951, and Shawn succeeded him a couple of months later; he held the position until 1987, when the sale of the magazine forced him into retirement.

Under Ross's leadership, The New Yorker had been a forum for sparkling wit and snarky gossip; its stable of writers included E.B. White, James Thurber, and many members of the Algonquin Round Table. When Shawn took over the helm, the magazine took a more serious turn. It featured more stories of national interest and toned down its New York focus. Tom Wolfe said, in 1965, that Shawn had turned The New Yorker into "the most successful suburban women's magazine in the country." Former New Yorker writer Dorothy Parker complained that most of the writing was "about somebody's childhood in Pakistan," and even Shawn himself sometimes regretted the decline in the amount of humor in the magazine's pages under his watch.

But he had the support of the magazine's owners, and throughout his career, he earned the admiration and affection of the writers he worked with: among them J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Jamaica Kincaid, Elizabeth Bishop, and Philip Roth. He published Truman Capote's In Cold Blood as a series of articles. His magazine began to shape public opinion rather than just remark upon it. It was in the pages of Shawn's magazine that Rachel Carson's Silent Spring first educated Americans about the environment, and James Baldwin published essays on race relations that would eventually become his book The Fire Next Time (1963).

When the magazine was sold and Shawn was forced to retire in 1987, he wrote a last letter to his colleagues, saying, "We have built something quite wonderful together." After his death in 1992, former colleague Gardner Botsford wrote in The New Yorker: "He sharpened our thinking, brought us sternly back from our vacant musings, oiled our transitions, and turned us into professionals of a greater competence than we would ever have achieved on our own." Another New Yorker staffer said, anonymously, "No editor ever ruled a large and complex magazine as absolutely as he ruled this one; yet no editor, perhaps, ever imparted to so many writers and artists as powerful a sense of freedom and possibility."

Shawn himself once said, "Falling short of perfection is a process that just never stops."

Labradors Sharing a Stick

video

Hurry Hurry

Riptides in the ocean today. Might be best to stick with pools rivers and lakes.

Winter Grilling

Read

Itchy Mouth

from Allergies

Maya Angelou

The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
MAYA ANGELOU

May Sarton

Have the courage to write whatever your dream is for yourself.
MAY SARTON

Motionless

She knew something was up when she saw Mildred's clothesline. There were large gaps between the towels and shirts and dresses. In all the years she's been Millie's neighbor, that was never the case.

Her intuition said "Get over there." She stepped out and walked down the flagstone walkway and into Millie's garden and rang the big brass dinner-bell. No answer. She looked in the back kitchen window and saw nothing awry. The table had a teacup and saucer and a white pitcher of pussy-willows. She glanced down to the left and saw bare ankles, motionless and slightly blue.

Sinclair Lewis

It is impossible to discourage the real writers—they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write. SINCLAIR LEWIS

I Crave and NEED Acidity

Coffee and tea
Carbonated beverages
Grapefruit and orange
The high acidity of citrus fruits
Tomatoes, marinara sauce, ketchup, and tomato soup – they’re all naturally high in acid.
Pickles, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar.

Francis Bacon

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable. FRANCIS BACON

Crazy Kellogg

Dr. Kellogg wanted to keep his cereals sugar-free — he was a Seventh-day Adventist who famously advocated against alcohol, meat, sugar, tobacco and sexual activity. But his brother, Will, insisted on sweetening them, and the two parted ways. Will went on to launch the Kellogg Company, and its enormously popular sweet cereals, which eventually included Froot Loops and Cocoa Krispies.
Article

My granola has no sugar.

Command Central

Command Center
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A command center or command centre (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose.

While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses. The term "war room" is also often used in politics to refer to teams of communications people who monitor and listen to the media and the public, respond to inquiries, and synthesize opinions to determine the best course of action.

A command center enables an organization to function as designed, to perform day-to-day operations regardless of what is happening around it, in a manner in which no one realizes it is there but everyone knows who is in charge when there is trouble.

Conceptually, a command center is a source of leadership and guidance to ensure that service and order is maintained, rather than an information center or help desk. Its tasks are achieved by monitoring the environment and reacting to events, from the relatively harmless to a major crisis, using predefined procedures.

Living Well

Living well isn't about money. Living well is about a zest for life and conscious attention to what's going on between your ears. It's also about community, good books, playing music, swimming, baking, writing letters, and enjoying fresh local vegetables.

David Bornstein: How to Change the World

I am reading too many books at once but one of them is HOW to CHANGE the WORLD social entrepreneurs and the power of new ideas. by David Bornstein

Chapter 13 The Talent is Out there.

Chapter 18: Six Qualities of Social Entrepreneurs:

willingness to self correct
willingness to share credit
willingness to break free of established structures
willingness to cross disciplinary boundaries
willingness to work quietly
strong ethical impetus

Housing Activist

She wanted to be a lawyer, she said, until she started working on community housing issues. "You cannot be a housing worker and not become an activist," she said
Article

Earology

I read recently that ears are being use as identifiers when fingerprints are less reliable. This might sound strange but I have a card catalog visual memory for ears (and fingers and toes) of the people I know.

Siam is set to release its new Siam 7X smartphone, which features biometric earprint authentication technology, according to a report by Pocket-lint. Using the Descartes Biometrics Helix solution, the smartphone’s front-facing camera is able to authenticate the user based on his or her unique ear features when the device is held to it. This allows the owner to configure the smartphone so that he or she is the only individual authorized to make and receive calls by holding the handset

Pants on Fire

I know too many people who are trying to out run their own shadow. It is tragic. Quite a few are in my own family my own band and my own neighborhood. Either you stop and sit down with your demon and invite him in for tea and listen or you will be guaranteed to have a dreadful life of running. Put your head in the demon's mouth and listen to his pain.

I have a theory that the folks who won't submit to this experiment are actually too afraid to give up their fist clenching control.

Fear, Run, Shadow, Control

Drink Drank Drunken

I loathe drunkenness. I read somewhere that Rene Magritte had no tolerance for drinkers drunks or drinking. Amen to Magritte. I love crazy people but I loathe drunkenness.

Dream

There was a fat gray cat on my bed and he had no ears. His ear holes were still there but the ears had been removed. He was actually light blue and definitely male, I checked. I had never seen a light blue cat before. He had human teeth, white molars in good shape. How did he get in my house? Who took off his ears? Was he friends with my cat Sammy? Was he living here all this time and eating Sammy's food? Was someone missing him. I heard a banging at my door. I woke up.

Ride Well to Ride Badly

And in 'Frisco Kid' and in 'The Woman in Red' I had to ride badly. Then you have to really ride well in order to ride badly.
-Gene Wilder

Another Chance

I love the art of acting, and I love film, because you always have another chance if you want it. You know, if we - if this isn't going well, you can't say - well, you could say - let's stop. Let's start over again, Gene, because you were too nervous.
- Gene Wilder

Trap

Actors fall into this trap if they missed being loved for who they really were and not for what they could do - sing, dance, joke about - then they take that as love.
- Gene Wilder

Trying to Correct

So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.
- Gene Wilder

I Like Writing

I like writing books. I'd rather be at home with my wife. I can write, take a break, come out, have a glass of tea, give my wife a kiss, and go back in and write some more. It's not so bad. I am really lucky.
- Gene Wilder

What Right Did I Have?

My mother was suffering every day of her life, and what right did I have to be happy if she was suffering? So whenever I got happy about something, I felt the need to cut it off, and the only way to cut it off was to pray. 'Forgive me Lord.' For what, I didn't know.
- Gene Wilder

Just Be Real

“I never thought of it as God. I didn't know what to call it. I don't believe in devils, but demons I do because everyone at one time or another has some kind of a demon, even if you call it by another name, that drives them.”
― Gene Wilder

“Climbing hills was never one of my great ambitions. Perhaps I was just lazy, but I admit--now that I've been climbing a hill every other day--that it's very difficult to think about the stresses in your life while you're trying to avoid falling backwards when a goat with large horns is chasing you because you came too close to the little patch of grass he was planning to eat for breakfast.”
― Gene Wilder, The Woman Who Wouldn't

“If the physical thing you're doing is funny, you don't have to act funny while doing it...Just be real and it will be funnier”
― Gene Wilder, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art

I LOVED Gene Wilder

“What do actors really want? To be great actors? Yes, but you can’t buy talent, so it’s best to leave the word ‘great’ out of it. I think to be believed, onstage or onscreen, is the one hope that all actors share.”
Article

Gabriel Rockhill

I certainly sensed at some point that I was already in the afterlife, since my existence could have easily ended long ago
[...]

In looking back from this immanent afterlife on my earlier terrors, and how they have been slowly buried over time, I see now that they were overly fixated on my own biological death. Since I recognized eternal transcendence as nothing more than a comforting illusion, the only thing left was my finite life in the here and now, which was destined to disappear forever in an instantaneous blackout.


It is now patently unclear to me, however, that we ever actually die in this way. Our existence has numerous dimensions, and they each live according to different times. The biological stratum, which I naïvely took to mean life in general, is in certain ways a long process of demise — we are all dying all the time, just at different rhythms. Far from being an ultimate horizon beyond the bend, death is a constitutive feature of the unfolding of biological life. In other words, I am confronting my death each day that I live.
[...]

If biological death appears to some as an endpoint to existence, there is nevertheless a longevity to our physical, artifactual and psychosocial lives. They intertwine and merge with the broader world out of which we are woven. This should not be taken as a form of spiritualist consolation, however, but rather as an invitation to face up to the ways in which our immanent lives are actually never simply our own.

Source
Gabriel Rockhill is an associate professor of philosophy at Villanova University and founding director of the Atelier de Théorie Critique at the Sorbonne in Paris. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, “Interventions in Contemporary Thought: History, Politics, Aesthetics.”

Sneeze with Gusto!

I had a sneezing fit this morning. It was so intense I had to sit down so I wouldn't be knocked over by the force. I was suddenly reminded of my mother who always held in her sneezes. This would make a horrible gnunk sound and was disgusting to me as a child.

This morning I learned that iguanas sneeze the most and plucking your eyebrows causes sneezing in some people. Something I have never attempted.

Professional Kitchens

I LOVE to PLAY in professional kitchens. Unwrapping cream cheese the size of a cinder block, making lasagna the size of a couch!

Large Garland Stoves, stainless steel counters, floors you can hose down!

It's heaven for those who LOVE to bake and cook and feed.

Woosh Season is Upon Us

This is what I call whoosh season or the undertow season. Things won't slow down until November first and then they stagnate until January 4th or so.

Everything has to happen now before the big slowdown.

I have fabric that is begging to become new curtains and or a blouse.

I have injured my back ten days ago but the daily hot baths and swims are still the cure and walking helps too. Time is a healer. As long as I am not sitting in a chair or car I feel no pain.

Bill had been washing 8 pounds of kalamata olives in overnight baths of water and now re-brining them is salt water. We went to the Restaurant Depot in Cranston for olives and the ones we got had not been properly processed. They tasted like dish soap. We read up on the solution to the problem and it worked. I hope to go back to the depot again someday if nothing else just to fondle the wheels of cheese and buy a boat load of asparagus.

More about the Lower Back Pain

Here

Margaret Mead

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Cow Dung High Design

Article

Happiness is the Path

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
― Gautama Buddha

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”
― Gautama Buddha

“In the end
these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you let go?”
― Gautama Buddha

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?”
― Gautama Buddha

“There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.”
― Gautama Buddha

“You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
― Gautama Buddha

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts. If a man speak or act with an evil thought, suffering follows him as the wheel follows the hoof of the beast that draws the wagon.... If a man speak or act with a good thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.”
― Gautama Buddha

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”
― Gautama Buddha, Sayings Of Buddha

“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
― Gautama Buddha

“You only lose what you cling to.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Doubt everything. Find your own light.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it”
― Gautama Buddha

“There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
― Gautama Buddha

“If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.”
― Gautama Buddha

“A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.”
― Gautama Buddha, The Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha

“You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.”
― Gautama Buddha

“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Now, Kalamas, don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, ‘This contemplative is our teacher.’ When you know for yourselves that, ‘These qualities are skillful; these qualities are blameless; these qualities are praised by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to welfare & to happiness’ — then you should enter & remain in them.

[Kalama Sutta, AN 3.65]”
― Gautama Buddha

“It is like a lighted torch whose flame can be distributed to ever so many other torches which people may bring along; and therewith they will cook food and dispel darkness, while the original torch itself remains burning ever the same. It is even so with the bliss of the Way.

[Sutra of 42 Sections]”
― Gautama Buddha

“Pain is certain, suffering is optional.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Greater in battle
than the man who would conquer
a thousand-thousand men,
is he who would conquer
just one —
himself.
Better to conquer yourself
than others.
When you've trained yourself,
living in constant self-control,
neither a deva nor gandhabba,
nor a Mara banded with Brahmas,
could turn that triumph
back into defeat.”
― Gautama Buddha

“An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking and pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness.”
― Gautama Buddha

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
― Gautama Buddha

John Locke

It's the birthday of the man who said, "The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts": British philosopher John Locke (books by this author), born in Wrington, Somerset, England (1632). He believed all of our knowledge is derived from the senses. He also believed that we can know about morality with the same precision we know about math, because we create our ideas. His Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1688) was an instant success and sparked debate all across Europe.

Locke said, "Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours."

-Writer's Almanac

Love is the Master Key

from Writer's Almanac:

It's the birthday of the man who said, "Love is the master-key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear. How terrible is the one fact of beauty!" That's 19th-century poet and physician Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (books by this author), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1809).

He ran in the same circles as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and other Boston intellectuals. He helped found The Atlantic Monthly magazine in 1857, and it was Holmes himself who came up with the name. He published his poetry and articles in The Atlantic Monthly at the same time he practiced medicine and taught at Harvard Medical School. He's also the father of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

He's perhaps best-known for his essays that make up the "Breakfast Table" series. In The Poet at the Breakfast Table (1872) he wrote, "We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible."

He said: "Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. Good mental machinery ought to break its own wheels and levers, if anything is thrust among them suddenly which tends to stop them or reverse their motion. A weak mind does not accumulate force enough to hurt itself; stupidity often saves a man from going mad."

Take Your Kids to the Funeral

and let us smell their heads.
by Michelle Boissea

Not Floating Above It

I want to be there to experience what I’m experiencing. When I go out dancing I want to hear the music, I want to see people’s outfits, I want to be in the moment, not floating above it and unable to process anything about it the next day.
-Madison Moore
source

Maple Farm Sanctuary

Mendon Massachusetts

Christmas List

Clothespins, dish towels.

I need to make my Christmas card this week while I am cheerful. I loathe November and December.

Summer Reading

(I need to own these books)

Daily rituals : how artists work / Mason Currey.

The complete poems of Kenneth Rexroth / edited by Sam Hamill & Bradford Morrow.

Stalking Irish madness : searching for the roots of my family's schizophrenia / Patrick Tracey.

How to change the world / David Bornstein.

Visual intelligence : sharpen your perception, change your life / Amy E. Herman.

Michael Smith's cookbooks!!!

Radio Poetry

I woke at dawn and came down to feed the animals. I read poetry and listened to the police radio.

Birth Date of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

A man can stand anything except a succession of ordinary days.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.

The mediator of the inexpressible is the work of art.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Go to foreign countries and you will get to know the good things one possesses at home.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

The people who are absent are the ideal; those who are present seem to be quite commonplace.

Love and desire are the spirit's wings to great deeds.

The human mind will not be confined to any limits.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.

The coward only threatens when he is safe.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

The biggest problem with every art is by the use of appearance to create a loftier reality.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

I love those who yearn for the impossible.

I call architecture frozen music.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

Bathing Attire

It's a family story that my Grandpa Nat was fined for wearing a bathing suit with two circles cut out under the arms. That was considered indecent exposure. We have this photo of grandma and grandpa on Brighton beach as a young couple.

This article and photos are amazing.

Today is topless bathing day for women in New Hampshire.

Maybe that's the best way to settle it.

Rita Dove

: “Every time I sit down to write, I try to feel that I’m starting over. It’s all new. It’s all fresh, and I’m learning as we go.”

Paul Hostovsky from Bending the Notes

Wincing at the Beautiful

by Paul Hostovsky

So my friend Phil is telling me how
he can’t get a date
how he loves women and how
they’re always giving him looks
so I ask him what kind of looks
so he winces at the beautiful
braless young woman passing by
at that particular propitious moment
giving her a look of such
longing and longevity
that she returns his look with a look
that kills his entire family tree
from the roots to the unimagined
blossoms of the great grandchildren shriveling
on his shriveling bough
and I think I’ve diagnosed his problem now
and I think of quoting some lines from Rilke
but on second thought I think
a sports metaphor might serve him better
so I steer the conversation round to basketball
and the three second rule
which says you can only stand inside
the key for three seconds
before they blow the whistle
they’re just blowing the whistle on you Phil
for breaking the three second rule
for standing there with your eyes
popping out like basketballs
it’s a game like any other I tell him
then I ask him if he wants to score
and now that I have his attention
I throw in those lines from Rilke
I tell him that beauty is nothing
but the beginning of terror
we’re still just able to bear
and the reason we adore it so
is that it serenely disdains to destroy us
and he winces again and this time
it’s at the beauty of those lines
or maybe their truth which hits him
like a three-pointer now
that Rilke hits all the way from Germany
at a distance of a hundred years

“Wincing at the Beautiful” by Paul Hostovsky from Bending the Notes
© Main Street Rag, 2008.

Cierra Walsh

So I try not to evaluate my experience by how it affected me. Instead, I evaluate it by how it affects the way I treat those around me. More than anything, I now understand what it’s like to go through something you can’t fully grasp. When somebody explains the intangible, but lingering, weight they feel as a result of tragedy, I actually know what this weight feels like.

When I look at my friends now, I don’t see what they can do for me or how they can make my life better. Instead, I see how I can make them feel appreciated and less alone. I can’t pretend to know what everybody is going through at all times, and I can’t pretend to know what I’m going through either, but at least I can help them carry that weight, so that one day they may say that they really are better off.

source

André Gide

The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.
- André Gide

Crying Out for Help

He used to tell me how many days and hours he's been clean and sober. So I always cheered him on. He had a girlfriend who took pills and threatened to kill herself (long distance over the phone).

He said he had a great mother but big big big problems with his father. I gave him my orange fleece scarf one zero degree day. He was outside in his Statue of Liberty "Liberty Tax" costume waving at the one way traffic downtown.

Chief, Linda, Mike, and Sylvia were at my house for lunch yesterday. Wendy showed up for lunch but missed the first shift. We had a neighborhood summit.

Later, when Wendy told me she had been robbed by a kid she trusted and liked a lot I had no idea it was Nick.

So sad. When mental health issues like bipolar or whatever get mixed with the big scary drugs it's TRAGIC. This was a very likeable kid and Wendy felt the same way.

What was that movie with Susan Sarandon trying to save the boy Sean Penn who is on death row?
Dead Man Walking.

Anyway I hope he gets a great lawyer and more chances at rehab. This kid would die being kept in a cage. As Wendy said He's crying out for help.

So sad. It's all I could think about all day. I am in shock.

Picnic Table

My husband had no idea how much it was going to mean to restore our rotted boards from our 21 year old picnic table. All of a sudden I had a social life. And believe me as a home body, urban farmer I worry about these things endlessly. I am the black sheep of the family living in the black sheep city, in the black sheep neighborhood. I love to cook and bake and feed. Are there any takers? I don't know how else to sell myself to people and I am easily HURT. Guess what, everyone is.

I finally I realized it was time to stop calling on the same old naysayers and ask a new people. I started with Joe Garlick of Neighborworks, and guess what? He said YES. Come for lunch I said. Just bring your appetite. But he loves to cook and feed as much as I do and so he made Thai salad, chocolate cake and oh my god it was fantastic.
I had picked a weekday at noon and nobody was expected to bring anything or linger. After all it's a workday for everyone. "Come to my backyard picnic table" I said. "Look for the red and yellow beach umbrella!"
We did it again and again and yesterday I had a crowd. And I am so HAPPY. I hope to do it for the rest of my capable days.

I learned from my parents how to express love and gratitude through food. I still get very excited and nervous a week in advance, and then a jolt of adrenaline when people arrive. I am thrilled out of my mind!

My husband and I did all of the marinating baking and cooking in advance so we could attend our own lunch summit to discuss the neighborhood in our beloved neighborhood. My husband worried about the shrubs and went out and trimmed them. Then he grilled all of the vegetables I had sliced up in advance: yams, beets, eggplant, and then he grilled the boneless chicken breasts I had marinated the night before in molasses, hot sauce, mustard, fresh ginger, fresh garlic and wine vinegar. He grilled on the Weber over hardwood charcoal. The flavors bloom when they rest and then get refrigerated overnight after they've cooked and cooled. Then just before the lunch I sliced the chicken into slivers. I set out the sourdough to rise at 7 AM and they puffed up, I baked them at 10AM so they would cool off in time.

Since I am a person who gets stomach aches when in a group it is a challenge for me to eat at meetings. I don't drink either and I get insanely jittery. So it's just like a musical performance gig. I lose my appetite at those too! I calm down the next day or three days later. It's how I'm built.

I still love to knit the community together through the things I love; walking, writing, and feeding good home food at my table.

Modern Girdle

Take leggings and cut them above the knee. Modern girdle!

Out Late With Oliver Sacks

Article
is the author of the forthcoming memoir “Insomniac City: New York, Oliver, and Me.”

Mother Teresa

“By blood, I am an Albanian. By citizenship, I am Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.”

Go home and love your family.

Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She accepted the award, but asked that they cancel the gala dinner and donate the money to charity. The committee asked her what people should do to promote peace and she answered, “Go home and love your family.”

Charles Wright

“Language is the element of definition, the defining and descriptive incantation. It puts the coin between our teeth. It whistles the boat up. It shows us the city of light across the water.

Without language there is no poetry, without poetry there’s just talk. Talk is cheap and proves nothing. Poetry is dear and difficult to come by. But it poles us across the river and puts music in our ears.”

Writing

“Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends.

In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.”

- Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Five Boys with Squirtguns

My dog Lily started barking which is rare for her. I went to see what was up. Two of the five nine year old boys with squirt guns came into the yard to get water from my hose. I asked them to please leave the yard and they did. I thanked them. Then they asked me to please fill their squirt guns. I agreed and took the five day glow green and orange machine guns one at a time filling them up and handing them back to them. They were heavy! Then I shut the door and resumed working. They rang the bell and asked for more water and I refilled their squirt guns. They rang again, and again. Okay this is the last time because I have to get back to what I was doing. What are you doing? Cooking, I said. What are you cooking? Beets. They are good kids, I love them but they just need some clarity and boundaries and so do I.

Last Night

Last night the bowl of tomatoes were ripening before my eyes. I sliced them up and chopped a green cabbage into shreds. Then I made a mason jar full of buttermilk dressing with low-fat buttermilk, garlic dill kosher salt extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar and sriracha sauce and mustard. I ate it for breakfast too!
My husband said, "I've never seen anyone love vegetables as much as you do, you love every one of them even more than fruits or meat."

Jon Frankel: My Favorite Food Writer

Read

Cast Iron

Along with clothespins and wholesale fabric I am obsessed with CAST IRON.

Obsessed with Clothespins

Here

Before the Summer is Over

I hope to swim at horseneck beach at night and swim Pulaski Park Pond and Killingly Pond. I prefer COLD water. I also hope to cook out a bunch more times.

Advice for Lower back Pain Strain

WebMD rocks!

Meryl Streep

Acting is not about being someone different. It’s finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.
― Meryl Streep

I think the best role models for women are people who are fruitfully and confidently themselves, who bring light into the world.
― Meryl Streep

Put blinders on to those things that conspire to hold you back, especially the ones in your own head.
― Meryl Streep

The formula of happiness and success is just, being actually yourself, in the most vivid possible way you can.
― Meryl Streep

I no longer have patience for certain things, not because I’ve become arrogant, but simply because I reached a point in my life where I do not want to waste more time with what displeases me or hurts me. I have no patience for cynicism, excessive criticism and demands of any nature. I lost the will to please those who do not like me, to love those who do not love me and to smile at those who do not want to smile at me. I no longer spend a single minute on those who lie or want to manipulate. I decided not to coexist anymore with pretense, hypocrisy, dishonesty and cheap praise. I do not tolerate selective erudition nor academic arrogance. I do not adjust either to popular gossiping. I hate conflict and comparisons. I believe in a world of opposites and that’s why I avoid people with rigid and inflexible personalities. In friendship I dislike the lack of loyalty and betrayal. I do not get along with those who do not know how to give a compliment or a word of encouragement. Exaggerations bore me and I have difficulty accepting those who do not like animals. And on top of everything I have no patience for anyone who does not deserve my patience.
― Meryl Streep

I like who I am now. Other people may not. I'm comfortable. I feel freer now. I don't want growing older to matter to me.
― Meryl Streep

No one has ever asked an actor, 'You're playing a strong-minded man…' We assume that men are strong-minded, or have opinions. But a strong-minded woman is a different animal.
― Meryl Streep

Six Word Memoirs

Here

Herb Weiss: Taking Charge + Aging Boldly

Here
Don’t just grow older, take charge and age boldly! Taking Charge: Collected Stories on Aging Boldly is a collection of newspaper columns by Herb Weiss, an award winning journalist whose body of work is a treasury of well-researched stories and insightful interviews with experts and everyday people who have shared their observations about growing older.

Taking Charge covers a myriad of aging issues ranging from care giving and retirement planning to thoughts about spirituality and death. Through these stories, readers are empowered with practical tools to live a happy, engaged and empowered second half of life.

Taco Tuesday (One Dollar!)

Casa Vallarta  
2022 Mendon Rd, Cumberland, RI 02864
Hours: Open today · 11AM–11PM
Phone: (401) 333-6900

Lara Herscovitch

I've been reflecting a lot about inspiration. I love the dual definition: being stimulated to do something, especially something creative, and taking in the air we need to live. Inspiration from within and without. Like plants; on the days water isn't falling onto us, we find another way to get it.

Swim in the Ocean

Before winter I hope to swim in the ocean and make hand-cranked ice cream. I don't even like ice cream (as much as I like broccoli or corn or grilled turkey breast) but I love my antique ice-cream maker! If I was really daring (and rich) I'd get a komodo (Big Green Egg) and make smoked turkey all year round.

Trimming the Shrubs

Our shrubs grow like hair. This morning my husband is out there trimming like mad. Some weeds have grown into trees and he's sawing them down. Nothing like visitors coming to get us to see things with new eyes. Also this is our last blast before the school year begins.

Ken Achity

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?

See above. Norman Mailer said, “Writer’s block is a failure of the ego.” And Ray Bradbury: “Start doing more. It’ll get rid of all those moods you’re having!” When you think you’re blocked, you’re not. You just need to take a long walk and let your story figure itself out again so you can sit back down and write it. Good writing should be “automatic writing.”

What’s your advice to new writers?

Don’t confuse writing with rewriting. If you try to do both at the same time, you’ll sabotage yourself. Rewriting is what you start doing when you’ve completed your first draft. Good luck to you all.

Former professor Ken Atchity is a writer (of novels and nonfiction), producer of films for television and theater, literary manager, and publisher (Story Merchant Books). He can be reached at atchity@storymerchant.com.

Benjamin Franklin

“I see nothing wrong with retirement as long as it does not interfere with a man’s work.”

Schizo and Tobacco

I recently learned that tobacco is very helpful for folks who are schizophrenic. My neighbor Kyle's daily routine is walking around this 4 block area picking up cigarette butts to smoke. He goes to Walgreen's parking lot where smokers end their cigs to pop in the store and he hunts the abandoned butts down. My friend T and I want to help him out by planting cigs on his path so he still gets to hunt because that's his daily enjoyment. He goes by my house 18 times a day. Most people are scared of him but I tell them he's harmless and I explain the situation.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely thin needles through your skin at strategic points on your body. A key component of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain.

Traditional Chinese medicine explains acupuncture as a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as qi or chi (CHEE) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance.

In contrast, many Western practitioners view the acupuncture points as places to stimulate nerves, muscles and connective tissue. Some believe that this stimulation boosts your body's natural painkillers and increases blood flow.

Share the Table, We are all Equal

When we can eat delicious home-cooked meals, spinach and arugula salads, with red onions, red peppers, farm fresh tomatoes, late summer local corn,local cucumbers, we are all equal. We are all happy. This is what life is about. Now get out the banjo and accordion and play some fresh local live music!

Rainbow Flags

I looked up and noticed rainbow flags and Puerto Rican Flag on the very top of the triple decker on my street. The rainbow flags had the planned Parenthood logo. COOL! I had to find out what this was about.

The Joys of Life

I hear the Brazilian music particularly the singing and accordion with a tuba and my neighbor, a beautiful young Brazilian woman is singing along, belting it out. On most afternoons delicious culinary aromas waft out of their apartment. She knows whats important; a walk in the park with her baby in the morning and cooking delicious meals for her husband the roofer in the afternoon.

Radio Ten Codes

I love them!
Will I be a detective at age 70? Yes!

Roll - Over Dreams

My definition of a rollover dream is a dream at dawn when I am rolling over.

Dream: I was somewhere and I had to pee but I let another person go first. When it was my turn I let it rip before I realized the toilet seat was closed. I flooded the nearby rugs with urine. Then I had a big problem. I had to find the hostess and tell her what I had done and offer to clean everything right away.

Dream: I was in grad school and I hated it. I was not doing my assignments. I walked out on my third class knowing I had ignored the first two classes. I needed a lift home.

Milkmen Mailmen Policemen

The new generation is friendly.

Milkmen are back in Vogue

Article

Irving Fields

“People ask me, ‘How do you remember so many notes?’” he once said. “It just comes to me. It’s like God is in my mind.”
Article

Woonsocket is MAKING IT HAPPEN!

Woonsocket is MAKING it HAPPEN. We are on the verge of a fantastic blast off. Fasten your seat belts. We have the park, the train is coming and the rest is already in place. Thanks to our great Mayor Lisa Baldelli Hunt and her stellar team, Woonsocket Rocks!

Standing Room Only

I can't work sitting anymore. I injured my lower back . But I like to work standing so it works out.

Night Light Picnic

Last night we had a picnic supper I made a quick dressing in a mason jar: buttermilk, olive oil, sriracha sauce, mustard, dill weed, garlic, red wine vinegar and salt. We ate spinach and arugula and a batch of fresh tomatoes from The Big Apple farm in Wrentham, oil cured olives, and a blob of goat cheese. We hung the little red lantern from the umbrella to barely light our plates. It was dark but there were no bugs. Lily sat with us. It was lovely.

One Brilliant Day

“The wind, one brilliant day, called
to my soul with an odor of jasmine.

"In return for the odor of my jasmine,
I'd like all the odor of your roses."

"I have no roses; all the flowers
in my garden are dead."

"Well then, I'll take the withered petals
and the yellow leaves and the waters of the fountain."

the wind left. And I wept. And I said to myself:
"What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you?”

― Antonio Machado

Border of a Dream

“I thought my fireplace dead
and stirred the ashes.
I burned my fingers.”
― Antonio Machado, Border of a Dream: Selected Poems

Death

“Death is something we shouldn't fear because, while we are, death isn't, and when death is, we aren't.”
― Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado: Only Wakes Upon the Sea

Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer, there is no road, the road is made by walking. By walking one makes the road, and upon glancing behind one sees the path that never will be trod again. Wanderer, there is no road-- Only wakes upon the sea.

Antonio Machado

I.
Don't trace out your profile--
forget your side view--
all that is outer stuff.

II.
Look for your other half
who walks always next to you
and tends to be who you aren't.

― Antonio Machado

Underwater Musings

(my first post ten years ago, Oct 22, 2006)

This is my first attempt at sonar. I write because I am often lonely and I love the company of words. Words are little sparks of sound with meaning, each with an ancestral heritage of its own. I write because it’s how I feel my way through the dark. Words are my path of bread crumbs which may lead me out of the forest or in deeper.

I would like to remain a ticklish dolphin well into my old age, swimming in the underwater sun patches at my local YMCA pool. I love to see the ancient ladies methodically swimming laps, flowing through the turquoise tinted water. Just to be near them is equal to being fed chicken soup by five grandmothers. These ladies swim daily. Some have translucent skin with blue and green veins, bruises, scars, and brittle bones. They all have rosy cheeks and hearty laughs. They are beautiful. This is the chlorinated community church of the underwater aqua mamas.

Life is not the thing that begins after you ban leaf blowers and clear away junk mail. Life includes all the things that come along including fear and centipedes. Life is now. I tell myself; swim, write, paint, play your horn, cultivate courage in spite of fear, celebrate absurdity, imagination, and have fun. Laugh and learn. Find out who you are. What else are we here for?

Sometimes I wake at 4 am, and I mix up a batch of sourdough and realize the mailmen and milkmen are already beginning their day and my musician friends are just getting to sleep, and I am upside down from the perspective of those living on the other side of the planet.

Picnic for Friends

I am so excited to prepare a picnic for friends that I woke at 3AM.

Charlie Russell, Genius

My neighbor Charlie is an amazing sculptor. See his art on facebook. I must introduce him to another genius artist, painter Dan Gosch.

The Nose Knows

The 10 Foods That Make Your Urine Smell The Most -

Wanting and Having

When I was a kid my mother took me to MILLER'S TOY STORE in Mamaroneck N.Y. and asked what I wanted for Christmas and my birthday 12/27. "I want a carrying case record player like Cynthia has," I said. "And for my birthday I want to go ice-skating in Rockefeller Center!"

My mother had other ideas. She felt if ever I got what I wanted I'd become spoiled. So every year she asked me but she gave me the same thing, magic markers and a drawing pad and a men's sweater.

"You were named after Emily Dickinson, she stayed in her room until she died. Then, after her death they found the poems," my sister said, in on the plan. I cried. This was the picture laid out for me. But I wanted to be a Broadway dancer in musicals or a skater like Peggy Flemming or a gymnast like Olga Korbut. Not some sick girl locked in her room.

I have been wanting to make pancakes for three weeks. This morning I was just about to mix up the buckwheat batter when a voice said. Oh just make toast, faggheddaboud it, it's fast and easy. And I said to myself no. no. no. I've had this argument with myself for weeks. I can have pancakes.

I made a batch of buckwheat pancakes from Bob's Redmill recipe on the flour bag using my sourdough starter. They came out great. My husband and I enjoyed them with currant jam and honey.

You are allowed to have your dreams.

I've discovered that I don't become spoiled at all, in fact I am filled with gratitude and happiness.

Alain de Botton

Good listeners are no less rare or important than good communicators. Here, too, an unusual degree of confidence is the key — a capacity not to be thrown off course by, or buckle under the weight of, information that may deeply challenge certain settled assumptions. Good listeners are unfussy about the chaos which others may for a time create in their minds; they’ve been there before and know that everything can eventually be set back in its place.
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3AM:Trust the Magic

Its that magic time of year: late August. The Histamine High, as my doctor called it. The RI Ragweed allergy season is intense and if I don't ingest antihistamines decongestants and lots of coffee and take my puffer, my asthma inhaler I am doubled over in gastrointestinal agony. So I ride the wave for a few weeks until it's over. Once again swimming and writing are important daily grounding forces.
Yesterday we played the Looff Arts Festival and it was one of our greatest gigs ever. I had tweaked my back the night before from sitting 14 hours at a stretch at Bill's computer. I was walking like a 101 year old lady. I was very worried about how I would dance and parade while playing my saxophone. The show must go on, I told myself. So I gently stretched and swam in the local pool, and took ibuprophen. I read that walking was helpful so I walked my dog as usual. Then showtime arrived and the magic took over. Trust the magic!

Brene Brown Truthsayer

To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability.
Brene Brown

When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.
Brene Brown

The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you're enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.
Brene Brown

In my research, I’ve interviewed a lot of people who never fit in, who are what you might call ‘different': scientists, artists, thinkers. And if you drop down deep into their work and who they are, there is a tremendous amount of self-acceptance.
Brené Brown

I hesitate to use a pathologizing label, but underneath the so-called narcissistic personality is definitely shame and the paralyzing fear of being ordinary.
Brene Brown

Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It's the fear that we're not good enough.
Brene Brown

Perfect Stranger

You never know how much a person may be teaching and inspiring you.

Morgan Baden

“Figure out your childhood passion, because there’s something there from your childhood that you can turn into a career.”
Article

Where we Come Alive: Vulnerability

Article

Sharon Harrigan

Story

Standing Room Only

I can't work sitting anymore it strains my lower back. I do prefer standing so that's cool.

Anne Lamott

We are saved by memories of love and beauty—maybe there’s more of that to come, if we keep on keeping on.

Save Yourself Because Your Family is LOST

In order for the scapegoat to have a family he has to perpetuate the myth that any day now he will be accepted. So he is complicit in his own demise. The role has been assigned. The karmic door is sealed and locked. The solution is to examine the myth closely and psychically retool your role for yourself. There's no hope for the family.

Filled

“Don't try to rush things: for the cup to run over, it must first be filled.”
― Antonio Machado

Men at Work

This morning on our downtown walk we saw the police doing something that looked like and archeological dig in front of headquarters. We crossed the street to get closer. They were putting up the Police Union Monument that has been moved from Hamlet Ave and Cumberland Hill Road intersection. It was fascinating to watch the granite slabs being placed with wedges, levels and putty. All of the retired detectives stood under the blue tent wearing their leather holsters, watching and discussing the procedure.

The Looff Arts Festival

Today we played at the Looff Arts Festival in east Providence and it was one of the best gigs we've ever had. It made me proud to be a Rhode Islander. I LOVE RHODE ISLAND!!!!

Louise Erdrich

I think you’re supposed to work in the dark, that the search and the writing itself is the reward.

The Fear

Last night my husband and I sat outside at dusk and ate cold leftovers and we talked about the fear.

Building a community web by walking, helps break down the fear. When people stay inside and watch TV on the fear machine they find themselves in a hostile world.

And the Fear

Mankind owns four things
That are no good at sea:
Rudder, anchor, oars,
And the fear of going down.
― Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado

I Have Walked Down Many Roads

by Antonio Machado

translated from the Spanish by Don Share


I have walked down many roads
and cleared many paths;
I have navigated a hundred oceans
and anchored off a hundred shores.

All over, I have seen
caravans of sadness,
pompous and melancholy men
drunk with black shadows,

and defrocked pedants
who stare, keep quiet, and think
they know, because they don’t
drink wine in the neighborhood bars.

Bad people who go around
polluting the earth . . .

And all over, I have seen
people who dance or play,
when they can, and work
their four handfuls of land.

If they turn up someplace,
they never ask where they are.

When they travel, they ride
on the backs of old mules,

and don’t know how to hurry,
not even on holidays.

When there’s wine, they drink wine;
when there’s no wine, they drink cool water.

These are good people, who live,
work, get by, and dream;
and on a day like all the others
they lie down under the earth.

― Antonio Machado, Times Alone: Selected Poems

My other Dream: A Poetry in the Park Festival Woonsocket

I'd be glad to make this happen. Poetry saves lives.

Now that we have the amazing park thanks to the vision and dream of Mayor Lisa, we can keep on building the dream!
Everything moves UP from here!!

Machado

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart.
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart. ”
― Antonio Machado

Paths

“Travelers, there is no path, paths are made by walking.”
― Antonio Machado

A Third Thing

“Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it.”
― Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado

“But don't hunt for dissonance:
There is no such thing;
People dance to all tunes.”
― Antonio Machado

Antonio Machado

In order to write poetry, you must first invent a poet who will write it.
― Antonio Machado

Walk as much as possible

To whatever extent possible, try to get up and move as much as possible. For example, this could mean a day of mainly rest, followed by a day that includes several short walks around the house, followed by a day with a short walk every hour or half hour, or longer walks as tolerated. Prolonged inactivity will stiffen your muscles and will likely lead to more pain. In general, walking is gentle on your back and promotes blood flow, which in turn helps speeds the healing process.
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Ears are the new Fingerprints

Article


Are earprints the new fingerprints?
A technology developed by researchers in the United Kingdom uses a shape-finding algorithm to identify people via an unlikely source: their ears.
April 30, 2014
Are our ears as unique as our fingerprints?
That’s what UK scientists are trying to figure out. Researchers at the University of Southampton developed a new shape-finding algorithm that is 99.6 percent accurate for identifying a person. According to researchers, this new “image-ray-transform” process could be the world’s most accurate and least invasive way to identify people.


New technology
Fingerprints have long been used by government agencies to identify people. The United States FBI database alone holds 70 million fingerprints of criminals. But fingerprinting isn’t an exact science. Fingertips can be damaged with calluses, and fingerprints can rub off over time.

Iris scanning is also difficult, since the eye is such a small target and subject to fraud – it is even possible to use a hi-res image of an eye, rather than an actual eyeball, to fool the machine.

With these disadvantages in mind, scientists at the University of Southampton in the UK worked to develop a new technology that would be able to identify someone via a part of the body that barely ever changes: the ear.

“When you’re born your ear is fully formed. The lobe descends a little, but overall it stays the same. It’s a great way to identify people,” Mark Nixon, the leader of the research, told Wired Magazine.


How it works
According to Wired Magazine, ear identification uses computer vision to convert human features into IDs. Researchers in Southampton used this technology to create an “image-ray-transform” algorithm that can identify an ear with 99.6 percent accuracy.

The ray-producing algorithm looks for curved features in the ear. After the rays have found every part of the ear, another program turns these curves into a unique set of numbers – basically an “ear ID.”


Ups and downs
Like all technology, there are positives and negatives to using ears to identify people. Like iris scans, ear identification systems have limitations like hair covering the ears, difficult lighting conditions, and different IDs generated by different angles. For this reason, researchers stress that using the ear isn’t about replacing existing biometrics like fingerprints – but rather supplementing those technologies with another ID system.

Research into ear identification systems is still in its infancy, but as it gets quicker or more accurate, it could be used in many situations – like when a security camera grabs a profile view of a man robbing a bank. As Nixon told Wired Magazine:

“We’ve shown we can use ears, but can we process the data that comes from a sort of normal scenario? That’s the real challenge.”


More information
“Ears could make better unique IDs than fingerprints”
- Wired Magazine, November 2011

“Southampton scientists develop new method to identify people by their ears”
- University of Southampton, October 2010

H.P. Lovecraft

"I never ask a man what his business is, for it never interests me. What I ask him about are his thoughts and dreams."

Heather McHugh

I have always lived on waterfronts. If you live on the edge of an enormous mountain or an enormous body of water, it's harder to think of yourself as being so important. That seems useful to me, spiritually.

Stud Finder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An ordinary multifunction stud finder, as available in hardware stores
Stud finder that utilizes a moving magnetic piston to locate studs under sheetrock, plaster or tile. Will also locate steel studs.

A stud finder (also stud detector or stud sensor) is a handheld device used to locate framing studs located behind the final walling surface, usually drywall. While there are many different stud finders available, they all fall into two main categories, magnetic stud detectors and electric stud finders.

Squeeze your Thumbs

The other day I needed x-rays taken of my teeth. Denise the dental-hygienist told me a secret she learned to prevent the gag reflex. Squeeze your thumbs. It worked. I told her it might be due to pressure points. Read more about it.

V.S. Naipaul’s Rules for Beginners

1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words.

2. Each sentence should make a clear statement. It should add to the statement that went before. A good paragraph is a series of clear, linked statements.

3. Do not use big words. If your computer tells you that your average word is more than five letters long, there is something wrong. The use of small words compels you to think about what you are writing. Even difficult ideas can be broken down into small words.

4. Never use words whose meaning you are not sure of. If you break this rule you should look for other work.

5. The beginner should avoid using adjectives, except those of colour, size and number. Use as few adverbs as possible.

6. Avoid the abstract. Always go for the concrete.

7. Every day, for six months at least, practice writing in this way. Small words; short, clear, concrete sentences. It may be awkward, but it’s training you in the use of language. It may even be getting rid of the bad language habits you picked up at the university. You may go beyond these rules after you have thoroughly understood and mastered them.

Share Food

The people who give you their food give you their heart.
- Cesar Chavez

George Bernard Shaw

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
- George Bernard Shaw

Evolution of Sleep

When it comes to melatonin, humans and worms are so similar that they can both get jet lag.

The new study offers an intriguing idea for how our vertebrate ancestors adapted the melatonin genes as they evolved a complex brain.

Originally, the scientists argue, the day-night cycle was run by all-purpose cells that could catch light and make melatonin. But then the work was spread among specialized cells. The eyes now took care of capturing light, for example, while the pineal gland made melatonin.

The new study may also help explain how sleep cuts us off from the world. When we’re awake, signals from our eyes and other senses pass through the thalamus, a gateway in the brain. Melatonin shuts the thalamus down by causing its neurons to produce a regular rhythm of bursts. “They’re busy doing their own thing, so they can’t relay information to the rest of the brain,” Dr. Tosches said.

It may be no coincidence that in worms, melatonin also produces electrical rhythms that jam the normal signals of the day. We may sink into sleep the way our ancestors sank into the depths of the ocean.

Article

The telephone pole was approaching fast

Some of the craziest things are reported to police officers. Many of these have been reported in newspaper articles. This site is dedicated to sharing many of those funny police reports.

The following are short quotes of actual police reports. They are actual statements either taken directly off of insurance forms or things said directly to the officer taking the report. You know the police officer that took each funny police accident report had a good laugh. They were gathered from a number of sources. We hope you enjoy these quotes and get a good chuckle from them:

“I thought my window was down; but found it was up when I put my hand through it.”

“The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him.”

“I told the police I was not injured, but upon removing my hair, I found that I had a fractured skull.”

“Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don't have.”

“The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intention.”

“No one was to blame for the accident, but it never would have happened if the other driver had been alert.”

“I had been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.”

“A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.”

“I was taking my canary to the hospital. It got loose in the car and flew out the window. The next thing I saw was his rear end, and there was a crash.”

“I had been learning to drive with power steering. I turned the wheel to what I thought was enough and found myself in a different direction going the opposite way.”

“The accident happened when the right door of a car came around the corner without giving a signal.”

“The indirect cause of this accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.”

“To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front, I struck the pedestrian.”

“I was thrown from my car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.”

“I was backing my car out of the driveway in the usual manner when it was struck by the other car in the same place where it had been struck several times before.”

“I saw the slow-moving, sad-faced old gentleman as he bounced off the hood of my car.”

“In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.”

“I was sure the old fellow would never make it to the other side of the road when I struck him.”

“I was unable to stop in time, and my car crashed into the other vehicle. The driver and passengers then left immediately for a vacation with injuries.”

“When I could not avoid a collision, I stepped on the gas and crashed into the other car.”

“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.”

“The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering it into the other vehicle.”

“My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.”

“A truck backed though my windshield and into my wife's face.”

“The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”

“I was on the way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.”

“I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.”

“An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle, and vanished.”

“The telephone pole was approaching fast. I was attempting to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end.”
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Morning is Sacred

When in transmit mode at bedtime I can't wait to wake up early the next day and I'll wake at 3 or 4 AM. In receive mode I dread morning, and as the day progresses I'll feel better.

This morning I got up at 4:AM and read. I listened to the police radio while I read the newspaper and washed the dishes.

Ogden Nash: Be My Love

Come live with me and be my love
And we will all the pleasures prove
Of a marriage conducted with economy
In the Twentieth Century Anno Donomy.
We’ll live in a dear little walk-up flat
With practically room to swing a cat
And a potted cactus to give it hauteur
And a bathtub equipped with dark brown water.
We’ll eat, without undue discouragement,
Foods low in cost but high in nouragement
And quaff with pleasure, while chatting wittily,
The peculiar wine of Little Italy.
We’ll remind each other it’s smart to be thrifty
And buy our clothes for something-fifty.
We’ll bus for miles on holidays
For seats at depressing matinees,
And every Sunday we’ll have a lark
And take a walk in Central Park.
And one of these days not too remote
You’ll probably up and cut my throat.”
― Ogden Nash, Hard Lines

I love you more than a duck can swim

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That's how much I love you.

I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.

As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That's how much you I love.

I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.

I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That's how you're loved by me.
― Ogden Nash

Ogden Nash

"Middle age is when you're sitting at home on a Saturday night and the telephone rings and you hope it isn't for you."

Sorry, guys. We all played the Mom Lotto in the womb, and I won.

Blog

The Duck Refused Medical Treatment

Article

To season cookware is to varnish a relationship.

Rhik Samadder

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30 Handwritten Letters

By Renita Kalhorn

Jennifer Brace: Cultivate Confidence

No part of me has ever felt like I don’t belong here. And I approach things with confidence. I think that helps me earn a lot of respect from my coworkers. Even something as simple as sitting at the table in a meeting rather than staying off to the side and speaking up to make your voice get heard can reinforce your place on the team. Take it to heart that you’re a part of the team, you’re there for a reason and you have valuable input to give.
Article

My Attention Muscle Grew

Lynne Goldberg

Steve Friedman

Anxiety and basketball.

Rhode Island Adventure

Today we went to restaurant depot a place I've wanted to go to for 21 years. We bought 8 pounds of kalamata olives, a bucket of refrigerated half sour pickles, cholula hot sauce, sriracha hot sauce, a gallon of molasses, a gallon of soy sauce, a number ten can of chopped tomatoes, 3lbs of gorgeous white fish, three bundles of fresh asparagus and a small mini-log of herbed goat cheese. I almost bought the Irish cheddar wrapped in green wax.

On the way home our 21 year old Honda broke down on 146 in North Providence at 4:30 PM. We called triple A. We ate ice cold pickles to cool off while we waited for the tow truck. Todd Brown KING'S TOWING showed up. "I normally drive in Scituate and Hope Valley," he explained. " Wow, Hope Valley, I love Long pond," I said. "You might see a fat tow-truck guy skinny dipping there on Sunday mornings," he said.
"I went to a nudist summer camp, when I was a kid, so nudity doesn't bother me," I said.
"Riding in the tow truck is fun, it's like being in the milk tanker truck for Munroe Dairy," I said. I got to do that when I made a calendar for them. We're their milkman band."
"I knew I recognized you. I've seen you in the July 4 parade. My parents were longtime Munroe Dairy customers they gave their milkman a key to come in and the code to deactivate the alarm so he could load the milk in the fridge and put the newspaper on the kitchen table. They tipped him fifty bucks a week, for that. I told my parents they were nuts and my father said 'Munroe Dairy's been doing this for over 100 years, of course I trust them.' My dad was a state police captain," he said.
"Do you know State Policeman Kenny Marandola, he's our new neighbor-landlord next door." I said.
"Nice guy!"

We finally got home and my husband had a beer, and I cooked a feast.

Acupuncture and Addiction

Article

But a major study published in 2002 in the Journal of the American Medical Association by docs at Yale, UCLA, Columbia, and other top academic centers came up with less enthusiastic acupuncture data. The study compared three "relaxation" techniques--acupuncture that was said to hit the right addiction spots versus acupuncture that did not hit these spots (this was the control) versus a "calming" video--among 600 coke addicts. While all three groups reduced their intake of cocaine, there was no difference on the crucial standard of retention or the duration of treatment, which is generally viewed as the best predictor of sustained recovery. Numerous studies of acupuncture for heroin users found that it helped them with the symptoms of withdrawal but didn't reduce relapse rates.

Sometimes the results may be less physical than emotional. Jim, a 51-year-old ex-con who received regular acupuncture treatments during his three months at the Circle Program at the Colorado Mental Health Institute, credits acupuncture with his newfound sobriety and claims he’s no longer the angry, emotionless man he used to be. “The more I did it, the more I was able to get in touch with my feelings,” he says. “I literally just started crying after the treatments. It’s highly unusual for me to let my guard down like that.”

While being a human pin cushion may sound painful, practitioners say that the needles don’t hurt. In fact they can do the opposite, helping some patients to relieve the pain they’ve grappled with for years. Morgon, a 28-year-old former crack addict who lives in Los Angeles and has been sober for four years, used to feel “like I had been hit by a truck every morning. Her back pain was so bad that “I couldn’t walk and would collapse if I stood up.” But once she got sober and started a regular acupuncture regimen, her ailments disappeared. “Acupuncture took away my problems completely,” she says. Of course, giving up her daily crack habit probably didn’t hurt.

Summer Cool Down

Beer, Seltzer and Orange Juice over ice.

Restaurant Depot

We bought pickles, olives, hot sauce, soy sauce, fish and asparagus. What a cool place.

Walking the Beat

Last night we met up with the retired police Detective Moreau who used to be a cop.
"I'd have to go around and check the doors on Main Street at night. That was old school," he said. "There was an amazing silence between midnight and 4 AM, that you can't get from being inside a cruiser. You'd hear people talking and yelling from blocks away. It was amazing what you'd hear."

Sneakers Bride

Article

Mr. Arthur Hiller

Writing about the movie after the novel was published, the critic Roger Ebert was as admiring of one as he was withering about the other. “The film of ‘Love Story’ is infinitely better than the book,” he wrote. “I think it has something to do with the quiet taste of Arthur Hiller, its director, who has put in all the things that Segal thought he was being clever to leave out. Things like color, character, personality, detail and background.”

Mr. Hiller’s emphatic, uncomplicated direction brought home the themes of class and generational reconciliation embedded in Mr. Segal’s story, while Francis Lai’s score took care of the sentiment.

Mr. Hiller is survived by his daughter, Erica Hiller Carpenter; his son, Henryk; and five grandchildren.

His wife, Gwen Hiller, a social worker and librarian, died in June, also at 92. She was born in Edmonton 10 days before her husband. Their family has noted that when they were schoolmates, he proposed to her when they were 8 years old. Their marriage lasted 68 years.

Article

That’s what saved me, helping these children.

Amid the chaos, Mr. Sofianis found a measure of salvation. His teenage son and daughter died recently of a rare form of epilepsy, over two successive Christmas Eves.

“One night, a kid landed on the beach who looked so much like my dead son,” he said. “I turned away in tears. How much can a person take? At least that boy lived.”

He pursed his lips, and gazed sadly at the sea: “That’s what saved me, helping these children. Because I couldn’t help my own.”

Article

The Obsessive Fascinate Me

“A general unease pervades, due in part to the feeling of being a bull in a china shop,” Mr. Heminway said, “but, more significantly, due to the suspicion that one is looking too deeply into the well, one is eavesdropping on the soul.”

To be sure, Mr. Korff lives and breathes this stuff — reading books about ceramics, checking the internet sites of Japanese dealers daily. “It’s the first thing I do when I get up in the morning,” he said. “It’s all-consuming.”

“Of all my clients, I don’t know of any who study the market, know the history, are more connected than he,” said Robert Yellin of the Yakimono Gallery in Kyoto. “He often gets information about what’s going on in Japan before I do. The guy is totally, ballistically nuts, in the most positive way.”

Wiry and diminutive (he’s 5-foot-4), Mr. Korff, 62, grew up in New York City, where his mother taught modern dance, and his father taught drama in YMCA’s. He spent his summers at Buck’s Rock, a creative work camp, since both parents were instructors there.

Mr. Korff’s obsessive personality is also evident in his collection of vintage steel bikes from the 1970s and ’80s — he owns 10 — which he rides exclusively. He cycles at least 40 miles a day around Prospect Park — except on Saturdays, when he runs six miles.

Article

Harnessing a Fluid

“I’m not the typical showman,” she adds, curling her feet up under her legs and reaching for another cigarette. “But at the same time, I want so badly to expose myself. I want to be understood and I want to be seen, and I want to do that in the rawest, purest, most naked way I can.”

An increasingly compelling and nuanced performer, Stewart describes the process at different times as “harnessing a fluid,” “tapping into a magic world” and “finding a portal.” It is, for her, an “explorative, meditative, moving, beautiful, transcendent experience that brings us all closer.”

During production, Stewart worked 18-hour days, six days a week, and when she wasn’t filming she was promoting her partnership with Chanel. “As a younger person, I would have lost steam: ‘I’m tired. I don’t feel good. I’m sick.’ Instead I tried to make myself more sick, more tired, just to see if there ever was a breaking point, and there wasn’t.”

Stewart has always had what she refers to as “high-functioning adrenal glands,” only now, it seems that she’s figured out a way to channel her anxiety productively, to enjoy the process of acting rather than simply enduring its trappings. When she notices me glancing at a leather-bound journal between us on the coffee table, she opens it to reveal poems she’s written over the years, mostly while flying. If she’s happy with how a poem has turned out, she transcribes it into the journal.

“Come,” she says, leading me upstairs to a cluttered garage. The disarray makes it feel like the most intimate room in the house. A canvas, painted almost entirely in black, rests against one wall. At the center is a man in repose, halfway between sleep and consciousness, surrounded by dark. Before I can react, she says, “Yeah, I mean, I’m not, like, good. It just feels nice to apply paint to something.”

Stewart is making a short film inspired by the image, which in turn evolved from one of her poems. “It’s basically about that moment when you wake up and you get dressed and you realize” — she slips into first person — “I’m not sad anymore. I’m not saturated anymore. I’ve been dropped back into everyone else’s reality and now I can live again.”

source

Lava meets Ocean

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Lava from Hawaii volcano cascades into sea in vivid display
By CALEB JONES - Associated Press

VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK, Hawaii (AP) — For the first time in three years, lava from a volcano on Hawaii's Big Island has crept down miles of mountainside and is dripping into the Pacific Ocean — where it's creating new land and a stunning show for visitors.
Thousands of people from around the world have swarmed Volcanoes National Park by land, sea and air to view the lava. They're also hearing and smelling it.
The billowy, bright-orange lava crackles and hisses, and reeks of sulfur and scorched earth, as it oozes across the rugged landscape and eventually off steep, seaside cliffs. When the hot rocks hit the water, they expel plumes of steam and gas — and sometimes explode, sending chunks of searing debris flying through the air.
The 2,000-degree molten rock is from Kilauea, one of the world's most active volcanoes. Its Puu Oo vent began erupting in the 1980s and periodically pushes enough lava seaward that people can access it.
Reaching the flow requires a boat, a helicopter or strong legs — the hike to the entry point, where the lava meets the sea, is 10 miles roundtrip on a gravel road surrounded by miles of treacherous, hard lava rock.
Pablo Aguayo, of Santiago, Chile, took a sunrise boat tour of the flow earlier this month.
"It's pretty amazing," he said. "You start in the middle of the ocean in the darkness, and you end up in this beautiful lava falls."
Aguayo said he could feel the lava's heat, and it smelled "super funny."
"It's like welding something," he said. "We have many volcanoes back home in Chile. We have plenty. But nothing like this."
His tour boat was a 42-foot aluminum catamaran operated by Lava Ocean Tours owner Shane Turpin, who said he navigates to within a few yards of the entry point for the best view.
On Aug. 9, a second branch of lava started to spill into the ocean, giving Turpin's passengers a look at two lava flows about 200 yards apart.
"Just to have one drip (of lava) touching the ocean is awesome," Turpin said as people snapped photos of the dual flows. "But to get a show like you're getting this morning, well, it sets the bar pretty high for a second trip."
Volcanoes National Park has seen an increase of about 1,000 to 1,500 visitors per day since the current lava flow reached the sea, boosting attendance to about 6,000 people daily, officials said.
Park spokeswoman Jessica Ferracane warns the area can be dangerous.
Hikers can get close enough that the soles of their shoes get hot. Also, the area is flanked by hardened lava rock as sharp as glass. Many people have suffered lacerations while trying to cross the jagged landscape, Ferracane said.
"Everybody wants to see the lava flow, but not everybody should be hiking out there," she said.
Additionally, when the lava reaches the ocean, it reacts with the saltwater and produces harmful hydrochloric acid, which wafts into the air, said Janet Babb, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
As it streams into the water, the lava creates a new landscape in a matter of moments. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Puu Oo flow alone has created about 500 acres of new land since it began erupting. The flow that began in May has created about 8 new acres.
Most of Kilauea's activity has been nonexplosive, but a 1924 eruption hurled ash and 10-ton rocks into the sky and left a man dead.
The 1983 Puu Oo vent eruption resulted in lava fountains soaring over 1,500 feet high. In the decades since, the lava flow has buried 48 square miles of land and destroyed many homes.
In 2008, after a series of small earthquakes rattled the island, Kilauea's summit crater opened and spewed lava and rock over 75 acres of the mountain, damaging the nearby visitor overlook.
It's hard to predict when the volcano will inflate or when the current flow will stop, Babb said. It could slow down any day or keep cascading into the sea for months.


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David Bornstein

When local citizens acquire the capacity to work together in smarter ways, communities change. “We have to expand leadership to include the people who are most affected by problems.”
Article
David Bornstein is the author of "How to Change the World," which has been published in 20 languages

Arnold Toynbee

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.

Certain Subjects Just Need Time

I don’t think that writer’s block exists really. I think that when you’re trying to do something prematurely, it just won’t come. Certain subjects just need time. . . . You’ve got to wait before you write about them.
- Joyce Carol Oates

Virginia Woolf

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its color, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery.