String Too Short to Tie
Saturday, September 14, 2024
Monday, September 2, 2024
For Labor Day
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow"
Monday, July 29, 2024
It Isn't Practical
Heide and I were visiting, two nonagenarians discussing some of the enigmas of life, the wonders, the puzzlements, and the age old "why are we here?" sort of things. In the course of the conversation, the subject memory, its miracles, its tricks, and the issue of the loss of it. I remarked that I had read that while the body regenerates many of its cells as they are lost to time or minor trauma, the brain loses vast numbers of cells daily, never to be replaced by new ones. Hence, I suggested, if I were to lose the cells that store my memories of you not only would those cells be lost, but you would be lost to me. Now understand that she and I are not scientists but rather lay persons pondering the wonders of life.
Then, I said, why do the cells of the brain not regenerate? Heide's immediate response was, "Because it isn't practical!"
Thus, we found ourselves in a discussion of practicality, the necessity of one generation moving on to make room for the next, and so on. This portion of the conversation was concluded with her observation that "Nature is nothing if not practical." I told her that I was going to write a piece entitled "It isn't practical." And here we are.
It is easy for me to imagine that "It isn't practical" entered the lexicon of mankind early on in his habitation of the Earth. Say, for example, Cain, a gardener, or dirt farmer, if you will, brought a sacrifice of the bounty he had raised, because, as he might have reasoned, an animal sacrifice was impractical, as he would have had to barter his goods with, say, his brother Abel, a herdsman. And we all know the rest of the story.
Skipping ahead to the dawn of The Enlightenment, we might picture Gutenberg, having "perfected" his press, attempting to sell the notion to his public and said public arguing that "It isn't practical," for there are not enough poor on earth to provide the necessary quantity of rags to feed the press even if we were to dispose of all the Earth's poor.
I need not further the exercise, for any reader may imagine countless examples of progress stymied were the visionaries to cease dreaming and tinkering simply because they were told, "It isn't practical." Nature, we may conclude, is indeed practical. But man's imagination! Ah, the wheels of progress turn only when fueled by the imagination of the human mind.
Friday, July 5, 2024
Logged Another Year
As has become a custom, I guess, since I have been doing it since my 78th birthday, I am using a US Route sign to announce the completion of another trip around the sun during my lifetime. it is a blessing beyond measure that the Lord has granted me this many years here on Earth. I am further blessed in that my health is reasonably good, and I have been able to enjoy the vast majority of my days on this sojourn. Sorrows? Yes, of course, for no life well-lived does not encounter loss and heartbreak. It is the human condition. I once wrote, "Life consists of joys and disappointments. If at the end the ledger shows zero sum, count it as a pretty good life." This may be a bit of an oversimplification since much of life consists of the humdrum, but it is the joys and disappointments that fill our memory banks.
I am greatly blessed to be able still to access those files!
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Living on the Level #T
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Citizenship
Went to our court house Thursday afternoon to pay the property taxes. I like to do this in person so I can personally thank the treasurer and the office staff for the services they provide to the community as I regard them as a sample of all the good workers in the public sector whom we support with our means. Fulfillment of a duty which I hope I do cheerfully.
Upon completion of the task I walked a few paces down the hall to the site of early voting. I usually take advantage of this service as one never knows what election day may hold either weather-wise or health-wise. The room was occupied by two poll workers and two voters occupied in their civic duty. I stopped at the doorway and noticed that the ballots were posted on the wall just to the left. I read them carefully. And completely. Turned, smh, and walked to the stairway where I carefully lowered myself to the ground floor and exited the building.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Friday, December 15, 2023
Aeronautics
It is said that the Wrights, by whom Hoxsey was employed, were inclined to fire their pilot for having "endangered" a personage of such stature.
On New Year's Eve that same year, Hoxsey died in a crash in Los Angeles in which he was attempting to set a powered aircraft altitude record.
Archibald Hoxsey 1884 - 1910 RIP
Image: Wikipedia