{"id":2739,"date":"2021-12-07T18:33:46","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T01:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2739"},"modified":"2021-12-08T19:17:09","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T02:17:09","slug":"more-from-the-pre-post-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2739","title":{"rendered":"MORE FROM THE PRE-POST PANDEMIC"},"content":{"rendered":"

I intended for this post to be posted several weeks ago, but things kept cropping up.\u00a0 For example, I had the introductory sentence, which connected the disparate ideas.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u2018Tis the season to be jolly, grateful, generous, and thinking about things.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But then, I started thinking about what “thinking about things” means.\u00a0 I love thinking about things, that time when you figure out what a brain flicker\u00a0 means and what you are going to do about it.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

That in-be tween time idea reminded me of\u00a0<\/span>T.S. Eliot\u2019<\/b>s quote [from <\/span>The Rock<\/span><\/i>, 1934]:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhere is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/b>The\u00a0DIKW crowd added “data”, for unsorted information and “wisdom” for TSE’s “living.”<\/b>\u00a0 I\u00a0\u00a0would use the\u00a0more permeable <\/span>“learning” <\/strong>instead of “knowledge”\u00a0<\/strong>and the less conclusionary “to act or to do something”<\/strong> instead\u00a0of \u201cliving\u201d or \u201cwisdom.\u201d\u00a0 This means that when I am thinking about things, then, I am learning, which is true and worthwhile, because it is what I mostly do.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0I should have moved on, but then I found a <\/span>\u201cthinking about things\u201d ally in Billy Collins. who wrote\u00a0 [from \u201c<\/span>The Function of Poetry<\/b>\u201d]\u00a0 “<\/span>Pretty soon, it was lunchtime. \/\u00a0<\/span>I wasn\u2019t at all hungry \/\u00a0<\/span>but I paused for a moment \/\u00a0<\/span>to look out the big kitchen window, \/\u00a0<\/span>and that\u2019s when I realized \/\u00a0<\/span>that the function of poetry is to remind me \/\u00a0<\/span>that <\/span>there is much more to life \/\u00a0<\/b>than what I am usually doing \/\u00a0<\/b>when I\u2019m not reading or writing poetry<\/b>.\u00a0 Clearly, he is advocating looking out the window and\u00a0 thinking about things while living your life [T.S. Eliot], or reading and writing poetry [Billy Collins], or doing a jigsaw puzzle and listening to public radio [me].<\/p>\n

Finally, I am getting to my current outrage.\u00a0 The Seattle Times<\/strong> headline says it all.\u00a0 The Vikings Firsters are at it again:\u00a0 “N<\/strong><\/span>ordic Museum [new labyrinth]<\/a>\u00a0 exhibit recalls Viking influence in Ireland .”\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"

Shamrock dominates labyrinth.\u00a0 YES!\u00a0 Now who is the influencer?<\/p><\/div>\n

The Vikings surely DID NOT “influence” the Irish.\u00a0 Good grief!\u00a0 \u00a0 It\u2019s true that the Vikings invaded Ireland, but it\u2019s also surely true that the educated, early Christian, Irish monks who had quietly and long meditated \u2018mongst the mazes was unlikely to be \u201cinfluenced\u201d by the loud, brutal Viking invaders who marauded, extorted and dallied among the lovelies, especially as the invaders made only stone mazes in order to trap [or trip?] their enemies.\u00a0 If anyone influenced the other, surely it was the Irish monks, who, by or in the 900’s, were tired of the interlopers and who, led by\u00a0the spirit of St. Brendan the Navigator, \u00a0taught the Vikings how to do as they had already done and sail the longer distances to the New World.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Did you read that in a book or did you make it up?” my brother-in-law asked, skeptically.\u00a0 “A little of each,” I replied, piously.\u00a0 “It’s the Irish way.”\u00a0 “Humph,” humphs my b-i-l.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Labyrinth justice will prevail, though.\u00a0 I am going for subtle.\u00a0 Think \u201chubris shaming\u201d and check out Charlie in the tee shirt, above.\u00a0 Now I am trying to find a Banksy-wannabe to spray paint a giant shamrock enclosing the labyrinth that I am tearing up with my speeding wheels in the picture below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Encompassing green shamrock will add\u00a0 definition and mystery.<\/p><\/div>\n

Maybe some performance art titled “Entente” with my favorite Nordic artist colleagues would be good.\u00a0 Think yoga-posing,\u00a0 balletic-flitting, and meditative- wheelies collaborating.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Take THAT, you Vikings Firsters!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

———————————————————–<\/p>\n

RESPONSES TO COMMENTS,<\/strong>\u00a0which I love to get, but to which I am the worst\u00a0 answerer ever.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Several of you, which is legions among my readership, asked for a picture of The Colleen<\/strong>.\u00a0 Thanks to my brother-in-law, Ralph for taking this picture when last he was walking by.\u00a0 And Scott says he is waiting for the leaves to fall so that he can get a picture of The Colleen’s long, white-shingle over concrete blocks, windowless side.\u00a0 With these two efforts, I will surely remain, a Bev noted, the designated-namee of a mystery building.\u00a0 I think the whole thing is great.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Whiteledge, born Roseledge, with The Colleen looming, keeps it’s peace on Sea Street<\/p>\n

Others of you among my quadrupling readership asked,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cHow and where are you?\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I am still spry of mind, and sometimes opinionated.\u00a0 The body? Not so much.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>But with Charlie and my wheelchair, I do do some and could do\u00a0 more.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>For example I could tow his golf bag and drinks cart.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 He is not\u00a0 persuaded.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I\u00a0<\/span>am not deterred.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I can and do\u00a0 make the computer go weird,\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 He says, \u201cThe machine doesn\u2019t like you,\u201d then figures it out and grows in his marvelousness.\u00a0 I take full credit.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0A mother\u2019s work is never done.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I say \u201cI have a plan [or a thought],\u201d or \u201cI can help you,\u201d or \u201cWe should….\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Charlie sighs and says those are his least favorite words.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I smile winningly, then\u00a0 have another really good idea.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He halts the brewing coffee to bring me a perfect cup.\u00a0 I sip with pleasure and admit I\u2019m spoiled.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>He says I am a difficult person.\u00a0 Charlie is my godsend.\u00a0 And long l<\/span>ifers are always an adventure at Ballard Landmark in Seattle.<\/p>\n

—————————————————————–<\/p>\n

And finally, in closing:\u00a0 if you’ve not met Noodle and have no idea if today — or any day — is a “Bones” or “No Bones” day, click here<\/a>, and have a day brightener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I intended for this post to be posted several weeks ago, but things kept cropping up.\u00a0 For example, I had the introductory sentence, which connected the disparate ideas. \u00a0\u2018Tis the season to be jolly, grateful, generous, and thinking about things. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2739"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2739\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}