Barley Literate: Reflections

Bad Blake is a genuine country singer that some folks have forgotten.

Technically, I guess, Blake is not a loser: he is a celebrity performer, he has CDs to sell, he can write killer country lyrics, he opens for a hot current star, and he's mostly honest with himself. But he loses: loses his wives, loses touch with his son, lets drinking run him off the road to opportunity, loses his relationship with the woman that, finally, he loves in a way that makes his life livable and worth living….

It's tempting to say that "Crazy Heart" is a film about the flaws and successes of a man striving for redemption, but I don't really see it that way.

I see Bad Blake as a man who knows what he is, knows what he can be, finally knows what he wants, and ultimately has to accept solitary self-renewal instead of salvation in Jean's arms….ultimately, and poignantly, he admits to himself and confirms to Jean that all he has left is to live "one day at a time"…..

There is a lot of heart in those words, but a lot of heart has already drained out of them.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

"The past is a foreign country..."

Book review: The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley

"The past is a foreign country:

they do things differently there."

L. P. (Leslie Poles) Hartley (1895–1972)

This is the celebrated first line of The Go-Between, Hartley's novel of Victorian romance and deception published in London in 1953. It can mean whatever you make of it.

I take it as an admonition….one must try to be aware of the unique and partly (perhaps completely) inaccessible context that framed the actions and outlooks of those who did things we think we're interested in…you know, it's not easy to think and feel as the Romans did…

The 1970 movie with Julie Christie and Alan Bates is a genuinely throbbing, set-your-teeth-on-edge rendition of the book…give the book or the movie a try.

The Christie-Bates movie:

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Reading in the rubble

Wars destroy bookstores, too, but human spirit can survive

"...the commotions in America..."

Book review: The Witches: Salem, 1692

Book review: A Farewell to Arms

"...inter librorum copias" redux

Finches everywhere

"Pants on fire!"

Friday, October 7, 2016

Finches everywhere

The harbor, in the mind’s eye,

finches everywhere, hoptoe beggars,

clouds visiting,

ice cream boxes with white tops….

Breezes, toujours,

now zephyr,

now lamb,

now colt,

skimming irresistible airs….

Nearly all is just that far away,

vaguest sounds,

l’eau, sur mer, surtout,

motion, in little speeds….

There are others, chance greetings,

face to face….

Hello.

G’day.

Ailo.

Sir.

Me.

Madame.

You.

A moment to gaze at you, between us,

gazing, always,

hunger, rapture, dream keeping,

aye, we are dream keepers,

with books,

belles livres,

we arm ourselves for solitude,

but coolly close them,

to open for each other….

Toll the hour, careless of the day,

sounds in seeming silence,

faint ends of words drift across the bay,

with birdsong raveling out….

The birds sing “today!”

and we murmur “yesterday,”

and tomorrow’s languid wing rises up, unseen,

and sweetly pushes down a twirl,

one smoothly eddied fan of lightest air,

to chase the changing shadows

where we stood awhile….

At Cambridge Beaches, Bermuda

1993

"Pants on fire!"

The Glass Menagerie—relentless....

"...the commotions in America..."

Book review: The Witches: Salem, 1692

Book review: A Farewell to Arms

"...inter librorum copias" redux

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

A long moment at the Wailing Wall....

In Jerusalem, a prayer for the sins of the world….

The bone thing....

"What's for dinner, Mom?"

When the next step is a jump....

Arms around the world....

Book review: The Witches: Salem, 1692

Let's put one more thing in context....

"...inter librorum copias" redux

Book review: The Witches: Salem, 1692

Don't vote for Johnson or Stein "to make a statement"

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

“Kabuki citizenship” isn’t the worst of it….

The continuing self-degradation of the media is enabling, in all too obvious ways, the shipwreck of our public discourse on politics and government.

The advent of Trump’s nativist demagoguery—and the media’s willing role in keeping him on life support—has largely legitimized the public expression of prejudicial fears and hatred and bigotry that we know have always existed, but which have been at least nominally derided by decent and/or “politically correct” folks.

The New York Times’ Wesley Morris highlighted a specific element of it yesterday in his commentary on “Who Gets to Be Called a ‘Patriot’?” Read it here.

Morris digs in to the doctrinaire spew of the folks who lead the charge in disputing the patriotism of folks who have a different skin color or a different religion or a different political stance or a birth certificate that was signed in another country….

Such despicable bias gets all too much air time and, thus, all too much credibility among folks whose powers of reasoning too often aren’t used for full effect.

Morris offers this zinger: “As a result, modern patriotism has become Kabuki citizenship.”

The masks and the make-believe and the stylized exaggerations of sentiment are meant to be instruments of entertainment….

…not the bling of the horrifying world of Twitter morality and anonymously obscene commenters who hide behind ad hominem attacks……

"We're from the news media and we're here to help you"

The umbrella thing....

Media "fairness" is bogus

Take soap to a Trump rally

Before comic books there were....

"Blood-and-thunder" for only 10 cents

"What's for dinner, Mom?"

When the next step is a jump....

Chautauqua, revisited....

....another 3rd grade tour

Sunday, September 11, 2016

When the next step is a jump….

Admit it, this is the kind of thing you want to do sometimes….

Face it: this is the kind of thing you should do now and then.

If you’ve already got the bathing suit on, take the jump.

If the lake is there right in front of you, take the jump.

Just sayin’….if the door opens, and you’re thinking “Hey, this is it!” and you know it’s the chance you’ve been waiting for….

Take the jump.

Arms around the world....

Early noodling about the Kindle

Word to the deniers

Pass it on....

Let's get serious about Olympic medals

Change sure is hard

Pay your taxes to rebuild schools

The umbrella thing....

Chautauqua, revisited....

....another 3rd grade tour

"Blood-and-thunder" for only 10 cents

"...the peregrines..."

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Patient questions….

Some poems have several layers of impact, tempting the reader to think deeper on the first re-read, and deeper still on the next….

I noticed this poem by David Whyte. It seemed to be ordinary enough as I skimmed through it, but it snared me in the end, it bids for lavish, lush reflection and opens a couple windows for gazing at some things we often don’t see clearly enough or think about clearly enough.

“…requests…beginning to lead everywhere…” is a tempting gambit, and “…questions that have patiently waited for you…” is a warming invitation to step into the cold shower of reality.

I think the poem has excesses of language that diminish its essence, but the evidence of the right words is all there.

Here’s an excerpt, see the entire poem in the Australia Times Poetry Magazine.

…Requests
to stop what
you are doing
right now,
and

to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,

questions
that can make
or unmake
a life…

From “Sometimes” by David Whyte © David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

Après-midi des enfants

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Arms around the world….

When was the last time you were this close to someone whose skin is a different color?

For many kids, it’s no big deal.

The old blanket fort

Mindset: think about it

"Tuition" isn't really what college costs

Take soap to a Trump rally

Women who pioneered electronic music

The times they are a-changin'....

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Perspective

Standing still on the old tracks,

alone,

you can’t stop staring at the rails

and you can’t tell if you’re looking ahead

or looking to the past….

Can you see a new dream out there?

….or maybe it’s the way back

to something you didn’t want to leave….

Maybe it’s different if you’re not alone.

Seeing down....

Taking a bite....

"...words she heard..."

....another 3rd grade tour

Hommage a la muse

The downside of being Cinderella

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Taking a bite….

I read poetry regularly, and occasionally I find a poem that speaks to me.

More often, in an otherwise medium offering, I stop short in wonderment when I read the remarkably, brashly beautiful high-quality phrase or image that makes me say, as my fellow poetic truth seeker Mike likes to say, “I wish I’d written that!”

Here’s an example:

The "Whispers" poetry website offered “Summer Music” by David Austin, a brief paean to a morning bird whose “…happy chatter...has no winter in it…”

How simply lovely that is, a luscious insight, proof of the potential magic in ordinary but well-ordered words.

Thanks for that one, David.

Always good to taste the best bite of the apple.

"...words she heard..."

....another 3rd grade tour

Hommage a la muse

The downside of being Cinderella

This, too, shall pass....

Delight

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Mindset: think about it

Book review: Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

By Dr. Carol S. Dweck, New York: Ballantine Books, 2006

277 pages

This is one of those books that knocks a hole in your head and then fills it up with startling knowledge.

Dweck wrote this rather chatty book about a very serious subject: the mindset that influences much of your life, and can literally play a critical role in your success or failure at work, at school, among your friends and at home with your family.

Here’s a simplistic summary of her findings based on years of teaching and research:

There is a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A mindset is a frame of mind that enables you to interpret what’s happening in the world around you, and to determine how you will feel about it, and how you will act and react.

I’ll take a stab at briefly defining the two mindsets in my own words.

Fixed mindset—you interpret most everything that happens to you in terms of whether it validates your static view of your own abilities and self-worth, in other words, you see the events and people in your life as confirming that you are talented and wonderful, or proving that you’re stupid and worthless. You can’t change, and you’ve got to grab what you deserve.

Growth mindset—you interpret most everything that happens to you in terms of feedback about your motivation and your performance, in other words, you see the events and people in your life as part of your continuous quest to learn and achieve your goals and enjoy your relationships with others. You can change, and you can learn to do better.

Of course, it’s possible to have different mindsets in different circumstances, and it’s possible to have some mix of the mindsets.

Dweck says you can learn to have a more effective growth mindset, and you can teach others, kids and adults, to embrace a more effective growth mindset.

We can always learn, we can always build up our talents, we can always get smarter, and we can help ourselves to have more enjoyable lives.

This all makes sense to me.

I don’t think I learned everything Dweck can teach me, so I’m going to read the book again.

Book review: The Sea Runners

Here's one for your reading list

Book review: Waterloo

Book review: Orphan Train

"...somewhere hot..."

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Stretch goals

I started to ignore this little gem, but then I decided to be an advocate:

Grownup TO DOs:

1. Going to bed early

2. Not leaving the house

3. Not going to that party

Those childhood punishments have become my grownup goals.

This is not bogus.

Ways to watch the circus

Forgive them....

Not your daddy's looking glass....

A Rosie by any other name....

Better than good

Redefining "comfortable"....

Sunday, June 12, 2016

“…somewhere hot…”

Book review: A Pirate Looks at Fifty

Jimmy Buffett (b. 1946)

Ballantine Books, New York, 1998

Full disclosure: I’m not a Parrothead, but I’m related by blood and marriage to gen-you-wine Buffett fans, so I take the liberty of using familiar language, even though “the king of somewhere hot” has never seen me and isn’t likely to in this earthly paradise….

A Pirate Looks at Fifty is a memoir-ish book by Himself, written almost 20 years ago, I spotted it in the local library’s discarded book sale bin and I did the right thing.

Seems to me, for starters, no one should ever discard a book full of Jimmy Buffett stuff, he’s just so much in love with life and he is a magnet for vicarious attention, I dare you to read Pirate without getting at least a fleeting urge to head for the islands and see the world through Jimmy’s eyes.

You don’t even have to read the whole book (I confess, I didn’t), just read as much as gets the juices flowing and then get on with your regular life, and you can dip into it again any time you want. Buffett’s music and Buffett’s style are a buffet—grab what you want, anytime, sing along as the spirit moves, and go back for more whenever….

You don’t even have to like margaritas to get the full, slobbering, belly laugh, hijinksed, hot damn but mucho mellow effect when you sing along with Jimmy about the Mexican cutie and the lost shaker of salt.

I dare you not to sing a couple verses and the refrain right now, you have to, really….

Book review: American Crisis

Another thought about biographies

"...two foolish children..."

Book review: The First Congress

Book review: Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Whoa

This is a free country, mostly, sort of….so you can more or less write whatever book you think must be written, and usually you can read whatever you want….

I cherish these expectations, and so, when I see stuff like this:

It makes me love my actual TO READ list more and more.

Heck, I’ll eat a lobster, but….

The good old Dewey Decimal System

The history of spoiler alerts

Check it out!

Yeah, a blanket fort

Pillow talk

Worse than Fahrenheit 451

Moby-Dick and stuff....

Monday, June 6, 2016

Not your daddy’s looking glass….

Look at the mirror.

You want to see something new?

Breathe deep, and step through….

Stoned

"...there would be no music..."

Poetical thinking....

Teaching moments....

"...ever a child..."

Rite

Another poet heard from....(part 15)

Worlds, whirling, waiting....

"...make no unsettling sound..."

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Consider another point of view….

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, has an unconventional and incisive point of view. He offers startling, lucid guidance on matters spiritual, contemplative, intellectual and personal. See his comments here at The Center For Action and Contemplation.

Recently he discussed “Community as Alternative Consciousness.” I’m not competent to summarize it, read it for yourself here if you wish.

Here’s an excerpt:

“For instance, I've never once heard a sermon about the tenth commandment, "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods," because in our culture that's the only game in town. It is called capitalism. The individual is largely helpless and harmless standing against the system.”

Regarding capitalism, this is more a rhetorical statement than a conclusive definition. Nevertheless, he’s dealing with pith.

Here’s my own rhetorical whack at capitalism: not by its classic philosophical design, but in its inescapable effect, it’s a system that reinforces too many inequities and shields too many wrongdoers from accountability. Too many of us don’t fully understand this reality.