Foreword

I’m just not in love with forewords to books.

I want to read the book itself not what someone I don’t even know thinks about it.

This might mean I’m not intellectual enough. But sometimes having someone dissect a work of art just seems condescending as if I won’t get it just by the author’s words. Might be insulting to the writer in a way.

If it needs a foreword, is it because the writer didn’t make things clear in the book?

I might like an “afterword” especially if I don’t feel like finishing a book that I’m not wild about and I want a summary of it. Or if it’s so great I want to have a conversation about it–even a remote one.

Sometimes I’ll read the foreword after i read the book–if it draws me in. I usually try reading the foreword up to the point I become exasperated. That tends to happen if it’s a long ordeal: write your own damn book why doncha’ ?

That’s my two cents!

Anyway…. I wonder what other people think about forewords? Helpful? What do you say, other people?

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Maybe

I need, for my own peace of mind,

to stop noticing with such determination

at least some of the unfairness out there

It’s unfair

It’s there

Get used to it

 

Ipse Dixit

According to Merriam-Webster:

Ipse dixit is an assertion made but not proved

Wikipedia adds:  

..or a dogmatic expression of opinion.

History and Etymology for ipse dixit

Latin:   he himself said it

According to me (perhaps proving that the definitions are accurate!):

Lot of ipse dixit 

goin’ on round the world

and I’m gettin’ a little weary

of hearing all the spins and spurious platitudes 

that pose as reason and empathy

Oh happy day

We are about to be spun around into a better

frame of mind

as soon as everybody sticks it

to this crazy ipse dixit

Stoned and Sideways

So I got this stone-paper notebook

because a hundred notebooks

are just not enough

and I like it

If it’s not worth doing badly,

Is it worth it at all?

Must one avoid it

If one must/might fall?

My choice is to jump in

In spite of the risk…

…of not being perfect

…or of slipping a disc

What I am seeking is unclear to me;

It slides silently… 

…sideways…

…and just out of reach

Looking for Light in the News of the Day

In light of the darkness of recent events

I am feeling befuddled

And mixed up and tense

I’ve grown tired of the pickets

on this particular fence

Too much manipulation

Too much pretense

Some days I achieve empathy

Would I rather be dense?

Ah, well, life is so good when I look up and around

…and maybe the news can be simply turned down.

Not Dorothy Parker, but trying to sort it out

Now we speak of

“your truth”

“her truth”

“his truth”

“my truth”

Have we lost all affection for

THE truth or even SOME truth?

“All I want is the truth,

Just give me some truth”

 said John Lennon

Would we call that crazy today; and under-hyped?

What with people being labeled, pigeon-holed and stereotyped

Divided into categories, declaring how done wrong we all are………………………………………with a tinge of glee,

While creating new stereotypes for the opposition — how can this be?

Announcing how we must fight, fight, fight

in order to create utopia before the breaking news tonight.

in the name of progress and sanctimonious concern

What are we playing at?  What can we learn?

I hear the call to accept everyone’s truth; do not judge,

(while judging so harshly, refusing to budge)

and in the same breath condemn an alternate view

because only subjective reasoning is held to be true

Will we throw away commonsense and common ground

     for political gain and power unbound?

Will we turn our backs on the freedom we desired?

It kinda makes me sick

Truth is…. it makes me tired

Managing

Imagine managing life

with a lightness of spirit

Imagine noticing how much I worry

and then moving on to actually noticing all the things around me and getting on with living!

It seems like a way to be more relaxed maybe even less

focused on what is going wrong or what could go wrong

The world is always, has always and may always be amazing and wonderful and at the same time:  an utter mess; before I arrived, while I’m here and after I leave……..so perhaps my obligation to the world is to be an enthusiastic participant.

The principle of moral proximity rings true to me.  I can be concerned without being responsible for all the stuff all over the world.

I can’t fix it all and make everyone be kind.  Period.  On certain days, I can barely manage me!

Here are Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert on this concept:

Moral proximity refers to how connected we are to someone by virtue of familiarity, kinship, space, or time…. The closer the moral proximity, the greater the moral obligation…. [This principle] reminds us that we can’t possibly be the same kind of good neighbor to everyone in the world, nor must we. Supporting AIDS relief in Africa is a wonderful thing to do, but a failure to do so does not automatically make a church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a gospel-less, selfish church. But if that same church did nothing to help their people when the river flooded in 2008, then they do not understand the love of Christ. Moral proximity should not make us more cavalier to the poor. But it should free us from unnecessary guilt and make us more caring toward those who count on us most.

Probably

My daughter is 41 years old!!!  

Which, by my calculations,

makes me a touch older,

truth be told.  

It seems unlikely….and yet…there it is —

I am in a new age category, and gee whiz

though I feel grateful as I write this text

because I like seeing what will happen next 

I’m also kind of a ‘fraidy cat

so I peek around the corner to see where I’m at

and although nothing is ever quite crystal clear

it turns out I’m standing, still standing right here

in the middle

of the beginning

of the rest of my life

A good place to be

Probably

 

From a day in September 2016 or Non lo so

Today I wonder if I will ever just relax

I wake up in the morning feeling tired

Go to bed feeling the same way.  

I ain’t nuthin’ but tired.  Yeah, I’m just tired and bored with myself.  Hey there baby I could use. just a little help

Wait, I just lapsed into a Bruce Springsteen song.

Meanwhile, I dreamed I had to maneuver through lot of obstacles to get somewhere — rocky stuff and hills that a person could easily fall off of and I seem to have made it through; but what was the point?  I do not know.  

Maybe it was that you can make it through the things you see as trouble.

You are strong.  It’s not that the obstacles won’t be there.  It’s that you will handle it.

Maybe it was a psychic thing — a few months after that dream, I broke my wrist on Mount Vesuvius! And I handled it!  Coincidence?  Non lo so.

 

 

I wonder if…

I wonder if retiring in the winter was such a good idea as a little cabin fever is creeping in.  Maybe it’s okay, though.  It is definitely a time to lay low and relax a bit….and a time to recuperate from a cold.  And maybe more importantly, a time to recuperate from the somewhat unnecessary scramble to wrap things up at work while preparing things for the transition from me to my replacement; all of which was actually stressful and difficult. I allowed other people’s poor planning to become my problem.   I won’t miss facing that particular situation. 

I wonder if I learned anything from that experience.  I feel a certain disappointment that my recommendations went unheeded…would have been a smoother transition, I do believe.  Ah, well…..it is what it is and they are what they are and I am what I am.

I wonder if I will pursue a part-time job in this retirement phase.  Ah, honey, I do not know.

I wonder if I will get started now with more “arty” pursuits.  I received a gift certificate for the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts …. so I can take a class sooner or later.  Meanwhile, time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future….which means spring is on the way and that is a good thing to anticipate. 

I wonder if I will be okay, be okay, be okay.  I say it could happen!

(“So many things I wonder.” — part of a song from Mixed Nuts movie)