Starting, stopping and re-reading

C.S.Lewis wrote a book called “An Experiment in Literary Criticism”.  His proposed experiment deals with re-reading.  He pictures a middle-aged reader in a library trying to recall if this book is one that she has read or not.   He was a professor of literature and knew plenty about books and reading. He emphasized that a well-written book may repay re-reading, in part or in whole.  He wonders whether the quality of a book should be figured by how often it is re-read. 

Is there coffee?

My wife does not like interruptions.  That trait and others have gotten me to be the coffee-maker in our mornings.  But we are both aging.  That enabled me to forget to deliver a cup to her after the coffee finished brewing.  I don’t think I have managed to do that before.  About an hour after the drip stopped, she asked if the coffee was ready.  It had been ready for quite a while.  I promise to stay alert to the coffee situation.

Saint Monday

I am reading “The Week” by David Henkin.  He wrote about “Saint Monday” and lost me.  I looked up “Saint Monday” and found that as people moved into the industrial age from the agricultural age, workers invented “Saint Monday”.  Such a saint drew reverent absence from a job after a weekend of too much alcohol.  Shades of Labor Day!

Clay by Guest Blogger Dr. LS Kirby

As out-of-season as this seems, I am getting a lot of things made for Christmas. But really, it takes a lot of  time to get everything made, dried, fired, glazed, fired again, listed in the gallery's inventory, labels made (by someone else at the gallery) and put on the pieces (by me), everything packed up to take to the gallery, take down the last display, move all the pedestals to different spots for the next show, and set up the display.

"Everything in moderation"

Another version of the idea of keeping moderation in all areas of life is “nothing in excess”.  I am wondering if the saying is well-applied to length of life.  Living can be a pleasure and I have heard that once life is abandoned, it cannot be resumed.  So, it follows that one should be cautious about giving up on life.  My wife often said that she wanted a long life provided it was also a reasonably healthy one. I think it is possible to enforce a number of provisions and demands that life meet.

Participation

If the book club’s selection doesn’t appeal, you can still “participate” (in a way) in the club’s discussion of the book without taking time to read the book.  AI can summarize the book for you.  You can buy a summary of the book from Amazon or other sources.  You can make interested comments or general questions during the discussion of the book.  You can just nod occasionally and smile once in a while thereby getting credit for being a participating member without interrupting your own schedule.

Talk! Write! Communicate!

When I try to examine what makes for educational success, I often see communication from the student as a major focus.  You can imagine that if lectures and books and educational films were totally memorized but a student never took any tests, wrote no papers and never spoke in class, teachers would have no way of seeing the mastery that student had achieved. Of course, some students could speak or write on and on about difficulties with the material or the tests’ format or getting papers written and not show any mastery of the curriculum. But in general, students who speak and write well master the work and show they have done so.

Our supply of gasoline is running out

Our supply of gasoline is running out.  But 1.5 MILLION electric vehicles are sold in the US annually.  In addition, we have more and more things we can do digitally.  It’s true that we are bipedals and we need to move.  We have many ways of putting muscles to work and more of us are learning to keep moving.

Old characteristics

As a person getting nearer the end of his 80’s, I wanted to list some of the older person’s phenomena that I have experienced.

Newly shrunken food capacity - we often had standard sizes for meals and now we can only eat maybe half or ⅔ thirds of that much.  

Words, especially names, don’t come to mind as quickly, or even at all.  Relatedly, my speech recognition is much more erratic than it was.  It is bad enough that I often ask Lynn what she said when I find that I did understand her but my recognition of that is slow.

I have habituated myself to a half hour nap every day.

Fiction books and movies are too repetitious.  It is always a bad guy with a gun or knife or it is a slow awareness of attraction between her and him.

Email fake not from me

An email titled “Remember to celebrate with me” is a fake.  Delete it!  Bill