My blog has more than 1600 entries and covers about five years, in the latter part, has entries for most days. So, as with my web site, it contains a record of many thoughts and themes that have occupied me. When I can't find a reference or an idea, searching for terms related to what I am after in my blog often turns up the answer or clues to it.
I find that ideas from some yoga, Zen and Buddhist thinking are extremely helpful in living happily, without pain and with clear-eyed appreciation for this miraculous and entertaining life. So, when I read "The Model" by W.H. Auden, I was impressed with the lines about the 80 year woman having seen it all, including the loss of a son, and that life, and its ups and downs, is "is all one." The old joke about the Zen practitioner saying to the hot dog vendor "Make me one with everything", like the saying by the ancient Roman, Terence: "Nothing human is alien to me" is a short way of saying the birds and the bees and the clouds and us are all one intertwined matter. We are all related, all "cousins", different arrangements of the same stuff.
I don't know the poem or the poet at all well. I could not remember the title and I thought the poet was T.S. Eliot, another great I get mixed up with Auden. I thought there might be a reference in my blog but when I used the search window, it didn't do anything at all. I have used it many times and was annoyed. I finally discovered a new search window installed at the very top of the blog page. It works well and can also be used to share a blog post that you like by using Facebook, Twitter or email. That window business led to my finding a new book by an author I admire very much, Alexander McCall Smith, writer of many books including the Mma Ramotswe series, "The No.1 Ladies Detective Bureau". The new book is "What W.H. Auden Can Do For You" and is available on Kindle. The book is part of a series by Princeton University Press called "Writers on Writers".
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
