Thursday, 31. May 2007, 21:14:33
We have a cat in the house again. This is Zardoz. He's about 2 years old and has had an up and down sort of life. The story so far is he was adopted as a feral kitten and much loved by his first human. She had to give him up due to longterm illness and thought she'd found a good home for him. Unfortunately, his second human turned out to be a cat hoarder and he became seriously ill as a result--dozens of cats, no care, no sanitation, really horrific. He lost teeth and hair and was one of the lucky ones. We've been talking about living with a cat again and found him through the Border Animal Rescue organization here. The dog and he are working things out. As a high-energy HuskyShepherd mix, Doc isn't doing too badly, he's mostly curious. I have the idea that Zardoz will rule the roost eventually. He's not shy.
Tuesday, 15. May 2007, 17:42:42
"We will go out and find more and more adventures. We will swagger and swash-buckle and laugh at the half-hearted. We will boast and sing and throw our weight about. We will put the paltry little things to derision, and dare to be angry about the things that are truly evil. And we shall refuse to grow old.
Being wise, we shall not rail against the days into which we have been born. We shall see stumbling blocks, but we shall find them dragons meat for our steel. And we shall not mourn the trappings and accouterments of fancy dress. What have they to do with us? Men wore cloaks and ruffles because they were the fashionable things to wear; but it was the way they wore them. Men rode horses because they had nothing else to ride; but it was the way they rode. Men fought with swords because they knew no better weapons; but it was the way they fought. So it shall be with us.
We shall learn that romance lies not in the things we do, but in the way we do them. We shall discover that catching a bus can be of no less adventure than capturing a galleon, and that if a man loves a lady he need not weep because the pillion of his motor-cycle is not the saddle bow of an Arab steed. We shall find that love and hate can still be more than empty words. We shall speak with fire in our eyes and in our voices; and which of us will care whether we are discussing the destiny of nations or the destination of the Ashes? For we shall know that nothing else counts beside the vision ."
Leslie Charteris
To adventure, be it ever so humble.
Saturday, 17. March 2007, 15:23:46
tagged, poetry, rukeyser
Well, so much for not knowing what to post. I've been tagged by mlynnjohnson to post paragraph 5 of page 123 of the book I'm reading. I don't know 5 people to tag yet so that part might not happen. I'll just have to deal with whatever gremlins that awakens.
"But in the areas dealing with emotion and belief, there is hesitation. The terms have not been invented; and although that does not impede expressive writing--a poem, a novel, or a play act emotions out in terms of words, they do not describe--the lack does impede analytical work. We have no terms for example, for "emotional meaning," or "emotional information." We have not even the English for Claude Bernard's "milieu inte'rieur," that internal condition of a body the invironment where live the inner relationships.
That obstacle is nothing.
We are poets; we can make the words.
The emotional obstacle is the real one.
For the question is asked in a thousand ways each day: Is poetry alive? Is there a place for poetry? What is that place?"
Muriel Rukeyser, The Muriel Rukeyser Reader,fromThe Life of Poetry Highly recommended.
There's a little more than the paragraph there, but I think it's worth seeing the thought through to completion. This is one of those books I refer to time and time again.
In other news, I got my first four-harness weaving independent project off the loom yesterday. Now it's just a matter of finishing (bleh). It's napkins, which means cutting and sewing and hemming. And I don't sew. Hah! My selvedges have improved, but they're still not great. I have much more of an idea of Penelope now that I've actually woven.
We're off now to let the dog run in the desert and then to a local airshow. I apologize for the lack of photos just yet. I still have to learn how to do that.
WIDGETIZE