I think I am using this mobile post like twittter though I have more space in which to write.
I am listening to Start the Week, BBC Radio 4. I access it as a podcast as part of my Monday morning breakfast ritual. I do, that is, if it is postedin time.
Today's episode is fascinating. It is about, part, the Federalist papers. I haven't encountered the Federalist Papers since high school. And the crazy thing, in another context, one of the panelists mentioned Richard Hofstadter. We used one of his books in the same class we read the Federalist Papers. In fact, it may have been his edition of the Federalist Papers.
What a pleasure to listen to a serious discussion of them in the context of the election. One panelist said one of the issues in the campaign is federalism versus anti-federalism, just the same thing Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay were dealing with when they wrote the essays to try to get New York to vote for the Constitution. NYC was for union but the rural areas were not. There is nothingnew under the sun.
]]>I don't know Latin so I had to track down what it meant. The second part of the quotation is part of Wilfred Own's poem by this name.. I could figure out Dulce means sweet and mori had to do with death. Decorum surprised me. I think of decorum as behaving properly, but it means honor. The whole quotation is Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. I was thinking father with patria, but it means country. Ah! Patriotic. And the Spanish word for country is pais. So the translation is: It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country.
Wilfred Own's poem is from World War I and recounts a gas atttack. I read it as part of librivox.org's http://www.librivox.org/ weekly poetry project. I haven't been reading of late but it is a small way I can contribute to reading. I am such a big consumer of the spoken word. The weekly poems are short enough to Braille and I feel competent to read. I'm hoping in my new environment to have better recording quality. This is a very noisy environment. Part of it is the clocks, fountain, refrigerator but the large windows which I enjoy so much don't help. Nor does the computer fan. Anyway, when I read the poem to myself I had to work through it as a reader. I had some problems recording, so I read it over and over again aloud. The Old Lie: Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori. How do you read an old lie? I spat out the words. Poetry has that affect on me--collapsing words to sharp points of emotion. I read some Scripture this way. I read Plath this way. I am writing this post all run together because of how the poem is written and what it says. If you had been there, you would not speak of glory.
World War I produced poetry like this. It was the first modern war. The gas, the mechanization, the devastation of whole regiments getting wiped out and the introduction of airplanes changed war from being very individualized to something very impersonal and depersonalizing.
Not that any war was ever sweet.
Some have said we don't write poems about war any more. We send emails, snap cell phone pictures and videos, and blog. How will that change things?
]]>I can certainly blog from my phone, but I also thought I'd try blogging from facebook. yes, you can send me a friend request. I'm still getting the hang of all this and how I can use it. For those of you who have noticed I haven't posted regularly here, I've been working on my creativity at http://soxbus837.blogspot.com/ I am also thinking about committing to posting here daily on spiritual stuff. I'm not quite ready to make the plunge but I'm getting there.
]]>I'm still here. I had some desktop problems and that has really slowed me down. I also have a new venture underway. I have a "creative" blog at http://soxbus837.blogspot.com/ where I'm posting something every day. Blogger generated the blog's address and I thought I'd kee it for fun. News about me will still be here or at my so-called web site at http://www.samobile.net/users/merrill/ Talk with you soon.
I've been very scattered which is a normal state of affairs for me. In part, I have had a lot on my plate. This state of affairs will continue for the next couple of months. However, I am beginning to think that this scattered feeling is not situational dependent but is the way I approach life. I am one of those people who has a number of things started and not finished. I don't think this is ADD; I think this is the importanceI attach to these projects and the interest they hold for me. What needs to get done usually gets done.
I went in search of and found a book entitled "If You Want to WRite". I think the author is Owens, perhaps Brenda Owens who was born in the late 1800s and lived to be 93. She had two principles by which she lived: always tell the truth and only do what interests you. The second principle is what interests me today. Only doing what interests you flies in the face of everything I was taught about responsibility and being a good employee. Do what is asigned. Do what others think is important. But I am coming around to the belief and guiding principle that I am only good at what interests me. I do indeed do what I am good at, but I am also prepared to learn new things and surely I am not good at them, at least when I begin working on them.
I don't know how to move to a new city where I know no one. This isn't stopping me from going there and finding out how to do it.
I've never hired a moving company before. I've never contacted service agencies before cold. Well, now is a good time to start. I haven't searched for a church before not being particularly concerned with their label but concerned about their location and the kind of people that go there. Can they be a community which enriches my spiritual life and which supports me in enabling the spiritual lives of others? Do they do ministry rather than consume it? Are they evangelists? If so, what word are they spreading about Jesus and the life someone can have in Christ?
I read an article about marketing in web 2.0. It's not about just creating links. It's about community involvement online. It's a big commitment. It's something I can do if I find the right places. This article listed 15. That's a lot of communities to get involved in. I don't think I can carry that many but can I do 5 or more? What about me and my work am I promoting?
And what about my writing and reading aloud?
Lots to do. ALots to think about. Lots to be interested in.
]]>Wasting Time
I'm really good at wasting time. I can find an internet site that has to be visited, a feed that needs to be checked for updates, a Craigslist that needs to be viewed. There's always email, the weather, another cup of coffee or, yes, going back to the beginning of this list and looking to see which books have been added to the library site. Spyware removal, podcast listening--it all takes time and what have I accomplished? I've wasted time and then I say, Oh, I was busy. I didn't have time to ----
This is true of the podcasting and it is true of my writing. I need to stop wasting time and get on with doing. The way to get rid of a bad habit is substitute a good one.
So I didn't check the feeds or the email. I sat down to write a post since I'm a blogger, after all, and I haven't been blogging. Now that I feel good about myself, I can have another cup of coffee and -- oh yes, listen to that file I need to prepare for podcasting.
]]>Finally! I updated the firmware on my phone. It's taken a while to get everything squared away. I lost the info on my data line and couldn't connect to the internet. When I got that squared away, I had to get this keyboard working and install vox. I still can't get the headset to pair. I'll keep trying on that.
I'm getting caught up with church podcasting. There's still way too much to do there. With Elwood being out of sorts, I couldn't focus and then there was the book packing spree. I have to contact the pastor in Syracuse to say the books are ready. Apparently he's not getting back to me. I hate that. I have something he wants.
I broke the coffee grinder by shrinking the lid in the convection oven. I didn't realize it had fallen into my pan. I decided to buy the cheap grinder. I'm thinking that was a mistake as it really is a lesser grinder, but given my track record with appliances these days, it may not last and then I can get something different. For another $6 I could have gotten a quisinard, but I really don't think I should be spending all this money on a coffee grinder. It would have been nice though.
Elwood and I are getting out to walk. That is helping us both.
I'm really posting tonight to make sure everything is working and t get back into the habbit. The keyboard feels a little strange which means I haven't been using it enough.
]]>Holy Week
This has been the weirdest HOly Week ever. I had this idea ... I would read the narrative from Matthew very diligently. I would attend Mandy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter services. I would be very, very diligent.
Instead, I have packed books to be given away. I've emptied 3 bookcases and will give them away, too. I'd like to get a 4th empty. I've tried reading and fallen asleep, largely because I was drinking decaf instead of regular coffee. I've been headachy, from the same cause. I have to decide about my addiction to cafine later.
I'm cleaning up my hard drive slowly. I've gotten most of Norton off the laptop. I'm trying to run lean there, too.
ANd the most weird thing is, I went looking for music yesterday, to at least mark the day. "Jesus Keep Me NEar the Cross" is what I played because, after all, that's the point. I played the end of Godspel, too. What is left? It isn't worshiping a dead hero, as my NT teacher would say. It's about the living God. Keep me close, Jesus because you hold us all in your heart.
]]>It is such a relief to not to think I have to be profound, only to report, respond and ruminate.
I got an emnail yesterday from a pastor in the reigion talking about the sin of spending on books--so many books they clutter the shelves and most go unread or, having been read, hang about. I think it has to do with wanting to impress and a form of conspicuous consumption. Anyway, he packed up about half his library and the books are going to a church in Africa. Who wants to join him?
The email came late in the afternoon. While I had dinner in the convection oven, 20 minutes, I had one shelf examined and a box of books. It is a liberating experience. Thousands of pages either read or never to be read as well as pages read for class. My rule has been been: don't get rid of anything you really want. Let me tell you, there isn't a whole lot I want to hang onto when it comes down to it. I'd rather someone else use it.
Now we're trying to figure out how to get the books from Jamestown to Syracuse. Perhaps the Episcopalians can get them as far as Buffalo.
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