"When one has much to fill them with, a day has a hundred pocketses . . ."
My days, of late, have had, if not a hundred pocketses, quite a few. And not all that many which might be thought of as a fulfilment of the Chines imprecation "May you live in interesting times," I am of course: concerned about my brother Jonathan; empathetic/ sympathetic with my Ffriends Barbara and Jo who have both lost the father of their spouses, and Alex, Ariene, and Sophie, who've lost a grandfather. But then again, the casa de mentia now has one less resident - there are always mixed feelings about such things. I greatly enjoyed being the concierge and honorary uncle for the sixteen seniors from Olney Friends School [which has been around one hundred and sixty five years, being able to brush up my smatterings of Arabic, Farsi, German, Hindi,Japanese, Korean, Mandarian, and learn a teensy weensy bit of Serbian [the Yanks are much outnumbered]. I was also able to employ my ethos of ". . . things should belong to those who appreciate them most..." as I was able to give unbirthday presents of a mint stamp issued by the USPS on 26 October, 1943, in Washington, D.C. depicting the Yugoslavian flag [from the Overrun Countries Commemorative Stamps - Issue of 1943-44, Scott No. 917] to the Serbian student, and when I discovered the Ethiopian student was quite fond of Will Smith, I pulled a dvd of Enemy of the State (1998) from my stock at ReadersChoice to give her . . . oops, pardon me a moment while I delete that from my stock before someone orders it - brb . . . aha - I'd not listed that yet - perhaps because I really liked Gene Hackman's role - it seems to me the character arc of Harry Caul in Coppola's The Conversation (1974) could well turn out like Edward Lyle. It would be interesting to have a film/novel covering the time(s) between . . .
I'm getting quite a bit done: with my flat; the memorial service for Barbara's father-in-law is not far from my nephew Jonathan & his wife, who had their first child - Oliver Jude - on Mother's Day - quite a nice present for Leah & Jonny - so I might be able to make a trip and do honor to both families; the other day I planted four potted flowers from the memorial service we had for a Ffriend late last month. His wife died last summer - both were in their eighties, good health, and died after brief illnesses.
So - I wouldn't necesarily say "it's all good" - but a lot depends on your perspective. I don't spend as much time as I could at the Cleveland Museum of Art being about a brisk five minute walk away from one of the top ten museums in the US of A (along with the Museum of Natural history, and one of the top-ranked orchestras in the world). I like the medieval tapestries hanging in the armor court - such intricate patterns. But if you (could) look at the back sides, you'd see quite a few gnarls & tangles. I kinda see that as an analogy for life: a lot of things happen that you cannot, for the life of you (now that's an intriguing phrase!) see at the moment, but with time's passage things (may) begin to make (at least a little more) sense.
Enough rambling for now. It's not April, and the weather's acrually rather pleasant . . . but I think I hear the clocks striking thirteen.
I'm getting quite a bit done: with my flat; the memorial service for Barbara's father-in-law is not far from my nephew Jonathan & his wife, who had their first child - Oliver Jude - on Mother's Day - quite a nice present for Leah & Jonny - so I might be able to make a trip and do honor to both families; the other day I planted four potted flowers from the memorial service we had for a Ffriend late last month. His wife died last summer - both were in their eighties, good health, and died after brief illnesses.
So - I wouldn't necesarily say "it's all good" - but a lot depends on your perspective. I don't spend as much time as I could at the Cleveland Museum of Art being about a brisk five minute walk away from one of the top ten museums in the US of A (along with the Museum of Natural history, and one of the top-ranked orchestras in the world). I like the medieval tapestries hanging in the armor court - such intricate patterns. But if you (could) look at the back sides, you'd see quite a few gnarls & tangles. I kinda see that as an analogy for life: a lot of things happen that you cannot, for the life of you (now that's an intriguing phrase!) see at the moment, but with time's passage things (may) begin to make (at least a little more) sense.
Enough rambling for now. It's not April, and the weather's acrually rather pleasant . . . but I think I hear the clocks striking thirteen.