The quite small revisited.
Do people actually watch sports on a cellphone? Sounds like reading the Gettysburg address on a grain of rice, or, eating an eighth of a teaspoon of a scrumptious, chocolate cake.
So I guess the question is, if you are watching a tennis match on a screen the size of a postage stamp are you actually watching it?
The power of words…
“Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I’ve seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges.”Toni Cade Bambara. The late African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist, and college professor.
Lord knows we need more thinking before we speak in this world. Scriptures are filled with the advice to be a person of few words. It also suggests they come directly from the heart.
Hurtful words said in anger were dangerous weapons my father kept in his hip pocket. They eventually broke down a 38 year marriage and broke my dear mother’s heart. His old age was one large albatross as a result of their divorce.
What an enormous tragedy. My own father died a broken man.
Bill Russell, who died today at 88 was one of the most distinguished basketball players who ever stepped on a court. Why not 88? Bill Russell led Boston to eight consecutive NBA championships, a streak that will never be broken. He changed the concept of what a big man could accomplish under the basket forever.
Bill’s body language was royal and it continued even into his old age. Others his age were bent over, but not Bill. His was a regal 6’10 carriage. Stooping wasn’t in his “vocabulary.”
Bill, your elegance, your creativity, your competitive drive and your all- consuming love for the game of basketball will never be forgotten. Oh yes, you will be missed.
Worth a reboot…
Fernando Tatis, Jr. is the fresh face of baseball. He has the physique, speed, and power seen as the 21st Century, athletic ideal.
And yet, he has a humble, gracious heart with a deep abiding faith in God, which he has expressed. When it sounded like there was a shooter at large inside a baseball park recently, he raced with his blinding speed to the stands to protect some children of his teammates. Later, security discovered the shooter was outside the stadium, a much lesser threat to life and limb.
He plays the game with a joy I have not seen since my boyhood when I watched the oldest living Hall of Famer, Willie Mays.
Like a tragic figure in a classic drama, he has an abiding flaw. He plays so hard he is prone to injury, particularly in his left shoulder. He injured it Friday night with the possibility…
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“You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.” Sharon Creech, an American novelist.
Actually I cannot keep our local birds from making nests with my hair. My spouse Kristine cuts my hair in the backyard and we see it later in their nests.
I guess it figures since I have an aquiline nose, was born the year of the rooster and have bird legs. Chirp, caw, cock-a-doodle-doo.
Together…
“It is within the bonds of marriage that I, for one, found a greater freedom to be and to become and to share myself that I can imagine ever having found in any other kind of relationship.” Frederick Buechner, a renowned author, pastor and theologian, now 95 years of age.
Sometimes it’s a photo I share with Kristine Sometimes it’s a portion of a book she’s reading Kris shares with me.
She KNOWS me, so Kristine helps me to grow. I KNOW Kris, so I help her to grow.
No experience is ever as joyful as when it’s shared with someone we love. I thank God my spouse has been willing to share 43 years with me. She did come home the last time she left the house.
No, it has not been easy. There have been obstacles to overcome. But, it has always been priceless.
” I had not yet found out about time; I was still under the illusion that I had plenty of time—time for this, time for that, time for everything, time to waste.” Joseph Mitchell, who ran out of time and was a New Yorker contributor, who penned pieces on human life at its fringes.
Those times are moving at warp speed. Even distant plane travel seems past me in a heartbeat. Oh yea, those heartbeats become more important as each “nanoday” passes, when like me you are late in your eighth decade.
There is a captioned picture I have seen twice now on social media that says more than I could enunciate here. But, I am game.
An old woman looks at a young girl. She says what she sees before her will soon be staring from her mirror
Today is precious. Thank God he has blessed us both.
The gift of sight…
“I like you; your eyes are full of language.” Anne Sexton, the late American poet.
“People seldom realise that they tell lies with their lips and truths with their eyes all the time.” Tahereh Mafi, an American author.
It took me years to do better with eye contact. Perhaps my father’s difficult stares were part of the problem.
My spouse’s beautiful, ocean blue eyes may have helped solve the problem. It seems days with more eye contact are better for us, though that could be my simplistic illusion.
Eyes do speak truths. Bearing that burden, they seem to age more quickly than the rest of us. Our eyes continue to have immeasurable value, by the grace of God.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” The great playwright, George Bernard Shaw. Now that was an understatement.
English-speaking attorneys repeat their legalese to be sure there is no one in doubt as to what they have written. Of course, they are dealing with the English language, a language of great complexity, with an enormous variety of sources from every inhabited acre of the planet. Thank heaven I learned it by osmosis when my mind was a sponge, not to be confused with what I have left.
The sun never set on the Brit’s empire. Right? And the Norman invasion did a great job of dousing the language with French.
For complex reasons in the Middle Ages, the sounds of English vowels transitioned from the sounds in Romance languages to a different melody. It was called the Great Vowel Shift. Pretty shifty. Right? Note the “i” in amigo (ee) versus the “i” in mine (eye), etc., etc.
And so, we move on with our illusions, hopefully un-catastrophically. That’s the short “i” in “phic” for the flustered, fazed and befuddled.
Another look at parenthood…
“I don’t remember who said this, but there really are places in the heart you don’t even know exist until you love a child.” Anne Lamott, the extraordinary contemporary author, who, is also, one of the funniest writers I’ve ever read. Since Google doesn’t “remember” who said this, maybe it came from Anne’s fertile mind, no pun intended.
I have never been the same since Kristine delivered our first and then our second child. The heart-to-heart connection cannot be well explained. It just is.
When my daughter Courtney stirred her audience with a speech in 6th grade or my son Chad turned defeat into victory in a tennis match at about the same age, the warmth in my heart and the excitement for them both was immeasurable. Now, that, as adults, they are both successful in their careers and well-liked, stretches the idea that I had anything to do with…
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Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey 