Monthly Archives: December 2014

In the 1960s, the Western world was undergoing massive social change. A provocative 1970 book that dared to assess what was going down then and to look ahead was Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. Yesterday I had occasion to revisit this … Continue reading →

As usual, the past remains far more instructive than anything current or a pipe-dreamishly-technology-as-the-be-all-end-all future. From the opening of Charles Dickens’ most dramatic, timeless novel, A Tale of Two Cities: It was the best of times, it was the worst … Continue reading →

beer bottle on veranda sunday morning always comes …….. (Garneau area on a weekend walk)

Finally answering death’s good-night your hair in white ringlets like snow on a true-daughter’s pillow. No more peeling potatoes in a kitchen of fears custody-feuds hidings and slop-pails. No more great-grandchildren to bounce on Baba’s knee. Always the forgotten member … Continue reading →

“It takes four seasons to know one year.”–Anonymous “Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”–Victor Hugo “In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.”–Albert Camus “Inside myself is a … Continue reading →

“The real marriage of true minds is for any two people to possess a sense of humor or irony pitched in exactly the same key.”–Pearl Buck “The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. … Continue reading →

Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales, experienced on Christmas eve or Christmas Day. Dylan Thomas Reading was the first album Thomas recorded for the two women who founded Caedmon Records; this was the label’s first release in 1952. The … Continue reading →

“(but if you look long enough eventually you will be able to see me.)” –Margaret Atwood, The Circle Game …………………… N.B./ Joni Mitchell’s song, “The Circle Game”, preceded this book.

This is the hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless, Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson done, Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the themes thou lovest best, Night, sleep, death and … Continue reading →

(inspired by Erik Satie’s “Trois Gymnopedies”) “Music that gentlier on the spirit lies.”–Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters” 1 uncomplicated blue a mist on the hill autumn’s palette & the cool wet smell of woods– never a stiller moment & bird-respectful silence 2 … Continue reading →