To thine own self be true

a free spirit and totally my own person. Why be anyone else, as Oscar Wilde said.

the thought that you can’t control a lot of things and situations. And that you, likewise, can’t control a lot of what others, in particular individuals, do. And that’s just the way it is. At best, you can only do or offer your best for yourself and others, and see what works out.

and was still working when she got ill.

Not my choice. I retired early/as soon as I could at 52. Freedom 52, indeed. It was not my choice to drop dead in a school hallway or to suddenly get stricken while still working (as was the case above). Overall, life is too short, too brief, and much too random. I figure a lot of teachers kid themselves, get blinded by the money part, or figure their health will never fail.

But what’s the point if you’re suddenly very ill or dead without enjoying a single day of retirement? Common sense should kick in at some point. What’s more important? Work and non-stop teaching?

Or how about: Your happiness. Your freedom. Your pleasure and desire for play. Your desire for Beauty. Your desire for increased consciousness, self-actualization, and fulfillment of self. Exploring the myriad other imaginative possibilities. More time with family.

Nope, I have never for one second rued my self-chosen/self-created Freedom 52.

(space station in flight taken by my daughter from her bedroom window Monday evening; the day started with her at 6:30 am and ended with this e-mail pic after 10:15 pm.)

(Safe Read-Only site–ignore any security warnings when opening pix.)

It was all there for me again yesterday. Driving my daughter to/from work, both ways. The usual steady run of relaxed spontaneous jokes and mutually perceptive observations. Sliding naturally into the old-style comfortable easy patter. What can you say about an adult child who gets 100%s in her essays for online courses and enjoys her very unique work in a tower downtown that displays the Flames colors at night?

Planning errands that go fast and easy like finding 3 cards at Hallmark within 5 mins. and buying a sandbox and enough sand at Toys ‘R’ Us for the patio for the grandson to enjoy when he visits. Booking, via phone, preselected restaurants in another city for our trip next week. My long-time planning, organization, and completion skills remain intact. I can still get a lot done in a very short window of time.

Having one crisis (mostly emotional imagined as it turned out) with the roller-coaster of emotions thrown in, then sudden relief when my common sense and logic took over and a solution was found.

Gliding into a leisurely afternoon with no work, with coffee instead, relaxing and reading a newspaper at Second Cup. Savouring spontaneous useless pleasures at a snail’s pace.

Going to my son and his wife’s place for sup on them, being hospitably-hosted by her, playing with my grandson, and witnessing the latest bedtime rituals, complete with a paper list he also consults as evening unfolds! Reading a Mercer Mayer wordless classic OOPS with him, both of us imagining and talking about the pictures as he ‘catches on’ to the story and picture details and cues.

Then listening to his stream-of-consciousness patter via remote hand-sized intercom (now there’s a good e-technology) as he talks about bedtime in a larger sense and what others are doing, making imagined, empathized connections in another room, unseen and completely free. So much of life is about the joy and consciousness of empathy and connections with those around us who matter most. (And being able to witness positive individual growth and increasing consciousness.)

I eventually became one of three adults singing to him by his bed. He wanted me to sing Beatles songs last night out of the blue, so I did “She Loves You” (complete with head shaking parts), “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (with gestures), and “Yellow Submarine” (kids always like repetition). Music, like reading and experiences with Nature, always brings out the best in people of all ages. It is pleasurable and connective on so many levels. the simple delight of spontaneous song or music.

Helping my son (who got home late) haul a large bookcase from the new room for the grandson to the basement via an awkward narrow staircase. My strength and stamina remain intact as they did for this job. Good to be old yet strong, and to consciously know one’s limits. (Dirty Harry: “A man’s got to know his limitations.)

Coming home to an unexpected e-mail from my oldest childhood chum back in Winnipeg. My oldest connection now. A decent, funny, smart friend who works for Boeing and ended up a teacher himself. (One of my favorite memories is his visit here last September when we played the old songs together and revived our long-time musical connection. Very self-completing and mutually-completing. Another unexpected dream come true.)

The perfect finale: watching the space station, looking like a small star, gliding slowly west to east across the southern sky. Standing in the dark backyard, I was reminded of so many previous sightings in the past and how much pleasure I used to derive by looking at the stars, going to the old Queen E planetarium (1st planetarium built in Canada), enjoying the imaginative constellation figures embedded into that patio, and looking through telescopes set up outside the new planetarium by astronomy fans to behold an occasional special night sky event. What a privilege! Still being able to marvel at the night sky, the stars, the universe, and all the wonders that there are, all around us every day. Yes, I thank my many lucky stars so far.

The day ended with the above e-mail pic, my daughter bookending a red-letter day. Yeah, Monday had it all. A perfect (spring) day.

And the people bowed and prayed,
To the neon god they made,
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming,
And the sign said “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls,
And tenement halls”
And whisper’d in The Sounds of Silence.
…………………….
Truer than ever. It’s all about advertising everywhere you go, baby. Everything must be bought and sold. Everything must be advertised and promoted more than ever before. The gods and the prophets are Madison Avenue. Still. A materialistic society and age. Still. Got your shiny new annual car or iWatch yet?

(‘safe’, ‘hidden’ ceramic ducky awaits return of grandson)

“There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.”

Netflix Canada: 3,663 titles, many of them TV
Leonard Maltin’s 2012 Movie Guide records: 17,000 entries (all film)
So Netflix subscribers easily miss 13,337+ possible films–many of them truly entertaining, uncoarse, unviolent, classic, well-acted, well-written, well-directed, and great.

(Some further perspective–in 2010, Maltin listed 10,000 films he covered from the silent era to 1965, so, again, one can see what and how much the Netflixers miss.)

Uh, how has U.S. carpetbagger-based e-technology shortchanged Canadian film viewers?  (Start by checking how many films are available on both sides of the border.) What consequences are there to viewers only watching next-to-nil classic or great films? How might this affect viewer empathy, sensibility, and well-informedness re. life and film? Why pay to just receive limited/limiting, dumb, clichéd, conventional, contemporary stuff?

Our souls (which to advance their state
Were gone out) hung ‘twixt her and me.

**************
If any, so by love refined
That the soul’s language understood,
And by good we were grown all mind
Within convenient distance stood

***********
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of things, they know not what
Love, these mixed souls doth mix again
And makes both one, each and that.

****************
We then, who are this new soul, know
Of what we are composed and made,
For the atomies of which we grow
Are souls, whom no change can invade.

*******************
On man, heaven’s influence works not so,
But that it first imprints the air;
So soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair.

***********
Love’s mysteries in souls do grow
But yet the body is his book.

Two Further Donne Quotes

If or two loves be one, or thou and I/Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

That soul that can reflect upon itself, consider itself, is more than so.

as the best things you have done or accomplished, the free-est gifts of self you have accepted and bestowed, and the maximum closeness and intimacy you have actually experienced.“–Richard Davies

“Shallowness spreads.”–Daniel Liebert

“Better to be alone than in bad company.”–Thomas Fuller