There are rose petals in my coffee. I have chores to do, a network to network, and the wrens are buzzing my table as they traverse the central flyway from one corner of the yard to the other. The extended family that inhabits our yard likes to fly from their nest outside the kitchen window to the compost part of the garden and back. The best seat in the house is right here on the patio, with morning light filtering through the white roses climbing across the pergola that every once in a while explode and rain a few petals on the table.
In training to begin a new job on Tuesday, I got up early and drank coffee outside. The late-May heat was drying recently planted basil and tomatoes, so I have them a drink from a gallon jug and pulled a few weeds. Bread with lemon curd made a perfect breakfast. During breaks from weeding, I read a chapter from Michael Lewis's Liar's Poker and continued my lesson in bond trading 1980s style. On the phone my Dad correctly identified a crucial part of the learning curve: a whole new vocabulary. Grilled cheddar on cranberry walnut bread with rose petals wasn't a bad lunch.
After weeding the front yard of about a million thistles, I stopped just in time to avoid exhaustion and took a break to watch a little of the Tribe's loss to the White Sox, then came to my senses and took a short bike ride down by the reservoir, followed by a delicious Burning River pale ale and a shower. Gwen served leftover ratatouille, ooh la la! We talked about old friends with whom we have lost touch and some with whom we are back in touch. Thanks for the day.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Oxygen debt
It's unforgiving, like a form of justice that is completely honest and harsh in meting out the consequences of our actions.
It's reliable, like a reference that does not waver in its accuracy, does not sugar-coat the truth, and does not make exceptions or play favorites.
It's real, experiential, and fact-based. It's not a figment of your imagination or "just a theory" based on a hypothesis based on an ideology based on a belief system based on a cultural worldview.
It's fair, just, and equitable in its indifference to you, me, or anyone in particular who might otherwise be special. It's an equal-opportunity arbiter of training, preparation, and practice, practice, practice.
For example, if you walk, run, swim, or cycle every day for 30 minutes at x minutes per mile, the bodymind develops the ability and even the expectation to walk, run, swim, or cycle every day for 30 minutes at x minutes per mile, no more and no less. It's pretty amazing how muscles, bones, joints, heart, lungs, and neurons adapt to a consistent practice. It's like you have made a contract signed in sweat.
If you then walk, run, swim, or cycle for 40 minutes at x minutes per miles - or for 30 minutes at x-1 minutes per miles - more duration at the same intensity or the same duration at greater intensity - then we have a problem. You have overdrawn your energy account and come up short; you have exhausted your resources and have a balance due; you are out of funds halfway home. You are in oxygen debt.
It's reliable, like a reference that does not waver in its accuracy, does not sugar-coat the truth, and does not make exceptions or play favorites.
It's real, experiential, and fact-based. It's not a figment of your imagination or "just a theory" based on a hypothesis based on an ideology based on a belief system based on a cultural worldview.
It's fair, just, and equitable in its indifference to you, me, or anyone in particular who might otherwise be special. It's an equal-opportunity arbiter of training, preparation, and practice, practice, practice.
For example, if you walk, run, swim, or cycle every day for 30 minutes at x minutes per mile, the bodymind develops the ability and even the expectation to walk, run, swim, or cycle every day for 30 minutes at x minutes per mile, no more and no less. It's pretty amazing how muscles, bones, joints, heart, lungs, and neurons adapt to a consistent practice. It's like you have made a contract signed in sweat.
If you then walk, run, swim, or cycle for 40 minutes at x minutes per miles - or for 30 minutes at x-1 minutes per miles - more duration at the same intensity or the same duration at greater intensity - then we have a problem. You have overdrawn your energy account and come up short; you have exhausted your resources and have a balance due; you are out of funds halfway home. You are in oxygen debt.
Monday, May 07, 2012
National Poetry Writing Month (Day 28)
Is officially over.
Have you heard? It isn't April anymore. It's the second week of May.
Why are we still writing?
Unemployed writer replies:
Kafka worked in an actuarial office,
Eliot in a bank. They found time to write.
So I fell short by two days.
It was a game attempt in an unpredictable time,
all the better, thanks for asking.
Have you heard? It isn't April anymore. It's the second week of May.
Why are we still writing?
Unemployed writer replies:
Kafka worked in an actuarial office,
Eliot in a bank. They found time to write.
So I fell short by two days.
It was a game attempt in an unpredictable time,
all the better, thanks for asking.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
NaPoWriMo Day 26: And they all need weeding
Open your eyes.
There are birds
in the peach trees,
yellow finches.
Now they're gone.
It sneaks up on you
like a cat that wants
to be scratched. Yet
once you get started, you
never know what will turn up.
I only have inside errands today.
My at rest is in motion, and
the most calming thing I can do
is to get up, clean up, order
my world, and get on with it.
Every potted plant is a little garden
inside the garden room in the
garden house that sits inside
a yard that is composed of
front, back, and side gardens.
There are birds
in the peach trees,
yellow finches.
Now they're gone.
It sneaks up on you
like a cat that wants
to be scratched. Yet
once you get started, you
never know what will turn up.
I only have inside errands today.
My at rest is in motion, and
the most calming thing I can do
is to get up, clean up, order
my world, and get on with it.
Every potted plant is a little garden
inside the garden room in the
garden house that sits inside
a yard that is composed of
front, back, and side gardens.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
NaPoWriMo Day 27: Taxonomies
If everything is miscellaneous,
then no existing structure,
system, or binomial nomenclature
governs particular groups
of individual things.
The game plan, or
organizing principle
is up to the players.
Is this revolutionary
or merely scientific?
Creating such a system
can take an Aristotelian,
deductive, a priori path:
a given set of types
defining whole classes
orders, families, geni, species
of individual items,
establishing the rules top-down
by theory-driven practice,
like Linnaeus (not his real name)
Or a Wittgensteinian,
inductive, pragmatic path:
a collection of prototypes
drawn from those items,
leaving open the definition
of the family resemblance
between similar examples
by practice-driven theory,
like Mao or Darwin or Dewey
(John not Melville).
then no existing structure,
system, or binomial nomenclature
governs particular groups
of individual things.
The game plan, or
organizing principle
is up to the players.
Is this revolutionary
or merely scientific?
Creating such a system
can take an Aristotelian,
deductive, a priori path:
a given set of types
defining whole classes
orders, families, geni, species
of individual items,
establishing the rules top-down
by theory-driven practice,
like Linnaeus (not his real name)
Or a Wittgensteinian,
inductive, pragmatic path:
a collection of prototypes
drawn from those items,
leaving open the definition
of the family resemblance
between similar examples
by practice-driven theory,
like Mao or Darwin or Dewey
(John not Melville).
NaPoWriMo Day 25: May Day
May Day is many things to many people.
As kids we drew pictures of May Poles
in school with people dancing around.
Newspapers showed black and white photos
parades of tanks and missiles in Red Square,
a patriotic display of hammers and sickles.
Then spring became a time for antiwar protest,
and May Day became an alarm again,
a call not to arms but to stop the war machine.
Was it Nixon who renamed it 'Law Day'
for congressmen to talk about order
and decry the dangers of disagreeing?
Ancient Celtic tradition had its Beltane
fertility ritual with fires and dancing
around a phallic pole, ribbons spreading
like petals around it. Warm weather returns,
seeds are sown, birds and bees make babies,
new growth begins and crops will be harvested.
My nontraditional May Day consisted
of working out in the yard, paying bills,
downloading and managing files,
riding a bike to the bank and the library,
reading the business section of the paper,
and listening to rain on the roof.
As kids we drew pictures of May Poles
in school with people dancing around.
Newspapers showed black and white photos
parades of tanks and missiles in Red Square,
a patriotic display of hammers and sickles.
Then spring became a time for antiwar protest,
and May Day became an alarm again,
a call not to arms but to stop the war machine.
Was it Nixon who renamed it 'Law Day'
for congressmen to talk about order
and decry the dangers of disagreeing?
Ancient Celtic tradition had its Beltane
fertility ritual with fires and dancing
around a phallic pole, ribbons spreading
like petals around it. Warm weather returns,
seeds are sown, birds and bees make babies,
new growth begins and crops will be harvested.
My nontraditional May Day consisted
of working out in the yard, paying bills,
downloading and managing files,
riding a bike to the bank and the library,
reading the business section of the paper,
and listening to rain on the roof.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
NaPoWriMo Day 24: Big O
What distinguishes the greatest players
from the many very good ones who
are merely the best at what they do?
I'll tell you: it's being the best at
several things and doing what needs to be done.
Oscar was the best passer (maybe ever)
and one of the best defenders; he led
the league in scoring, moved without the ball,
and could rebound with the best.
One year he averaged a triple-double!
Wilt was by far the best scorer,
maybe the best rebounder and defender
(when motivated), and he could dish out
assists at will, but not so consistent.
Michael, always motivated, had no peer
as a scorer or defender; he could pass
or rebound as needed, and
he willed his team to win.
Magic, more like Oscar, was pass first,
shoot second, run the floor, team defense,
rebound as needed, AND
he could play all five positions.
LeBron has to decide every night
whether to be the scorer, passer,
defender, or rebounder and how
to get his teammates involved.
I never saw Mikan play, but they say
he was unstoppable. I did see Cousy,
Russell, Jabbar, and Bird, possibly
the smartest players ever, if not the best.
from the many very good ones who
are merely the best at what they do?
I'll tell you: it's being the best at
several things and doing what needs to be done.
Oscar was the best passer (maybe ever)
and one of the best defenders; he led
the league in scoring, moved without the ball,
and could rebound with the best.
One year he averaged a triple-double!
Wilt was by far the best scorer,
maybe the best rebounder and defender
(when motivated), and he could dish out
assists at will, but not so consistent.
Michael, always motivated, had no peer
as a scorer or defender; he could pass
or rebound as needed, and
he willed his team to win.
Magic, more like Oscar, was pass first,
shoot second, run the floor, team defense,
rebound as needed, AND
he could play all five positions.
LeBron has to decide every night
whether to be the scorer, passer,
defender, or rebounder and how
to get his teammates involved.
I never saw Mikan play, but they say
he was unstoppable. I did see Cousy,
Russell, Jabbar, and Bird, possibly
the smartest players ever, if not the best.
Day 23: Ritual
The clearing of the cubicle begins:
make a pot of coffee although
no one else is in the office.
Remove mementos from fabric walls,
except for a couple of parting shots,
and purge papers from cardboard files,
shredding the confidential ones,
to leave an empty desk behind.
Pack a few books in boxes to take home;
some were used for reference, and some
are products you've had a hand in making.
Place precious photos in a clear plastic
envelope with clippings, cards, a pen or two,
and bits of memorabilia. Carry two boxes
out to the car, slip your card-key
under the door, and exit the building.
make a pot of coffee although
no one else is in the office.
Remove mementos from fabric walls,
except for a couple of parting shots,
and purge papers from cardboard files,
shredding the confidential ones,
to leave an empty desk behind.
Pack a few books in boxes to take home;
some were used for reference, and some
are products you've had a hand in making.
Place precious photos in a clear plastic
envelope with clippings, cards, a pen or two,
and bits of memorabilia. Carry two boxes
out to the car, slip your card-key
under the door, and exit the building.
Day 22: Now's the Time
Charlie Parker's 'Now's the Time'
is a coherence theory of truth
not conforming to or dictating a
reality outside itself but
obeying its own internal laws
and logic with complete integrity.
is a coherence theory of truth
not conforming to or dictating a
reality outside itself but
obeying its own internal laws
and logic with complete integrity.
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