Meandering Thoughts (#3)

The oncoming storm threatens to drop nearly two feet of snow. There will be a lot of shoveling tomorrow. But I do not mind doing that kind of work. In addition, there are other projects to start, plans to be made, and chores to be completed. Writing, reading, and drawing are somewhere on that long list. I will need a lot of energy, and the will to focus. Therefore, I am shutting down for the rest of the night. That means I am leaving you with a disjointed mess. A dream, a movie, an unfinished goal, and lots of food. That is what makes up today's post. Enjoy.

(Here is a link to famous paintings of winter scenes. Beautiful. Below is one image from that website, a work done by Francois Boucher. And for contrast, I included one by George Morland.)

On Dreaming (#6)

Since restarting this blog, I have been keeping a journal on my computer. Within the journal, I have four sections that I try and fill each day. One is a table which contains a checklist of daily tasks and projects I want to accomplish. Another part contains my initial thoughts for the day and a record of how well I slept. I call it "Meditations". The third section, which gets filled in before retiring to bed, I have labeled "Reflections", and it covers noteworthy events that transpired that day. Finally, nestled between those two categories, is "Dreams". That is where I collect any dreams I can remember from the night before, and write them out in detail.

While that section does not get filled daily, many a dream has been collected there over the past nine months. So far I have shared four of them on this blog (Dream 1, Dream 2, Dream 3 & 4, and Dream 5).  Today I am going to write about another relevant and timely one that I experienced last Thursday morning.

Confessions (#7)

Yeah, I have yet to purchase, let alone try on, a new pair of jeans--literally, and metaphorically. And it has little to do with any fears. It would seem recovering from events in December required more time than I thought. Also, those events inspired me to slip back into some old habits. So, I have begun to climb back out of a hole I dug. Hopefully next weekend finds me readjusted and on track again. After all, it is a new year.

Meanwhile, here is a lighthearted confession.

(I have shared another one of Norman Rockwell's "teacher" illustrations before. Here is another one I discovered recently.. I am enjoying it immensely, particularly the composition and placement of the various students, especially the two girls sitting alone. But also how the other "children"--there are at least two, a boy and a girl, who look more mature than the others--are gathered and focused on the teacher. If you have some time, click on image below, you will be able to see a series of illustrations from Rockwell and other artists depicting schoolchildren. There is an interesting unpublished painting by him, and another one called "A Russian Classroom".)

Revelations (Part 1)

“There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.”

    ~ G'kar, from the television series, Babylon 5 

Dr. Stephen Franklin: "It's all so brief, isn't it? Typical human lifespan is almost a hundred years, but it's barely a second compared to what's out there. It wouldn't be so bad if life didn't take so long to figure out. Seems you just start to get it right and then .. it's over."

Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova: "Doesn't matter. If we lived two hundred years, we'd still be human.

We'd still make the same mistakes." 

Dr. Stephen Franklin: "You're a pessimist."

Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova: "I am Russian, Doctor. We understand these things."

    ~ Scene from the television series, Babylon 5

(No political statement here. I just find this painting powerful, beautiful, and haunting. Something about the woman in the foreground standing over the dead woman.)

Happy New Year!

No lists of resolutions. Nor rants about this past year. Just some thoughts to sober me up after spending a week in a drunken stupor. Hoping to have a better post or two as this new week unfolds. Until then...

(Spent thirty minutes of my time today reading about the Battle of Monmouth. Very exciting stuff. Here is some stuff about the suffragettes in the UK, and how they were forced fed during their hunger strikes. Not that anyone was forcing me to eat this past week..)