May 2013
1 post
5 tags
The Erosion of the American Mind
Is technology destroying our imagination? Novelist Isabel Allende believes this is the case. She examines this question (among others) in a recent interview. In A Talk With Chilean Writer Isabel Allende Melodramatic Diva of Magical Feminism she make some fascinating points regarding love and literature.
Allende’s grandchildren are the inspiration for her latest novel Maya’s Notebook. She...
April 2013
5 posts
5 tags
Finding My Way With Words
How do you spell ensemble?” Sonya asks. Though this weekend phone call isn’t exactly like run of the mille—they don’t usually start off with spelling quizzes—it’s not completely atypical either. I’m sure God blessed with me with a big sister for several reasons, but the most important of them seems to be that He knew she would keep me on my toes.
1,325 miles...
6 tags
The Art of Procrastination
Is there a fine line between meeting deadlines and recovering from the mental fatigue of a long work week? Sometimes, I manage this fine line with procrastination. Procrastination is a very important coping mechanism for this chronic under achieving slacker.
Recently, The Atlantic explores the importance of procrastination in How To Procrastinate at Work: A Complete Guide Research-Based...
March 2013
5 posts
6 tags
The Anatomy of a Review
After reading a few mediocre novels I realize that literary critics play an important role in shaping cultural tastes. According to Kenneth Tynan, the “critic’s job – at least nine-tenths of it – is to make way for the good-by demolishing the bad.” More importantly, the reviewer can offer insight into an author’s work that the layperson may not consider. The critic is the specialist who...
4 tags
The Constant Struggle
The Story of my life. I wonder who will win in the end.
February 2013
4 posts
6 tags
Making Life Work
What are you learning? Dr. Turner is challenging me again. My brain cells resemble scramble eggs. Actually, I want to shrug my shoulders and ignore his question.
Regardless, I have to come up with an answer. God, I love Turner’s approach to mentoring. I can always count on his barrage of questions. Finally, I have something that may get me of his line of sight. Among the issues I...
January 2013
3 posts
6 tags
The Power of Prose
What do most people think about the writing process? Most people probably have preconceived image of writers. The most common stereotype is someone slaving away at a secluded desk or office. This poor soul is all alone typing frantically on a keyboard. If this poor scribe does not meet their deadline, civilization will come to an end.
Writers do not work in complete isolation. The most...
4 tags
What The New Year Brings
Dancers and actors have the stage. Painters have a canvas. The start of each post, I stare at a blank page in Microsoft Word. God indeed must have a sense of humor.
The New Year offers opportunities. Naturally, I want to review last year’s work to make progress. I will not bore you with statistics produced by the fine people at WordPress. Data can provide very important objective...
4 tags
If I Can Live
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson.
December 2012
4 posts
5 tags
On The Morning of Christ's Nativity
This is the month, and this the happy morn,
Wherein the Son of Heaven’s eternal King,
Of wedded Maid and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That He our deadly forfeit should release,
And with His Father work us a perpetual peace
by John Milton.
7 tags
Wisdom in Unexpected Places
When you least expect it, someone may offer an important pearl of wisdom. This is a teachable moment. There are situations in life that offer unique opportunities to learn.
For instance, I e-mailed Sharon to notify her that I cannot take part in her weekend yoga class. In the near future, I may need to work during the weekends. Although she expressed her disappointment, the rest of her...
November 2012
7 posts
4 tags
The Struggle of a People
Whenever I thought of the essential bleakness of black life in America, I knew that Negroes had never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western Civilization, that they lived somehow in it but not of it. And when I brooded upon the cultural barrenness of black life, i wondered if clean, positive tenderness, love, honor, loyalty and capacity to remember were native with man. I asked...
“That beautiful mind! That was the thing. Lucid, passionate, independent, acute,...”
– Eudora Welty, on Virginia Woolf, from N.Y Times Book Review. (via violentwavesofemotion)
“A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries me...”
– Thomas Jefferson and John Adams remember the old days of the Revolution (via laphamsquarterly)
5 tags
Random Thoughts and Observations
Thank goodness for the end of daylight savings time. The cycle of life continues. We spring forward and then we fall back. Actually, I fell right back into bed when realized there is extra time to sleep.
Reading is an important exercise for the mind. Laughter is cardio for the heart and soul.
There is no strait jacket that can hold me. How do I know? Two guys (both six-foot, five inches...
4 tags
The Nature of A Woman
“Ever a various, changeful thing is woman”The Aeneid by Virgil.
October 2012
7 posts
7 tags
The Art of Discernment
Four tips to help sharpen our perspective
Some people revel in an opportunity to showcase their talents. During office staff meetings, a few people love the sound of their own voice. There are exceptions to every situation, including me.
What do you think?
I want to avoid answering this question like the plague. For the most part, I welcome the opportunity to prove myself. Yet, I wrestle with...
“What horrifies me most is the idea of being useless: well-educated, brilliantly...”
– Sylvia Plath (via escaping-the-bell-jar)
“Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than with the imagination...”
– Leonardo da Vinci, from his notebooks, page 1144 (via aubade)
September 2012
5 posts
5 tags
Children of the Future Find A Book
Grammarly posted this pic. Children of the future run across a book. They look very confused.
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (via polycule)
“I think of booksellers as emissaries of higher truths, of beauty and wisdom and...”
– On Bookselling: A Guest Post by Emma Straub - The Barnes & Noble Review (via emmastraub)
August 2012
10 posts
4 tags
Wordsmith of The Week
“Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything,” Willa Cather’s Shadow On The Rock.
7 tags
Random Thoughts and Observations
No one can sell crazy to my family. This week my family received the patent letter from the federal government. The letter makes it official. Everyone else is ten steps behind my family when it comes to brining the crazy. There is nothing like Southern fried insanity.
The following is a tribute to my nose. Since birth, I have owned my brass section. No one on this planet has my schnoz. I can...
4 tags
6 tags
Loose Change for Literature
Every day I am hustling for nickels, dimes and quarters. So I am looking under the furniture for change. I need the coins buy another book. I am becoming a bargain hunter for books. Finally, I am sharpening my garage sale shopping skills.
The following is the method to my madness. Recently, I discovered that people give their unwanted books to local libraries. The regional libraries in...
5 tags
The Journey of the Mind
The mind is in its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven by John Milton.
5 tags
The Status of American Political Leadership
“Today’s public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books. And there is some evidence they cannot read them either,”Gore Vidal from Michael Dirda’s article in The Washington Post.
