I was wondering and wrote about it
On a morning walk my wife Jennifer said “I read something irritating. They said they were elderly.” I asked “How old were they?” She replied,”Late 60s, 67 and 69.” To which I started to laugh. We’re 62. We are elderly.
Or are we? We are old. But elderly? That has a connotation of being fragile with diminished capacity. We feel pretty vital.
What do you think is meant by elderly?
It was a tough time. My father in law was in a rehab center. Jennifer had both of us in bad states. On this day I started to write. How else could I relearn how to write? And so I did. In three weeks I filled up 100 pages of progressively better handwriting. One thing I did not do was watch TV. OK, I did watch one PBS documentary and one movie. But I couldn’t take it. I wrote instead. And spent time with Mom, and Cheryl mostly. Other relatives also came by. But mostly I wrote. And thought about what was ahead.
You have to start someplace.
I wrote about the Six Books YOU can and Should Write, click through to read about them. Recently I came across a seventh type, the commonplace book.
What is that? Wikipedia explains, “Such books are essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas.” They were also complied by women, before women were allowed into colleges. That’s one example of what the literary form is.
You might consider this blog a Commonplace gathering of what I find to be interesting. There is so much more to collect.
You should be aware of Ryan Holiday’s introduction to commonplace books, here. I will quote him, from the start, because it’s a compelling thing to read and hang onto, as he did in his commonplace book.
It was about the great Athenian general Themistocles. Before the battle of Salamis, he was locked in a vigorous debate with a Spartan general about potential strategies for defeating the Persians. Themistocles was clearly in the minority with his views (but which ultimately turned out to be right and saved Western Civilization). He continued to interrupt and contradict the other generals. Finally, the Spartan general threatened to strike Themistocles if he didn’t shut up and stop. “Strike!” Themistocles shouted back, “But listen!”
Ryan Holidy, in Though Catalog
Strike! But listen! In the meantime, I’m going to figure out the difference between a commonplace book and a scrap book.
Last night I ate corn on the cob. That was dinner. Fresh out of boiling water, sweet as it could be. Fresh corn, it’s only a couple of weeks in the summer. We got ours from a farm stand place off of Highway 99E. You’d never see it from the freeway. Only from the back roads can provide you this kind of treat.
And tonight! A fresh peach! Gigantic, fresh, so delicious. So
A few days ago I wrote On Caring, about paying attention to the US elections, so far in advance of our selection. Why is our selection process so long? Part of it goes back to Kennedy who was considered “too Catholic” when he announced his candidacy. Now we have fringe candidates pushing their (our?) pet peeves. One example is Governor Jay Inslee’s pushing about climate change. His candidacy did not continue, but his ideas do.
I’m now caring and have supported Andrew Yang. He shares with former Vice President Joe Biden the ability to attract Trump supporters. That’s a winner of a candidate’s position. Yang also has a simple, like Trump, slogan, MATH – Make American’s Think Harder.
Will he win? I don’t care. I do care that his positions deserve more attention. He more attention he gets the more his positions will get. He puts Humanity F
Here’s a