Notes - maturity

        Up, cleaned up the bedroom, took time with the cat, breakfast, Sunday paper, and chores. Carol had been up an hour, got the paper, fed the cat, watching CBS’s “Sunday Morning” and on the office iMac. As it is this cold, with lightly snow-covered ground and clear skied morning in January.

         Kay H. wrote yesterday to tell me about the new Masterpiece Theatre tonight. We are glad she did and we are looking forward to another period piece drama, this time it is pre-world war I and the many who live in or are connected with an old manor house. We watched a recently copied “Poirot” last night. The last time I wrote his name in the blog I misspelled it and the machine did not correct it. I have tried finding the error but presently have not. The night before we watched a recently copied “Inspector Morse”. Two of our favorites along with “Inspector Lewis” on PBS. I am an Anglophile but what is to be expected from a retired teacher of more than three and one half decades of focus on the specifics of British literature (and history)?  Office wants to correct my spelling of Poirot. I corrected that. Obviously I erred twice. I must have recognized the misspelling note on its first mention and plugged in the spelling, not realizing I had forgot the “i”. (I like forgot rather than forgotten because it sounds more correct to me.) My blog, my rules.

         You are being a bit ‘heady’ there, boy, don’t you think? – Amorella.

         Yes, I am. A good reason for me to reject power. I had it in the classroom most of the time. All the time if I wanted it. I could be quite nasty at times. My classroom, my rules. If students didn’t like it, and a few didn’t, they could transfer to another class. Over the years a few students could be quite brazen at times, and I could be quite arrogant and stubborn. Not good traits. Not polite. Part of my nature. I wielded power in the classroom when I felt the need to do so. I was not always completely successful. The high school years can be a real struggle for students. Growing up is not always an easy thing to do. Maturity is a life-long struggle.

         In the books it takes longer than a lifetime.

         That seems completely reasonable when thinking about our species' behaviors.

         Post. -  Amorella.

        Jim Powers, an old friend and former colleague sent you a recent Peggy Noonan column on' the Captain and the King' which you promptly set on your Facebook page after sending it to close friends first. Your first comment, to Jim, was “Well put. Amen.” I bring this up because it bothers you to use “Amen” even though you do place it in wordage rarely. This perhaps is a ‘slight thing’ to you, but I see that it is not. Half of you thinks it is a form of blasphemy to use the word as to you it means “So be it.” A decree of sorts. The connotation to you is that it is a command to G---D.

         On the outset you know better as it is a cultural word meaning perhaps, “I wish it were so.” You see your problem. The column already is so, as it is written first and read second thus it appears superfluous to say or write “Amen.”

         You may not agree, but the above is an example of the brain “miss-wiring” as you call it. Early on in life you became aware that words do not mean what they are supposed to mean. Listening and later reading you realized that people do not always mean what they say whether intentional or not and it confused you, as it still does.

         This is ironic (and humorous) from my perspective because my writing is generally perceived as too wordy or densely worded. Hemingway would probably say, “cut out four/fifths of your books and say the same thing.” Actually, from time to time I have tried but every word is tied into context one way or another so except for some clarity and grammar miscues I end up leaving the work as it is.

         You are constantly needing to be coached, boy. Free-mindedness is what it is. No doors or windows are really closed too tightly. Lots of drafts for you to play mind-games with. Such as, for example, what the conversation was/is between Sophia and Kassandra. Once you hear it, no more imagination. Take a break, old man. Let lunch settle. Post. – Amorella.