29 March 2013

Notes - on Magnetic Springs / an opening dialogue


        Up with the sun, boy. Carol is on the phone with Mary Lou as the sun roars in the northeast bedroom window. More later. - Amorella

         1014 hours. Went down for a leisurely breakfast with the paper and when Carol got off the phone I found Mary Lou is coming down for lunch (she left already) and she and Carol are going shopping at Macy's as they both have coupons. So, I helped straighten up downstairs (I have dusting to do). At least it is also more leisurely because there are no movies to edge us to a timed destination. My MacAir is as my childhood favorite activity of sitting in a dark closet with the light just creeping in like green vines beneath the closed closet door. I enjoy quiet contemplation, any kind of contemplation actually. I have trained myself not to need the dark or the quiet, fingertips to keyboard does just nicely. In the dark the screen is on as low as it will go. There is more than enough light to see the screen. Neither eyes nor fingertips have ears, making the silence naturally reverent. I get along in the world and I also get along in my own. In my full seventy years none of this is really new, it is part of who I am as a human being.

         You were thinking earlier on how one of your first creative writing assignments for students was to give them three unrelated words and they had to put them together in a short story of a paragraph or two, this began in the 1966-1967 school year at Magnetic Springs Junior High School. You liked it because in a sense you were the chairman of the English department. You were the English department. See, now that brought a quiet smile. - Amorella

         That's what I told myself on the way to work. Magnetic Springs is a little town west of Delaware, Ohio and I lived uptown at ten and a half West College Avenue in the south apartment next to the entrance stairs. I know there were two apartments because later Mary Lou and her husband lived in the one on the northwest corner of State and College. The rent was sixty or sixty-five dollars a month. Mr. Hume (sp) owned the building in which he had his dry goods store.

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History
Magnetic Springs earned its name after the discovery of mineral waters used for healing processes. Word spread across the country of these springs, and tourists began visiting from locations nationwide; even foreigners appeared occasionally. Hotel resorts sprang up, and the village boomed. Following the discovery of modern medicinal cures, including the vaccine for polio, the interest in natural healing remedies faded, and the city's tourism industry collapsed. By the early 1980s, the hotel resorts had been torn down.
During the Prohibition era of the 1920's, the village was a local hotbed of bootlegging and gambling, although it faced vigorous opposition from the mayor, Mary McFadden. She also led bond raising campaigns for a public services and a larger town hall, and to encourage full council meetings she cooked dinner for all the members.
The Magnetic Springs Water Company, a spring water company founded by Robert Scheiderer using the local springs, originated in Magnetic Springs. It has since relocated to nearby Columbus.

Edited from Wikipedia
** **

         1101 hours. I looked for the old school on Google Earth. I assume it has been torn down. The school district is still Richwood City Schools, Union County, at least I assume so.

         This relates to who you are, boy, and you have not forgotten any of the schools where you taught, even old Olentangy High School where you did your student teaching. No shame in having the memories, again the attachment is with the classroom, the curriculum and the students. You think, "if only I could remember all their names,". - Amorella

         You have your earphones but you won't need them if the girls are shopping. You might stop by the Apple Store to see what's new. Take some cold cash along just in case. Relax. Post. - Amorella

        I'll take the money, Amorella, but I cannot imagine buying much but perhaps a new plug-in. One's enough I think, but maybe a spare for the trip. 


         1426 hours. Lunch at Cracker Barrel after which I got the car washed at Mike's Car Wash. We headed in to Kenwood and the girls are shopping at Macy's. I stopped by Apple and glanced around. Nothing worth my money. The Mac Air appears exactly as my own (that's a good thing); I have to say, I do like the iPad Mini. When my present iPad stops that's probably what I'll buy but for now I am fine. No need for the cold cash, Amorella, but I felt better having it. If I were younger I would have probably bought the mini outright, but I don't care so much anymore, particularly with having Paul's old iPhone. Life is good. I have the sunroof open and the windows down; it is very comfortable having a casual sweatshirt on.

         My old student and friend Dr. Zach asked me to join (I misunderstood; he asked me to 'like' his site) his atheist organization today and I wrote him:

**
Thank you for the invite to your cup of tea, but it's not for an old agnostic by the likes of me. Why? I'd have my doubts you see.

With kind regards,
Rich
**
            Zack emailed back:
Have a Good Friday nonetheless! I wonder what Merlyn would have to say to Jesus among the Dead...

**

         I was thinking about writing something clever but he asks a good question. I am thinking hypothetical here. Merlyn traditionally is a Druid first but he knows the ways of the Western Christian Church of the seventh century. He knows Greek and Latin as well as Celt and the Old to Middle English of those times. At least this is how I see him in the Merlyn books. I have no idea what he or anyone else would say to Jesus upon meeting him on the street let's say. And, hypothetically, what would Jesus say to Merlyn in return, then or now (among the Dead) in our twenty-first century?

         This is a complex philosophical question. What would anyone say to Jesus, and what might Jesus say in return upon such a meeting among the Dead?  (1448)

         I don't feel uneasy thinking about the question, but I do feel somewhat unqualified, even in a fiction to conjure up a suggestive dialogue between Merlyn and Jesus.        

         Let's stick with Zach's question: His assumption is the Jesus is among the Dead and Merlyn is standing next to him. I would assume, as human beings, they would exchange polite pleasantries as this is a chance meeting. In the hypothetical, beyond the pleasantries, who would speak first and what would he say? Is this acceptable so far? - Amorella

         It is to me, at least in the hypothetical.

         In either case (that is either one is speaking first), I suggest this opening: "How are you feeling about yourself?" - I say this in context that both are well known among the Dead and both carry a human burden in being known, that is, being famous/infamous among all the human dead. Post. - Amorella

         2306 hours. I have been thinking on this off and on and I think this is an excellent question for any one of the Dead to sincerely ask another sheorhe cares about. It is an opening for an honest heartansoulanmind dialogue by any two or more of the Dead. Thank you, Amorella. It takes me a while to realize how perceptive you are about being human.

         Ironic, huh? Time for you to get a good night's sleep, young man. Post. - Amorella
         

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