Here are some other things I didn't say href="http://dichroic.diaryland.com/punkinbad.html">earlier.
One of the best parts of
href="http://mechaieh.diaryland.com/diving.html">Mechaieh's visit for me was
getting to show off the acoustics of my living room. Most of the people I know
have that unfortunate modern belief that no one should sing who's not a Singer,
capital S. Well, I'm not, but I do it anyway. Mechaieh is, and we traded song
lines for a while, standing in my raised entryway that's almost like a stage,
facing in to the empty living room (because we live in the family room) and singer
to the dust motes and the cats. Later when I was changing my clothes I heard her
back downstairs, serenading the house again.
Today I called my cleaning service to have them stop coming. This is the first
major thing I've had to cut back since losing my job. We've been going out to eat
a little more rarely, but we still go a couple of times a week, and until this,
the only change was just the actual not going to work. I hate cleaning, but
couldn't justify having someone else cleaning my house when I'm here all day with
plenty of time to do it.
This, from Emily Dickinson, is quoted in the book I'm reading, Madeleine L'Engle's
A Live Coal in the Sea which is about love, betrayal, truth, and
mercy:
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind
This is one time my engineering background was a handicap in interpreting poetry -
- at first I thought "Circuit" meant an electrical one, especially given the
mention of Lightning later. I thought she was saying something about containment
versus unleashed wildness. Instead, though, she seems to be referring to
circuitousness -- yes, tell the truth, but break it easily and indirectly, so that
we can absorb it without being stunned. I think I disagree, if she's talking about
daily truth. And if she's talking about a Divine Truth -- it's hard to tell, with
Emily -- then I know L'Engle agrees entirely, but I'm more inclined to go with
Iris Dement:
Everybody's wonderin' what and where they all came from
everybody's worryin' 'bout where they're gonna go
when the whole thing's done
but no one knows for certain
and so it's all the same to me
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Some say once you're gone you're gone forever
and some say you're gonna come back
Some say you rest in the arms of the Saviour
if in sinful ways you lack
Some say that they're comin' back in a garden
bunch of carrots and little sweet peas
I think I'll just let the mystery be
Some say they're goin' to a place called Glory
and I ain't saying it ain't a fact
but I've heard that I'm on the road to purgatory
and I don't like the sound of that
I believe in love and I live my life accordingly
but I choose to let the mystery be
Posted by dichroic at October 8, 2001 04:59 PM