Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own;
He who secure within can say
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
—John Dryden, 1631-1700
I love the spirit of those lines, but they make a part of me a little nervous. Mostly I’m not superstitious, but just in case does he have to say, “Tomorrow do thy worst?”
What do you think?
February 1, 2025
The last few posts reminded me of the end of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses:
Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
“Though much is taken, much abides.” Not giving up yet. Doing the best we can with what we have left. 😀
January 31, 2025
Life is about making mistakes and learning and loving and finding your place in the world.
Finding your comfort. Finding your peace….
…especially now.
—Jess Piper
I agree with that. As usual my version is,
Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.
January 30, 2025
For years I have liked Albert Camus’s,
In the midst of winter, I found there was,
within me, an invincible summer.
But I didn’t know it came from a longer poem:
Invincible
In the midst of hate, I found there was,
within me, an invincible love.In the midst of tears, I found there was,
within me, an invincible smile.In the midst of chaos, I found there was,
within me, an invincible calm…I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was,
within me, an invincible summer.And that makes me happy. For it says that
no matter how hard the world pushes against me,
within me, there’s something stronger –
something better, pushing right back.
“Pushing right back.” Yes! The older I get the more important that is.
January 29, 2025
to guess that it was warmer out yesterday. Here’s what the Silver Sneakers class looked like:
There were a lot more people there than there were Friday:
Sure enough, it was already above 40°F by 10:30 in the morning.
January 28, 2025
The weather the past week or so reminded me of these January 2022 paragraphs in the Boston Globe about the weather there.
As she walked her dog on Saturday morning, with one plow after another passing her, she struggled to open her eyes as small flakes pelted her from seemingly every direction.
Trudging through shin-deep snow, the 34-year-old was among the few to venture into the neighborhood’s desolate streets — most of them miserable people walking happy dogs.
I hope conditions aren’t so miserable where you are! It’s cold here, but a lot nicer than that.
January 27, 2025
The above is a screen shot from yesterday’s Zoom meeting with the group I studied with in Germany 65 years ago. One of the students had stayed in Europe and passed away last year, and her two sons joined yesterday’s meeting. One still lives in Germany, the other lives in northern Spain.
As I’ve said before, the internet is my window to the world. This is the kind of social media that expands our horizons and deepens our thinking instead of just grabbing our attention and wasting our time.
January 26. 2025
This was a 2016 picture of the Silver Sneakers class I went to before Covid. I’m in the middle row, the third from the left.
These are pictures I took of my TV screen yesterday morning. It’s still Silver Sneakers, and the teacher is the same, but I don’t have to go out in the cold to participate. I just Zoom it to my iPad and mirror it to my TV.
How great is that?
January 25, 2025
Don’t be afraid to start over. This time you’re not starting from scratch. You’re starting from experience.
—Anonymous
Andy doesn’t want to mess with computers and devices (unless the computer is set up for him), which is understandable, because it can take a lot of time and he’s not interested. But he rails against them and insists they are toys, not tools, because they are always changing. A tool, he says, is like a shovel. You learn to use it and it doesn’t change. With computers and other devices if you take the time to learn to use it that knowledge is soon wasted, the system changes and you have to start from scratch.
But I’m with the quote above. Yes, we may have to keep adjusting as they change things, but it isn’t starting from scratch. Every time I encounter a problem and work through it, I learn something new. And that experience helps. It gets easier and easier to guess what the designers were thinking and to trouble shoot when things go wrong. Plus it’s great practice in persistence and patience and not getting frustrated.
Anyway, I’m glad he was willing to learn the steps needed to connect his flip phone to Starlink up on the land. When I thanked him for that he said he was willing to do it because he was annoyed at Verizon. So I’m glad we made that phone call to Verizon about our diminished service and higher monthly bills. Some good came out of it. We can now phone one another as well as text reliably.
January 24, 2025
is ready for winter to be over.
What about you? (I actually like winter and am willing to wait.)
January 23, 2025
