We are now well and truly into autumn, what with the constant rain and cooler temps. It almost feels like Seattle (my spiritual home) except for the humidity, which bothers the life out of me. Our local body of water, Lake Lanier, is at full pool for the first time in a couple of years, due to a long drought. Thank the Lord. Maybe now we can quit talking about it and move on.
Talking about the weather is always one of those stand-bys, though, isn't it? You're talking to someone, you sense the conversation is about to dry up, so one of you injects new life into the discourse with a well-placed "What about all this rain we keep having, huh?". And then you know you're good for a couple of minutes, five at the most, until the dialogue stops again and one of you will have to start talking about sports. If, like me, though, you're not into sports..(pause for collective gasp... "Jeff, you live in Georgia... home of the Braves, home of the Dawgs, home of the dogfighting NFL players... how can you not be a rabid sports nut like the rest of us...??") you will have to dig deep to keep the conversation going and try to avoid talking about health problems, at least the gross ones - stuff like back pain and sore feet is OK - and especially avoid talking about Auntie Luanne's emphysema - otherwise the conversation dies.
That's alright though. Remember the first line of Max Ehrmann's poem 'Desiderata' -
"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence."
So if I don't post for a few days, I'm alright, I'm just going placidly. I remember the words of another classic verse, "If" , by the great Rudyard Kipling, which also has to do with 'going placidly'...
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!
The trouble with YouTube is its ability to rob you of time. With every video you watch comes a laundry list of suggestions, so you click on one and up comes another list. Once you get in a groove it is very hard to stop. The other night I was watching a bunch of Gilbert O'Sullivan videos (I can hear the stifled giggles and snickers - do not judge me, or I will post the song "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro). I love this one.
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