—
Oct24
universal declaration.
—
Category Archives: Life
Oct20
minnehaha.
seeing the bones of this ship on the shores of lake michigan
washed up on the camp arcadia beach
and wondering how they came to be here.
—
The Minnehaha, built in 1880 by Linn & Craig in Gibralter, Michigan, was a 4-masted, 200 foot, wooden schooner used to haul cargo in Great Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. On October 13th of 1893, the steam barge Henry J. Johnson was towing the Minnehaha from Chicago bound for Point Edward at the south end of Lake Huron with 58,000 bushels of corn when facing 90 mile per hour gale force winds, the ship was lost to the sea.
—
“the sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope.
now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning:
we are all in the same boat.
-jacques yves cousteau
—
http://www.arcadiami.com/index.php/hidden-exhibits/hidden-shipwrecks/hidden-minnehaha
—
credits: maritime history of the great lakes, bowling green state university, camp arcadia
Oct18
renewed.
a blustery autumn day
on the shores of lake michigan
the wind and the sea so full of life.
—
as wave is driven by wave
and each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead
so time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,
always, forever and new, what was before
is left behind: what never was is now:
and every passing moment is renewed.
-ovid
—
lake michigan, arcadia, michigan, usa – october 2020
Oct17
done.
even brave dragons
have their moments
when they sit down
between the goal posts
the football sits down
on the ground
and
they are just done.
—
“by letting it go it all gets done.
the world is won by those who let it go.
but when you try and try
the world is beyond the winning.”
-lao tzu
Oct15
fingernail.
when i was a little girl
one of my sisters used to bite her nails
when i’d look out the window
see the sliver of a moon
i thought that was her nail up there
wanting endlessly
to think of a way to get it back for her.
—
“it’s like we’re on a rocket ship that we were just painting,
and suddenly it took off
and we’re holding onto the ship with our fingernails.
– Esteban Contreras
Oct14
it’s complicated.
oh, we all have those days
you start out by not having your water bottle
so you get a special halloween cup of water
it gets tipped over when you are cutting
you go to get a paper towel to dry it up
but you come back with what you can find
toilet paper
that gets wet and mushy
the extra part rolls out on the floor
your coat falls off of the back of your chair
the paper you were cutting gets soaked and chopped into little pieces
because you are really good at cutting
you can’t find the cap to your marker
because it rolled off your table
now it might dry up
all you have left are the dark color crayons
you don’t get time to finish your cheez-its
because you are trying to clean up
the ones that are left get wet and are mushy
you go out to recess and run and run and go on a pirate adventure
your teachers love you anyway and tell you it happens to them too
and it’s all okay.
—
“there’s no limit to how complicated things can get,
on account of one thing always leading to another.”
-E. B. White
Oct13
strangeness of everything.
—
there came a time, he realized,
when the strangeness of everything
made it increasingly difficult
to realize the strangeness of anything.
-james hilton, lost horizon
Oct12
“the world needs more canada.” president obama addressing parliment.
happy canadian thanksgiving
thanks for being a superhero of a neighbor
“i think maybe, if i could be a canadian super hero,
i’d have some kind of freezing power
and some sort of maple syrup weapon.
could be a little sticky.
-nathan fillion
—
Credits: Wikipedia, Marvel Comics
Captain Canuck is a Canadian comic book superhero named for former Vancouver Canucks Captain, Trevor Linden, nicknamed Captain Canuck. Created by cartoonist Ron Leishman and artist/writer Rchard Comely, the original Captain Canuck first appeared in Captain Canuck #1 (July 1975). The series was the first successful Canadian comic book since the collapse of the nation’s comic book industry following WWII.
Three characters have worn the maple leaf costume of Captain Canuck. The first Captain Canuck patrolled Canada in the then-future year of 1993, where “Canada had become the most powerful country in the world”. He was the costumed agent of the “Canadian International Security Organization” (CISO). In 1995, Captain Canuck was honored with a Canadian postage stamp.
CAPTAIN CANADA – Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Oct11
jamais vu?
What’s the opposite of deja vu?
you may encounter these disconcerting moments from time to time -instances where you walk into a new situation and find it oddly familiar despite never having experienced it before. This common phenomenon is called déjà vu, French for “already seen.”
At its opposite is a slightly less common phenomenon — jamais vu, which translates to “never seen” in French. It’s when you’re in a familiar situation but suddenly feel as if you’re experiencing it for the first time. This could happen with a certain place, an action, or even a person. Your sense of knowing disappears despite recognizing that something has occurred before.
Imagine, for example, that you’re driving to work or to your favorite shopping spot. You turn down one lane and suddenly find yourself momentarily at a loss — “Am I supposed to turn right or left next?” you wonder, even though you’ve driven this path so many times it’s muscle memory now.
At other times, you may find yourself forgetting certain details — blanking out, or unable to remember a name you use every day. It’s that frustrating “tip of the tongue” feeling where you just can’t get the words out. These floundering moments that leave you bewildered, blindsided, and questioning your memory are perfect examples of jamais vu.
You’ve Experienced Jamais Vu Without Knowing It
If you think you’ve never experienced jamais vu, think again. Pick a word — “shampoo” — and repeat it 15 to 20 times. Does it sound odd? Does it sound fake? Has it lost all meaning? Logically, you know what shampoo is, but it becomes an unfamiliar term as you repeatedly voice it aloud.
In 2006 a study conducted by cognitive neuropsychologist Chris Moulin induced jamais vu in his study participants with this word repetition method. In the experiment, 92 volunteers wrote the word “door” 30 times in one minute. Sixty-eight percent reported symptoms of jamais vu as they began to doubt the reality of the word. Moulin went on to relate the brain fatigue with schizophrenia, likening the mental illness to a chronic and extreme form of jamais vu.
It might be easier to understand it as a glitch in the system. When you experience jamais vu, you may try to reason with yourself that the situation should be familiar, but there’s a hiccup. The part of your brain that’s supposed to be processing and logging the information, connecting it to past experiences, isn’t responding in kind, leaving you wondering how to react.
If you experience this sensation on a few rare occasions, don’t worry — it’s completely normal. If this bewildering feeling starts to happen more regularly, consider a visit to your doctor. Jamais vu can also describe symptoms of certain neurological conditions.
At the end of the day, jamais vu, like déjà vu, is a tricky phenomenon to explain, but still a normal human occurrence. The next time you pause, bewildered, during a summary of your favorite movie, or briefly panic over which turn to take while on your evening jog, remind yourself it’s probably just a moment of jamais vu.
—
Source: Word Genius,
Image credit: Alexandre Ayer
Oct10
hawk.
today at school
we looked up
way up
on top
of the carved art pole
covered in languages
all saying one thing
‘peace’
a hopeful sign
the kinder
could not stop watching
this beautiful bird
as it flew up to the tree
and off into the sky.
—
we may be losing the ability
to understand animals who are not pets or horses.
we have less contact with them.
we don’t (most of us) tend to know even cows or pigs,
let alone bears or wolverines or red tailed hawks.
*-marge piercy
*Marge Piercy (1936) is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. Her work includes Woman on the Edge of Time; He, She and It, which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and Gone to Soldiers, a New York Times Best Seller, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II. Piercy’s work is rooted in her Jewish heritage, social and political activism, and her feminist ideals. She influenced the Women’s Movement through both her writing and her unconventional life.
I didn't have my glasses on.... 