DISJOINTED RAMBLING

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

— Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) 

Yeah, attending to an answer, listening to what someone says. Perhaps that will creep into my "practice" if this mindfulness, this general paying attention business stays on my mental forefront. On the other hand, I will also need to practice by talking to more people. My world, at least in telephone and face-to-face contact, is fairly limited these days. Cooder, Emmy, and Albert ... well, I was going to say that maybe there wasn't much there ... but come to think of it, I could attend to them more ... attentively ... as well.

Pardon the rambling nature of this, but the caffeine is still kicking in.

Later that ... well...  not really morning anymore. I am preparing to head down to Brooklyn and Manhattan until Thursday and I find that I am anxious. I am avoiding getting ready, although I have had ample preparation time. And it is not any big deal, no pressure situations. But here I am playing solitaire and feeling just slightly out of sorts. And isn't because of the constant drone of the power mowers in the background. 

I don't like this anxiety about leaving and/or going places. It's a new-ish thing. Just sharing.

Days later. 

Made it to New York City and back, more or less in one piece and now with darker hair! I've settled back in and, this afternoon, I will buckle down on the graphic novel again. I am going to head out for an hour of walking and The Brothers K and thence to writing.

Gravestone at Quaker Hill.

Being out of the home environment leads to more indulgence in food and alcohol, but at least on Wednesday I did plenty of walking. S is on the Quaker Cemetary Committee and thus has keys to Quaker Hill in Prospect Park. He needed to see if the keys worked, so we walked over there and walked all around the cemetary, which was hella-cool.

And I finally finally finally finished Tom Bissell's book of essays, Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation. Yay! I only checked it out of the library five or six times.

"Films, perhaps, show us who we want to be, and literature shows us who we actually are. Sitcoms, if they show us anything, show us people we might like to know. Because of this, the sitcom is a medium designed to reassure. The more reassuring the sitcom, the better its chances become at winding up in the financial promised land of syndication, where multi-camera sitcomes fare far better than their single-camera brethern. Most sitcoms are about families, and for the millions who watch them, a sitcom becomes a kind of mental family. Week after week, your couch faces the couch of characters you feel you know, characters whose problems never quite get solved."

from A Simple Medium: Chuck Lorre and the American Sitcom

I don't watch many sitcoms, although I have seen all of the episodes of 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. I did find this very interesting.

Okay. More later. Cooder wants Greenies and I do need to get a-walking.

Emmylou joined us on the bed again this morning.