PARTIAL TRUTHS

Emily Dickinson may not be your cup of tea due to her anachronistic capitalizations and frequent dashes. But her poem, The Brain, suggests that our thinking may be rooted in a passionless track unless we allow splinters of new thought to wash in. And then we may be hard pressed to regain our previous certainty.  Fear of new thoughts and emotions are what marches censorship up and down Main Street.

Emily Dickinson, #556

The Brain, within its Groove
Runs evenly--and true--
But let a Splinter swerve--
'Twere easier for You--

To put a Current back--
When Floods have slit the Hills--
And scooped a Turnpike for Themselves--
And trodden out the Mills--

The essay, Different Rules Apply by Matt Zoller Seitz, may be such a splinter that will move you to rebuild your emotional structures in a place where floods will not trod out your mill. If there is a "flood" where do you re-build your business? Might you consider a new source of energy? Do you dare think outside the box?

Jesus continually applied mercy as he walked the ancient turnpikes through villages and past country hovels, showing concern for the poor, for women and children: the least of these. The least we can do is step off our path for a moment to consider the idea Seitz offers in his painful and embarrassing story.



  

What Mortals Be

Is it dreamed or dreamt?

Whichever, when the phone rings at 4:45 AM with the same IRS scam recording we have been subjected to all week, cerebral word choice gets trampled underfoot by reptilian brain stem reaction.

When we are awakened by a resident who wobbles out of bed at 2:00 AM in agitated confusion, that is bad news. The good news is that prescribed meds and an attentive caregiver can re-tuck her/him under the bed covers, probably for the duration until the phone rings in the office almost three solid sleeping hours later.

“Tragedy has serious and logical consequences. Cause and effect. Comedy usually doesn’t. You throw a person off a tall building in a comedy, he bounces. You throw someone off a building in a tragedy, don’t wait for the bounce.”  Robin Hemley

Mortality being what it is, we had best find humor in the illogic of it all or we’ll burn out as kindling for tragedy. That would be disastrous.

I no longer desire to push the foreign accent speaking scammer off a tall building somewhere in LA where he sleeps. However, the good news is that the well articulated English speaking female on the recorded message left a phone number. When we returned the call at 4:47 AM we “spoke” to a groggy male person. Yes, I have his number and can use it at all hours whenever whoever in our Home wakes in distress.

That is mortal humor and I am laughing.

Commas and hyphens were omitted intentionally. Sue me. It’s 5:00 AM.