Under the Maple Tree

Ah, good conversation — there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing."-- "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton "

 

 

The protagonist of The Age of Innocence,  Newland Archer, addresses his feelings about the shallow and often misguided world in which he lives. Here he praises the collaborative power of the mind, suggesting that it is in conversation with one another that we discover our best ideas.

 

After I completed my memoir, now titled Come On, I Dare You (to write your own), I came out the other side feeling happy. And with that, the idea of another blog gave me a thump.

 

While it appears that most conversation turns to the dismal, the depressing, and what's wrong with the world, what if we had a safe place to go, to sit under the tree in my backyard while sipping coffee, tea, or wine, we talk of good things, not bad, of Spirituality not sad?

 

So, what's it with you?

 

As we sit under the tree, we can first go around the group and tell how our lives have been this week, and let's insist that it's a two-minute gripe. (Write out your gripe below, it will make you feel better.)

 

My gripe of the week is AI and cloning, and now they are altering faces and putting words in people's mouths that they never spoke. Computer programs can do that. Now, we must work hard to discern what's real and what's not. If I find out I'm a clone I will be livid, they could at least set me back to where my body worked better.

That's my two minutes. See, it didn't even take that long.  

 

But, notice how we want to continue with the computer program gripe and wring it a bit more. It's hard to switch, isn't it?

 

After a while, we might start laughing at all the wrongness we can come up with. And then we might be anxious to speak of things that make us laugh or motivate us to new heights. We may be into something creative we want to share, a new thought on an old subject, something inspiring. a positive think tank of sorts. 

 

While writing my memoir/adventure, travel special interest story, I began looking to the positive and read Robert Fulgrums* story about two college boys who were eating a chair. 

 

At that writing, the boys had consumed a rung, two legs, and a back piece. They had been rasping off fine particles and sprinkling them on their granola and salads. Their professor told them to do something they had never done and to write about it. 

 

In that vein, I asked a lady at the grocery store if anything funny happened that day. She thought a minute and said, "No, not today, but yesterday a lady came into the store with no pants on. Will that work as funny?"

 

I laughed and told her she made my day.

 

Come on over and sit a spell. https://coffeeteayouandme.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Add to the conversation and add a gripe, a funny or profundity in the comment section. 

 

 

 

 

*What On Earth Have I Done? By Robert Fulghum

 

Words, Words All over the Place

Whoops, I dropped some into my coffee.

 

Have you ever had someone ask you a question, and you tried to answer, but about two sentences in, their attention wandered off, and you were left feeling that you were the stupidest person on the planet?

You think, well, I’m not emoting enough. I should be more dramatic. I don’t have the right words. I’m boring.

No! The person is self-centered.

Last night my daughter told me of such an experience she had with an elderly lady. I reassured her that while it might be excusable with an old person, it’s not justifiable with someone will all their facilities. My daughter is a precise person and not overly talkative.

I’ve had such an experience, and that was after I had listened to them tell the same story about five times.

Although I fear for my words on paper sometimes, for I want my writing to be fun or exciting, or informative, and know they can fall short. Still, I keep keeping on.

You keep on keeping on, too—whatever your calling is.

Keep doing it, for you’ll get better with the doing of it. That’s what practice does for a person.

But don’t keep doing the same old stuff.

If a pianist kept practicing the same piece with the same errors repeatedly, he would perfect it with mistakes. I suspect soon, he would think it sounded good with the mistakes.

I recently read about conversation. Few people correctly judge when a conversation should end. You know sometimes you are rolling, and you are sorry you had to end the visit. You are often wondering how to end a phone call or, say, at a dinner party. You like them. You’ve just run dry.

It’s a tricky business being a human being.

Funny too.

Sometimes you want to ask a person about a particular belief system, and they open up and bombard you with more information than you wanted to know. Or want to beat you up with their belief system.

It makes us leery about asking. Still, you want to know what they think and why they think the way they do.

I remember reading about ancient Egypt. According to one source, they were quite allowing when a new person wandered into the village. They would ask, “Who’s your god?”

They felt there was room for many and genuinely accepted another person’s point of view. They didn’t have to embrace it as their own, but it was interesting to them what the other person thought.

Imagine.

 

For a chuckle check out the pics on my Pinterest site, the board is, “The Art of Animal Stacking."

https://www.pinterest.com/jewelld747/the-art-of-animal-stacking/