"Snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, father westward, softly falling into the dark multinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
James Joyce [1882-1941]
Dubliners, The Dead
November 21, 2022
Reflection
APPEARANCE VS. REALITY
There is appearance and there is reality.
Sometimes they match.
Sometimes when they don't seem to match; uproar happens.
Appearance is a reality.
November 21, 2022
Monday - Thought for Today
"Lonely people talking to each other can make each other lonelier."
Lillian Hellman [1905-1984]
The Autumn Garden [1951] Act I
November 20, 2022
Reflection
I DID
What's a man - or a woman - to do when their spouse has died - not physically - but emotionally?
What's woman a man to do when their spouse refuses to talk about it to each other - or to a counselor?
November 20, 2022
Sunday - Thought for Today
"There comes a time in every man's life and I've had many of them."
Casey Stengel [c, 1890 - 1975]
Remark
November 19, 2022
Reflection``
IRELAND
I'm about to take a trip to Ireland.
For starters - here we're sitting on the tarmac tonight. Aer Lingus - the take off - talking - reading - sleeping - waking up in the morning - to see the green - fields down there - out our airbus windows.
Ireland....
Coming home to the place where I could have been born - if mom and dad stayed there - married there - like their brother and sister did - over there.
If they stayed there, would there be a me?
Life. Mystery. Where we come from. Where we are. How we got to be who and where we are from.
Ah sweet mystery of life ....
We're here....
First: the bus ride - looking out the windows - with American eyes - inner sights as well - and the questions - the what if's, the what might have beens ....
Are there answers to what if's - other than the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."
Are their poems other than,"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...."? No one can take both roads.
Am I asking everybody''s questions? Does everyone wonder about roads - the roads I took and the different roads I never took.
I'm sure these questions are louder and clearer after the death of loved ones - or divorce from broken ones.
Is this the origen of the word, "Interesting" - when it is said long and slow and has a pondering overtone.
Ireland - I'm saying to myself - if I was born here - I'd be speaking Gaelic. If born here[ would I have become a priest? If born here, would I be the youngest or would I even be?
I'll find answers to some of my questions as I go down different roads - especially the roads of Galway.
Ooops! I still need to unpack so much.
November 19, 2022
Saturday - Thought for Today
"If only we could know what was going on in a baby's mind while observing him in action we would certainly understand everything there is to psychology."
