Monday, January 2, 2006
"All the Possibilities"
8:20am
"Holidailies 2005"
"I don't know how many times I went to the front window during the day, only to turn sadly back, shaking my head. Finally, just as it was getting dark, I managed a very short turn, just enough to get some longed-for fresh air in my lungs..."...I longed to walk in our cool, pleasant air. So we got dressed and we had a nice walk in Smucker's Park, the air was so fresh and clean.
this was taken on last week's sunset walk...
Later, I spent time in quiet reflection. I remembered those who have passed on, toasting them with sparkling apple-cranberry juice in my special goblet. Then I thought of what I'd like to accomplish in the year to come. There are so many things, but the proof comes in the doing. We will watch here together to see how the year unfolds.
Meanwhile, I hope for a happy and creative one.
In the evening, after looking at Jean Cocteau's art, I felt the itch to grab a pen:
A semblance of life...
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Old French sembler to be like, seem -- more at RESEMBLE
1 a : outward and often specious appearance or show : FORM <wrapped in a semblance of composure -- Harry Hervey>
1 b : MODICUM <has been struggling to get some semblance of justice for his people -- Bayard Rustin>
2 : ASPECT, COUNTENANCE
3 a : a phantasmal form : APPARITION b : IMAGE, LIKENESS
4 : actual or apparent resemblance
Lots of possibilities there, it could be superficial or actual resemblance. Meanwhile, I hope that when you look through your monitor screen at my pages, you'll find 'actual' resemblance of life!
I am looking forward to all the possibilities for this that I can find.
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
"Even Handed"
7:41pm
"Holidailies 2005"
I am rather ambidexterous, and my writing with my right hand is rather awful. (I even got an 'F' once in grade school for it.) Yet I am an artist. Shouldn't an artist have better handwriting?
Maybe I was 'meant' to be left handed all along? Meanwhile, I scrawl along with my right hand, (because that's what I've always done?) Yet, due to the influence of a left handed person, (Laura!), I have learned to mouse left handed. Now the mousing skills are used in my digital art, and I color and draw lines with that mouse, hardly aware anymore that the left hand is the hand that's doing it. I don't know as it has any other benefit, but perhaps it's good for the brain, as "The use of both sides of brains seems to improve episodic memory."
http://www.lcmedia.com/mind262.htm
Lefthanders have some disadvantages, but they seem to recover more quickly from a stroke:
"Which hand you rely on for writing and other fine motor activities is a window onto your brain, says Dr. Geschwind, particularly how your brain processes language. Most right handed people process language primarily in their left brains. Among lefties, on the other hand, about half use both sides of the brain to process language and ten percent process language primarily in their right brains. Because of the broader distribution of language in the brain, if a lefty loses the use of his right brain in a stroke, he is more likely to recover the use of language than his right-handed counterpart. While lefties are more likely to have some language processing difficulties, including dyslexia and stuttering, it may be that left handed people's different brain organization allow unusual development of other skills, such as spatial attention, and building mental maps and rotations."
http://www.lcmedia.com/mind262.htm
The following webauthor gives a very optimistic view:
"Studies have shown that ambidextrous people are more emotionally independent, more determined, more adaptable to new situations and more apt to handle problems without giving up."
http://www.mind-course.com/ambi.html
(I don't know what studies they were, or how reliable scientifically, but it's an interesting idea.) Meanwhile, I like studying my ambidexterity:
Yet, a simple drawing done quickly and spontaneously with my left hand does not appear awkward and jagged:
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 A
"Views to Inspire"
7:22pm
"Holidailies 2005"
Of course, in my lunch box, it isn't arranged so, but it does fill the box nicely.
Yesterday, we watched a fascinating show on PBS, "The Mummy Who Would Be King". The mummy was found in a Niagara Falls Museum display, along with two others, just so much 'side show' attraction, like 'The Thing' which draws people off of I-10 on route to Tombstone or Texas. Then one person interested in Egyptology uncovered the mummy, and found it unusual. At first, the experts were thinking its crossed arms meant it came from the Ptolemic period, when all mummies had their arms crossed, and not from the New Kingdom, when only pharoahs' mummies had their arms crossed. But then, with closer looking, this mummy had special distinctions about it, for extra special care went into its preparation. The line up of royals in Egypt are missing a few, and this mummy did look like Seti I and Ramses II. X-Raying them revealed the similarities even more strongly. These detective like examinations proved it is the body of a pharaoh---Rameses I.
If you have a chance, you might want to give this show an airing.
Tomorrow, we've marked the calender to remind us of the PBS show 'Hidden Turkey':
"A tour of the country explores its European-influenced modernity and its eastern and Islamic cultures, and how Turks bridge the two. Produced by food historian Bruce Kraig and his wife, director Jan Thompson."
I love the 'arm chair travelling', (in our case 'BSS' traveling [butt sucking sofa] ) that these programs provide. Meanwhile, the sky in Turkey or Egypt couldn't be any more impressive than our sunsets:
