Jason has not seen his sister since he was two. She is still in Korea. Please visit his post and share on your blogs and other social media to see if we can help get the message to her.
Category: blogging
One-Liner Wednesday: theory and practice
“In theory, there is no difference between practice and theory. In practice, there is.”
– Attributed to Yogi Berra, but probably not by him
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/berra/practicetheory.asp#CHAyqP6utPsWQgoM.99
This quote is part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/09/09/one-liner-wednesday-the-first-lesson-in-relationships/comment-page-1/#comment-58719
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Share a Post with OM
OM has a thread open for bloggers to promote themselves, their book, their project, etc. Come one, come all!
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SoCS: “Between the Dark and the Daylight”
One of my volunteer gigs is facilitating for a spirituality study group at my church. We meet on Wednesday mornings to read and discuss a book on a spiritual topic. After a summer break, we met for the first time this part week to begin reading Between the Dark and the Daylight by Joan Chittister.
The subtitle of the the book is Embracing the Contradictions of Life. We all feel that we need help with this!
Sister Joan begins by explaining that life is full of paradoxes and then illustrates the point through a series of relatively short chapters, with titles like “The Poverty of Plenty” and “The Sanity of Irrationality” and “The Certitude of Doubt”. Not that I have read the whole book yet. I like to keep a bit ahead of the group so that I am prepared to lead discussion, but I don’t like to be so far ahead that I am throwing in concepts from later chapters before we get to them.
It is a bit odd that I am facilitating the group because I am its junior member. OK – in most contexts I am not considered a “junior” but, at 54, I am the youngest. Many of the women – and we are all women, even though, theoretically, a man could choose to attend – have children in my age cohort.
I wound up doing it because the IHM sister who began the group decades ago needed to move on to some other duties and asked me to take it on. Do you know how difficult it is to say no to a sister when she asks you to do something for the parish? So I said yes, even though I didn’t feel qualified. Part of what makes it work is that I facilitate discussion rather than try to teach. The wisdom of the authors of the books we read plus the wisdom of the group carries us through.
It’s enlightening.
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. The prompt this week was “light.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/09/04/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-515/
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SoCS: Poet
I am a poet. I claim the title, even though it isn’t the way I make a living or something for which I have academic credentials. (Realistically, very few poets make a living at poetry.)
I read an essay a couple of years ago by a young, credentialed poet, who was published and had been an editor, but who still felt he shouldn’t be called a poet because he wasn’t suffering for his art in a garret somewhere.
I, however, don’t make it that complicated for myself.
I considered myself a poet before I was even published because it was what I felt I am, in the same way that I am a daughter, a spouse, a mother, a woman, a musician.
It’s what I am, not what I do.
Maybe it is easier for me because I don’t do paid work, so I don’t have a ready-made answer when someone asks what I do, by which they nearly always mean “what is your job?”
I can claim to be a poet, because it is a mode of expression that is important to me and that I have been working on developing.
I am also a late-developing poet, given that I have only started writing seriously in my fifties. In the last two years, I have been working on improving my poems through participating with the Binghamton Poetry Project (a community workshop run by grad students at Binghamton University), a group of local poets who meet regularly to critique each other’s work, and a new women’s group called Sappho’s Circle.
I am about to take another big step as a poet – attending a residency/workshop. I have been angsting/mulling this over the last couple of days, which you can read about here and here.
So, I think this weekend I am going to register.
It’s one of those things that we poets do.
Because of who we are.
*****
This post of part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturdays. The prompt this week is “four-letter word.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/08/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-2915/
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One-Liner Wednesday: Women’s Equality Day (USA)
“As we celebrate the last 95 years of progress in advancing women’s rights, let us rededicate ourselves to the idea that our nation is not yet complete: there is still work to do to secure the blessings of our country for every American daughter.”
– President Barack Obama, from the declaration of today, August 26, 2015, as Women’s Equality Day in the United States, in recognition of the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, barring sex discrimination in voting rights.
This post is part of Linda’s One-LIner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out how here:
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A big thank you!
I’m grateful to everyone who has been visiting Top of JC’s Mind over these past couple of weeks. Since I did my 500(ish) followers and SoCS posts, I have received many encouraging compliments, likes, and follows.
It is so heart-warming and affirming that I have been trying to get a post or reblog out every day, even if it is short, as this one will be. It’s a busy week, as we try to fit in appointments, family visits, shopping, packing, and move-in for T in the one week between the end of her summer internship and the start of the semester.
It’s finally starting to sink in that this is the last year of grad school for both E and T. The end of the journey of having one or both daughters in formal schooling which began in 1991.
Wow! That looks like such a long time when it is written down.
Maybe I should take a rest…
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SoCS: Top of JC’s Mind
…because, seriously, when the prompt is “mind”, how could I not?
I started Top of JC’s Mind almost two years ago because several people told me that I should start a blog. I had originally planned to call it Top of My Mind, but that was already taken, so I put my initials in the title instead.
I know that I couldn’t contain myself to a single topic, so I set out to write about whatever is on the top of my mind, but that isn’t quite true.
You see, the top of my mind is a pretty crowded space. If I wrote about everything that was on the top of my mind in any given day, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else.
So, I write only a bit of what is at the top of my mind – and those bits have been distributed differently than I originally envisioned.
I had thought that I would write a lot about fracking – or anti-fracking, really – because I spent many moons writing commentary on it as part of the anti-fracking grassroots in New York State. And there is some writing in that vein, along with climate change and other environmental themes, but, with the (mostly) ban in place, that has slowed down, perhaps much to the relief of readers, as well as fracktivists.
I also thought that I would post more poetry than I do. The reason is that I am trying to publish in literary journals, nearly all of whom will only consider work that is not previously published. And, for the most part, that means that if they can google it, they won’t accept it, even if it is only out on my little blog with a dozen views. Consequently, I don’t put too many of my poems here unless they have appeared elsewhere first. Generally, the rights revert back to me after publication.
I have written more about family and personal experiences than I intended, largely due to circumstances. A year ago, our elders, Nana, Paco, and Grandma, all ran into health challenges and the top, middle, and bottom of my mind were all pretty much filled up with care-taking and concern. Then, there are the more fun family things to post, like spending five weeks in Hawai’i with my daughter E.
I do want to get back to posting more about topics, such as feminism, politics, and religion/ethics. The life of the mind is important to me. I just wish there was a more direct and faster way to get my thoughts onto the (computer) page.
Although that would be overwhelming.
No one needs that much Top of JC’s Mind.
Except for me, of course, for whom there is no escape…
*****
This post is part of Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday. This week’s prompt is “mind.” Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/08/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-august-2215/
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One-Liner Wednesday: infinite knowledge
“And what is the point of infinite knowledge if it only cuts you off from the world?”
– Kate Soper, from the program notes for her opera, Here Be Sirens
This post is part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Join us! Find out how here: http://lindaghill.com/2015/08/19/one-liner-wednesday-the-superpower-we-didnt-know-we-have/
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Calling people from around the world!
A few days ago, I re-blogged this post: https://ireadencyclopedias.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/reaching-out-to-the-world/
from Jay Dee of I Read Encyclopedias for Fun. He is trying to get comments from as many countries as possible. So far, people have responded from USA, Canada, UK, Germany and Ireland. Let’s help him expand the list!
Here’s how you can help:
1) If you are from another country – and I know I have regular visitors from India and Australia – please click on the link and leave a comment, telling Jay Dee where you are from.
2) If you have a blog, are on Facebook, tweet, or engage in any other social media, please consider sharing the link with your followers. There are handy sharing buttons at the end of the post or you can copy and post the link yourself.
Let’s see if we can get visitors from dozens of countries for Jay Dee! Thanks!
Joanne Corey 