Boxes

Those who do not think outside the box are easily contained.

~ Nicolas Manetta

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So when we moved, our movers put little comments on our boxes. Like above they wrote, "LR Bricks" when it was a box of BOOKS from the living room. Funny, right? My favorite was "Chester Drawers" for the dresser in the bedroom.

Anyway, because we knew so many grad students who were moving across the country to their new jobs in North Carolina, Idaho, and Maine, (as well as lots of other places) and faculty who were moving to Oklahoma, we shared our boxes when we were finished with them.

When we were waiting for the movers to pack up our things, I overheard one of them say something about a "box of lead pipes." I don't know what they packed in that box as we did not and still do not own lead pipes. Apparently, this is one of the boxes we gave to Liz when she moved away. I know this because of the following exchange on Facebook:

liz: do you ever think you're shipping a box of office supplies to your new office but in reality you shipped everything fragile you own and now have 12 broken mugs?

Me: No. I don't do that.

liz: no you just pack lead pipes in boxes.

Me: They belong in either The Conservatory or The Ballroom, if you don't mind.

liz: I'll be sure to have Professor Plum put them in The Ballroom of my one bedroom apartment.

Me: Professor Plum is too busy writing grants and doing research. Have Mr. Green do it.

Go

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Sally asked me why I left town and then Leslie went out on a bunch of hikes and adventures.

I said, "She actually did that hike [referring to a FB post] the day I flew here so she didn't have to take me to the airport."

(pause)

It's true. It's also true that I think taking me to the airport is kind of an adventure. 

And also you can rearrange the letters in "adventure" to spell "evade turn."

So what about that? You didn't know that did you? 

No you didn't.

Don't argue with me.

Art

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.

~ Edgar Degas

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I was sitting in the library and out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy drawing. I like to watch people draw or do whatever kind of art. Well, maybe not mixed martial arts. Anyway, I wondered what he was working on. Then I looked more closely. He wasn't drawing. He was scrolling through stuff on his phone.

And don't even try to tell me that's kind of an art. It isn't.

Bridge

It takes both sides to build a bridge.

~ Fredrik Nael

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I agree. It does take both sides to build a bridge. And if the other side isn't going to work with you to build the bridge, why do you want to build a bridge there? That's like someone building a wall and wanting you to pay for it.

Cold

Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.

~ William Wadsworth

- - - - -

I like the cold. Not for a long time. I like it just long enough to get chilly so then I can go in and get warm again. I like being out in the cold and reflecting and having amazing insights and enjoying the quiet chill of slow movement and icy reflection.

Who am I kidding? I like the cold because it keeps most people inside where they don't get on my nerves as much.

Hole

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.

~ Abraham Lincoln

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This is the stump of a doughnut tree.

Not really. Ha ha. I made that up.

It's the stump of a Cheerio tree.

Learning

All children have preparedness, potential, curiosity and interest in constructing their learning, in engaging in social interaction and in negotiating with everything the environment brings to them.

~ Lella Gandini

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I like to see when children learn things. I like to see how they connect action and words and how they learn they have some control over their environments. But not too much control. Back of kid, you're just a child. You're not the boss of me.

Actually, probably not true. Kids are kind of the bosses of us. Well, not me. But they are the bosses of you.

Autumn

Now autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.

~ William Allingham

- - - - -

I love autumn.

Is it interesting that at the end is when leaves show their true colors?

No. 

But they sure are pretty.

Gourds

When a gourd is hollowed out it becomes empty and is of great use to world because of its emptiness.

~ Dorothy Gilman

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I hadn't thought about the value of emptiness until I read this quote. Why is empty considered negative? Or is it just me who has that negative connotation about emptiness? Could be. Sometimes it's just me a lot of the times.

But emptiness has room to accept, right? It has space to be flexible. It can be receptive. 

When one is full there isn't space for those things. Full is closed. Full is refusal. Full is complete.

I prefer to be incomplete. And I prefer to be a work in progress. I prefer to have room to receive new ways of thinking and seeing and being.

And present. I prefer to have room to get more presents.