Candy

Candy is my fuel.

~ Jane Smiley

- - - - -

I know that Halloween is supposed to be a scary holiday. I know that you are supposed to be startled when kids knock on your door and are wearing costumes. You're supposed to comment on their outfits when you put treats in their bag.

But that doesn't scare me. "Trick or Treat!" isn't a scary phrase.

However, if a kid ever knocked and said, "Tick or Treat!" that would freak me out. I don't want kids putting ticks on me. I'd give them all the candy they wanted.

Of course if they were dressed as an entomologist, that would be kind of awesome.

Terror

The world was full of monsters, and they were allowed to bite the innocent and unwary.

~ Stephen King, Cujo

- - - - -

Sometimes it's scary when your dad threatens to wipe your brother's frosting covered face on you. Sometimes it's scarier when you're not sure if that is frosting or if your brother has rabies.

Art

Art by Maddie Fowler

Creativity takes courage.

~ Henri Matisse

- - - - -

Maddie is an amazing artist. This is a flower brick she made and sent to me for Christmas last year. I love seeing her work. 

I especially love seeing it in person as a gift for me.

Fan

Being a sports fan is a complex matter, in part irrational, but not unworthy; a relief from the seriousness of the real world, with it's unending pressures and often grave obligations.

~ Richard Gilman

- - - - -

Overheard...

Kid: What I like about football is Trevor's brother. They were playing and then they tackled him.

Chairs

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

~ Stephen King

- - - - -

I recently visited my brother in Portland, ME. His son, Zak is in the process of being potty-trained. This made me think of two things...

First, when Zak gets older, he can tell people he and Stephen King were potty-trained in the same town. Like if he's doing a get to know you thing and they have to share some "fun facts" or something like that. Of course, if he's doing the get to know you activity in Portland, that might not set him apart from a lot of other people.

Second, technically any chair can be a potty chair - it's just that some are better for potty training than others.

Farm

When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.

~ Daniel Webster

- - - - -

Opening line for one of my upcoming short stories. Or novels. Or screenplays.

"They called it a farmhouse table, but we all knew it had never been inside a farmhouse."

Mornings

At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear. 

~ Norman Maclean

- - - - -


I do a lot of social media stuff in the morning. I try to post my blog. I check to see what people have posted the night before. I see how people have responded if I posted anything the night before.

If people post things I like, I like those things. I have multiple social media accounts so I can like things more than once. If I've never liked things you posted more than once that's because they probably weren't very good.

Scarcity

Time is our ultimate scarcity.

~ Paul Samuelson

- - - - -

Overheard:

So, here's my life plan: I'm going to eliminate scarcity in the first 20 years of my career. Then I'm going to lead the proletariat revolution.

(pause)

I probably should have gotten that guy's name.

Same

The role of the clown and the physical is the same - it's to elevate the possible and relieve suffering.

~ Patch Adams

- - - - -

I like finding unusual commonalities. Like in the image above, Google matched me with the work of art I most resemble. It's freakily accurate, isn't it?

I try to do this in other ways, too. I think about people who are similar and then wonder if they would be friends if they knew each other. Or if they are contemporaries how their work aligns. Or I I've never seen them in the same place together, if they might be the same person. For instance, sometimes I wonder if Banksy and Jack the Ripper are the same person and he just learned to more productively redirect his energy over time.

Life is a mystery.

Furioso

People won't have time for you if you are always angry and complaining.

~ Stephen Hawking

- - - - -

I have been angry before. I maybe have even been furious before. 

But not over a candy bar. I'm sure of that.

Well, except for that one time.

God

Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.

~ St. Augustine

- - - - -

Person one: This place is unusual.

Person two: How so?

Person one: It's religious, but friendly.

Person two: That IS unusual.

Lawns

Books are no different from goats! They both enjoy an afternoon out on the lawn.

~ Kate Bernheimer

- - - - -

I have an ethical dilemma for you.

If you received both a new lawnmower and some new Lego on the same day, which would you put together first? You likely think you would read the instructions, put together the lawn mower, and then go mow the lawn - and use the Lego as a reward for doing your chores.

You wouldn't. You'd play with the Lego and then - grudgingly - put together the lawn mower and mow the lawn (secretly grateful to Lego for helping you develop the skills to put together a lawnmower).

Room

I'm always asked, "What's the secret to success?" But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.

~Dwayne Johnson

- - - - -

If you're ever doing an escape room and an extra person gets added to your group, be careful. And if the person who gets added asks to add your phone number, don't give it to them. They might text you randomly later and ask you for a date. And if that happens, don't come crying to me. You should have thought, "Who comes to an escape room alone?' Either someone looking for a date in a very unusual way OR someone who wants to see how good you are at escape rooms. Either way, I don't recommend dating that person.

Not that I'm the boss of you.

And if we are friends, you probably CAN come crying to me and I will try to help. And if you come to me crying and I don't help you, that's probably my way of saying that we aren't really friends.

Hmm

One can state, without exaggeration, that the observation of and the search for similarities and differences are the basis of all human knowledge.

~ Alfred Nobel

- - - - -

I sometimes go to a bagel place or a coffee shop or some other place to sit and write. I eavesdrop while I write. I also watch people. Something I've learned about myself in this process is that if I am sitting there and the person says, "Order up for J.T.!!" I can almost always guess which person in the place is J.T. 

This is also true for people named "Addison."

Vacation

A vacation helps to relieve stress and boredom, gives us a change of scenery, provides us with adventure, and helps bring us closer to the people in our lives.

~ E. S. Woods

- - - - -

I took some vacation at the beginning of the fall term. I don't usually do that, but I had worked so hard and so much over the summer that I knew I needed it. One of the things I do while I'm on vacation is I work on my blog. On this particular trip, I took a few things with me to read through. Some were articles, some were quotes, some were notes I had made. Nearly all of them had to do with things to think about for my blog.

Anyway, one note was about a dustpan (see yesterday's post). However, on that same small piece of paper, I had written the following:

People who take time off

less stressed

more focused          Austria -- 

engaged                  38 days

creative

productive              US 1/4 0 days

I'm not sure the source of the notes. I also am not 100% sure what "US 1/4 0 days" means, although I think it meant that at the time of whatever I was listening to, at least 1/4 of the US workforce had not taken a vacation day in the past year. 

My point is, somewhere there is proof that taking this vacation was a good thing. 

That place is here. In my heart and spirit.

Excitement

They sicken of the calm who know the storm.

~ Dorothy Parker

- - - - -

Recently, I got very excited about the quality and design of my new dustpan. That was almost immediately followed by me being depressed that I am someone who now gets very excited about the quality and design of my new dust pan.

Moon

Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.

~ e. e. cummings

- - - - -

Overheard...

"We gave each other high fives, but I don't think after that date that I'm going to marry him."

I have seen early drafts of e. e. cummings's work. An early draft of the above was, "My spirit was born of you: You are my sun, my moon, my stars, and all my high fives."

Trespassing

It's not trespassing to go beyond your own boundaries.

~ Dewitt Jones

- - - - -

I totally trespassed to get this photo. It is the house where my grandparents lived when I was growing up. No one was home when I was there. It looks mostly the same. Maybe that kitchen window is new. 

I think it's okay that I did this since I try to forgive those who trespass in my yard, too.

FSU

Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes defeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion some day.

~ Wilma Rudolph

- - - - -

Today Clemson plays Florida State. Florida State will lose today. They won't lose every day. And Clemson won't win every day. But that is the way it will be today.

What is winning really, though? Is it scoring more points and celebrating because your team performed better than the other team? Or is winning knowing you did your best and going on to learn from one game to the next?

It's the first one.

Art

As my artist's statement explains, my work is utterly incomprehensible and is therefore full of deep significance.

~ Bill Watterson

- - - - -

I was reading something one time and I saw a comment about "Keith Haring's scripture." I was intrigued. I wondered what his scripture entailed. Then I realized I had misread and it was "Keith Haring's sculpture."

But was it really just one or the other?

Brother

What strange creatures brothers are!

~ Jane Austen

- - - - -

This is my brother. You might not realize it, but he and I text and write each other a lot. We write a lot of messages about serial killers. You might think that this face he is making is about his disgust for serial killers. It is not. It is about the fact that he doesn't like how hops smell.

He's pretty interesting.

Food

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter the greatest of feasts.

~ James Beard

- - - - -

Some interesting conversations can be overheard when we go to eat together in public places. Unfortunately, we are often so engaged in our own conversations we miss out on what other people are saying. For instance, if you're eating with others, you might miss out on something like this:

Customer: How is the bread pudding? Is it good or just okay.

Waitress: Just okay.

Customer: Is it like anyone else's? Like maybe in another town? Like maybe someone who used to be married to the owner of this place?


There are so many stories to be explored based on that conversation - not the least of which is, "Who really likes bread pudding?"

Names

It's hard to have a dialogue if you're name calling.

~ Joan Jett

- - - - - -

If someone calls you a "turdloaf" and then when you get mad they say, "I didn't call you 'turdloaf,' I called you 'turdlo,' I think it's still okay to be annoyed with them.

Souls

The soul becomes dyed with the color of it's thoughts.

~ Marcus Aurelius

- - - - -

Overheard...

"I don't think selling your soul is as bad as people think it is."

I guess it depends on the price.
And the quality of your soul.
And how much you need what you're selling it for.

As I say with many things... It depends.

Head

I think... if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.

~ Leo Tolstoy

- - - - -

I don't like emojis where they replace eyeballs with hearts. Physiologically, that makes no sense. Also it makes no sense in any other way to me, either.

Thinking

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.

~ Benjamin Disraeli

- - - - -

I bet Zak was thinking great thoughts about how high someone might push him on this swing. 

Creepy

Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.

~ Robert Bloch

- - - - -

If you woke up in the middle of the night and heard a scratching at your door. And if after that you went to the door and saw this - would you open the door?

I really hope Kirk or Jared would because this is Zak and he shouldn't be outside in the middle of the night.

Why?

Why should things be easy to understand?

~ Thomas Pynchon

- - - - -

After spending some time with Zak, I realized that while there are many things that children don't understand, some of them are not understood with good reason - because they don't make sense. For example, why can't a kid stay up later than his parents. If his parents are asleep, he can do whatever he wants. Then when they wake up they can talk to him about what he did if he did something "wrong" like using the stove or driving the car.

Or maybe - just MAYBE - while the parents are sleeping the kid will use the stove and be a great chef who has prepared eggs Benedict when the parents wake up. Win-win. And MAYBE while the parents were sleeping, the kid will have learned to drive the car and will have taken it to the car wash and changed the oil so the parents don't have to.

But no. Parents have to assume kids don't know how to do those things. That's why so many kids' creativity gets stifled -- because parents need to sleep.

Daring

If you tiptoe into cold water, you're missing out on the rush of plunging headfirst.

~ Simone Elkeles

- - - - -

Zak is a daredevil. He will jump onto and off of things. He goes down the slide headfirst. When I was visiting him he would intentionally ride his scooter over bumps or cracks or holes in the sidewalk. I think it's hard to tell the difference between courage and carelessness sometimes.

Except in the spelling. They are spelled differently.

Substitute

 Furious activity is no substitute for analytical thought.

~ Alastair Pilkington

- - - - -

(Today is Zak's birthday, and he asked if he could write today's blog post. Here it is.)

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