Tag: Musings

Gertrude Stein could quick to the cut 

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

She does show up in my sets of art gallery poems, accompanied by Norman Rockwell, for good reason, if only a fictional role.

Here are ten things she really said.

  1. “We are always the same age inside.”
  2. “Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?”
  3. “It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.”
  4. “The thing that differentiates man from animals is money.”
  5. “A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears.”
  6. “Literature – creative literature – unconcerned with sex, is inconceivable.”
  7. “I always say that you cannot tell what a picture really is or what an object really is until you dust it every day and you cannot tell what a book is until you type it or proof-read it. It then does something to you that only reading it never can do.”
  8. “It is always a mistake to be plain-spoken.”
  9. “Money is always there but the pockets change.”
  10. “America is my country, and Paris is my home town.”

For the art gallery poems, go to my blog Thistle Finch editions.

 

In case you need encouragement on that novel

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Yes, for those of you writers who should be well past the halfway point of your new novel draft by this time this month. As well as any others, working at whatever.

  1. “I think all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.” – William Carlos Williams, M.D.
  2. “Each writer is born with a repertory company in his head. Shakespeare has perhaps 20 players. I have 10 or so, and that’s a lot. As you get older, you become more skillful at casting them.” – Gore Vidal
  3. “A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” – Eugene Ionesco
  4. “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” – Anais Nin
  5. “The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” – Zadie Smith
  6. “The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.” – William Styron
  7. “No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” – Robin Williams
  8. “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” – Philip Pullman
  9. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” – Aldous Huxley
  10. “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” – Albert Camus

 

Looking on my life now

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I seldom use my cell phone except to text or take photos.

Rarely watch television but do stream in binges.

Prefer small dinner parties to big gatherings.

Have fallen into a habit of indulging in the New York Times online in the morning.

Find it hard to believe that I’ve wound up living in an expertly renovated Cape along the Atlantic coast.

Appreciate the many days when I don’t have to get in a car to go anywhere.

The dope on soap

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Yes, one more thing we take for granted. Or, as I used to think, “granite.”

So here a ten things to consider.

  1. Soap goes way back in antiquity, starting with the boiling of fats with ashes and water, though the Latin word for it originates with “clay.”
  2. It’s been a mark of civilized people and sometimes the upper classes, from Babylon and Rome on.
  3. Over the years, olive, palm, and vegetable oils gave rise to other varieties, including Castille soap.
  4. Today, soap comes either in solid form, liquid, or powdered form, based on their use of sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. Liquid is considered easiest to use.
  5. Bar soaps have a lower environmental impact, according to one study.
  6. It’s sold in a number of specialty applications, including hand, face, shaving, body, dish, laundry, or floor-cleaning applications. Don’t overlook antibacterial, either, although it carries some long-term health concerns. Or the wide range of scents that can be infused.
  7. Ivory, first marketed in 1879, was the first soap that floated. Yeah, and it was 99 and 44/100s percent pure, according to the company’s claims.
  8. Modern synthetics, appearing around 1940 with Tide, also prevented the growth of germs.
  9. Soap can also be used to ease zippers or lubricate squeaky hinges, threading needles, and screws.
  10. The bubbles are incredibly thin and sometimes so much fun. Or even romantic, in a deep bathtub.

Maybe that’s what I’ll be giving everyone this Christmas.

Another round of Proust as a prompt

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

I recently deleted a file full of personal questions.

Personally, most of them didn’t fit, and besides, now that I’m no longer submitting writing to quarterlies and reviews for publication, I have no need for my own contributor’s notes.

Still, I found these responses from working other sets of questions. I am curious how you’d answer.

  • CREATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT: Solitary.
  • WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BEDROOM? Pure white with Japanese blue accents
  • OH HAPPY DAY: Sitting in the warm silence after Quaker meeting for worship has settled. Especially when the aches and pains stay away at this age.
  • Or a summer afternoon along our pocket beach of the North Atlantic.
  • Or dining together on our deck in warm weather or sitting beside a wood fire in winter.
  • SPACE JAM: Coming upon the wild rhododendrons in full bloom atop Roan High Knob in North Carolina after a wild of arduous backpacking on the Appalachian Trail as an awakening adolescent.
  • RECENT INSPIRATION: Choral singing.
  • DREAM SUBJECTS: Eagles, osprey, whales, time under sail on the water.
  • DREAM ASSIGNMENTS: The fine arts, spiritual community.
  • WHOLE NEW WORLDS: The many dimensions of life my college girlfriend introduced to me, the life-changing experiences of the ashram, living in the desert orchard in Washington state, New England with the amazing woman in my life.
  • FIRST BRUSH WITH FAME: Sessions with any of the cartoonists and columnists I served as a newspaper syndicate field representative, or was it …
  • WHAT WOULD YOU BE IF YOU WEREN’T A WRITER? Really retired. At this point, the question is better recast, “What would you have been?” – something I never could quite figure out.
  • WHAT COLOR AUTOMATICALLY LIFTS YOUR SPIRITS? Cobalt, indigo, or electric blue.
  • THANKFUL FOR: The three incredible divas in my life, even though they don’t sing, as well as Cobscook Friends Meeting.
  • FLOWERS: Daffodils, rhododendron, lilacs, sunflowers.
  • DESSERT: Crème brule or rich vanilla ice cream.
  • SNACK: Cashews, grilled cheese sandwiches, popcorn.
  • GADGET: A corkscrew, branch loppers, charcoal grill ignition tower.
  • CURRENT HOBBYHORSE: American Illuminist composers, as I term the Romantic-era masters.
  • Also, Quaker Light/Seed/Truth.
  • CLOTHING & DECOR STYLE: Yard sales, touch of Amish. Unpretentious and comfortable.
  • DOMINANT COLOR IN MY WARDROBE: Shades of gray.
  • PROFESSIONAL PEAK (SO FAR): Publication of  the novels.
  • MUSICAL THERAPY: A cappella part-singing
  • RECENT TRIPS: Cruising in the historic schooner Lewis R. French on Penobscot Bay.
  • FAVORITE MOMENT: Sliding into bed next to my wife.
  • MY CARD: The usual MC or Visa.
  • WORST GUILT TRIP: Ahem. (Things I’ve said, over the years.)
  • WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CRUSH? Both Lutherans, one a year older than me and now deceased.
  • WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST LOVE? Kay, after high school
  • WHAT’S YOUR MOST FEMININE QUALITY? Tears, on the rare occasions when they come.
  • WHAT WOMAN IS YOUR GUILTY FANTASY? Freckles.
  • IS THERE ANYTHING YOU MISS ABOUT BEING UNATTACHED? Well, there was discretionary income.
  • WITH SO MUCH COMPETITION, HOW DO YOU SIZE UP? I’ve largely moved solo, to my own beat, in out-of-the-mainstream circles.
  • YOU ALWAYS NEED MORE: Time. Or is that compassion?
  • EVERYONE COULD ALWAYS DO WITH LESS: Self-absorption.
  • WHY I DO WHAT I DO: To remember, to discover where I’ve been, to look closer at my experience of life, to map the trail of my life, especially when it reflects others.
  • BONA FIDES: BA in political science, Indiana University, working with Vincent Ostrom; extended residency in the Poconos Ashram, Swami Lakshmy-Devi’s hermitage; two published novels
  • GOLD-STAR EXCELLENCE: Eagle Scout in sixth-grade, yes siree
  • AMBITIONS: To develop a widespread readership; to rebuild the Society of Friends.
  • FAVORITE SPOTS: The Bold Coast of Downeast Maine, the sub-Alpine range of Mount Rainier, Music Hall in Cincinnati.
  • WOULD LOVE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: My great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Hodgson, to confirm the pirate attack in crossing to America and learn the details, including the names of his parents and siblings and his relationship with Moses Harland, whom I presume to be his uncle.
  • YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY: True friends.
  • ONE DAY I HAD HOPED TO: Be influential and famous.
  • FAVORITE DISCOVERY: The early Quaker understanding and practice of Light/Seed/Truth.
  • NECESSARY EXTRAVAGANCE: Owning an old house.
  • FAVORITE CHARITY: Dover Friends Meeting. Also, local arts organizations, public radio, American Friends Service Committee, Friends Committee on National Legislation.
  • CAR: An old Chevy Sonic, but my favorite was a very used canary-color BMW 1600 coupe.
  • COCKTAIL: very dry martini (Bombay sapphire, with olives).
  • CREATIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT: solitary at the keyboard beside the north window, with or without classical music.
  • PROFESSIONAL PEAK (AS A JOURNALIST): East Coast field representative for Tribune Media Services newspaper syndicate
  • MOST UNUSUAL GIFT: A slice of rubber Swiss cheese in the mail; blown-glass Galileo weather globes; a bottle of dishwashing detergent and two towels as a wedding present.
  • MOST INTERESTING SOUVENIR: Cow skull and elk vertebrae from the Yakima Valley.
  • WHAT IS YOUR MOST MASCULINE QUALITY? Snoring. Aversion to shopping. Fire-building skills. Sense of direction. Love of the wild outdoors. Immersion in single projects from start to finish. Closing doors, turning off lights. Trapping and transporting squirrels. A readiness to catch bugs and crush them with my fingers.
  • WHAT’S THE ONE THING IN YOUR MEDICINE CABINET YOU WOULDN’T WANT OTHERS TO KNOW ABOUT? All the bottles that have long passed their expiration date.
  • WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT PROJECT? All of this blogging. And cleaning up some earlier collections.
  • BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT: When diagramming sentences began to make sense. Enrolling in my first course with Vincent Ostrom. Taking up yoga. Moving to Yakima. Moving to Baltimore. Undergoing psychotherapy. Moving to New England.
  • THE ROAD NOT TAKEN: Returning to the ashram, when Swami demanded. Dropping my partner before the wedding or in Yakima. Going to work at the Detroit Free Press. Admitting there was no future with the cellist and thus moving directly to New England, rather than Baltimore. Plainness, along the lines of dairy farming in the valley.

Revisiting these exercises, I’m struck by how many other desires not included here have been fulfilled or are no longer applicable. Consider CAN’T WRITE WITHOUT: caffeine. Today my mug’s filled with decaf, per doctor’s orders. Caffeine counteracts one of my meds.

He said, she said

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

He would have said alert but she’d counter twitchy
He would have said observant but she’d counter oblivious

He would have said free-thinking but she’d counter too serious
He would have said independent but she’d counter aloof

He would have said sensitive but she’d counter nervous
He would have said inquisitive but she’d say he rarely asks questions

He would have said accepting but she’d counter indecisive
He would have said nurturing but she’d counter cold

He would have said serious but she’d counter silent
He would have said playful but she’d counter negative

He would have said witty but she’d counter legalistic

He would have said intelligent but she’d counter uptight

He would have said slightly bent but she’d counter insecure
He would have said self-sufficient but she’d counter evasive

He would have said caring but she’d counter mean
He would have said spiritual but she’d ask how that makes him a better person

He would have said spirited but she’d counter lazy
He would have said somewhat reserved but she’d counter socially deficient

He would have said somewhat shy but she’d counter loner
He would have said elitist in quest of excellence and quality but she’d counter self-centered

He would have said egalitarian in opportunity and expectation but she’d counter workaholic
He would have said outdoorsy but she’d counter escapist

He would have said rainbow chaser but she’d counter impractical
He would have said aging but she’d agree

He would have said youthful but she’d counter bald
He would have said honest, direct but she’d counter defensive

He would have said exploring but she’d counter unemotional
He would have said hedonist but she’d counter lazy

He would have said ascetic but she’d counter dull
He would have said a bit gallant but she’d counter straight-laced

He would have said organized but she’d notice he rarely dusts furniture
He would have said self-starter but she’d counter with a list of projects

He would have said visionary but she’d counter icy
He would have said original but she’d counter quirky

He would have said inventive but she’d counter weird
He would have said creative but she’d counter unrealistic

He would have said hopeful but she’d counter inexpressive
He would have said responsive but she’d counter boring

He would have said kind, gentle but she’d counter too serious
He would have said frugal but she’d counter tight-fisted or fiscally irresponsible

He would have said financially marginal
but she would have countered too willing to pay full price

Now, for her side of the dialogue?

Aspiring novelists, good luck

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

This is the month many aspiring writers sit down and try to complete a draft of a novel before December sets in. For perspective, here are ten points as inspiration

“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” ― Dorothy Parker

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.” – Elmore Leonard

“Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.” – Meg Rosoff

“I just give myself permission to suck. I delete about 90 percent of my first drafts, so it doesn’t really matter much if on a particular day I write beautiful and brilliant prose that will stick in the minds of my readers forever, because there’s a 90 percent chance I’m just going to delete whatever I write anyway. I find this hugely liberating.” – John Green

“Anyone who says writing is easy isn’t doing it right.” – Amy Joy

“You fail only if you stop writing.” – Ray Bradbury

“Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.” – Annie Dillard

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.” – Isaac Asimov

“I taught my brother everything he needs to know about writing.” – Stan Asimov

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.” – Frank Herbert

Show some sympathy for those poor, lowly paid beleaguered clerks

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

They’re probably not to blame. Look, they’re usually struggling figures who all too often have to face self-entitled a-holes at the checkout counter or their equally crushed managers overhead. Here are a few things they’d love to tell you or maybe the offender before you or even their bosses.

Yes, here’s what they’d really love to say.

  1. “Let’s trade places. I’ll be the rude one, and you try to stay patient.”
  2. “If only our coffee was as strong as your attitude!”
  3. “Your tone is getting a price tag.”
  4. “Customers like you really test our ‘service with a smile’ policy.”
  5. “Your points would be more valid if they were less veiled in rudeness.”
  6. “We’re here to serve, not to be served attitude.”
  7. “Your words are as sweet as a lemon. Sarcasm intended.”
  8. “We promise fast service, not a tolerance for fast insults.”
  9. “You’ve mistaken my patience for a dumping ground.”
  10. “Have a nice day, somewhere else.”

While we’re at it, let’s go for a second round.

  1. “I appreciate your perspective, but rudeness is an extra charge we didn’t agree upon.”
  2. “Your impatience is understandable. Is it as urgent as your need for a manners refresher?”
  3. “Don’t worry, we charge by the item, not by the attitude.”
  4. “The ‘customer is always right’ policy doesn’t cover personal attacks. Please read the fine print.”
  5. “Did you mistake this conversation for an auction? Because you’re really bidding high on rudeness.”
  6. “We provide services, not psychic readings. Kindly state your problem, not your tantrum.”
  7. “Our products come with a warranty, but our tolerance for rudeness does not.”
  8. “Patience is a virtue, but it seems your cart is empty.”
  9. “The complaint box is for suggestions, not character assassinations.”
  10. “In our store, ‘sale’ applies to items, not civility.”

Or even a third.

  1. “We value customer feedback, but your rudeness is more of a monologue than a dialogue.”
  2. “Our goal is customer satisfaction, not ego inflation.”
  3. “Let me put you back into the waiting line.” However many hours that means.
  4. “Our service may be fast, but ‘instant respect’ isn’t on our menu.”
  5. “Our prices are competitive, but our patience isn’t limitless.”
  6. “We accept all major credit cards, but we don’t accept rudeness.”
  7. “This is a business, not a battlefield. Let’s keep the conversation civil.”
  8. “This is a store, not a stage. Kindly lower the drama.”
  9. Merry Christmas to you, too. And a *** New Year.
  10. Expletives deleted.