Inkling

In today's "Fresh Air" podcast, Terry Gross interviewed Rosanne Cash. Interesting moment about Rosanne's brain surgery: She asked her surgeon if the surgery might impact her ability to hear, play and appreciate music. The surgeon typed a letter back, with ink corrections, saying that he would not be able to advise her since his specialty is in cerebrum, not the cerebellum where the center of music is thought to reside, but that he has "an inkling of how important that is to [her]."

It is a testament to him to acknowledge his limitation to provide a good answer and recognize that he can only begin to understand how important music is to her sense of herself. I love that word "inkling" in this context.

Japanese Folk Saying

Everything

Changes in this world

But flowers will open

Each Spring

Just as usual.

Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of Awesome

Attitude, Awareness, and Authenticity

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/neil_pasricha_the_3_a_s_of_awesome.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-01-11

Real Luck

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.

- Garrison Keillor

Inlanders

Inland

People that build their houses inland,

People that buy a plot of ground

Shaped like a house, and build a house there,

Far from the sea-board, far from the sound

Of water sucking the hollow ledges,

Tons of wter striking the shore, -

What do they long for, as I long for

One salt smell of the sea once more?

People the waves have not awakened,

Spanking the boats at the harbour's head,

What do they long for, as I long for, -

Starting up in my inland bed,

Beating the narrow walls, and finding

Neither a window nor a door,

Screaming to God for death by drowning, -

One salt taste of the sea once more?

from Collected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

About the river that runs through the Jorth Family

I recently watched the movie, A River Runs Through It. A poem is recited in the movie. I obtained the book where that poem can be found. Millay is an artist with words; carefully combining them to create amazing visualizations.

The movie uses a fly fishing river in Montana as the ribbon holding the characters together. The river symbolizes something deeper than physical presence or common activities that keeps the people together. Made me wonder what is the river in the Jorth family. I suppose one of the themes is a genuine love and awe of nature surrounding our lives. And then I saw this poem today....

God's World

O world, I cannot hold thee close enough!

Thy winds, they wide grey skies!

Thy mists, that roll and rise!

Thy woods, this autumn day, that ache and sag

And all but cry with colour! That gaunt crag

To crush! To lift the lean of that black bluff!

World, World, I cannot get thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory in it all,

But never knew I this:

Here such a passion is

As stretcheth me apart, - Lord, I do fear

Thou'st made the world to beautiful this year;

My sould is all but out of me, - let fall

No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

from Collect Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

For Lily

Afternoon on a Hill

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

I will look at cliffs and clouds

with quiet eyes,

Watch the wind bow down the grass,

And the grass rise.

And when lights begin to show

Up from the town,

I will mark which must be mine,

And then start down!

- from Collected Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay