Truer Words Never Spoken

THE SIX STAGES OF A PROJECT

Enthusiasm

 
Disillusionment

Panic and hysteria

Hunt for the guilty

Punishment of the innocent, and

Reward for the uninvolved

And Now, a Word From Our Sponsor . . .

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Dog Collars

Postcards from the Hippocampus

Here is a fun collection of random, unimportant little thoughts and realizations that most of us go our entire lives without ever pondering. No worries--I'm all over it for ya.

Did you realize that you only taste your food when you exhale while chewing?

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When you take a capsule by mouth, don't throw your head back to get it down, tip your head forward to bring it to the back of your throat to swallow. Remember: they float, so with your head forward, the surface of the water in your mouth will be near the throat, and that capsule will be bobbing happily away right at tonsil level.
  
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For us ladies with longer hair whose condition concerns us:

Only shampoo at the scalp--the rest of the hair shaft will be sufficiently cleaned when the shampoo and water rinse through. Repeated shampooing wears on the hair, drying it out over time. The less shampooing the better -- only the roots, where the oil glands are, need regular cleaning. And shampoo only as often as the maintenance of your image requires. Anything beyond that amounts to paying more money in a concerted campaign to wreck your hair. This is one thing our forefathers, lacking indoor plumbing, got right--less is more. And I would say skin and clothing are the same--washing dries the skin and breaks down the fibers in clothing. Less washing is a good thing.

If your hair tends to get greasy too soon, don't condition near the scalp-- just condition about halfway up the hair shaft. If this leaves static in the shorter parts around your face, (conditioner is a great static controller) rub the little bit left on your hands, after conditioning the ends, through those areas.

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You know that annoying little bit of ketchup or A1 or mustard stubbornly clinging to the bottom of the bottle or jar, resisting all attempts to coax it onto your food? Centrifugal force is your best friend in these tragic moments. Here is what you must do: making sure the cap is on securely (don't ask why I know this is so important), swing that jar back and forth quickly in a semi-circle, at arm's length, with the top pointed down. For those jarred products that have a lower viscosity (i.e., a little runny), this will drive most of the remainder up to the cap where you can forcibly remove it against its will.
  
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Why do we pay large companies for the 'privilege' of advertising their products on our clothing, cups, posters, and all other manner of name-brand products? Shouldn't they be paying us? To my mind, this is an absurd racket that we have accepted for years, and I, for one, I refuse to participate. If Nike wants me to display their cute logo or name on my clothing or shoes, they will have to approach me with a commission proposal.
  
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The Fear of Death

The flagship entry in this blog, shown above, discussed the accumulation of knowledge in my brain and the inability to get myself to apply the practical aspects of that knowledge, which represent one of the single greatest disappointments of my life. Ultimately, I discovered that a large part of this huge shortcoming was due to long-term, undiagnosed illness, whose 'cure' in effect is discussed below. But now in my fifties, like so many others I feel that a big chunk of life has slipped by, without my achieving so many things I had wanted to.

In the book Night to Lisbon, author Pascal Mercier writes,

“Is it ultimately a question of self-image, the determining idea one has made for oneself of what one has to have accomplished and experienced so that one can approve of the life one has lived? If this is the case, the fear of death might be described as the fear of not being able to become whom one had planned to be. Fear of death as fear of the unfulfilled then lay - it seems - completely in my hand, for it is I who draws the image of my own life as it was to be fulfilled. . . . If the certainty befalls us that it will never be achieved, this wholeness, we suddenly don't know how to live the time that can no longer be part of a whole life."

This resonated with me. At times I feel I was sleepwalking through most of my 30s and 40s, the years that should have been the prime years of my life in many ways--having matured, but still young, with many years ahead to accomplish the goals I had made for my life. And not so much 'goals' per se, but all the things I could see myself doing in my mind's eye, the things that I told myself were so doable. Now, although I realize I still have many years left, I feel a deep sense of disappointment that I did not become the person I could have been.

I'm ashamed to say that at times I let the sheer mathematical aspect of aging get to me. I'm 55 now. In ten years I'll be nearing retirement, and somehow I do view that as a dividing line of sorts, a point at which many unfulfilled ideals must be left behind, because the body or mind are no longer able, and the most productive years have passed, leaving just a few precious years to simply enjoy life as much as I can. So mentally, I give myself 10 years to get an awful lot of things done, before I reach the 'point of no return'. Then I wallow in that for just one minute more, realizing that I remember ten years ago like it was last week, which creates the horrifying realization that next week I will be 65.

This coming week had better be one productive week.

I have found a way to comfort myself about the disappointment over the opportunities past that I no longer have. But that will only take me so far, I realize, because I know myself. If I die someday without having accomplished the few things that I still want to do, I will experience a kind of disappointment I'd rather not face. So, as Pascal says, I fear death in this way--I fear what will happen just before, in my mind, and quite apart from the manner of my death.

This is not the greatest motivation to have in life, but it is a help to me. I feel a sense of urgency, now that my health is better, to simply get things done. At this point I'm still in repair mode--getting my house and life in order, so that I can get on with the things I want to accomplish. But soon I hope to start moving forward, and I'll take you with me, if you like!

Stick around.

"Better to remain silent 

                          and be thought a fool, 

                        than to speak

                                            and remove all doubt."