Lit Wisp – Solitude Edition

The LINK
21 Scathingly Witty Insults by Famous People

The IMAGE

My son’s high school baseball season begins this coming Thursday, but the weekend was the culmination of the prep basketball season with the boy’s state tournament. While his high school won their opening round game on Thursday morning, Friday night they dropped a heartbreaker to the defending state champs (who would repeat their claim to the title the following day). The student body opted for a whiteout on Friday. That’s him in the middle. Heh.

The THOUGHT
Do you have the feeling that in the rush of everyday life we’re getting too much of stuff we don’t need, and not enough of what we do? I do, and each year during Lent when I take a break from certain modes of mass communication it becomes even more clear to me. Below is a set of suggestions about how to redress the imbalance and increase our moments of clarity:

We Need Less:	We Need More:
Information	Wisdom
Self-promotion	Self-awareness
Multitasking	Control of our attention
Action	Reflection
Experts	Learners
Blame	Responsibility
Judgment	Discernment
Texting	Reading
Anger	Empathy
Output	Depth
Possessions	Meaning
Answers	Curiosity
Long hours	Longer sleep
Complaining	Gratitude
Sitting	Moving
Selling	Authenticity
Self-indulgence	Self-control
Facebook/Twitter	Face-to-face conversation
Immediate gratification	Sacrifice
Spin	Truth

The WORD
Solitude
1. the quality or state of being alone or remote from society.
2. a lonely place (as a desert).

I find the mention of “desert” an apt one today as the Gospel reading this first Sunday of Lent speaks of Jesus’ trials in the desert and his being tempted by Satan. But what spurred my use of the word this week was this article. Of particular note was this:

In a world gone wild for wikis and interdisciplinary collaboration, those who prefer solitude and private noodling are seen as eccentric at best and defective at worst, and are often presumed to be suffering from social anxiety, boredom, and alienation.

But an emerging body of research is suggesting that spending time alone, if done right, can be good for us — that certain tasks and thought processes are best carried out without anyone else around, and that even the most socially motivated among us should regularly be taking time to ourselves if we want to have fully developed personalities, and be capable of focus and creative thinking. There is even research to suggest that blocking off enough alone time is an important component of a well-functioning social life — that if we want to get the most out of the time we spend with people, we should make sure we’re spending enough of it away from them. Just as regular exercise and healthy eating make our minds and bodies work better, solitude experts say, so can being alone.

Well color me eccentric and defective.

The IDEA
For reasons I cannot explain I feel as though I’ve hit my halfway point in life. I thought I had gone through it a few years ago when I hit what was, for me, an unprecedented comfort zone in life. I believe the way I stated it when describing it to a friend of mine was “I was finally comfortable in my own skin.” But now…

Lately I’ve experienced this thought that I was “halfway”. Does this mean I figure I’ll hit 86 birthday candles and that will be it? Possibly. Longevity is common in my side of the family with several male and female relatives living into their 90s and even 100s. This insight has brought to mind two thoughts: 1) given the shape of the world today and the cesspool we’re making of things I’m not sure that I’m up for another 43 years; and 2) I should never again buy another book. I’m set for the next four decades. Sorry Amazon.

Apparently I’m not the only one thinking along these lines, and she says it with more eloquence. While I have so much more that I could write about this I’m going to keep it short. I’m still getting used to this little epiphany.

Eccentric, no?

The SONG

The PROJECT
This week it’s not one of my own that I’m featuring here.

Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor, bet him that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. “The Cat in the Hat” was pretty simple, after all, and it used 225 words. Not one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel started writing and came up with “Green Eggs and Ham” — which uses exactly 50 words.

The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

To read other Dr. Seuss facts you may not know, go here.

Lit Wisp – Inaugural Edition

One LINK
The Butterfly That Stamped, by Rudyard Kipling. In this story, we learn how a clever and most beloved wife saves the day for her very wise husband, who hates to show off. You can download the text here.

One IMAGE
I am working on a logo for my new weekly series and it may involve this painting of literary friends Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling reading stories on a veranda while enjoying cigars and bourbon. Lit Wisp: literature with a wisp of fine cigar smoke and good bourbon. As I made a conscious effort five years ago to take more time for rest on Sundays, I often enjoin at least two of those three favorite things.

One THOUGHT
During Fr. J’s homily at this morning’s Mass he discussed Lent, specifically its purpose. So many people think you have to “give stuff up” like television, extra food, etc. (and those aren’t necessary bad items to take a break from). He emphasized instead three things: Prayer, Fasting, Charity. Lent is meant to be a time to draw us closer to Jesus during this remembrance of his Passion and Resurrection. It’s not just a time to go on a diet. Instead of just “taking away” something during these 40 days why not add something? If you already pray, pray more. If you struggle with prayer, give it a go. Deny yourself that daily Starbucks as a means of self-denial and/or discipline. Or that big piece of cake. Or fast from television. Finally, give of yourself through charity. Not just by giving money to a group, but perhaps give of yourself as well. Every year I try to find something to take away. This year I’m going to add as well.

One WORD
Charity, defined by Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary (my personal favorite) is

In a general sense, love, benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.

You can read the other seven definitions by clicking here.

Love replaced Charity in usage in later translations of the bible in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. You’re familiar with this verse if you’ve ever attended a wedding. Many couples select it as one of their readings from Scripture. From 1st Corinthians Chapter 13.

And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

Image courtesy of Trading Phrases

Let’s practice a little of that this Lent, shall we?

One IDEA
This idea is one I’ve been kicking around for about a year as a means of doing a bit of regular blogging. It will also serve to keep me off of Facebook where I would likely post most of these things. As Lent approaches and I prepare for my annual vacation from that social site, I am also preparing to leave it altogether. But that’s not the IDEA for this week. A weekly cache of things that have caught my attention or I think others may be interested in. That’s the gist of this Sunday series. And why Lit Wisp? Simply because its an anagram of the first letters of these seven subjects. A little wisp of what passes for my being literature-like. Or literal. Yeah…perhaps that’s the more likely approach as I hardly resemble anyone involved in creating literature, though I certainly consume my share. I hope you enjoy this with me.

One SONG
Ghosts, the first song on Kansas’ 1988 album In The Spirit of Things, contains many images and thoughts that have weighed on my mind of late. I keep meaning to write about it but just never seem to be able to get the words out.

One PROJECT
After taking a year off from home improvement projects since I finished the upstairs bathroom remodel a year ago it was time to dive back in. And we have. In a few weeks we will have had three corners repaired where rot was becoming an issue, and then new fascia and soffits, along with siding on our garage, installed. We have a brick ranch so we’re pretty much siding free aside from the garage. A few days after that the new gutters (with leaf guards!) will be installed. To prep for this we spent our weekend replacing a load-bearing steel rail with a column on the front porch. Today I cleaned off the back patio and took to the last of a rotting privacy fence with my circular saw. This week I’ll wire a new outlet in the garage and we’ll be ready for our house’s facelift. Since moving to our home in May of 2003 we’ve had a goal of completing most of our projects in time for our son’s high school graduation in 2014. We’re still on track.