Day: September 4, 2022

What on earth do they mean?

They told me not to go to the hospital because the trains are operating today so when will you go?

When the trains are not running.

So how will you get to the hospital?

I will have to ask for transport.

what will that be?

I wish it were a donkey.

you’re not Jesus you know.

Riding on donkeys was not the only thing that Jesus did

But he did give the Sermon on the Mount.

You are so clever I’m surprised that you are not the Prime Minister.

did you say the Crime minister?

I didn’t know there was a crime minister.

there are plenty of lying ministers.

so true.

If someone ‘slips while crossing the road we might

have a dying minister.

Have you ever thought of writing a crime story?

no it will be a crime were I to do so.

How could it be a crime to write a detective mystery?

if you’re a terrible writer

Someone might kill you

I have got the plot but I’m no good at dialogue

Start with a monologue and then answer in another monologue

Will that be a dialogue?

No but it will look like one

Boris Johnson looked like a prime minister

Say no more

The paradox of humility

Photo by Katherine copyright

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There are exceptions, of course. For the rare public figure or celebrity whose cultivated arrogance and lofty untouchability intersect in just the right ways, it’s still possible to be merely “honored” and “surprised,” in old-school acknowledgment of deserved recognition. (Think of Bob Dylan, who was unable to travel to Stockholm to pick up his Nobel Prize in person because of undisclosed pre-existing commitments.) But it’s tricky. We live in a rabidly anti-elitist society that is also in slack-jawed, slavish thrall to elites, and it’s no joke to try to maintain homeostasis between “Look at me!” and “Who, me?”

For most of us, the choice is simple: We can either let our triumphs and random strokes of luck go unremarked upon, or we can bow our heads and declare ourselves humbled by our great fortune.

It seems worth pointing out, though, that none of this is what “humbled” actually means. To be humbled is to be brought low or somehow diminished in standing or stature. Sometimes we’re humbled by humiliation or failure or some other calamity. And sometimes we’re humbled by encountering something so grand, meaningful or sublime that our own small selves are thrown into stark contrast — things like history, or the cosmos, or the divine.

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Should we wish to be more self confident?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/smarter-living/how-to-improve-self-confidence.html

The “Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology” puts it another way: “If the person lacks confidence, again there will be no action. That’s why a lack of confidence is sometimes referred to as ‘crippling doubt.’ Doubt can impair effort before the action begins or while it is ongoing.”

If you believe you can get your dream job if you apply, there’s a chance, however small, you will.

Patience and how it helps

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/smarter-living/how-to-be-a-more-patient-person.html

The good news is that same study found that patience as a personality trait is modifiable. Even if you’re not a particularly patient person today, there’s still hope you can be a more patient person tomorrow. So if you find yourself getting exasperated more than you’d like, here are ways to keep those testy impulses in check.

The steepness,wildness,blackness darkly sing

KatherineThinkings and poems, villanelle  January 26, 2018

Like the water  in a mountain stream
In flood it drowns  the weak and  very young
In drought we can explore its bed  and dream

The limestone all round Alston’s very clean
And in the little river stones are flung
It’s  water  in a new born mountain stream

Dried river beds in Teesdale are  pristine
The dark hills threaten  as they overhang
In drought, we can explore, find stones  and dream

But much of  Pennine land remains unseen
The  steepness,wildness ,blackness darkly sing
Like the  currents  in a flung down stream

In rare heat, bare feet are river clean
The hot stones make a flat seat on the bank
In drought, we can explore or  view the scene

In  love the mind will savour and then thank
The world of nature into which it sank
Unlike the water  in a mountain stream
If our mind runs slower  it better dreams

To the deeper water

In  peaty water,pebbled white as chalk
My feet feel ample pleasure as I walk
The stepping stone of Rothay I have shunned
For to the deeper  water I am won

The silence but for birdsong faraway
Soothes each cell as they vibrate and play
The body like the coat of   cat well stroked
Lies in pleasure, almost seems to float

The limestone pavement   on high Hutton Roof
Grows little flowers of pure and subtle truth
Across we see the  sands of Morecambe Bay
The dragging, shifting sands that suck and sway

The feet in sand and water feel well homed
Yet on the higher crags I long to roam