From Tomb to Tomb

Posted on May 22, 2011 by literarylee

Late Spring – 2006

Hello from Jerusalem,

Yesterday, Saturday, my wife and I took an afternoon walk to the Old City.  It was surprisingly busy, with Jewish people going to the Western Wall for Sabbath prayers and tourists thronging shops and other holy sites.  When we first arrived in Jerusalem we couldn’t walk down the narrow shop-lined lanes of the Old City without hearing, “Hello friend.  See my shop.  No need to buy anything. (yeah, right)  Hello, Hello!  Where are you from?”  Yesterday, we got none of that.  I think we’re familiar to many locals by now. Not being bugged to buy made the walk more fun.  I even dared a few glances into stores!

Our first stop was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.  A shame it’s been ages since we’ve gone there.  We live a 30 minute walk from the holiest shrine in Christendom, yet we seldom visit anymore (we go to church in the Garden of Gethsemane).  Of all the local churches, it feels the least church-like, more like a castle or some decrepit old museum.  Also, with the politicization of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, and the perpetually rocky relationships between the denominations sharing the building: Greek, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopian, and Assyrian, visiting can be more depressing than inspiring.  Yesterday, however, it was fun and upbeat, interesting and humorous, like visiting an aging grandparent, full of interesting stories, but unaware of her foibles and funny habits.  Continue reading →

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Home Page (The starting point)

Posted on May 22, 2011 by literarylee

Home Page – When you click the word Home, on the tab directly beneath the Header, the main or starting page appears.  On the Home Page, you see the first paragraph or so of the most recent posts.  I didn’t want to include full essays or articles (except for short ones) on the Home Page, because it would become too tedious to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.  A reader can browse posts, sampling various articles.  It’s like nibbling a slice of salami the butcher gives you to see if you want to buy more.  If you want to read the whole thing, click the words, Continue Reading, at the end of the  paragraph.

If you’ve been clicking various links, reading a bit of this and that, clicking Home at the top of the page will always bring you back to the starting page with the current post and recent ones beneath it.

(How to Use This Blog)

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Let’s Pop Open the Hood

Posted on May 21, 2011 by literarylee

Finally, here’s a manual for how to use and get the most out of this blog.  Starting today, I’m going to pop open the hood to show you what makes this baby tick.  Some, perhaps younger The Life Literary readers, are very familiar with blogs, their structure and use, and don’t much need this.  Others, maybe readers LiteraryLee’s age (51) or older, are less familiar.    Let’s get a little grease on our hands and take a peek at the various gizmos and doohickys, thingumabobs and whatsis that keep this mean machine purrin’ like a pussycat.

Every day over the next couple of weeks I’m going to publish, along with the usual scintillating pieces on everything from gardens to words to life in far-flung places and Robert Burns, a description of one piece of this blog.  I will make each of these brief explanations a link in the tab at the top of the page called, “How to Navigate This Blog,” which will become a handy glossary, guiding readers through the blog.

The Life Literary is a place to find ideas for easy, doable ways to add words, beautiful, literary ones, into your life. It’s also where you can read the things I’m writing.  Maybe this little road map will be of use as you navigate this site.

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Posts (A blog’s building block; the individual articles)

Posted on May 21, 2011 by literarylee

A post is the basic element of a blog.  It’s a specific article or essay or picture or other item I publish to the The Life Literary.  You can see the one I did most recently directly under the picture (called the Header) across the top of the Home Page.  It’s what you first see when you arrive here.  Scroll down from the first post, to read recent ones.  At the end of the posts on the home page, you’ll see a link that leads to previous ones.

How to Use this Blog

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The “Not Idle At All” Word Play

Posted on May 21, 2011 by literarylee

I like spreading verbiage like icing a cake, thick, creamy, and luscious.  If I can write words that sound sweet together or that create an effect or that make a rhyme or pun or joke, I’ll try it.  The title of the post, Not Idle At All, is an example.

I hear the two words, “at” and “all,” when I say them together, “at all,” as sounding a lot like the single word, “idle,” the word they follow.  I hear it as almost a rhyme, close enough for me to like it anyway.  I attempted to give the article a title with an almost rhyming play on words I put together based on their sound.  Say the three words in a row several times: “idle at all,” “idle at all,” “idle at all.”  Do you hear it?

Listen for words that sound alike.  Repeat them aloud when you hear or read them.  Let their sound fill your mouth and roll off your tongue, filling the room with a sonorous word tune.

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Not Idle At All

Posted on May 20, 2011 by literarylee

All these years I thought my mind wandered a lot, idle thoughts knocking around in my noggin like careening, caroming pinballs.  I had always thought it was a negative thing, as if I had some problem focusing on thoughts that really mattered or things at hand.  Imagine my delight and amazement to realize, recently, that these words were not idle or empty, but were my own ongoing reactions to the world around me.  In the privacy of my own mind, I interpreted and reflected on things I saw and heard and did.  All these years, probably from the time I learned words, I’ve been collecting sights and sounds, words and events, like so many ingredients for a stir-fry.  Trouble was, I let them sit on the chopping board, unccoked, unseasoned, unstirred and unserved.  I wasn’t even aware of them, sometimes, or at least not aware of their significance.  Now, finally, I have learned and am still learning to listen and pay attention to what’s going on up there, and to write my thoughts down.  Maybe I’m late to the kitchen, all those years of words ignored, but at least I’m here now, apron and hat on, frying, baking, broiling and serving up sentences, paragraphs, poems, essays, and soon, stories.

I also think of this flow of ideas, my interpretation of what’s going on, as the idea river.  Since it’s something I’ve hardly paid attention to all these years but now am keenly aware of, the experience feels like a river at times, torrents of expression and impression I sometimes scramble to write. Continue reading →

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My Piece of the Potomac

Posted on May 19, 2011 by literarylee

I get a glimpse of the River from the bus stop I wait at Monday through Friday mornings, a view framed by two, ten story brick apartment buildings.  We lived in a 400 square foot efficiency in the building on the left, our first two years back from abroad.  We could truthfully say we moved from overseas to a brick place on the Potomac River.

My Framed View of the Potomac

The view seldom fails to inspire me.  Even this snapshot between buildings affords glimpses of the many moods of the river.  This morning, the water is calm and gentle, not still, but not raging.  The Maryland shore wears a faint mist, a comfortable loosely-worn cape on its shoulders.  The trees’  green comforts me.  Near the Virginia shore, the side where I live, a herd of lily pads graze, bobbing with the gentle flow of the water.  Continue reading →

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Bombay Letter 8

Posted on May 18, 2011 by literarylee

April, 1998

Hi everyone,

We finally got on the Web at home, so hopefully we will be able to send more e-mail.  Today at lunch we learned the meaning of the term comfort food.  Our servant cooks for Saturday and Sunday evening on Saturday morning, then cleans the kitchen and leaves for the rest of the week-end.  She has a five year old daughter and a husband, so we are glad for her to spend time with them.  And frankly, it is also nice to be without her for awhile.  This morning, Anita fixed waffles (using the old waffle iron you bought before I was born, mom; never thought it would end up in Bombay, India, did you?), and we found, in one of the boxes we had shipped with all our things, a can of smoked sausage from Yoder’s Country Market in Grantsville (it was part of an edible Christmas present we got from friends there).  In the past, we would not have thought of eating canned meat with the fresh stuff readily available.  This morning, it tasted like ambrosia!  And speaking of ambrosia, Anita’s cousin,  a stewardess who works on a flight into Bombay once a month, brought us what seemed like THE MOTHER OF ALL CARE PACKAGES!  Highlights: cheese and bread she bought in Amsterdam on the flight here, Doritos from the US of A (they melted in our mouths), and a true treasure trove of candy (including real, live, Easter chocolates).  I have come to think that when one is feeling homesick, things like getting on the Web, canned sausage, and Doritos provide a dose of welcome comfort. Continue reading →

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Horti non sufficit

Posted on May 17, 2011 by literarylee

Thursday evening, May 12 – With house guests and rain forecast this weekend, I needed to garden while I could.  I planted ten pepper plants at Smith.  If all fifteen or so bear well, we will be swimming in peppers, pickling and canning ’till we start really not liking the guy who planted so much.  Also pulled some more of that Pernicious Weed I mentioned earlier and sowed the first planting of corn and butternut squash.  I could fill all of Smith with corn and winter squash which is very viney and fills a space fast.  Times like this I’m reminded of the Bond (Bond, James Bond) family motto, Orbis non sufficit, which means, “the world is not enough.”  My version would be Horti non sufficit, which means, “the garden is not enough.”  I always want more.  Even three gardens doesn’t give me enough room to plant everything I’d like.  Speaking of my vast garden kingdom, I then went to Jones and planted three eggplants (I’ll have a dozen planted before Memorial Day) and three more tomato plants.  I now have eight tomato plants in Smith, three in Jones and three at the Lorelei.  I gave three or so away, and still have four left in pots.  I’m sure I’ll end up with extra pepper plants, too.

Saturday, May 14 – Started working in the Lorelei by about 5:30 a.m. under heavy, gray clouds, ominous and cozy at the same time, and worked ’till just past 7:30 as a fine mist covered me with its benediction.  Continue reading →

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Duck 7

Posted on May 16, 2011 by literarylee

Ducktor Zhivago

Lara

(Duck Series Gallery)

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