“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope."
Thomas Merton
One of my favorite philosophers. Took a couple of park walks with Olive this weekend to try to relax and think.
Have a nice week everyone.
Look back and be grateful, look ahead and be hopeful, look around and be helpful.
Anonymous
Excellent advice. Have a great week!
#mondaymotivation #quotes #positivevibes
“The future depends on what you do today.” Mahatma Ghandi
Wishing you great things today.
“Hear blessings dropping their blossoms all around you.” Rumi
Have a wonderful week.
Among everything else of concern to me right now, I am hearing disturbing murmurs. There is a general undercurrent of restlessness in our world, and it all seems to be speeding up like the out of control bus in the movie. Stop--and it all goes up in flames. But the murmurs I mentioned don't portend any different an outcome.
While I was wrestling with the column below in my head, I had a couple of unnerving dreams where I woke up shaking. One is still unsettling as I write this, and I knew that I HAD to get these thoughts out into the public realm. The photo, which I titled "Peace," is one that kept showing up in my head as I organized my thoughts. What could be more innocent and peaceful than a duckling paddling around the Necanicum River under a blue sky?
COLUMN 22
By GLYNIS VALENTI Times Leader Staff Writer
I have been struggling with this column for more than two weeks. It concerns no less than the issue of good versus evil.
In years past I have likened people--on certain days or times of the year—to bees at the end of summer. Buzzing, hurrying, darting to get where they’re going and do what they have to get done, usually just before a holiday weekend or before a big storm hits. But it isn’t a random occurrence anymore. It has not only become the norm, but has spread into all kinds of tangents and facets of life.
Though there are still 24 hours in a day, seven days a week, time is at a premium. It’s the “me, now” era, so get out of the way. Tempers are shorter. Everyone carries a big stick, but no one walks softly. All voices have something to say, relevant or not, and insist on being heard. Loudly. Defensiveness transitions to bullying and then to simply taking what one wants. It’s compounded throughout the world, resulting in terrible headlines that make us feel powerless.
I have friends who monitor world politics, violence, finances and trends. One of said friends is a devout Catholic, and she has been filling me in on the Ferguson, Missouri news, directives from Pope Francis and her own observations. She has summed up and connected all of this growing unsettling energy in two words: chaos and evil.
There are conspiracy theories that no longer seem theoretical. Of particular interest and concern (to me, at least) is the idea of governments and corporations without ethics instituting means to weaken and control economies and populations and foster chaos. The ground and focus keep shifting all around us—the Greek economy, North Korean weapons, Mexican drug cartels, Middle East bombings, and in the United States, the health care debacle and a pharmaceutical-dependent society amidst a rising threat of terrorism.
Most Americans are, for now, insulated somewhat on our soil, but I do see more pushiness, more defensiveness and oversensitivity in day-to-day life that is taking its toll. My personal theory is that this restlessness is the result of the chaotic energy trickling down in the atmosphere at large. Life is immediate—information, food, transportation, cash, satisfaction—and it creates sensory overload and dependence on immediacy at the same time. “Me, now” and chaos.
This brings me to “evil.” According to my friend, all of the chaos is playing into Satan’s plan, if it isn’t being orchestrated by him already. Let me say that I have always believed in a Higher Power, God, but not so much in an evil one. My friends are adamant that Satan exists, as is Pope Francis. In my research for this I found many headlines about the Pope going “old school” on the Devil, calling for the church to take every opportunity to stop him in his tracks and to fervently pray for the world’s safety. My friend also mentioned a group of nuns whose only task is to pray. One of them came out of sequester to talk about how it has become a ‘round the clock endeavor in order to stave off the Dark Side.
In researching my series on heroin, one of the most horrifying facts was that drug dealers now lace marijuana with heroin in order to get teens hooked right away. I can’t describe the despair I feel for these dealers and these children since hearing this. There are other haunting images that I push back from an in-depth feature on SPII (Sexual Predator Internet Initiative.) What kind of human does these things, thinks these things up? This is evil.
Now that I’ve emptied the contents of my head, how can I be most effective in the good versus evil battle? As I’ve mentioned, my friends keep close watch on current events, usually the negative. This is not me. I’ve come to believe that giving what is negative attention gives it power, especially if fear is involved. If I am concentrating on Middle East bombings or fear a terrorist attack in America, my thoughts, being energy, will further that course.
I have to start with myself. I once read a woman’s quote about her divorce: “I can either be bitter or better.” Can’t we all? Every moment contains that choice. I can be irritated in slow traffic, or I can take that moment to send loving thoughts to a friend in need. I can assure myself that what I have is more than enough. I can give people information they can use. In a crowded store I can smile, say “excuse me” and “thank you,” and acknowledge those who do the same. I can strive to be a calm, kind oasis in a sea of chaos. I can pray for the highest and best for all concerned. I can envision my positive ripples radiating out to meet others like them and flooding the world.
And, to paraphrase another quote, if you think that “one” can’t make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.
Words are the most essential ingredient to my "business." Times change, language evolves, but is there a trend toward superficial communication? I've heard more than one parent talk about their teens sitting with a group of their friends TEXTING instead of TALKING to each other. Teachers have noticed that students become anxious during a conversation. Is "<3" really the same as "love?" Yo.
COLUMN 21
By GLYNIS VALENTI Times Leader Staff Writer
A good deal of my life relates to words. Though I’m generally a visual person, words help me paint images and stories through description, connotation and metaphor.
I enjoy the histories and sounds of words and often look origins up when I’m writing, thanks to my seventh grade teacher Mrs. Hart, who introduced me to etymology. It’s intriguing how many of our words have grown from ancient Roman or Greek roots and how their meanings have evolved over centuries. One of my favorite words is “inspiration,” whose origin is the Latin “inspirare” meaning “to breathe in.” Isn’t that beautiful? To breathe in that which leads to art, music, dance, inventions. I have visions of “living and breathing” one’s work.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there seems to have been—and I’m not particularly fond of this phrase--a “dumbing down” in and of America. Maybe it’s all over the world at this point, but somehow we’ve gone from this Valentine declaration by Margery Brews in 1477, “My heart bids me ever more to love you truly over all earthly thing,” to texting “I <3 u.”
I’ve noticed the change while trying to find definitions and alternate words in dictionaries. It probably began in an effort to give students a portable reference guide, but most dictionaries-- paperbacks and online—now read like, basically, “Cliff Notes” versions. My friend Rich posted an article on Facebook about this shift and the author’s surprise at the difference between his dictionary and “Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary” from 1828 and 1913. I tested this for myself.
Under “inspiration” in the above-mentioned 1913 dictionary, one of the definitions reads, “the act or power of exercising an elevating or stimulating influence upon the intellect or emotions.” In “Webster’s New World Dictionary” the corresponding definition reads, “any stimulus to creative thought or action.” They aren’t quite the same. One is descriptive; the other feels like the corners have been cut.
Granted, the paperback dictionary was designed as a quick fix, but I’m wondering if there has been too much “quick” so that it has become the norm. After all, one can get immediate information as it unfolds right there at the source, and with the right buzzwords it’s trending in minutes. Too often, though, people form conclusions based on the face value of “Cliff Notes” and buzzwords rather than the unabridged versions of, seemingly, every situation.
Since so much of my life is about words, I am sensitive about choices and take great care in choosing them to convey exactly the meaning I want to present. Obviously thoughts are energy, and energy and intent are sent out through words. For instance, when someone says, “I love you” it probably means “to take delight or pleasure in; to have a strong liking or desire for, or interest in; to be pleased with.” One feels that warm and fuzzy elation of good intent.
Words have that kind of power. Selecting them wisely is especially important when the speaker knows little about the person and circumstances to which his words are directed. Consider the word “ugly,” meaning “deformed, offensive to the sight, hateful, repulsive.” No good can come of deflating someone’s spirit. In fact, “Think Before You Speak” is a local school program that addresses this issue as bullying because words and their energies can be devastating.
As I grapple with Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum,” a daunting but humorous 670-page mystery also recommended by friend Rich, I’ve learned about a new app for smart phones which seems to be the ultimate (“incapable of further division or separation”) in “Cliff Notes” communication: “Yo.”
If you wept over the decimation of the English language during the rises of Valley Girls and Ebonics and cringe at texts like “CUL8R” and “jk,” well, brace yourself. “Yo” is apparently the be-all, end-all of phrases now, which, probably unbeknownst to the app’s developers, dates back to Middle English.
According to the app’s description, verbatim (grammatical errors included,) “Wanna say ‘good morning?’ just Yo. Wanna say ‘Baby, I’m thinking about you?’—Yo. ‘I’ve finished my meeting, come by my office’—Yo.” What began innocently as efficiency has mushroomed into brazen and unapologetic laziness.
I hope there’s a mind-reading app available, too, because a single “Yo” appearing out of nowhere on my phone is not enough information. Am I supposed to meet someone at Panera? Do I need to reschedule a photo shoot? Do I have an admirer? A stalker? How does one determine whether it’s an “I love you” yo, or a break-up yo? As the app’s description points out, “The possibilities are endless.”
So not only have we decreased face-to-face encounters through email and texting and sanitized the definitions of our language, but we have depersonalized conversation by attempting to distill all emotion, intent, and meaningful interaction into one silly word—which, admittedly, would eliminate the need for dictionaries altogether.
A boggling one million people have downloaded the app in its first two weeks but will most likely have to talk to their recipients anyway to decipher those cryptic messages. Though the app is probably a joke, are we really moving away from beautiful language and our essential connections to it and to each other? Do I hear a yo?
June 1, 2014
Well. Here we are, and here we go. If you’ve been reading my blog, you are aware of the “themes,” the “mantras,” the “riffs” that run through my thoughts and life. The Universe has been at work again, and I have a new blog site. GoDaddy discontinued their blog product and told everyone they had to move, so I packed up all 250+ entries from the past seven years, and here I am.
I, of course, am at another plateau anyway. Since last year, I have been “releasing.” I copied all of my years of blog posts into a Word doc—1,101 letter-sized pages of photos and words. Scanning through those entries reminded me why I moved to Oregon and what I can do when I’m working creatively.
As the world at large moves into its next phase, my world is shifting, too. There are new causes to explore and priorities to rearrange. Sorting through the house after my parents’ deaths in November is teaching me much about release. Let go of the sets of Time-Life books; one only needs so many throw blankets; keep my grandmother’s jewelry box. As it happens, my niece is moving into her first solo apartment, so she will be able to use some of her grandparents’ furniture, dishes and pans. This is good.
I’ve turned inward to release habits and thought patterns that no longer work for me. My focus is on evolution and re-finding my purpose, though I suspect part of it does include the journey here to help my parents these last four years. Now, though, I feel myself running in place, excited to move on, yet not quite knowing in which direction.
Just last week a friend posted that her “overworked and overwrought” husband is leaving his job “to take time to smell the roses. And to fish.” I say, “YES! Do it!” I’ve leapt off that cliff in the past and feel myself moving toward the edge again. Writing, photography, teaching, consulting, wine—I’ve done this before. The hard part is honing in all of the possibilities to develop something doable that makes sense.
These photos are from a field trip I took recently with high school art students. It was great to be at the Carnegie Museum with them and to wander amidst art and creatures from other eras. The pot in the first photo is decorated with the archetypal swirl that appears in nearly every culture throughout millennia, always symbolizing change, transition, birth, growth. I've been drawn to the swirl for a long time and used a version of it for my first business logo in Rochester and Oregon. This pot is more than 5,000 years old. Fascinating. These objects are ancient, but the beauty and drama of their energy live on as the world continues its story.
All content--images and written--on ArtSoulWine.com is copyrighted by Glynis Valenti unless otherwise credited and cannot be used without the written permission of Glynis Valenti.
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