William Holman Hunt. I came across his story and his works. Wow. An amazing artist who lived quite a controversial life. What moved me? The colors. The textures. The realism. Hard to believe it’s a painting; his work is so intensely realistic.
These are a few sentences that simply stayed…
“Though no longer pregnant, she continues, at times, to mix Rice Krispies and peanuts and onions in a bowl. For being a foreigner Ashima is beginning to realize, is a sort of lifelong pregnancy — a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding.”
— Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
I came across this excerpt and felt the need to share…. It spoke volumes…beyond the interesting rice krispies mix! The expression of this insight on life in 3 sentences was a feat.
That being said…a disclaimer I failed to post and do so now.
I don’t sell books, nor do I plug my own. I constantly peruse the net and find things. Read books and find things. If the finds provoke thought &/or emotion? I share. – That is what Erratica is about. No selling, no plugging, no reviews. Just what is interesting sprinkled with a musing or two…Just saying.
“Probably one of the most private things in the world is an egg before it is broken.”-M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating
Words are our ‘eggs.’
Once words are uttered, muttered, declared, whispered, shouted… “Crack,” goes their shell.
Once a thought is shared, it, too, is like the egg that has been broken.
There is no return.
Like the egg.
Broken.
No return.
Words once said can never be unsaid…their shell has been cracked, and like an egg, their protective casing has been broken.
And their meaning? Scrambled.
My notebook…this journal? Raw, messy, defiant, experimental, probing, uncomfortably blunt, flawed, imperfect, and ON THE FLY…
Spontaneous. honest. Jotting that thought. Clipping that find. Recording that moment.
Why do some people get antsy, defiant, or weird when reading other viewpoints?
Different views, different beliefs, and different perspectives are what make us UniQue.
And that should be preserved and celebrated in this world of herd mentality…..
Keep a journal and celebrate your ‘uniqueness’.
I mentioned procrastinating in the previous entry. It’s true. I did. Procrastinate. I wanted to go public with a journal. But I was putting it off.
This is why: Start with Zappa.
“Too many books, so little time.” – Frank Zappa
He was right—I get it. As a reader, I feel that very same thing at times.
But I don’t agree simply because there are tons of books and hardly any time to read them.
In general, the quote resonates because it points out what it feels like to have too much of one thing and be limited by too little of another. As in my version of that observation:
“Too many things to note and jot, so little time.” – Sosanni V
That feeling/observation is actually what stalled me and kept me from creating this journal for quite a while. But I eventually worked around that. (Obviously.)
But I’m glad I started the journal today, because tomorrow is April Fool’s Day.
I wouldn’t want to start my journal on that day. I am so weird that way.
Superstitious.
Looking for the ‘auspicious’ and the ‘ominous’ in random things? Even regarding ‘April Fool’s Day’? Yup.
Well, not really. I’m not looking for the ‘omens’. lol…
It’s actually the word ‘fool‘ that makes me cringe when I hear April Fools Day.
Because that word now bears more meaning than it ever did before – to me, at least.
The fool.
To me, it used to mean the silly, rather ‘reckless/without thought’ person.
Eh…ok…not a big deal…So April Fool’s Day? Silliness, but harmless. That’s what I used to think.
But lately, the word fool has taken on another meaning for me.
When I hear the word fool, I tend to think of the word with its Biblical meaning – a meaning I never knew years ago.
Like so many other things, the Biblical meaning of that word portrays more and more of a sign of the times.
The Biblical meaning? I am not the expert, but I do know that Fool is used in the Old Testament…and this quote comes to mind.
“Fools speak foolishness and make evil plans.” (Isaiah 32:6)
However, here is what really rings close to home.
Jesus used the word ‘fool‘ while making a very serious accusation, calling out the Pharisees. “You fools”, He said, while addressing them.
He actually used the Greek word “αφρoνες” – ‘Aphron/ plural Aphrones’. That word is translated as ‘fool’, but it’s Greek definition literally means ‘without reason/mind‘.
“Fool” takes on a meaning beyond ‘silly ‘. It also means being without mind—being ‘senseless’ and ‘crazed.’
So – back to the procrastination I mentioned in the first lines… It comes as no surprise to me that I really wanted to hit the keyboard with this journal starting today.
Not Tomorrow.
Start writing my journal on April Fool’s Day? It is a day that celebrates the fool.
And when I hear the word fool I think of Jesus’ definition of a fool…. Especially now.
There were fools, madmen, and senseless people walking about and creating chaos during Jesus’ time.
And I’m sure that fools never stopped circulating about, destroying society for the generations that followed…up to now.
History repeats itself.
Now. What does ‘now‘ even mean if history keeps on repeating itself?
Now could mean our unique contemporary take on an old problem.
OR.
Now could mean ‘same shit, different day’.
That notion, ‘same shit, different day‘, reminds me of a line from King Lear…
(Will Shakespeare was a crafty wordsmith, wasn’t he…regardless of whether or not some believe it was Sir Frances Bacon at work penning away with the nom de plume of Shakespeare.)
Anyway. Fool & Same Shit Different Day? Those ‘concepts; remind me of this:
It is a line from Shakespeare’s King Lear that comes to mind.
A no brainer.
and here I am – feeling as if we are living in a world reminiscent of what Will of the Shakespeares described.
and here I am—baking brioche and creating a journal as madness grabs hold of the world.
