For more paintings & poetry
on this magical theme
see my recent post
"Geese Girls"
@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
Saturday, April 28, 2018
So Many More Geese Girls
For more paintings & poetry
on this magical theme
see my recent post
"Geese Girls"
@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
Wednesday, April 25, 2018
Mystic Ouabache
Greetings From the Banks of the Mythic Wabash!
Fun Fact From
Indiana Department of Natural Resources:
Wabash is the English spelling of Ouabache
the French name for the river.
French traders named it after the Miami Indian name,
Waapaahsiiki, meaning “it shines white.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Several times per week, Gerry and I enjoy breakfast / lunch / dinner at Town & Gown Bistro (situated on North River Road, adjacent to Craig Martin's mural), and we always prefer a view of the mural to any other, drinking our coffee while mesmerized by the deep tones and swirling textures of the Mythic Wabash Man (aka "Celery Bog Man"), rising mysteriously from beneath the mighty river.
We feel so lucky to live just a few blocks not only from the Mighty Wabash, but also from such great public art and such a fine restaurant. Many thanks to artist Craig and Bistro owners Matt & Regen for sharing their talents in the community!
Believe It Or Not
The River Simply Manifest
So Much Water Moving
Dawn on the Wabash
Come Back to the Present!
Back When We Had More Trees
~ Happy Arbor Day! ~
[file: finepix March 22, 2009]
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Smarter & Fancier
this screen print to go along with my blog!
She understands my mission and knows what I'm about!
It's true -- you really can get smarter
(and fancier!) from reading my blog posts --
every few days, fortnightly, monthly!
If you don't believe me, how about these testimonials
from some of my highly intelligent readers:
Back in my second year of blogging, my sweet little darling niece
Anna sent this inspiring reponse:
Hi Aunt Kit! I was getting ready to go to sleep, when I stopped by your facebook page and clicked on the link to your blog to check out your newest entry -- and of course ended up reading the past three months worth. I love your style of writing. It's so calming, relaxing, intelligent, and home-y. Sort of like a really great bedtime story. Speaking of which, I really should be heading that way. Thanks for writing!
Love you, xoxo♥
September 8, 2010 at 11:34pm
And from my lovely cousin Maggie:
Kitti Cuz, I got lost in your blog this Sat morning. It is SO amazing, so much to take in! You are so entertaining and wise!!!!
I love you, cuz!
August 13, 2011
More recently, my loyal reader and oft - quoted friend
Burnetta wrote on my behalf:
My friend Kitti has kept a blog going for a long time now. They always touch something deep within me. I hope that you will take time to read this one. I can feel memory creeping up on me at odd times, in the line of a grocery store, driving by a landmark, the smell of an autumn fire. Memories are still a real part of my life and make it richer. As my memory stumbles at times for 'facts', my tactile and sensory memories seem stronger. Memories remind us of who we are at the core.
Downfall or Saving Grace?
Literary commentary means so much,
coming from our creative family friend
Renee:
R: I just wanted to say how much I love your blog especially the poetry. I just shared your late friend Celine's poem "Spring." Truly meaningful writing. I just followed you on the blog list. Please don't ever stop sending these out.
K: Thanks Renee! You just made my day! Cyberspace really is FULL OF DEAR FRIENDS! (Not just a black hole as I sometimes fear.) All is well here.
R: I am happy to know that but I really mean it. You have put me back in touch with poetry and Emily Bronte.
K: I know you do; I never doubted. Thanks for being a true friend, over the years and over the miles.
R: I have realized as I get older, that real friends (people you have shared large segments of your life with) are always friends. No matter how little you see them. I try to only have friends on FB. You know what I mean -- not just FB friends. Emily Bronte, I am coming back to you.❤
R: I appreciate yr discussion of Virginia W. She is a woman who should never pass into oblivion. I enjoy yr blog immensely. Thank you.
And from one of the keenest intellectuals
I've had the joy to meet through blogging,
Brigit always has some encouraging words:
B: You're a cultural force of nature!
K: Thanks Brigit -- just one of the many services I offer!
B: Keep the great content coming!
April 21, 2015
B: For anyone who who enjoys poetry, wisdom, culture and just general loveliness, you can't do better than my friend Kitti Carriker's blog. She's a scholar, teacher, traveler and general student of life.
K: Brigit, thanks so much for your kind words. Your praise was so high that I felt I might have actually been a little lazy this time, so I gave the post some fine tuning to make sure it lived up to your compliments. Thanks for inspiring me to keep at it!
B: Kitti Carriker is a ninja. This blog is really a public service and should be read far and wide.
Bright Blue October ~ Oct 19 2017
B: You always have the best pictures, poems and commentary -- long live Kitti Carriker!
Winter Solstice 2017
B: Your posts shine a clear light in all this darkness. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Moonset
Anthony W
Shout out to Kitti Carriker, a great valuer of poetry
January 10, 2018
Barbara S
You have the heart of a poet and the eye of an artist💙
Panera Still Life
Gabrielle S
Oh so beautiful! Thank you Kitti! Your blog is wonderful.
This post made my morning.
Every comment and everything about this post is AWESOME!
September 8, 2009
Joni
Kitti honestly without you in my life there would be no poetry.
January 2011 / 2018
Nancy S
You have an incredible way of linking history to your personal life!
I love your links!
Norman Rockwell's Birthday
Tim T
Thanks, Kitti for your unending eloquent endeavor;
it is a reading pleasure I enjoy!
October 26, 2014
******************
Barbara T
This is amazing. I learn so much from you
and marvel at the beauty of the paintings, photographs,
memorabilia and WORDS that you share. Thank you.
May 2018
Charlotte V
I'm somewhat in awe of how you chronicle your life.
I honestly just have a shitty memory for details.
It's occasionally problematic . . .
May 9, 2012 / 2018
DAILY or QUOTIDIAN?
or Hey, has anybody seen my Self - Confidence?
Back when I started this blog, a little voice of Anxiety / Imposter Syndrome made fun of my title, reading over my shoulder and sneering: "Quotidian?" As if I were a self-important academic showoff. Sticking up for myself, I said, "Don't laugh at my diction!" Imposter Response: "I will laugh." I'm over that, right? The real question is why such criticisms go straight to the heart of my self - esteem, but they do.
Outwardly, I stood by my word choice, deeming it rather elegant and straightforward -- smarter and fancier, shall we say! Yet, inwardly, there is always the second-guessing. I felt so mortified, like all of a sudden -- oh my gosh do I look pretentious and stupid and pathetic in the eyes of the world and all (if there are any) of my readers? I had to keep assuring myself that it was okay; that I was not an idiot; that "quotidian" is a perfectly good word that has been in both my written and spoken vocabulary for lo these many years.
More on:
The Story Only You Can Tell
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Coffee With Flaubert
in his assessment of the 19th Century trains:
"Gustave [Flaubert, 1821 – 1880] belonged to the first railway generation in France; and he hated the invention. . . . he hated the way it flattered people with the illusion of progress. What was the point of scientific advance without moral advance? The railway would merely permit more people to move about, meet and be stupid together" (108, emphasis added).
For more Coincidence & Connection
See my Fortnightly Post
~ "Trees, Trains, and Idiots" ~
For more on this blog from Flaubert's Parrot
The Sadness of Hydrangeas
Colored Panes: Flaubert & Pearce
Primrose Path
And on my book blog ~ Flaubert & Barnes
Monday, April 16, 2018
Recent Reads
& setting them out in an order
that her children can understand"
StoryPeople by Brian Andreas
Even though my kids are grown now, this is what I continue to strive for day after day on my blogs -- "gathering up bits of the world & setting them out in an order" -- if not for children, for adults, and for myself to understand.
Quotidian: "realize life while [you] live it -- every, every minute."
Fortnightly: "hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words." ~Goethe
Book List: "put [your] faith in books . . . "
On all three blog sites, as I've said before, my goal is to draw connections between daily life and literature of all genres (my favorite novels, haiku, sonnets, song lyrics, contemporary poetry, and so forth), always looking for the intersection of the quotidian and the artistic, complete with visuals, intertwining the two threads until a pattern emerges from the chaos.
March 31 ~ Makin' a list, checkin’ it twice . . .
Fiction:
The Truth According to Us
by Annie Barrows
&
The Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt
April 6 ~ Always Skeptical Never Cynical
Non - fiction:
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
by Matthew Desmond (2017)
&
Teaching in the Terrordome:
Two Years in West Baltimore with Teach for America
by Heather Kirn Lanier (2012)
Friday, April 13, 2018
Bones, Trees, Houses
Cartoon by Michael Lipsey
A few weeks ago, when writing about the Guayacan Tree (and shortly thereafter on the Vernal Equinox) there was one quotation that kept eluding me, something I read somewhere about trees and houses made of bones. After an hour of fruitless searching for the lost thought, I gave up locating the passage and posted the essay without it, even though it would have made such a perfect connection. I lamented the failed memory recall, filing away the almost but not quite remembered line under "maybe one day I'll relocate it."
I guess I know what I'm going to discuss tomorrow for my
Fortnightly Connection & Coincidence!
Stay tuned for
"Trees, Trains, and Idiots"!
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Imposter Syndrome
Cartoon by Michael Lipsey
Facebook post
I was intrigued when my nephew Jerrod posted the definition of imposter syndrome: "the inability to internalize your accomplishments; the persistent fear of being exposed as a 'fraud.'"
Jerrod concluded: "I'm sure I have this; I've always said I've lucked into everything in my life."
And I had to concur: "Interesting and worrisome concept. A little voice inside my head likes to tell me that anything I've ever done (being a teacher, a writer, a parent, a daughter, etc.) has been substandard. Why is that? Now I know!"
Wikipedia says that the term was coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists, but I'm thinking back to 1977, when Marilyn French wrote The Women's Room and I felt in my gut the terrible truth of Kyla's oral exam:
" 'I really failed. . . . That's the truth. . . . They said I passed. . . . But I really failed. . . . They demoralized me, they had that kind of power, I gave them that kind of power. . . . I can't feel legitimate . . . ' " (563 - 564).Sure sounds like "imposter syndrome" to me! I suppose it has been around forever and that we all (well, maybe not all?) suffer the side effects from time to time. Time to upgrade that self - image! But how?
Here's one helpful tip.
Should you ever start to feel this way, don't!
Please remember: untrue!
That's just the anxiety talking.
Instead, remember this message that
my nephew Hans sent awhile back
These are the true words!
I keep them in my saved file
and re-read whenever necessary:
***********************
Thanks again to Michael Lipsey, Jerrod Rosenbluth,
and Hans Carriker for sharing these insights!
More here from nephews & nieces.
***********************
P.S.
The Anxiety Lying to Me?
or Hey, has anybody seen my Self - Confidence?
I often brood about the perceived valuelessness of my role -- berating myself for not generating revenue, for lacking ambition, for giving up the struggle to do both the career and the kids. Yes, I was so lucky to be at home with my flexible schedule and my piano, my books, and my e-mail, my grocery store just around the corner and my kids across the street in their little brick school house. My family can live without my practicing my profession, and so can I, though at times I do feel rather useless and non-contributory, and non-revenue-generating. Still, it's hard not to love such a great life.
Even so, I sometimes fear that being respected around here is indeed tied to working for money. These days, working for love doesn't really count (if it ever did) as anything more than some kind of peculiar self - indulgent hobby. Of course, that may be just a distorted misreading on my part: you know, the ache of modernism, the quandary of the new millennium, the price of feminism, not to mention a surefire way of punishing myself in my head for never working hard enough, never being good enough. After all, the theme of my fundamentalist protestant upbringing was: "You should be ashamed of yourself, young lady." So is it any surprise that I am, even now at age 60? Pathetic, I know, but true.
Saturday, April 7, 2018
They're not laughing now; no, wait, yes they are!
for posting one of Gerry's old favorites!
And reappearing for the Easter season
is the favorite Christmas Joke
of born comedian, Gerry McCartney:
New Year's Eve ~ Raleigh, North Carolina
Thanks to Ben for filming, and Cathleen for laughing! In case you miss it, starting right around the 2:25 mark, Gerry says: "I'm going to open a cheese shop in the Holy Land. I'm gonna call it Cheeses of Nazareth" (and I make a brief appearance at 3:30)
This was NOT a church service,
even though it was held in a church
-- it was just regular old stand - up comedy,
sponsored by the community as a New Year's Eve event.
P.S.S.
On a more serious note, you can watch:
Gerry's Global Session Video
in the MGM Grand Garden Arena
Las Vegas ~ August 2018
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
On This Day
Maya Angelou was born
April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014 (age 86)
"Are we not the same citizens who struggled, marched, and
went to jail to obliterate legalized racism from our country?
Didn't we dream of a country where freedom was in
the national conscience and dignity was the goal?"
On this day 50 years ago
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated
January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968 (age 39)
"No. No, we are not satisfied and
we will not be satisfied until
'justice rolls down like water and
righteousness like a mighty stream.' "
********************
Additional Martin Luther King, Jr. Posts
Lingering Autumn
Think Globally Act Locally
I Only Have Hearts For You
Dark Days
Do Not Worry, Do Not Hurry, Just Eat Curry!
Teach Your Children Well
Love & Justice, Both Blind
A Song for Martin Luther King Day
Light, Love, and Community on MLK Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Winter Reading
Do Not Worry, Do Not Hurry, Just Eat Curry!
********************
Previous Maya Angelou Posts
A Noble Country
Heart of Hearts
Handed My Own Life
Dagmar's Birthday
Lost and Found
More on Facebook
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Grad School Laughs: Hysterical Context
We Thought We Were Very Funny!
Finding Humor in the Situation
Wolf Family of Litterateurs
For more ~ seriously ~ on Virginia Woolf,
see my recent post ~ "Who's Afraid? Fear Not!"
@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Steeple Bells
around the upper & lower porch railings?
-- which have been up since Christmas --
and then the Easter snowfall was an added bonus!
(Photos added April 1st ~
Nature's idea of an April Fools prank?)
"Shall we be a people who live in the darkness of denial and / or impotent rage? Or are we willing to step out and take the risk of believing, however humbly and lowly, in Christmas [and Easter] and that the little twinkling lights we see everywhere represent a great light?"The Rev. Nancy C. Tiederman,
friend, teacher, priest & spiritual advisor
A couple of years ago, I was regretting the misplacement of some long forgotten Easter poems (something about a steeple against an April sky "and I grew small again"; and another one about hearing church bells and the voice of God). Would I ever remember where I had filed them?
Amazingly yes! All three losses were restored to me, along with a bit of hope.
the church bells ring
I thought I heard
the voice of God."
Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)
French-German Theologian & Renaissance Man
quotation found in
Quiet Thoughts: Reflections on the Meaning of Life
by Weaver & Whitley
"He was a rationalist,
but he had to confess that
he liked the ringing of
church bells."
Anton Chekhov (1860 – 1904)
Russian playwright and short-story writer
quotation found in
Women, Heroes, and a Frog
by Nina Leen (1909 - 1995)
Photo from my visit ~ October 2017
No Greater Heights
Eagerly,
I scanned the canvasses
of ancient masters -- drew forth
each hidden secret of their craft,
each principle of line, and form, and hue.
And I grew wise in Art.
Fervently,
I studied works
of great composers -- delved deep in melody
and mood, probed structure and technique.
And I grew wise in Music.
Avidly,
I thumbed through yellowed
manuscripts -- through ragged volumes, thick
with dust, and plied my mind with formulas
and rules.
And I grew wise in Science.
Philosophers and men of wit, I read --
plundered every single source
of knowledge, made captive all the learning
of all time until, I though
I towered in Wisdom over all.
And then I saw a steeple,
against an Easter dawn.
And I was small again.
Bernard S. Patrick (Copyright, 1954, John Deere)
poem found in Easter Ideals, 1964 (Vol 21, No 2)
Photograph taken by Ben McCartney ~ February 2018
Photograph taken by Ben McCartney ~ March 2004
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Rest in Peace Virginia Woolf
in what is commonly thought big than
in what is commonly thought small. . . .
Down, down into the midst of ordinary things."
1902 & 1927
Rest in Peace Virginia Woolf:
25 January 1882 ~ 28 March 1941
See more on facebook
and more on my Fortnightly Post:
~ March 28 ~ Who's Afraid? Fear Not! ~
Google Doodle Celebration on YouTube
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Walkway to the Sun
Beata: Such a beautiful day. Coming back from my meeting at the library, I experienced the most spectacular sunset. At the stop sign, I paused to enjoy the sun going down. I literally spent ten minutes waiting for it in the middle of the road.
Kitti: It was worth the wait! In the first picture, I really like the included reflection on the hood of the car!
Beata: Ha ha, in the second picture I wanted to avoid that!
Kitti: I know! And I saw you got rid of the wires, which I am also always trying to avoid. On the other hand, sometimes those little unwanted details add an interesting touch.
Beata: You got it right! I love your photo, especially pretty because the winding walkway leads toward raising sun and the branches mirror the movement of the walkway.
Sky Full of Wires
Thursday, March 22, 2018
The Equinox in Our Bones
"Early this morning, there was fog & as the sun rose around us, everything began to glow & it made me wonder what this world will become for us when we remember in our bones that even the darkness is just another shape of light."
Or, as Gerry was wondering this very morning, only moments before I opened up my mail to find that my friend Diane had sent me the above Story of the Day: "Why do you think it is that human beings, in all epochs and seasons, are universally drawn to the rising and setting of the sun? Do we learn that the sunrise and the sunset are beautiful to behold, or are we born feeling it in our bones?
Additional Vernal Equinox Posts
2010: Garden & Fig
2011: Super Moon
2012: First Day of Spring
2013: Bursting Into Light
2014: The Wire Brush of Doubt, Spring Hopes Eternal
2015: Prevernal, Vernal
2016: Why the World Wags
2017: Light Spectrum, My Own Little Stonehenge
2018: Tuesday Afternoon
2019:Daylight Loses
2020: Last Sunset of Winter
2021:The Pause Between Seasons
2022: An Horizon Near You
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunrise Reflected in the Front Window
Sunrise Through the Wires
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Tuesday Afternoon
"The trees are drawing me near
I've got to find out why . . . "
A song for the Vernal Equinox ~ when it falls on a Tuesday:
Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)
Tuesday afternoon
I'm just beginning to see
Now I'm on my way
It doesn't matter to me
Chasing the clouds away
Something calls to me
The trees are drawing me near
I've got to find out why*
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh
I'm looking at myself reflections of my mind
It's just the kind of day to leave myself behind
So gently swaying through the fairyland of love
If you'll just come with me you'll see the beauty of
Tuesday afternoon
Tuesday afternoon
Tuesday afternoon
I'm just beginning to see
Now I'm on my way
It doesn't matter to me
Chasing the clouds away
Something calls to me
The trees are drawing me near
I've got to find out why
Those gentle voices I hear
Explain it all with a sigh
~ by Justin Hayward (b. 1946)
British musician, lead singer and guitarist for The Moody Blues
[*Could this be why: "If trees could build houses
they would build them out of our bones." ~ Michael Lipsey]
Whenever I hear anything from Days of Future Passed (1967), I always remember writing a letter to my friend and pen pal Jill in 1976. We had been in grade school together but gone to different highs schools and colleges. During the spring semester of our freshman year, no sooner had I written to tell her that I had just bought a copy of this album, than she wrote to me with the same news. It was such an odd coincidence, because it wasn't even a new album at the time, and we hadn't discussed it or anything. Just one of those funny synchronicities.
Although it took place on a Sunday not a Tuesday,
I also have to point out that
today is the wedding anniversary
of my maternal grandparents
Paul & Rovilla,
married 91 years ago today.
They were married 39 years.
Rovilla died in 1966; Paul in 1983.
Here they are in 1965
Friday, March 16, 2018
Women's History Month
to a painting on street walls
on International Women's Day in Hyderabad, India,
Friday, March 8, 2013."
International Women's Day
and
Women's History Month ~ Special Events
“From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well."
And see my related post:
~ "Not to be Devoured" ~
@ The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Saving the River Babies
by American Artist ~ Andrew Wyeth (1917 – 2009)
This is the kind of river I imagine
whenever I read "The Parable of the River Babies"
Slightly differing versions can be found
in Why Did The Policeman Cross the Road?
by Stevyn Colgan
and on the website of the
Unitarian Universalist Association
You can click on the links for detailed narratives, but, to explain briefly, a group of concerned bystanders or campers on the riverbank quickly come to the rescue when they see a baby floating by unattended. No sooner have they saved the little one from drowning, when along comes another baby, and then another. After numerous rescues, it occurs to the well - meaning life - savers that they are dealing with a much larger problem that must originate somewhere upstream. Perhaps the true dilemma is not drawing the babies out of the water but figuring out who -- or what force of nature -- is putting them in the river in the first place.
Similar to "The Drawbridge Problem," "Saving the River Babies" can be used as a collaborative learning exercise. After reading and discussing the parable, the problem - solving goal is to determine whether or nor there is a way to prevent the babies from being tossed into the river.
George Lakoff's distinction between Direct & Systemic Causation provides a helpful discussion aid:
"Direct causation is dealing with a problem via direct action. Systemic causation recognizes that many problems arise from the system they are in and must be dealt with via systemic causation. Systemic causation has four versions: A chain of direct causes. Interacting direct causes (or chains of direct causes). Feedback loops. And probabilistic causes. Systemic causation in global warming explains why global warming over the Pacific can produce huge snowstorms in Washington DC: masses of highly energized water molecules evaporate over the Pacific, blow to the Northeast and over the North Pole and come down in winter over the East coast and parts of the Midwest as masses of snow. Systemic causation has chains of direct causes, interacting causes, feedback loops, and probabilistic causes — often combined.
Direct causation is easy to understand, and appears to be represented in the grammars of all languages around the world. Systemic causation is more complex and is not represented in the grammar of any language. It just has to be learned."
[More from George Lakoff on the topic of "Moral Politics"]
USPS Andrew Wyeth Postage Stamps
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