Dear Kyra,
Please continue sharing your "late-night philosophies" with the rest of the BB. There are many who are ready to think deep thoughts. Those on the path to wellness will eventually get to that stage & your wisdom will be here waiting for them. Thank you!
I was one of those physicians who frequently knew what was wrong with the patient before walking into the examining room who had to then shake the rattles & feathers of laboratory, xray, physical exam, etc. tests to convince the patient I knew what I was doing. Once the patient began to see results, & gained confidence in my abilities, we could dispense with the "props" and save a lot of money. Of course, the local labs and xray facilities didn't like that much.
You are "right on the money" with your understanding of what I had to finally come to realize is the way this stuff works. We will understand it better as time goes on but right now RESULTS ARE WHAT MATTERS.
Namaste` Walt
Dear Walt,
You spoke recently of an intuitiveness you have that enables you to recognize the source of patient complaints before they present their "story." I have noted that you sometimes respond to that which a participant on the board has NOT said in their post, which turns out to be significant. Sharon and I often share an inner ear in that way.
Sometimes, after we have been with a person, my wife will look at me and say, "Their music and their words didn’t match." That’s her empathetic way of saying that she sensed more going on than what meets the eye (or ear). Sometimes I will notice her taking a person off into a conversation that is unexpected and all sorts of stuff pours out. And she will say, "I just knew there was something they needed to get to."
My intuition is more sensate based than my wife. I like a quote which illustrates this less subtle way of saying something similar to Sharon’s. It goes something like this: "Your actions are speaking so loudly that I can’t hear what you are saying."
I find it important to cultivate this intuitiveness in the classroom. Here’s a story:
In the old days, people lived WITH the Earth, not just ON the Earth. In those days the animals and plants were the teachers.
Diego Fontana
Mrs. Tender’s Pond
We sat on one of the large pieces of broken concrete which had been brought in to protect the embankment from the high tide. About forty yards lay between us and the small waves breaking close to the shore at low tide. Mounds of stranded seaweed in rows along the hard sand attracted countless sand flies.
Our yellow bus, parked across the dirt road behind us, loomed large out of the thinning fog. From beyond the bus you could hear the occasional traffic sounds from the Pacific Coast Highway, old Highway 1. The excited chatter of the seventy-four fourth graders carried clearly in the misty air. Children sat in groups eating sack lunches, waiting to be dismissed to play in the sand.
Only twenty minutes earlier we had been on the cliffs above. Each parent and teacher had been responsible for taking a student group on a nature hike, and a Ranger had given us all a tour of the museum. The star attraction of the park was the Torrey Pine, a tree found nowhere else in the world except on these cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean from La Jolla to Del Mar, and on one of the Channel Islands called Santa Rosa Island. It is fascinating to ponder this dwindling tribe of less than two thousand trees, but at that time, my attention was fully on making sure I would not be the subject of a famous campus trivia story; "The Day Mr. Hare Left a Kid At Torrey Pines."
So, all present and accounted for, we lunched on the beach. I made a line in the sand, half way between the surf and the rocks by hobbling backwards and dragging my heel behind me. My rule was that "Anyone who gets closer to the water than this line will have to go back and sit in the bus until we leave." I was a second year teacher, and no student was going to drown on my watch, or even go home wet!
Some teachers dread field trips. Inside the buses are noisy beyond belief, and you have to stay so alert and aware at all times that you can’t really relax and enjoy the way you’d like. But, for me, an outing like this is a good break in the routine, and it gives me a chance to see the kids in a different light, see the parents in action, and get lots of fresh air.
This trip turned out to be important to me for another reason. At lunch I found myself sitting on this smooth slab of concrete next to Mrs. Tender. Melanie Tender had been at the school longer than anyone except the two kindergarten teachers. She was a Mentor Teacher, a Master Teacher, and the most respected teacher on campus. You never heard her complain about problem children or cranky parents, and she never seemed to be in a hurry. She always had time to stop and listen to anyone, but she wouldn’t stand around and gos
In Reply to: Mrs. Tender's Pond posted by Jim on May 08, 1998 at 09:53:03:
Thanks so much Jim!
We're having to make some challenging choices for my 7 year old daughter's education. I realize now that we've been listening to the changes in the waters of life that flow in and around our family. We're not as adept as the beavers in the pond behind our house (I feel doubly blessed for those furry creatures now), but at least we can feel good about having the intuition to listen and, more importantly, hear.
Thanks
Peter
In Reply to: Mrs. Tender's Pond posted by Jim on May 08, 1998 at 09:53:03:
Dear, Dear, Jim,
I want you to know how far your wisdom and communication skills pass beyond this BB. This wonderful feeling is just another reason why I would like to see your genius available in the printed word.
My youngest sister is a teacher. She just moved (3 months ago) to my Florida neighborhood (with her 14 year old twins) after a lifetime of living in the same neighborhood in Ohio. She came after several years of my encouragement. She is now spending her time substitute teaching till she can find a more permanent full-time position.
I will pass on your "gift of the day" to her. During this transition, it will go far toward healing her adjustment.
Namaste` Walt
In Reply to: Re: Mrs. Tender's Pond posted by Peter Wray on May 08, 1998 at 10:47:09:
I would love your stories even if I were not a retired teacher. Please let us see a picture of you or of you and
your wife. If you e-mail Bill Stoll he'll be happy to
put it on this board. Please and thanks, Martha
In Reply to: Re: Mrs. Tender's Pond posted by martha on May 12, 1998 at 18:58:53:
Martha,
Thanks. I'll see if I can get something digitized.
Jim
PS I hope you are having a splendid retirement!
In Reply to: Re: Mrs. Tender's Pond posted by Peter Wray on May 08, 1998 at 10:47:09:
Peter,
How fortunate you are to be living with beavers in your back yard! How I would love to watch them in the wild.
Glad to hear you are making the wise choice to be involved in your daughter's education.
Thanks for all you do on the board.
Jim
In Reply to: Mrs. Tender's Pond posted by Jim on May 08, 1998 at 09:53:03:
Dear Dances with Dogs,
Thanks again for the deceptively simple way you lead us to look at thought-provoking and deep issues. I continue to enjoy reading your writings!
Namaste',
Preserves Order (Theoretically)
Dear Dr. Stoll,
I have read most of the Mind As Healer, Mind As Slayer book. I am overwhelmed at the information in the book. Some of the information I learned through reading and in a college class years ago. I knew there was a connection but did not really know how to reduce the stress in my life. AVOIDANCE was often the way I coped. I often just kept pushing myself more and more even though my health was slowly fading.
Now I am learning about all the options I have to strengthen my body and reduce the accumulated stress. I hope that my body can repair and renew.
So here I sit. I am still not able to eat solid food. The muscles in my jaw are stiff and tight. There is nothing wrong with my joints nor could the Ears, Nose and Throat doctor find anything wrong that would cause it. He did say that with all the splints I have worn and some of the poor dental work I have had done it is logical for there to be tightness.
It appears that I ignored my body and all the stress for so long that it has me on my knees. I can't put this off anymore. Years ago I had the headaches, mild acne, muscular tension and some mild stomach problems that many people live with. NOW I have panic attacks, serious stomach problems, a white coating on my tongue, incredible body weakness and soreness, varicose veins, heart rythym troubles, an inability to handle cold temperatures with cold hands and feet, sleeping trouble, sensitivies to orders and chemicals and my jaw and neck are so tight I can only drink Ensure.
I WISH I HAD LISTENED TO MY BODY YEARS AGO.... I have been sick for several years now. That is alot of lost time.
I HAVE to do something.
The increase in vitamins like magnesium has really helped with the panic and anxiety. I read a book about panic attacks and the suggestions were helpful, but not as much as the nutrition and breathing exercises. I have this BAD habit of holding my breath and shallow breathing. As I write this I am catching myself holding my breath.
I am so very weak that exercise is difficult but I know I must try to do it anyway. This will help me.
I still worry so much about whether I am meditating correctly. I am not doing it as often as I should. (Probably why I am not healing faster)
I have been to many therapists and spent lots of money and I am still not well. I have improved, but I am far from where I was years ago.
I KNOW I must focus on the exercise and the meditation. Maybe that will help my muscles to relax and heal my Leaky Gut Problem. I asked my doctor to please have samples sent to one of the labs you suggested for parasites.
I just have this HUNCH I have a parasite on top of the leaky gut. The 'strange' stomach illness that lasted for months seems like a parasite to me. I have never fully recovered.
*** So here is the question
I believe my healing is going to call for physical healing like the exercise, nutritution, clean water, organic food etc. plus a psychological and spiritual healing like the stress reduction exercises (meditation) and letting go of negative thoughts and behaviors that might be contributing to my stress.
You suggest the books of Hans Seyle. I am going to read them all. Many are out of print but I might be able to find them used.
I wanted to know what your opinions are of REM (Rapid Eye Movement Therapy) for the release of stored trauma and stress. I found a person who is highly skilled with this technique. I had a dream inwhich a woman opened a phone book for me to look at. She pointed to a name in the book and told me that he would be helpful with my TMJ and swallowing problem. The next day I opened the phone book and the first page I opened it to and the first name I looked at was VERY close to the one in my dream and he does REM. There was no other name in the phone book who is a physician with a name close to it. I called him up for an appointment. Maybe this can help rid me of all the accumulated stress more quickly. I will give it a try. Then aga
In Reply to: Dr. Stoll - REM and Psychoneuralimmunology posted by Pamela J. on May 13, 1998 at 22:33:56:
Pamela,
Excuse me for responding to you by writing about myself, but I want to support what you are saying and encourage you to go on expressing yourself in this way, both here on the board and elsewhere.
I was a low grade feel lousy sick for so long that I had begun to think that was a normal state to be in. Ever heard of a title "I’ve Been Down So Long Everything Looks Like Up From Here?" It was the anxiety that made me do something about it, so I can really relate to what you must be feeling about that. I ended up in an emergency room thinking I was dying. That got my attention. As Walt says, if you don’t answer the body/mind’s current call, you can expect a more persuasive one in the future.
The effects of a wellness program (WELLNESS TO THE THIRD POWER) (Maybe I’ll design a t-shirt) have been profound in improving the quality of my life. I have, however, found that, like you, I am constantly running headlong into emotional, psychological, and spiritual issues in this quest. Can't seem to avoid it. We can mislead others, and we can kid ourselves, but we cannot fool the body/mind. It is humbling.
Among the effects of meditation, for me, has been an awareness of the blocking of emotion, not unlike what you describe. Somehow, what I experience as love seems to get short circuited and not expressed outwardly. I’ve been robbing myself and others of my feelings. Such a pity, yet such a happiness to see this and make small gains.
I am finding my orientation changing from achievement and insistence to acceptance and marvel, and I agree with Kyra that dreams are not unimportant in the quest, even though their meaning and the meaning of your reaction to them may not be understood until later when you are looking back.
You are on the right track. e.e. cummings said, "It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are." There are many on the board who bravely press on to new territory, spurred on by the desire for health. Could be the moving force and the destination are one and the same, our irresistible real self.
Oops. Sorry. My mind has taken off again and employed my dutiful fingers in its obscure wanderings. It's just that your post rings true, and you are shining through. Keep on, and keep us posted.
Jim.
In Reply to: For Pamela posted by Jim on May 14, 1998 at 01:42:38:
Dear Jim,
Thank you for the encouragement. I awoke this morning and began to feel a little anxious about revealing too much. But then I thought about how much all the other honest postings on this site have helped me. Thanks for sharing your journey on this BB. I LOVE your Mrs. Tender's Pond posting. I printed it out and kept it.
As I read about your journey it helps me have courage to walk my own. Sometimes I wonder that maybe I should not worry about it all so much and just go back to living as I did and MAYBE it will all go away. Some people tell me to do just that. I remind myself that I tried that for many years and here I am. I don't think it is going to work anymore. ;) I don't think it ever did.
It is hard for me to believe that at one time you were in an emergency room thinking that you were dying. I am grateful that you didn't and that you found healing.
Thanks for sharing YOU. You do it eloquently too.
peace and love,
pamela
Dear Dr. Stoll,
One of the most important aspects of this site is that exercizing our fredeom of speech we may communicate with each other.
I am new to this site, I found that many have simmilar problems, while are frequently misled by a commercial aspect of medical craft practice in U.S.
Why we do not each other, we do not see our faces, I am finding by scrolling how mislead are many by the American Medical Association Donkeys.
All who visit this site shall petition the US CONGRES that in retrospect of Gulf War Illness, the new emerging disabilities the Congress shall investigate the messagess from the people about their health experiences and once and for ever clip the wings of Powerful and Deceptive.
One peron can be wrong, 20 people can be misled, but hundreds can not be naivly wrong.
The Insurance companies such as Travelers, Unum, denied disability benefits aginst federal court ruling which reassured that such are disabilities, and are compensable.
In severeal cases the Federal Court ruled that the objective tests for such disabilities are not, repeat not required.
Some experienced very mild symptoms, others can hardly kick around. Any one who see this message please send a wire to your congresman and senator to legalize CFDIS,MCS,FM, EBV, GWI, ME, as a disability. Go to the site www.whitehouse.gov
and send message to DA Chief Executive.
All of us are on this site because of need to explore, while deceived. And some make find what they are looking for.
I conducted Internet research for past 2 months thru all the sources. What I have found exceed the knowledge of practitioners. The scientific evidence is existing, contrary to the claims that there is none. he only question is interpretation and comprenhension of the reality.
I found on Internet and on this site an over all immage of the magnitude of the problem.
Inevery doctors office there shall be a computer with Internet, so Doctors could access medical data base while in doubt, and so that the patients could check on their doctors.
Why it is so that the tribal medicine may be more advanced than the modern medicine of the digital age.
It is evident that it starts with motivation and education.
If thye Quack is teaching at the universitiy his ofsprings likely are to be quacks.
I found this site relaxing and assertive. But many fail to do their homework. I am puzzled, why so many times the same questions are being asked. Cant we read the answers, or it is because some need personal attention while lost in this labirint of unsertenity?
JN
In Reply to: For Pamela posted by Jim on May 14, 1998 at 01:42:38:
Dear Jim,
ONCE AGAIN!
Walt
In Reply to: Dr. Walt! You are ..... ........ ......! posted by JN on May 15, 1998 at 22:28:44:
To All,
I love that description; "latirint of unsertenity."
Fate is fascinating as a general concept, but unfathomable at the level of anyone’s particular case. That is why judging someone is such a tricky business. Who but God can see the biggest and littlest picture at once?
And what about this "labirint of unsertenity?" Sages have said that our thought ultimately yields our destiny, that our worlds are, in a sense, self made. If we are to believe them, maybe this "latirint of unsertenity" in which we find ourselves is between our ears. Not so puzzling, then, that so many of us ask the same questions. Not so puzzling, then, that there is so much variety as our worlds collide when we are sick, or when we see that we have been made sick. We whine, we rant, we blame, we prove and preach. We strut, we fret, we posture this way and that. We shake our heads and our fingers, and sometimes we shake in our boots. But sometimes….. sometimes we awaken in the "labirint" and bless the world with the example of our dignity in the face of the seemingly hopeless. Not wimpy victimization, but selfless living that shines a light on the true nature of life. Haven’t we sometimes been inspired by the examples of those whose seemingly negative fate becomes a sort of living art, expressing the highest in human values. Children seem most suited for touching us in this way. Haven’t we all been taught something by the way some stay so true to the spirit of love, even in suffering and death? How can we keep our hearts in the face of what we want so much to see as unfair and tragic?
Strange that we seem to want to heal ourselves and the world with our mouths, either by what we send out of our mouths or what we put into them. We send out sarcasm, anger, invective, verbosity, and preaching on one hand, humor, love, song, poetry, confession, sympathy, and prayer on the other. Physically, we put in junk food, drugs, and chemicals (inadvertently maybe) on one hand, and healthy food, medicine, and more medicine, supplements, and more supplements on the other. But even the positive things that we send out of our mouths or put into our mouths only set the stage for healing, only make healing possible. Cessation of symptoms, even stasis is not healing.
Healing is a process journey along destiny road, a pilgrimage, but backtracking against the karmic traffic which rushes forward, on to its fortune. Healing is returning to the town before thought, where the road began and then up the path to the, what, fountain?
All the while one is on this path, one is also, paradoxically, be moving forward along the highway, all together with the others in the "labirint," doing the best on can.
What a lovely image it is to be sitting, smiling on the back of the tiger!
Forgive my obscure meandering. A story would have been better. I just had to say it.
Jim
In Reply to: Dr. Walt! You are ..... ........ ......! posted by JN on May 15, 1998 at 22:28:44:
To everyone on the BB,
I read the real information midst JN's ramblings, sometimes brilliant, and also see with deep shock how graphically he represents the extreme of mental pathology that's the result of his own stored hypothalamic stress and the chemical toxins he's been exposed to in the course of his work. And of course, no real help from the allopathic monopoly for him over the years, even though he's clearly sought it. I'm humbled at the forms in which the teacher shows up.
And to you JN, my brother on the path we all walk, I wish from the depths of my heart the deep healing Silence of inner peace that transcends words.
Namaste', Kyra
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Jim on May 16, 1998 at 10:26:11:
My wife read the post I just put up and had a rather strong and unexpected reaction. She told me it was rude and pompous.
Pompous, I would agree, and I would add intellectual and philosophical also. But rude surprised me. Sharon thought I was making fun of JN’s spelling, i.e. labirint of unsertenity. The truth is, I DO love that term, JN, and the way you have of bending words like pretzels and making them say unusual things.
Sharon also added that the post was obscure to the point of confusion. Well, all right, I do plead guilty of having an itinerant monk living in my head who makes me write like this sometimes. After being called a jerk and a horses ass, being called obscure is easy to handle.
But, rude? Dang, I just don’t get that I was rude. I sort of thought my monk was expressing a balancing view in some way, that maybe we could all stand to be a little less attached to our worldly ways and maybe find our path home through some form of introspection. Nothing new in that view, for sure. Probably I should stick to stories rather than let my characters ramble around out here.
For being perceived as rude, I apologize. For being cryptic, I blush a little and go, "Oh well."
Jim
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Addendum on May 16, 1998 at 11:52:58:
Hey Jim,
GREAT POST!!!
Kyra
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Kyra on May 16, 1998 at 12:43:03:
Dear Jim,
I should have been more clear. I was responding to your first post, although the second post also clearly reveals the depth of who you are. You have nothing to apologize for.
Kyra
In Reply to: Re: The teacher shows up in many forms posted by Kyra on May 16, 1998 at 11:28:04:
The sqeeking wheel, gets the oil!
THE RAMBLING BELL, IS HEARD!
Those who listen, may understand!
Those who talk, when shall listen, never learn!
Those who know it all, never listen! -:)
^---^
{ Q|Q }
( v ) The Archipelague of crosroads
( ) allows to sail thru thru the ethical pits!
-_- I am moved!
I want to hear the pregnant "silencio"!
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Jim on May 16, 1998 at 10:26:11:
I do feel like a thirsty TIGER trying to cross a hord of hungry Hyienas on the path to the waterwell!
AMEN!
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Addendum on May 16, 1998 at 11:52:58:
Dear Jim,
I am a firm believer of the old adage: "It takes one to know one." Since I thought it was a wonderful note, to a brilliant but somewhat scattered person, I would put my vote in to ask your wife to reconsider.
Namaste` Walt
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Addendum on May 16, 1998 at 11:52:58:
Jim, few people spell well any longer. Some people even consider it a conondrum, like Emerson's "... foolish consistency ... the hobgoblin of little minds ..." /Gretty ("Let smoke from Mexico go elsewhere if this will
In Reply to: Re: Sitting on the back of the tiger posted by Oma Gretchen on May 21, 1998 at 00:43:49:
Yes, Gretchen, oppressive consistency! I so agree. And that same hobgoblin of Emerson's haunts the schools and leaves teachers like me between Scylla and Charybdis (a rock and a hard spot), teachers who delight at the creative and often accidental output of innocent young spellers. Like the child who wrote "a swan of bees," instead of a swarm of bees. Just one extra loop produces the vision of a multitude of bees flying by in the shape of a swan. Wondrous, no? But the small minds of administrators and politicians rule in education, and so we march to the beat of their conundrum and stamp out ignorance and bad spelling wherever we find it. I have no problem promoting proper spelling, especially with the advent of the spell checker, because I know convention will never eliminate the beauty of the synchronous mistakes or the brilliance of the minds who recreate it as just another tool of expression. I spend nearly my whole day with small fry poets. Somehow we manage to discourage all but the most determined. What price literacy! Jim
Dear Walt, There is a meaning in my illness that has to do with the emerging and the accepting of who I am turning out to be. Only after all these years does the chronicle in the mosaic beneath my feet become clear. When my path, held up as a mural, viewed in its entirety, reveals itself, the message is clear. Hallelujah, I can accept the shameless dreamer that I am! Why has this been so hard? I am still in the process of overcoming whatever programming is in me that tells me this is so wrong. To greatly oversimplify, I have always been completely happy sitting and doing what appears to be nothing. My sensibility has been tortured by the expectation that I should instead be achieving some large slice of some great American pie in the sky. God knows I have tried, and in so doing, I have struggled mightily to be what I am not. But this nothing (no thing) that I do is really something. Looking back, I realize I learned what was important to me in first grade (not kindergarten like Robert Fulghum). It is this: "Stop, Look, and Listen." Don’t you remember? That’s what we were supposed to do at a street corner, or was it a train crossing? In my case, the street corner, or track crossing is at the border of inner and outer world. I sit at the portal of Janus, watching and listening for heart. The pay is lousy, but it’s a wonderful job, and I’m willing to sit and witness with a smile in my heart. The work seems incomplete, however, unless I report from my post, giving life in words to that which animates me. And yet there had been great meaning in all the effort I have made to achieve in the worldly way. Seems to me there is a goal we all share that leads us toward (and is driven by) a wholeness of personality. Its purpose is for us to realize all the opposing possibilities inside us, even as we choose to follow a particular path. No big deal, nothing new here. There are whole psychology books written on this, entire semester classes. But, if whole food is good for us, maybe a whole personality is also. It looks like there are those of us who are born to be warriors in the world. Thank God for them, because I am so unsuited for it. I see it. I understand it. I leave it to the more qualified. I try to stay involved to keep from becoming an introverted invalid. On the other hand, for those warriors, the wholeness quest may be to realize and honor an inner richness which is illusive to them. Different strokes. But on to my point. Issues of wholeness and wrong paths contribute to illness as we block our energy to keep ourselves on an ego bound express. Don’t we gnash our teeth overnight as we rest fitfully from the unspeakable parts of the life we have manufactured, or that which we have denied? Don’t we tense our muscles, at least partly, to keep our hearts from speaking to us? Don’t we often stuff our faces to numb our sensibilities? I think, in my case, yes. Skilled relaxation looked at in this light is more than just refreshing ourselves to continue on with life as usual. Meditation may free the hypothalamus, yes, but it may also point the way through the fear to where acceptance of the heart and our missing parts dwell. The new place we are looking for is not just behind our closed eyelids, it is in the world we find a little changed, a little more radiantly colored, each time we open our eyes again. Once again I am practicing the most shameless self indulgence here on the board. But nearly a year ago, I committed to participating by sharing my journey, and I have found a connection among these principal players: fate, illness, alternative healing practices, and transformation. Ironically, I am writing this from waist deep in a mud puddle. Here is what somebody, somewhere, once said, "The only difference between a rut and a grave is in the dimensions." Spread your sails! Jim
In Reply to: The Difference Between a Rut and a Grave posted by Jim on May 23, 1998 at 10:28:55:
In Reply to: Re: Protein C Deficiency posted by Zarin on May 21, 1998 at 11:33:00:
Zarin, I have not forgotten you. This is what I know: You write playful poetry, you have published (though I don’t know what), I watch the same moon as you, but at different times, and you awaken each morning with more thoughts of mortality than most of us. You scan the world in a lonely search, and I think you face that same world and your predicament with courage. Imagine the contact you have made here, so many miles away through this electronic worm hole, and take heart from all the hope the readers here send you. It’s hard for most of us to express our love and hope to one who is not immediate family, so I will speak for the others who read here and feel here in silence. I recently made a post called "Sitting On The Back Of The Tiger." Because of what I intuit, I have you in mind when I recall the words, "Haven’t we sometimes been inspired by the examples of those whose seemingly negative fate becomes a sort of living art, expressing the highest in human values." I hope these thoughts do not add to your burden, but rather make you feel more supported. Jim
In Reply to: The Difference Between a Rut and a Grave posted by Jim on May 23, 1998 at 10:28:55:
Lovely, Jim. Just lovely! Walt
Jim, I'm pretty new here, but was reading with much interest this thread...I love your posts. I have to put in my two cents. Don't you think that you can enjoy all these wonderful accidental innuendos because of your knowledge of the proper usage? What would a "swan of bees" mean to you if you didn't know what a swarm of bees was? I'm bilingual, and perhaps that always made me a bit more aware of the beauty of well spoken and well written language. It's our only means of getting our ideas across. I agree that too often creativity is not promoted or valued as it should be - usually by people who are not very creative! But, I also feel it's a shame that so many of us don't seem to care much about proper spelling and grammar. Without some consistency, we'd all be speaking different languages! It's what holds us together and what allows us the joys of our mistakes, synchronous or otherwise. We must befriend the hobgoblin and learn about it before we can get past it to the real fun stuff... Anyway, thanks for a great post, and here's a little something for you... A guy goes to his doctor and says, "Doctor, doctor, I don't know what's wrong with me! I can't stop dreaming, and I'm just going crazy! Please help me!" Doctor says, "Tell me what you're dreaming, and I'll see what I can do." "Well, in my dream, one minute I'm a teepee and the next minute I'm a wigwam. It's horrible, teepee, wigwam, teepee, wigwam! It's like that all night!" Doctor: "Well, that's easy, I know just what your problem is - Your're two tents!"
In Reply to: wouldn't that be "conundrummer?" posted by trish on May 21, 1998 at 17:30:10:
Ohhh! The humanity!
In Reply to: Re: wouldn't that be posted by Laura on May 21, 1998 at 17:40:51:
TISH! (Actually, the Two Tents joke is hilarious, and muuuch better than the chestnut "Well, don't do that anymore.") /Oma Gretty, WGAw
In Reply to: No, it's "Conundrummest". posted by Oma Gretty on May 21, 1998 at 20:55:15:
Dear Playful Ladies, Uh oh, I think I have stirred the spelling gods. I have known them, in the past, to become seriously indignant, but not as terrible and vengeful as the acne gods. Nevertheless, let me propitiate them in this way: Correct spelling is good, and I agree with everyone everywhere about that. I love hobgoblins too. We’ve all been to school, so we think we know what education is all about (or what it should be about). We all feel like experts. However, whatever opinion, theory, ideal, FACT, or prejudice we think we know about education, it might best be left on the floor or hung over the back of the seat like the students’ backpacks when the bell rings. One is then unencumbered and ready to embrace any teachable moment that arrives in one of its unexpected disguises. As we sharpen the distinction between teacher and student, we diminish the learning process and dilute its richness. The beauty of rule and order and the love of reading and writing are not exclusive, but the former, applied zealously, can dampen the latter. That’s my rock and hard spot. No big deal, nothing new there. God, but I am a process junkie, and I love Coyote, the trickster, the meaningful accident. You know Coyote out there in Texas doncha, Gretch? Laura, to help with correct spelling on the board, write your note on a word processor, spell check it there, and then cut and paste in into the follow up message window. Trish, thanks for the kind words and for sharing your insight and humor! Jim
Dear Walt, You have written a profound truth about school and diet. That truth is: Parents have not a clue what their children are eating during the day, even if the cafeteria food is all children are eating. I doubt most parents pay much attention to menus anyway, and those who do may not be nutritionally sophisticated. Our cafeteria ladies are the sweetest ladies in the world. God loves them, and I love them too. They are the unintentional agents of……… what? ……..at best, political efforts to eradicate hunger, especially among the poverty level children for whom lunch (and breakfast, which we also serve) is free, and at worst, government surplus programs which dump fats and carbs on a trusting and unsuspecting population. For example, this last week, one lunch consisted of: breaded chicken nuggets, tater tots, and breaded cheese sticks *(all three pre-deep fried), three marshmallows, and chocolate milk! Some of the lunches are actually packaged by Taco Bell. These menus are published and can be looked up. This is what we know they eat. Or do they? How many of you remember the practice of trading food? This is a most profoundly impressive procedure to watch. Some kids tote the healthiest lunches in fancy lunch boxes! We’re talking fresh fruit and vegetables, wonderful little sandwiches on whole wheat bread, lean cold cuts, trail mixes, healthy looking crackers, fruit juice and bottled water. Other kids bring the most unlikely combination of drek you can imagine. It is not uncommon for an eight year old to be left with the responsibility of packing their own lunch. Not a few are also responsible for getting themselves up, groomed, and out the door while swing shift or graveyard mommy stays in bed. But that’s another story. Now comes the parents’ nightmare. By the time the trading is done, the little waifs with the candy lunches end up with the vegetables and cold cuts, and the prim and proper ones with ironed pleats have Ding Dongs and dill pickles for lunch, washed down with Kool Aid! Those who come with money for lunch will trade their celery and carrot sticks for red vines and Hostess Cupcakes, or not buy lunch at all and have popcorn and jerky from the snack bar instead. That’s what happens at the forty-five minutes of lunch. Then there’s the hot trade that goes on the rest of the day. Those kids with less than vigilant parents bring pockets and backpacks filled with the major fat and sugar taste treats which they then use to barter for favors, friendship or school supplies. Good old American capitalism! And, sorry to say, you cannot believe what they tell you. They lie, plain and simple. Let me state that again for emphasis. Your wonderful darlings, (*and they are, truly) lie to you. Not yours? Wanna bet? I spend more time with the kids than the parents do, I know! Each year I have one, maybe two, in my class who are incapable of lying. They think they are cursed. They want to lie, but they just can’t. It just seems to be a thing in their nature. They are congenitally honest. *(Parents may proudly take credit for this, but they really had nothing to do with it, just luck). But the rest? White lie city! They are like the rest of us. Honesty, necessity, and compromise are the wrestling tag team with which we face daily life. But that, of course, is another story. Do your best, educate and encourage your kids, but it would be good to maintain a sense of humor about it. You KNOW it’s just the beginning of the experiments and choices they will make. You do remember, don’t you? Jim
I belong to a generation that measured people by their spelling, grammar, handwriting, table manners and speech plus clean hands.
Yet I find both spelling and grammar to be imprisoning some times. My husband says I often speak in Zen koans and write in fractured haiku. Okay. So?
I leave you with this outtake from Salon Mag's prize-winning "Error Message Haiku" contest:
"401! Webite moved.
We'd tell you where but then We'd
Be forced to delete you."
not disrupt the Tao of Air.")
Re: spelling to the beat of the conundrum
Posted by Jim on May 21, 1998 at 07:39:52:
The Difference Between a Rut and a Grave
Posted by Jim on May 23, 1998 at 10:28:55:
Re: The Difference Between a Rut and a Grave
Posted by Charles Kemper on May 23, 1998 at 13:08:00:
Getting to the root of the problem that plagues most of us. By the time we're well into our forties and it becomes clear that we are involved in a process taking us away from ' the person we were ment to be', there is little wonder that we begin to experience chronic tension and symptoms of physical breakdown. The whole question becomes a spiritual one.
Re: We watch the same moon as you....
Posted by Jim on May 24, 1998 at 09:19:29:
Re: The Difference Between a Rut and a Grave
Posted by Walt Stoll on May 25, 1998 at 08:31:03:
wouldn't that be "conundrummer?"
Posted by trish on May 21, 1998 at 17:30:10:
Enjoy and be well,
trish
Re: wouldn't that be "conundrummer?"
Posted by Laura on May 21, 1998 at 17:40:51:
Great joke for Walt to use though. Laughter is the best medicine, but does groaning count? I hope so.
Laura
PS. How does one get spellchecker to run on e-mail or netscape?
No, it's "Conundrummest".
Posted by Oma Gretty on May 21, 1998 at 20:55:15:
Laura, you just crashed the Hindenburg. Again! I wonder if there's a one-liner from "Titanic". Oh, nevermind.
My middle grandchild, 11-going-on-20 has spent two months' allowance trekking off to moon over Leo as he (SPOILER!) drowns nobly in that fillum.
Please note that I misspelled "film" deliberately, to tie into one of our many local and regional dialects.
YES, let's teach the chirren (another deliberate localism) to read, spell, write and cipher correctly, then turn them loose on Creativity. I've been a professional writer since I was 19, and that's a long time. I can assure all present that much of my (?) success (?) has been due to the fact that I'm exceptionally literate.
But I DO love "a swan of bees". It has the same loveliness - albeit accidental - as a Charm of Finches or an Exaltation of Larks.
As for SpellChecking BBs, I don't think it's possible. That's why I'm sitting here typing with two hands while I hold the Scribner-Bantam Dictionary in my third.
Walt is trying to help me with my supernumerary limb problem.
Re: Conunpunner
Posted by Jim on May 23, 1998 at 00:38:53:
May 21, 1998
Re: What's For Lunch?
Posted by Jim on May 30, 1998 at 11:04:59: