It's Sunday and like many of you I wish for one more day at home, to read, organize, daydream, and entertain myself. I'll be finishing Noam Chomsky's, Who Rules the World? this week on audiobook, and I will need to listen a few times to really digest the sad sad truth of what he's telling us about this subject. Even so, I'm sticking with my own advice, when I'm able, of doing little things that make me happy. I'm being aware of the world's troubles, and daily trying to do whatever good things I can on its behalf, yet not letting the state of things fill me with despair. So, I am mending and organizing today, grading tonight, and I might, at some point, have a chilled glass of Crystal Skull vodka that Chuck gave me for my birthday. Today, I've been listening to this wonderful-auditory-journey-through-time-of-a-cd-set: Richard Thompson 1000 years of Popular Music. He really does perform his favorite songs of the past 1000 years. He has a voice that has always been able to harken me hither, thither, and yon, since his Fairport Convention days. You might be surprised to learn the set includes a 3 part madrigal from the 1500's and a Brtiney Spears song. It also includes a DVD which I haven't yet seen. This set is this year's mother's day gift from my son, Marlin, with whom I share a very similar taste in music. He has shared so much good music with me over the years, things I wouldn't have heard without his sharing. I've saved all the cd burns he's made over the years for various road trips. If you like Richard Thompson, you may enjoy his offerings on this unique musical journey through time.
This week I received a book I ordered for Mike and I to read this winter, but I may need to dip into it before winter break arrives: George Myerson's collection of selected passages from literature that describe moments of happiness.
Altogether I'm making a pretty good dent in the prevailing mood of existential dread.
Several friends regularly post about their daily activities on social media, describing their thoughts and feelings while performing these, and I enjoy them. Often, in novels and in music, it's the description of the mundane, worded in a certain light, that pleases me the most. For years, I'd reread the beginning of Little Women to pull myself out of a despairing mood. We really do need to watch our moods, take them apart and look closely at them, without believing everything they are telling us. I can be happy with a good porch sweeping.
I'll drink a toast to your finished laundry, today, friends. And your clean counters.
Leaving you with a Sunday song about regrets, by Richard Thompson:
Hoping happiness breaks in this week -- for you!
~Dorothy Dolores
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