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Thread: Daily Bread

  1. #301
    Williamsmith
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    I can’t begin to remember how often I’ve been at a loss for words. Whether during crisis or being overwhelmed by the glory of creation or just plain old ignorance or stupidity. Life just seems to serve you moments when your attempts to verbalize what you are sensing turn out to be ....well feeble.

    Now in the past I considered that a weakness or a shame, again depending on the situation but I’m beginning to think it might be just the way it should be. Some of my most profound interactions with other beings, both human and animal, occurred in utter silence. My relationship with my wife is certainly representative. “You say it best, when you say nothing at all.” The song goes. And for me, it’s perfectly correct.

    My interactions with pets certainly back that up, if just anecdotally. Which got me thinking about all the work that goes into describing the creation and the Creator for various belief systems. And for me, it’s another of those situations when words just don’t do the topic justice. I don’t need to think of the Creator as a father, or a judge, or a surrogate brother who can only approach the King on my behalf. That kind of assigning of traits to me puts limits on the concepts and draws fences in places they shouldn’t be. I have enough rules, regulations and supposed freedoms leaning on me, I don’t need somebody using language to hem me in.

    If you need an example of what I’m talking about just sit face to face with someone and stare into each other’s eyes for as short a time as five minutes. Don’t say a word. You will be amazed at how much you communicate without opening your mouth. I once sat in an interrogation room for three and a half hours with a serial rapist who specialized in victimizing mentally handicapped people. The last half hour I spent staring him down with neither of us saying a word. He refused to leave the room even though I had told him the interrogation was over. He told me more in those 30 minutes of silence than he did in the first three hours.

    I dont think it’s a coincidence some of the most influential writers in history at one time or another spent time in solitary confinement. The silence of being alone has a way of purifying your thought process to where you can express hidden secrets only detected by stark aloneness. Here’s where I think technology and the electronic media have let us down some or at least we failed to realize it can’t be a complete substitute for human interaction. You can’t replicate the chemistry that goes on between living things look directly at one another within arms reach of one another.

    Some of our inability to empathize with other beings might have a little to do with that separation and reliance on words presented one tweet length at a time.

  2. #302
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Interesting post. It makes me think of what I have frequently told colleagues. As you know I do interviews with people. The interviews with people are usually from 45 minutes to 1 hr in length. When I do. in-peron interviews at a market research facility I can do 8+ in a day without breaking a sweat, even when I'm in a pressure cooker situation with a dozen clients behind the one-way mirror.

    But ask me to do 8 telephone interviews in the comfort of my own home, and I'm exhausted half-way through the day. I've always wondered about why that is, but I think you've identified it. Communication is more than just listening, but when you're on the phone, that's all you have. You don't have eye-to-eye contact, or body language or any other subtle cues. Silent moments are confusing when you are on the phone ("Hello? Hello? Are you still on the line?"), so you tend not to take advantage of silence when you're on the phone.

    Thanks for validating my own gut feeling about that.. and I agree that the principle extends to social media. Thats why emoji's were invented after all--so that you could read the few texted words and you don't have to guess at sincerity vs sarcasm, or any of the hundred human emotions that just can't be transmitted through a word or a smiley.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  3. #303
    Williamsmith
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    As a struggling minimalist, I hate it when I have to admit that I have developed an addiction that primarily involves “collecting” physical objects. My convictions about hoarding things runs counter to my impulse to collect. So it is with utter humility and a sense of sadness that I divulge my attraction to vinyl long play records.

    I have thought about how this got started. I was minding my own business at a social event for our home owners association and my neighbor and I were reminiscing about the “good old days”. He happened to mention that during the sixties he was stationed in Europe-mostly Germany- as a member of the Air Force. Like most addictions, you are going along in life quite nicely and some ner do well offers you something that turns out to be your Kryptonite. It could be beer, it could be pills, or cappuccino.......but this time he happen to mention a collection of vinyl records that he wanted rid of.

    Now, I have been in this guys house plenty because I house sit for him in the Winter and his place is immaculate. He keeps everything pristine so my mind started a fantasy about what his record collection might look like. That was the last I talked to him about it for a while but I kept dwelling on it mentally and before long it became this great mystery that I had to pursue. So one day we were talking over the fence and somehow the topic got back to his collection. Well, to be honest I flat out told him I’d like to puruse the menu.

    He had two of those plastic bins Loaded with vintage vinyl. One after another of mint condition 1960s and 70s records. I thumbed through them and frankly considered putting on white gloves to check the condition. I knew I didn’t want two hundred so I finally settled on 44 of the best I could find. We agreed on a price and I lugged them home. I didn’t realize it but most were German and UK first pressings. They were definitely a good investment.

    Since then I have doubled my collection and I’m starting to detect sings that this thing might be out of control. I go to bed at night dreaming of certain records. I get up in the morning and try to be the first one to the garage sale that lists “LPs”. I slow down at garage sale signs and turn into every flea market and antique store. And worst of all.....I covet my neighbors remaining albums that I didn’t buy and his vintage stereo system.

    My only possible solution is to is to wean myself a little at a time so I decided to concentrate to high end rare albums. Hoping 5his curbs my appetite. I know going cold turkey will be impossible. Anyone out there have a Miles Davis “Kind Of Blue”. 1959 pressing in mint condition?


  4. #304
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    What a coincidence! I just bought a vinyl from "Granny's Attic"--the local volunteer thrift shop. They had a bunch of vinyls--next time I go, I'll see if I can find Miles Davis 1959 pressing (How do you find the pressing info?)

    I couldn't resist spending $1 on an old Original Broadway Cast Camelot record. DH has been wandering around the house saying "This is Camelot!" because, it's true, it seems to rain at night and then the sun is out by morning. Plus we do seem to be happy in this "congenial spot."

    The rain may never fall till after sundown
    By eight, the morning fog must disappear
    In short, there's simply not
    A more congenial spot
    For happily-ever-aftering than here
    In Camelot


    We don't have a turntable, but my kids do, so I'll probably park the vinyl at their house and listen when we visit.

    Regarding the addiction aspect, you may share an "addiction" with the famous addiction psychologist, Gabor Mate. He often writes that everyone has addictions, and that while he doesn't have an addiction for alcohol or drugs like most of his clients, he classifies his compulsion to buy music as an addiction.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  5. #305
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    I have been fighting an addiction to LPs myself. Back in the days when I had money and could spend it only on myself and I was furnishing a new-to-me house, I spent lots of time in thrift stores and garage sales. Albums were a buck apiece most of the time. So it was easy to take a flyer on any number of albums I heard were good or artists whose name I'd seen but never listened to, etc. I think I was up to around 500-600 albums (including CDs; stored in three places in the house) when i realized, while organizing them, that I had duplicates (sometimes vinyl and CD of the same album; sometimes multiples) and some albums I hadn't listened to since I bought them. Enough.

    I decided to keep only those which I enjoy. I'm no longer a completist ("Well, I have every other 'Electric Spanner Event' album; I should have this one, too. And the solo LP by the Spanner's founder from before he created the group."). I've steadfastly refused to look at records in thrift stores and garage sales and antique stores (a true siren call, but OK because I seldom found ones I wanted that I didn't already have). I'm not keeping the CD duplicates (who would have imagined that the surviving medium would be vinyl?).

    I'm listening to each album before it stays or leaves unless it's been one I've listened to faithfully for 30-40 years. That does take time. I'm running about one keeper for every two on the sell/donate pile. The money from the ones I've sold is being stashed to replace the turntable stylus when that time comes. And, out-they-go pile location outstanding, I'm down to 1-1/2 storage places in the house.

    I'm still working on other "collections" but this one is on the mend. I don't mind.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  6. #306
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    Friday I bought some new albums at the Habitat store--Horowitz and Van Cliburn playing Brahms and Schumann, West Side Story, and Christmas with the Trapp Family singers. They were really good--I did not realize. That got me viewing a documentary about the Von Trapps and then I found this on youtube with the Von Trapp great-grandchildren--really lovely--
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEjLS0OHWnQ

    It made me happy that they're still singing, generations later!

  7. #307
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    If this is your only collection, I would say “go with it”. Vinyl can easily be resold. This, obviously, is something that gives you pleasure and adds excitement to your life. My DH loves the blues. I even planned a blues tour this winter for us. There are worse “vices”.

  8. #308
    Williamsmith
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    What a coincidence! I just bought a vinyl from "Granny's Attic"--the local volunteer thrift shop. They had a bunch of vinyls--next time I go, I'll see if I can find Miles Davis 1959 pressing (How do you find the pressing info?)
    I use this site to research vinyl.

    https://www.discogs.com

    Search for Miles Davis.....it will list all his releases, all the different versions, and how to identify what version is in your hand. The 1959 first issue pressing goes for upwards of $500 depending on the condition. More for a mint copy....substantially more! That’s very kind of you Catherine!

  9. #309
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    Love hearing about this addiction. I have a few boxes of vinyls as well. This has decided my relaxation for this afternoon to keep cool. Sort out the vinyls as I have a trip to the Habitat for Humanity store already planned.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  10. #310
    Williamsmith
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    Some people have been complaining about the couple days of hot weather we’ve been having. It’s been in the low 90sF with a strong overhead sun. Not real comfy for walking midday but fine in the early morning. I’m not one of the ones to whine about it. I love it. It makes my whole body feel better, less aches and seemingly therapeutic for me. On the porch, across the way a morning dove coos. A purple finch sings a short song, a cardinal whistles, a couple crows caw their complaints and a song sparrow serenades me. He or she is my favorite. I also have a pair of chipping sparrows nesting nearby that keeps the insect population down.

    Im not feeding anybody. They are fending nicely for themselves. I also don’t have pesky red squirrels scampering about my patio and threatening to get in my attic. Though I do like to toss the gray squirrels a peanut now again just because I happen to feel guilty about cutting my teeth on them as a fledgling hunter with a 16 gauge shotgun and a conviction that harvesting meat and bringing it home would prove my manliness. Lots of innocent squirrels were made victims. I’ve admitted to taking more than my share of wild game but as each year goes by I have less and less of a desire to hunt. I’d be satisfied dealing the firearms I have out to my three kids except for just the one I use for conceal carry. Problem is my daughter is married to a convicted felon, my oldest son doesn’t have the room in his trailer and my youngest son lives 1700 miles away.

    So this heat wave has me thinking about retirement in a more sub tropical climate. I could liquidate what I have here in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania and afford a modest place in a retirement community down south or out west but when you examine the details of state tax friendliness, cost of living, quality of life and quality of healthcare....it’s down right like solving a rubix cube. Every time you think you are satisfied with one aspect, another goes out of whack. And every time I talk to the wife about it, she mentions that inconvenient fact of two of my children living within three miles of me currently and of course....it’s not right to move away seeing as how we support them so much. I do struggle with the paradigm where people move away from their family. My brother in law did it and left his mother to be cared for by my wife and I.

    Yeah, and there’s my mother. I guess it’s a real curse to have options. It would be much better if I just sat on the porch and lamented being too poor to move anywhere. At least there’d be no temptation or latent guilt. Right now a Pilated woodpecker starts construction drilling on a dead tree and a smaller downy sounds off now and again all the while my solar birdbath gurgles in the background keeping time for the birds. It kind of sounds like they are trying to tell me something about how much I’d miss them and they me if I were to pick up stakes and move. It almost seems a sin to fantasize about living somewhere else. Almost. Still, I’ve been really glad for the summer heat wave. If I close my eyes I can pretend to be in Florida on a lanai overlooking a lake with a breeze and a golf cart in the garage. Pretending is usually better than the real thing.


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