Loose Leaf Notes

1. I let myself feel fear. It is useful as a message that something is wrong, and it passes when I allow it. But I also have a strong foundation of knowing that adversity is sometimes an opportunity that shapes us so that we can rise up and grow from it. And, it helps to remember this quote from Rupert Spira: “You are a temporary localization of eternal consciousness.”

2. By sun and seed / will we turn a new leaf? / Can we hold the lost place? / Stand up for the least? / Turn over a stone / and set the record straight / Let the grace of life flourish / Let the world turn in peace

3. Hope at the Book House: Mara was feeling discouraged with her Scrabble game, wanting to quit when Mark gave lent his hand. He drew HOPE from the Scrabble bag for her, and Mara felt better.  She couldn’t play HOPE but played HOP instead and left with a hopeful hop in her step.

4. Am I the only one who had to look up the term “touching one’s forelock” when I read it in a comment on Facebook? The forelock is the lock of hair that falls over the forehead was often accompanied by other gestures of respect, such as bowing or doffing one’s hat. This practice can be traced back to earlier customs of showing submission or acknowledgment of authority.

5. I also had to look up the meaning of h/t: hat tip, as in a shout-out.

6. Then, I was compelled to look up the word phantasmagorical that I saw in a poem I was reading because it’s so phantasmagorical. It looks like a made-up word. But aren’t they all?

7. “Phantasmagorical” means very strange, like something in a dream or a surreal, hallucinatory experience. The word “phantasmagorical,” meaning “having a fantastic or deceptive appearance,” originates from the French word “phantasmagorie,” which in turn comes from the Greek “phantasma” (meaning “ghost” or “apparition”) and possibly either “agorá” (assembly, gathering) or “agoreúō” (to speak publicly).

8. I love plain talk, like when NYT columnist David Brooks said on the PBS Newshour about Trump’s Tariffs: “I think it’s literally the dumbest domestic policy of my lifetime.”

9. My April 5 protest signs are pretty good but my friend Kamala had the best one: Honk if you never drunk texted war plans.”

10. I got interviewed by a reporter at the HANDS OFF protest march in Christiansburg on April 5th. Wondering how he could take down everything I said, I told him he needed a recorder. Then I looked at his notepad and he was using shorthand, something I learned in high school but have completely forgotten. I’m glad it’s still being used.

11. At the protest someone had a sign that said “Foxtrot Delta Tango,” so I had to look that up too. It’s military slang, derived from the NATO phonetic alphabet (?) that is a humorous and indirect way of saying “What the f***?” or expressing disbelief or confusion about an absurd or unexpected situation.

12. Another sign said WTF?

13. “Life is good once you master the art of Deletion. Every day my laptop is full of emails asking for money to do worthwhile, even noble, things, which, if I donated to them, I’d soon be living in a cardboard box in a vacant lot, and so I click on “Unsubscribe” and they go away for a while. Instead, I google “What is the prospect of international peace and understanding?” and find that the U.N. thinks it’s inevitable and dalailama.com says it’s based on compassion and foreignpolicy.com thinks the prospects are not good. We didn’t used to have Google, my kiddoes, we used to sit and worry about these things and now at last clear answers are available. Contradictory, but still.” Garrison Keillor

_______Thirteen Thursday