nouspique.com

This is a question that has plagued me for some time now — at least since lunch time. After all, this is the man who distinguished himself in 1991 by becoming the only Canadian ever to be arrested for selling his writing.

A while ago I received some godspam. Yes, if you want to spread the word, then an electronic proliferation and dissemination is a godsend. This particular spam comes from the “writing ministry of Barry L. Davis” which you can learn more about at his web site, MindOfChrist.net. Somehow, I’ve ended up on Barry’s mailing list. To spam me thus is unacceptable. To spam me with such tripe is unforgivable.

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Boo.
Boo who?
Don’t cry.

Yesterday was the 8th and final meeting of the mindfulness group at CAMH. One of the exercises we’ve been doing is a body scan — spending about 30 minutes surveying in our minds all the parts of our body. Half way through, one of the girls left for a few minutes, then returned to her chair and carried on. I had my eyes closed throughout, and so felt that something was wrong only through the sounds — the brusqueness of her departure — and the vibration in the floor. After the body scan, the group came together for a discussion. The girl who had left explained. During the scan, she had reached a part of her body and could go no further. For the first time, the barrier was insurmountable. It couldn’t help but bring up memories of childhood sexual abuse.

Today was hotseat day — the class on law, religion and public discourse. We have weekly readings. Some students prepare comments on the readings and email them to everybody; other students respond to the comments. Then we spend the class yakking it up over all the issues that surface. This is no artsy—fartsy discussion. This is directed. Focused. And, for someone with social anxiety disorder, pure hell.

These are not palindromes (words that are the same whether spelled from left to right or right to left). Palindromes are a subset of my list since all palindromes have meaning either backwards or frontwards. If you are inclined to explore these amazing beasties further, check out www.palindromelist.com. Here are 2 palindromes which, I believe, are all mine —> ungnu (if someone gnus you, then you need to come ungnued) and dedeeded (being stripped of title to real property).

Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don’t sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. — Shaw, Pygmalion

how great the fall
crashing down around my head
how great the dread i feel
when winter breathes her first chill
across the land
the great hoar undresses gnarled limbs
then laughs her limpid taunts

This weekend was (Canadian) Thanksgiving, so we spent it with Tamiko’s sister and her family at Pine House Farm near Hillsdale. No, we did not eat either Sally or Chocolate Milk (see my Elmvale Fall Fair where the kids (theirs; not mine) had different veggies entered in the contests. I stayed behind to read all about Zwingli. In fact, I reflected, if it weren’t for men like Luther and Zwingli, we wouldn’t even be gathered to celebrate that holiday which my ancestors invented way back when the Mayflower landed in Plymouth, MA. Luther and Zwingli et al. brought about a revolutionary way of looking at the holy catholic and apostolic church.

On Saturday, we went to a funeral. It was for the husband of a woman who sings in the church choir. The man had been ill for some time. Caring for him had been difficult and, over time, it wore his wife down. Sometimes she was forgetful. Sometimes she was exhausted. Her nerves were shot. And there was the guilt when she decided to place him in an institution.