Fun Notes

Unbeleafable

Every fall, at least some of my brothers & sisters would go out through the yard and come back with different leafs that caught their eye, and then stick them in different volumes of the encyclopedia set we had. Been a while since I’ve done it, so decided today was a great day to do it again, and found this lovely leaf in the yard.

And so it goes, into one of the volumes of that same old encyclopedia set that’s seen decades of leafs before this one.

And what a beautiful day it is. Went out with the entire crew for a walk at one of our favourite places. As is said, time in the woods is never wasted time. And if you think you’re too busy to take a walk, that’s more than likely the time a walk would do you the most good.

And of course we had some snacks for the black-capped chickadees.

By The Clock

At one point during my university days and my love of philosophy, I learned the basics of Ancient Greek. One of the words that always stuck in my mind was ἄγγελος. And this particular word lit me up in the strongest way possible when I saw Cast Away in the theatre not long after.

Dick-Bettina Ranch at the opening of Cast Away, which becomes Bettina Ranch by the end after she loses the Dick in her life.

Oh, my friends, the joy of seeing the FedEx courier driving past angel wings left me with such a grin on my face, ἄγγελος being Greek for “messenger”, and the root of the word “angel”.

The one that keeps him in his role as a messenger.

And inextricably tied in with the word angel is the concept of salvation and hope. And so it captivated me that when all seems lost for Chuck, the person best known as the most relentless driver of messengers, he finds a washed-up strand of hope and holds on to this one package adorned with angel wings. By keeping its message unopened, unknown and intact, there remains the remotest chance of delivering it to its destined receiver as originally intended, and he can return from where he’s been cast away.

One hopes that someone loves the messenger who brought this news.

And just as an aside, one of the many other things I love about this movie are the crossroads at the opening and closing of the film.

The journey is the thing. Let’s hope Chuck’s is a good one from here on out.

The Editing Won’t Be Over ‘Til It’s Done

I’m doing more editing, folks. Been doing the basics for a while, and will keep doing the basics until I get better at it. With this particular project, looking to change how our community thinks about learning our common heritage. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “The history ain’t what it used to be.”