Category Archives: Life

5 Books

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If you were stranded on a deserted island what five books would you want to have with you. Knowing that you could be there for years or potentially the rest of your life. What would you want to read and why?

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

This book was published in 1937.  The image of Middle Earth, the fantasy land that was created by Tolkien in which the Hobbit is set, has always been my psychological sanctuary when times were hard. High school and university saw me visiting quite often. I had a very strong mental image in my head so I did not want to see the movie, sorry movies. I was afraid it would change how I saw my Middle Earth. I did see the movies recently and I was certainly not disappointed at all!

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

Believed to have been penned in the fifth century BC. This book was written by a brilliant strategist on how to fight a war. In its simplest terms, that’s what it was created for. But over the more than 2000 years, it has come to be recognized as a treatise of incredible insights that can be used throughout life, not just war. This is a book that truly makes you think, makes you wonder… What if?

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

He was active, it is believed, from the late 1500s to the early 1600s.  Comedy, tragedy, love stories. This consummate storyteller could keep me entertained for years. Each time I reread one of his plays I find something more that I had missed in the previous readings. And he’s got a lot works…

The Rubyat by Omar Khyam

A Persian poet from 1100 A.D. what’s not to love?  My mother read this book to me when I was a child. She would read for a few moments and then we would talk. These are moments I cherish in my memory and why this book is so important to me. It is also a beautiful love story that breaches time.

A Thesaurus

Did you hear the one about the young dinosaur who wanted to grow up to be a thesaurus? OK that’s a very old one but it makes me laugh! I love words and I love to know other words for the same meaning. I can spend hours wandering through a book like this and that is the point. Besides if I can’t think of a word, this is the go-to place!

The whole concept of being lost on a deserted island is not all negative. I’ve spent many lovely vacations in faraway places with no electricity, flush toilets or waiters. And I loved it. But I was much younger and more tolerant. I now like running water, I like room service and I like swimming in water that I know I’m not sharing with a whole lot of scary creatures! I have great memories of lighting a fire on my own, (yes, I have done the two sticks and it worked, thank you very much!). I have slept beneath the stars and for the record it is not silent! These are wonderful memories and I’m so glad that I actually did them. But I am more mature these days and I take great solace in my creature comforts. I would like to think that I could still light my own fire . . . But I don’t want to.

 

In the back of my mind is a little place:  a deserted island and a bookshelf with five books on it. Books in which I can lose myself and bask in my own solitude.

What five books would you want with you on a deserted island?

Lickspittle

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Have you ever had a thought or an idea that you believed was 100% original only to see it on a billboard or in a book? Or have you ever used a word from your distant past and suddenly that word shows up everywhere? Or how about a picture….

What, you ask, is the context for using this particular archaic word? I uttered it recently in an argument I was having in a fictional location in my head. Yes, I’m that kind of weird. This incident may or may not show up in a short story one day but I was having a delicious time insulting someone.

I laughed when I remember lickspittle because it is not a word that I have seen for decades. It is not in modern day parlance.  Several days later I saw it in a blog and I almost fell out of my chair. It was perfect. This is someone I follow because of his quirky sense of humour that fits in perfectly with mine. Troglodyte.  Another little used word I bandied in my rant and sure enough it shows up on a blog. What are the odds?

A dear friend that I met in the blogging world sends me pictures or cartoons that she thinks I will find amusing or adorable. She has always been right. We only know each other through our words but she knows me well. She is a dear friend. So, when I got her email recently and opened up her picture, I expected to see something that would make me smile or laugh out loud instead my reaction was one of shock. I was looking at something that I have not seen in decades!

We are hundreds if not thousands of miles apart. We are not of the same age group. We live in different countries. When I drew my picture, blogging wasn’t a thing. There was no Internet. We had phones that were connected to the wall and we had clean air. Sorry, I shouldn’t complain about that. This isn’t a rant about clean air, clean water, better health. This is about something that is impossible, but is it? What I’m saying is that it is not possible for her to have been in my head or even known about me all those years ago.  Is it?

I was speaking with someone recently about race memory. About how some cultures instinctively know things that are only known in that particular culture. Much can be taught simply by observation yes, I agree. But what if there’s more to it? What if there is an intangible something that is meandering through the ether that connects us? What if Ginger is somehow tied into my psyche and when she saw a picture that resembled mine, she unconsciously gravitated towards it? Could that be why she shared it with me? I have no idea. What I do know is that her picture, while not exactly identical, was enough to throw me off my seat. In this post I have included both her picture and the one I drew in 1979 for your perusal.  What do you think?

     

 

 

Oh, and the meaning of lickspittle:   sycophant, abject toady, one who will do any repulsive thing,

Troglodyte:  a person who is regarded as being deliberately ignorant or old-fashioned.

 

It was a really good rant! Never make a redhead angry…