What could be more pleasant, more gratifying than to be mindful in one's body while out running early on a summer's day?
Feeling the cool air, pleasant despite the promise of heat to come, moving across your skin ...
Sensing the breeze lifting the tiny hairs on your forearms ...
Pulsing in time to the running-rhythms of foot to pavement, breath in/breath out, heartbeats ...
Inhaling the fresh scent of grass, and earth, and blossoms ...
... and anticipating a day of test cricket and sewing.
This is all good.
Friday 6 January 2012
Wednesday 4 January 2012
Summer Joys
These are the things I'm enjoying this summer:
1. Test Cricket! And not just our trip to the MCG on Boxing Day:
2. Finally getting around to re-upholstering our diningroom chairs. This is indicative of how they looked this time last week:
Part-way through the process, the original ugly 1970s brown fabric can be seen:
The contrast between old and new is marked:
3. Reading! I'm so excited that Dead Men's Boots was returned to my local library today, so I can pounce on it - I'm looking forward to seeing what Felix Castor gets up to next. I've also enjoyed re-reading the Narnia books and browsing through some positive psychology stuff, as well as catching up on issues of New Scientist I didn't get through last year.
4. Eating - summer specials like bananas microwaved until they begin to caramelize, then mixing in low fat Greek yoghurt for a sweetly tart treat; melon for breakfast, and a perennial favourite - stir-fried wombok - for tea
5. Watching TV - as the cricket allows! Catching up on the third series of Breaking Bad on DVD, and taping the re-runs of Doctor Who to savour again.
Work will pick up again next week, but this week is still summertime. Joy!
1. Test Cricket! And not just our trip to the MCG on Boxing Day:
but also the drama of the Sydney Test, enjoyed via radio and TV, and enhanced through interactions with friends near and far on facebook2. Finally getting around to re-upholstering our diningroom chairs. This is indicative of how they looked this time last week:
Part-way through the process, the original ugly 1970s brown fabric can be seen:
The contrast between old and new is marked:
and I'm very happy with the final result:
3. Reading! I'm so excited that Dead Men's Boots was returned to my local library today, so I can pounce on it - I'm looking forward to seeing what Felix Castor gets up to next. I've also enjoyed re-reading the Narnia books and browsing through some positive psychology stuff, as well as catching up on issues of New Scientist I didn't get through last year.
4. Eating - summer specials like bananas microwaved until they begin to caramelize, then mixing in low fat Greek yoghurt for a sweetly tart treat; melon for breakfast, and a perennial favourite - stir-fried wombok - for tea
5. Watching TV - as the cricket allows! Catching up on the third series of Breaking Bad on DVD, and taping the re-runs of Doctor Who to savour again.
Work will pick up again next week, but this week is still summertime. Joy!
Monday 2 January 2012
C. S. Lewis: meaningful, subversive children's fiction
The Narnia books have been part of my life since early childhood, when I heard them at my father's knee - and then, again, when he re-read them for my first sister's benefit; and yet again for the second sister; though by the time my baby brother came along, I think I considered myself too old for listening to stories read aloud.
I'm re-reading the books this week, for the first time in many years. It's such fun to revisit these childhood favourites!
It's so long since I read them that I bring fresh eyes to the reading. I am charmed by ownership inversion inherent the subversive title The Horse and His Boy, and ponder again our notions of ownership, and in what other ways we are possessed by things we consider we own. I wince at the gender-gestalt of the books, in which boys and men and young girls are capable of nobility and high acts, while older girls - presumably approaching menarche - are prone to hysterics and foolishness. I can read the closing chapters of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader without crying (it took me some years, as a child, to realize it made me tearful because it allegorized death - C. S. Lewis speaks to our hearts) and also explore the richness of the book's other symbolism about the trials a person may face during life's course. I note how many fantasy prototypes have their roots in Lewis' tales, and my hypothesis that the special effects capacity of the film industry influences the imagery used in speculative fiction is debunked by his witches morphing into serpents, trees taking their human-like forms, and so forth.
Lewis' writing is so vivid and deep it warrants re-reading - even these, his 'tales for children' - and I predict I'll be dipping into The Screwtape Letters before the end of the week.
I'm re-reading the books this week, for the first time in many years. It's such fun to revisit these childhood favourites!
It's so long since I read them that I bring fresh eyes to the reading. I am charmed by ownership inversion inherent the subversive title The Horse and His Boy, and ponder again our notions of ownership, and in what other ways we are possessed by things we consider we own. I wince at the gender-gestalt of the books, in which boys and men and young girls are capable of nobility and high acts, while older girls - presumably approaching menarche - are prone to hysterics and foolishness. I can read the closing chapters of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader without crying (it took me some years, as a child, to realize it made me tearful because it allegorized death - C. S. Lewis speaks to our hearts) and also explore the richness of the book's other symbolism about the trials a person may face during life's course. I note how many fantasy prototypes have their roots in Lewis' tales, and my hypothesis that the special effects capacity of the film industry influences the imagery used in speculative fiction is debunked by his witches morphing into serpents, trees taking their human-like forms, and so forth.
Lewis' writing is so vivid and deep it warrants re-reading - even these, his 'tales for children' - and I predict I'll be dipping into The Screwtape Letters before the end of the week.
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