Forget the words. Forget the voyages. I have come to accept that my eternal fame will be for push-ups. Well, whatever works. Yesterday I got an email from Tom, who does my age in push-ups because he is young and his age is not enough, and a few days ago from Bruce who wrote that I have inspired him to try to do his age by the time he reaches 70 in a year and a half. He is currently at 50 and increasing. Carol began doing push-ups last year and has increased her output five fold. Well done to them and to all of you push-upping away.
A related subject is the impossibility of stasis. Even though I think I know words I often look them up to be certain. Stasis is defined as inactivity and equilibrium. Some dictionaries equate that with stagnation. I agree. You are either getting stronger or you are getting weaker. Weaker is probably the natural progression, particularly at my age. I have no particular desire to be stronger, but I have a strong desire not to become weaker, so as I have mentioned here before I am randomly increasing my workouts, from stair climbing to light weight lifting to push-ups, crunches and walking. I don’t bike in Evanston winters or in San Diego since my bike was stolen, but living on a boat is a naturally healthy life. A New Zealand friend just lost 5 kilos/11 pounds on a month cruise from Auckland to the Bay of Islands on his 26’ boat.
If we ever live in Hilton Head I will be able to add biking and swimming for much of the year. Our development has a pool which is not much used.
For quite some time I have mistakenly sought just to maintain the status quo. Now I seek to do more.
I am almost finished with IMMORTAL POETS. Only seven poets out of hundreds still to go. Along the way I have come to the conclusion that women write better love poems than men, most recently in my reading Edna St. Vincent Millay, and I have smiled to come across old friends that I had forgotten or not read for a while, among them Chidiock Tichborne’s ‘On The Eve of His Execution’ and William Butler Yeats’ ‘An Irish Airman Foresees His Death’.
You can find Tichborne’s poem under ‘quotes used in front of my books’ on the lists page of the main site.
Only part of ‘The Irish Airman’ is there, so I include it in its entirety here.
I recall that my editor at Times Books wanted me to use something about gathering the flowers of the sea. I declined and did what I have always done and went my own way.
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above,
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My county is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public man, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
1919
We saw the movie PARASITE Saturday. I went in knowing only that it was named best picture at Cannes, got good reviews which I deliberately did not read, is nominated for best picture at the coming Academy Awards, is South Korean, and was strongly recommended by two friends. I recommend you see the film and that you go in as unknowing as I did.
PARASITE is still playing in theaters and will be available to rent from iTunes January 28.
PARASITE is still playing in theaters and will be available to rent from iTunes January 28.
I will say only that it is original, very well done, and disturbing. It is a film that has remained strongly in my mind and the more I think about it, the more I admire it.
I chanced across the epitaph that the astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote for himself a few months before he died in 1630.
I used to measure the skies, now I measure the shadows of the Earth. Although my mind was sky-bound, the shadow of my body lies here.
The photo is another old one taken several years ago from THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s mooring off Opua.
