September 14: State Fair Almonds, Gabriela Mistral, "Decalogue of the Artist"

I am sitting in my office at the university at the moment, having just finished an eight-hour shift in the medical office.  I have lots of time to kill, as my daughter and son have dance until late this evening.  In front of me is a bag of cinnamon sugar almonds, the kind you get at state fairs and carnivals.  I'm eating the nuts, listening to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson, and thinking about the end of summer. 

This past week, temperatures in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have been unusually warm.  In the 80s most days, including today.  It's as if September is trying to make up for the rain and cold of June, July, and August.  The leaves have started changing already.  Lots of orange along U. S. 41 on my home. 

I'm not ready to let go of summer just yet (hence my snack of state fair almonds).  Not ready to relinquish warm afternoons, nights of cricket song under thick stars.  I'm not whining here.  Just saying that this sun and heat can hang around until about Christmas.

Saint Marty is thankful this afternoon for the beauty of summer, even if it's three months late.

Decalogue of the Artist

by:  Gabriela Mistral

I. You shall love beauty, which is the shadow of God
over the Universe.

II.There is no godless art. Although you love not the
Creator, you shall bear witness to Him creating His likeness.

III.You shall create beauty not to excite the senses
but to give sustenance to the soul.

IV. You shall never use beauty as a pretext for luxury
and vanity but as a spiritual devotion.

V. You shall not seek beauty at carnival or fair
or offer your work there, for beauty is virginal
and is not to be found at carnival or fair.

VI. Beauty shall rise from your heart in song,
and you shall be the first to be purified.

VII.The beauty you create shall be known
as compassion and shall console the hearts of men.

VIII.You shall bring forth your work as a mother
brings forth her child: out of the blood of your heart.

IX. Beauty shall not be an opiate that puts you
to sleep but a strong wine that fires you to action,
for if you fail to be a true man or a true woman,
you will fail to be an artist.

X. Each act of creation shall leave you humble,
for it is never as great as your dream and always
inferior to that most marvelous dream of God
which is Nature.

November 10: Heavy Rains and Hail, Warm Weather, D. H. Melhem, "Last Day," Off the Top of My Head

Nodding, Paul rapped Ives on the shoulder and for a moment, as they stood near the wall overlooking the river, something benevolent and fleeting passed between them but neither said a word.  Then, as they started homeward, the sky began to darken; over the river, low to the horizon, a bank of bottom-heavy clouds, shaped like a man on his back.  Later, within the hour, there would be a storm and heavy rains and hail would begin to fall.

A chance meeting between Ives and Paul, a young man who will eventually marry Ives' daughter.  But I didn't pick this passage for the interaction between Paul and Ives.  I picked this passage because of the description of weather.  The dark clouds.  Rain and hail.

It is late, and I am quite tired.  So tired, in fact, that my head is aching and I'm having trouble focusing on the computer screen.  I have been awake since 4 a.m..  It is now pushing 11 p.m.  That's close to 15 hours of work and school and whatnot.  (See, I'm so tired that I can't even remember everything I've done today.)

I am thankful for the weather today.  It was warm and sunny.  A change is coming tomorrow--rain and cold and, later in the day, snow.  I am not thrilled by that last prediction.  I was kind of hoping for a dry November.  Doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Today, however, I am thankful for warm weather.  That's about all I got tonight. 

In a few minutes, Saint Marty is going to be thankful for his bed and pillows and blankets.

How about a poem about weather...

Last Day

by:  D. H. Melhem

Behind our cabin
cloud lay on the mountain
like a gray loaf
that thunder waits
to cut.

Off the Top of My Head