Grasshopper Mind
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2025

LIVES IN LETTERS

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

I just finished re-reading 84 Charing Cross for the third time.  It's a book first published in 1970.  There's no real story or plot.  It's not a mystery, not a thriller, not a romance. Definitely not Sci-Fi.

 

So, what keeps taking me back to this book of under 100 pages?  It's a book of letters, written over a period of 20 years between 1949 and 1969.  Not love letters.  Just every day letters between a book seller in London, and a book buyer in New York.

 

The letters allow us to feel friendship, trust, sharing, and understanding developing. There are no photos, so we get to create our own images of the writers. I find myself cozying up to the warmth of conversation. Writing down the names of the books purchased, and recommended.  Wondering if they will ever meet.  Not to be a spoiler - but, no - they never meet in person.


My re-readings remind me how much I miss hand-written letters.  For years I devoured the letters from home.  I could hear the voices, see the places, smell the shepherd's pie. I could keep them close and read them again whenever I needed a taste of home. I still have many of the letters.

 

Sadly, most letters today are email (guilty as charged). Even if I could find them on my computer; it's not the same.  It's like e-books, I use them for convenience.  Holding a book, rustling the paper pages - makes me one with the story. 

 

Perhaps health advisors could suggest writing a letter by hand is relaxing and gives great satisfaction to the writer and recipient. Who knows. Could start a reverse trend.

 

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FAVORITE WORDS

JANUARY 21, 2025

 

This was a chilly day. Well, chilly for these parts.  It was a good day for what I call rummaging.
 

Rummaging through old files, albums, recipe books.  Looking for nothing in particular. Finding plenty to make me smile, recall an occasion, decide I must bake MawMaw’s corn bread.
 

Today my rummaging uncovered a game I used to play when I was stalled, waiting for someone or something.  Like most brain games, it was a form of learning. The goal was to write down as many words as possible in the time I had. 
 

I came across my always handy notebook, and the heading on one page said: Words I like to use, continued.  Of course, I checked the old list. 
 

I found words like Dignity. Different. Gossamer. Delicious. Dream. Think. Baby. Hugs. Dance. Emerge … more than 100 words.  It must have been a long wait.
 

The chosen words I observed were, for the most part, happy or hopeful.  I did not find the words Money.  Greedy.  Revenge. Cheat.  Of course, I do speak those words – but my game was Words I LIKE to use.
 

Perhaps on my next rummaging day I’ll find the earlier pages.  In the meantime, I enjoyed this challenge more than Wordl.   I’ll be doing it again.
 

Favorite words? Try it.  Bet you’ll like it.

 

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ENJOY YOURSELF ...

JANUARY 14, 2025

For the past few days an old song has drummed around in my head. Perhaps it was turning the calendar to another year.  The catchy tune, written in 1949, is Enjoy Yourself.  It could have been written yesterday.

 

Sing along at your own risk, it will not go away (especially if you are over a certain age): 

 

You work and work for years and years, you're always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin' dough
Someday you say, you'll have your fun, when you're a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you'll have in your old rockin' chair

Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you're still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it's later than you think.

 

I changed my brain channel and thought. How do I enjoy myself?  How do others truly enjoy themselves?  It is not, it seems, the parties, far-away places, luxury hotels, and gourmet foods.  They are fun, a special treat, and not to be scoffed at.  I DO enjoy them.

 

Your friends are likely to say their purest and lasting enjoyment comes from coffee with a friend, volunteering, sharing their time, talent and treasures.  It’s knowing they have someone to call, no matter what the time or the problem.  The simple things.  The things where a little bit of ourselves is left behind.  Enjoying life at rewarding levels.

 

So -- enjoy yourself, it is later than you think -- but it is never too late.  

 

 

 

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OUT WITH THE NEW-IN WITH THE OLD

JANUARY 5, 2025

We seem to hear the phrase more often as the calendar spins into another year: Out with the old, in with the new.  And I want to shout … not so fast.  Old does not mean useless.  In most cases it does not mean obsolete.  The older I get, the louder I want to shout.

 

My friends of a certain vintage and I speak longingly of the old things we’d like to bring back.  We want a human to answer the telephone when we call. Not a mechanical voice that says ‘listen to the menu, our options have changed (no kidding).  Many of us don’t recognize the ‘options’ offered as anything we’d want.  We press zero.  The robot says ‘sorry, that is not an option, please hang up and call again.’  Why bother?

 

We called the department store, and a real person answered.  Where can I direct your call.  Shoes. The shoe department answers and checks if they have what we want in stock.

 

Booking an Airline ticket. Talked with a nice agent who helped find the right flight at the best price. We can still do that. After a long wait the nice agent answers. They immediately inform us there is a $$$ fee for them to personally book our ticket.  (We are placing an order, right? Giving them our business.)  We must decide if we will pay fees for legroom and location on the plane. We won’t question why a round-trip ticket has different departure and return prices.

 

What happened to full-service gas stations.  Even if we could, we don’t want to change the oil, test the air in tires, monitor the coolant – wherever that is.  We prefer not to stretch across the vehicle to wash the windshield.  Where is the attendant who took our credit card and brought it back with a friendly comment on the weather.  Now, we insert our cards and we’re likely to see on the screen ‘something went wrong. Please see cashier.’

 

The list of ‘the old’ we miss is much longer.  The ‘new’ is exciting to welcome. Let’s hope the new will include some of the old human touches.

 

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