November 16, 2020 thought for today: Make not your sail too big for your ballast. English Proverb

I have so many things I want to explore. They are things that would be extending my adventure into using my photography for new purposes. It’s mostly a day dream but day dreams, and a friendly pursuit of them, are ways of making negative and oppressive thoughts that come about and affect each of our lives easier to face and manage. In that vein when I opened the computer this morning I opened three or four files that need updating to help continue that quest and take me wherever that leads. 

I tiptoed into some of those files before deciding I had better get to work on the bulletin. I got it done to the point of plugging in the information I will get from the minister and information I will get from the meeting tonight. 

One of yesterday’s photo’s a day was titled “waves”. I don’t live near a body of water that generates waves of water, though that would have been my first choice of an image for this challenge. Next in my thoughts was our flag “waving” in these autumn breezes.  

I noticed that a dear friend of mine didn’t look well at church yesterday and had left early. I gave him a call to be sure everything is ok. He said he was fine and had left because the service was going a little longer than he had anticipated and he needed to be somewhere else.

I got a few things done on each of the files I had opened earlier before I tackled the dishwasher. 

The fallen leaves have brought on the sounds of mechanical objects doing their best to keep them cleaned up. There are blowers and sweepers and mowers and operators feeling the satisfaction of a well done clean up job. Ahhh, the sounds of autumn, a little harsher than the soft sounds of spring, birds and wind chimes. 

The second photo a day for yesterday was titled “negative space”. I like this one. It’s one of the easier ones to imagine and to set up. I used one of my house plants all of which seem to be enjoying the carry over affects of their vacation outside for the summer. They are filling out nicely. 

The word for today is perfection.  Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work, Aristotle. Aim at perfection in everything, though in most things it is unattainable. However, they who aim at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it than those whose laziness and despondency make them give it up as unattainable, Lord Chesterfield.  Perfection consists not in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well, Marie Angelique Arnauld.  Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time, Voltaire. This is moral perfection: to live each day as though it were the last; to be tranquil, sincere, yet not indifferent to one's fate, Marcus Aurelius.  All our knowledge is the offspring of our perceptions, Leonardo da Vinci.  It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view, George Eliot. We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses, Abraham Lincoln.  We should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend, John Henry Newman. The organ of perception acts more readily than judgment, Leonardo da Vinci.  It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another, Francois de La Rochefoucauld.  

The photo of the day for today is “something beautiful”. Since I was pleased with my choice of subject yesterday for one of the photo challenges, I decided to choose another of my healthy house plants for this theme. 

This story brought back memories. It also brought to mind what my own parents must have felt as things popped up to chance the motion of their lives. Mainly, in this case, the formation of shopping malls. I can remember my mom getting on a city bus to go shopping down town, there were no malls around when I was a kid. Once in a while she would take us with her. It was an adventure to go downtown (or uptown, whichever way you looked at it). Then the malls came along. According to this article there is another major mall headed to closing it’s doors permanently. I’m wondering what form of shopping will come along now. I’m aware that many people have turned to online shopping. That may be THE way now with no more “brick and mortar” department stores. I enjoy the comfort of that type of taking care of that necessity. On the other hand, it seems to be another indication that people are distancing themselves from social contacts. In my opinion some social contact is essential to human living and development, not to mention sanity. It seems that there are several malls across the country that will be closing along with the Tuttle Crossing mall in our area. Again according to the article Tuttle space is only 76% rented by tenants and their “cash flow this year is 32% below anticipated....” The next step is for a “receiver to oversee the lenders, then the property will be sold “as is” or there will be some way to “stabilize performance”. The pandemic is part of the problem that this is happening. The mall at Tuttle opened in 1997 with some of its tenants were Sears, Lazarus, Marshall Field’s and JCPenney. Later Easton Town Center and Polaris Fashion Place came into being. To “diversify” the use of its space Tuttle rented space to an entertainment center. According to the article Eastland has struggled and Northland and Westland malls and City Center have all shut down. 

I pulled some vegetable soup from the freezer for dinner and I will make salmon patties to go with it. 

Joy

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