My Life, My World

October 30, 2026 a thought for today, The strength of the bee is its patience. Welsh Proverb

Photos in my life yesterday

The first challenge was “words in a book”. This is from a very old cook book. The same title that my mom used over seventy years ago, The American Woman’s Cook Book.

The next assignment was “my choice” and one from my series of “texture layover”.The image is one of the local metro parks in the area. I put a vintage cracked parchment layover on it.

The last upload was “costume”. I didn’t have any costumes available and no children near by getting ready for the holiday. So I used a piece of one of the ornaments in the store.

Life today. Printing yesterday went smoothly and quickly, I like this new format. I hope the rest of the congregation does too, the comments I have heard have been positive.

What a day. Sue is getting some help from family for some paper work that is beyond my purview so there have been people in and out of the house this afternoon. My desk is right in the line of activity.

I got several the items on my list checked off earlier. I also got the dishwasher loaded. We had a brief period that the electric was out in the neighborhood. I took that as an indication that I was lucky, giving me a change to get that done while my computer work was put on hold until the electric was back on. One of the big things I worked on from my list was the formatting the new newsletter, it is going slowly, it is all graphic test boxes and tables, both taking time to size, format and place.

I have the photos for today all ready for upload. This letter will be ready very soon. So I will determine which to do first the uploads or tomorrow’s curbside pick up order ready.

We are having another as close as perfect that is possible autumn day, gorgeous sun, perfect temperature for this early in the season.

The word to ponder today is exact. It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. Edmund Burke. The way to procure insults is to submit to them: a man meets with no more respect than he exacts. William Hazlitt. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man. Sir Francis Bacon. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Edmund Burke. In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government. Thomas Carlyle. True patriotism sometimes requires of men to act exactly contrary, at one period, to that which it does at another, and the motive which impels themthe desire to do rightis precisely the same. Robert E. Lee. For we both alike know that into the discussion of human affairs the question of justice enters only where the pressure of necessity is equal, and that the powerful exact when they can, and the weak grant what they must. Thucydides. Our observation of nature must be diligent, our reflection profound, and our experiments exact. We rarely see these three means combined; and for this reason, creative geniuses are not common. Denis Diderot. Where does the violet tint end and the orange tint begins? Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty. Plutarch. Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Exactness in little things is a wonderful source of cheerfulness. Frederick William Faber.

Article summary. I am hooked on texts and email. As I see it it is useful and effective in that the person that is being contacted may or may not be able to take part in a conversation at the same moment as the sender. There are “cons” I suppose, like written evidence in the case of a dispute, but then it can be there for review when necessary too. I am also a letter writer as shown here. So lets see what what we can learn from this story. The title is I wrote a book about email – and found myself pining for the days of letter writing. Randy Malamud. Regents' Professor of English, Georgia State University. At theconversation.com. In the first paragraph the author explained that he was interested in “hidden” things in the “ordinary”. So he wrote a book about writing. He also felt that email was a correspondence method that “evoked” energy and attention being “sucked away” like a “tsunami” in a missive that required little formality. He found instead along the way “how much richer old-fashioned letters are”. Email does not offer a paper and pen feelings of the touch of the paper, the unique smell of paper, the print of a letter head and closing signature. He went on to say the “.com” voided out the “historical and social value” of a hand written letter. Then there is the cost of postage. With that addition to writing and sending mail, he believed that could have encouraged people to be attentive in time and effort in the correspondence. As the article moved on, he recognized that email is convenient but there is the fact that letters can be storytelling, they “spread” Gospel, they express peoples feelings. There are famous letters to be recognized as a letter to President Lincoln from children and his response. According to the article that letter was sold for $3.4 million in 2008. There was a time when a complaint about letters and delivery timing prompted a “fad” of post cards in place of letters. (Maybe a step toward “email”?). As a technical point it is mentioned the there has been in the close past there were 300 billion emails sent every day. It was then elaborated with will it, email, ever be “valuable” as in to sell, as famous letters are or celebrated as some have been. In moving toward an end to this article the author says email is “paltry ...and...grammatically challenged”. It is sometimes ignored or deleted and may require a response. It ends in what was a little harsh, I think in saying, “maybe it’s just the mirror held up to life, and we are precisely as trite as our email suggests.”

Photos in my life today

My first challenge is “a quotes you like”. This is one of my favorite and I hope I reach it each years. It is
one of Ansel Adams’. “Twelve significant photographs in one year is a good crop”.

The next assignment is another “my choice” and another of my series of “texture layover”. This is a one of my still life’s of white flowers in a black vase with a cloth like layover.