Continued Confessions

and admitting my faults

One thing that is very difficult for me to admit is that I’m not as smart as I always think I am. This has been brought home very forcefully after I bought a different yearly page-a-day calendar. I always get the Peanuts gang and was pleased this year that the clerk in the shop knew where to find one for me (I always go a few days after New Year’s Day so that I can save 50%). But I also buy a puzzle one to get me thinking after breakfast. I thought I had grabbed the same one I had last year where I was able to handle most of the puzzles except those involving numbers. But this year I got what is called The Mensa Puzzle Calendar, and so far I have been able to correctly complete only one of the puzzles, which funnily enough was a number answer. The creators of the calendar have provided a helpful hint which in the future I will be sure to check out before cockily assuming I will get the answer without help. Ha ha. Even with the clues, I’m struggling, so I am definitely enjoying some humble pie this January. Perhaps the bigger lesson is that I have spent too much of my life feeling somewhat superior because I caught on quickly to many things. But age and infirmity are catching up with me, besides being a digital immigrant as David Houle so succinctly describes us born-before-the-internet generation. Do catch his great talk on keeping things simple, by the way. I can’t wait to get more from him. And I am completely in awe of Scott Shapiro’s understanding of technology and his ability to impart that knowledge to me in his book which I referenced in my last post. I am reading it when I first wake up and am at my best, but I still have to take it in relatively small segments. After all these years, I think I finally understand how all of knowledge can be expressed in zeroes and ones. I made a comment elsewhere that my husband at the time and I were practicing “internet avoidance” for as many years as we were able; but of course, now it is ubiquitous and extremely difficult to avoid. I have also commented elsewhere that I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. So here I am.

One other calendar I buy for my bathroom reading is where the quotes from famous people are gathered as “Old Advice for a New World.” The title of the calendar is “KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON” which I knew was a favorite British saying. This year I find out that the saying was never actually used in WWII because it had been created as a poster to use only if the Nazis crossed the English Channel. Thankfully, that never happened and the posters were destroyed. The calendar editors then tell me that a single copy was found in 2000 by Stuart Manley who owned a bookshop in England and he was able to reproduce it because the design was by then in the public domain. So the editors finish by explaining that each day will be “an idea to bolster your morale (or perhaps bring a smile to your face)” with “empowering and uplifting quotations.” I have difficulty many days actually tearing off and discarding the previous one because they are indeed great quotes, but in my hoarding recovery I am trying harder. I do have one from last November to share, however, and it is from Anita Hill who I mentioned in an earlier posting. The quote attributed to her is:

“Uncertainty prevails only if it can make cowards of us all, and we can defeat uncertainty if we boldly stand for justice and fairness.”

Thank you calendar editors for managing to pick very thought-provoking quotations for me every day of the year.

And to wrap up today’s confessions, I have been catching up on all the movies I missed when I was very busily getting my degree while waitressing at night and then becoming a parent etc., etc., etc. This week I have managed to watch two of the classics from that era, “The Sting” and “The Blues Brothers” and my most notable takeaways are that the racial language was jarring in both and way too many car crashes. However, the musical numbers in the Blues Brothers showcasing so many fabulous stars made me get up and dance. I had no idea all those stars would be in the same movie for my enjoyment: James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, John Lee Hooker and Cab Calloway. And it might be instructive for people to watch Henry Gibson as a Nazi—humor may be the best weapon we have. I had some difficulty following The Sting but one scene featured Paul Newman’s blue eyes so prominently it was worth the effort. It will be interesting to see what other oldies but goodies Netflix offers up for my enjoyment. I like surprises so I just wait until teatime to turn on the telly and see what’s on offer. One day at a time!