Use Your Sunscreen

Self-portrait #60.

Here's the thing. I have outlived my image of my father who had outlived my image of him. 

Do you get that? 

My image of my father stopped when he was age 60, a virile aged man. He lived to 70, outliving that image I had of him, surprising me each time I would visit.

What self-absorbtion I had!

My father was older than I imagined!

Now, guess what?

I too am older than I ever imagined.

Who knew?

Reflections: 5 + 9

Reflections on Turning 59:

Sometimes I am arrogant enough to think my death will mean that no one will be reading books the way I do--and the world will suffer--and I mean that far less selfishly and less egotistically than that may sound.  Feel free to laugh.

I mean that I have read and have trained and have practiced to be a Reader, so I should be able to recognize and understand what is true and what is not true--and others will not have trained so long or so hard or so well as I have.

That's been my motivation as a teacher since 1990 (and even before, as a friend): to share, to guide, to model.

Reading well takes practice and guidance and more practice.

I think I have been a true reader since my early teens, and I have worked at it for decades and decades, trying to teach my own students to Read Like Readers, but more importantly to Read Like Writers.

I still need to write the books I want to write.

Not done yet.  That's the battle-cry.

This Year's Model

Wetsuit -- O'Neill Heat 6/5/4 --new;

diver -- MD 54 -- older.

The Duck's Luck

Isn't there an old English folktale or folksong with that title?
If there isn't, there should be.

Not that all luck runs downstream . . . .

The ebbs and flows, 
The floods and shoals . . . .

I now tend to consider carrying such a luck piece a worthwhile wooing of Fortuna.   This wrought clod-of-clay gives me something to turn in my hand -- a talisman, a worry-stone --for when I grasp at a bit of boost, that palpable push, from the web-footed luck of the big-billed duck.

Time-Travel: A Mere 34 or So

Or, 2 X 17 versus 3 X 17.

I was probably 34 in this shot, and I looked like a child, don't you think? That's Motley as a kitten! She's 17+ now.

Here, I'm 51 now, and you can read the trail of years in the lines and in the gray and white on my head.  I've gotten quite a bit of sun here too, but that's all good, a sign of summer and outdoor activities.  Slather, slather, with the sunscreen.  (6 feet tall and 170 pounds, so that's not so bad; I've dropped 19 pounds since December 30th.  And, I could be in a bit better muscular shape, but that's what summer's for too.)

Just keeping track.

Book review or preview or tempting taste to be posted manana.