EXPAND YOUR UNIVERSE

ON MY MIND THIS WEEK, expand your UNIVERSE.   Learn something new every day, no matter how small and how insignificant it is..  We are STILL IN THE WOODS!!!! and we are going to be there from now on. Get used to it. And create your own universe. What do I mean and…..

What am i learning?

I am very interested in the politics of my country.  I don’t write about it, but I follow what is happening with great interest.   And I follow several historians who describe what is happening in terms of the historical in America. And in France, I read the French newspapers online and I am succeeding in detaching myself emotionally from American history and European history.  My memory is so-so but some of it sticks.  It keeps me busy during these Covid times.   Today, I was surprised to learn that this has all happened before.  These were the first lines in a pamphlet called The American Crisis that appeared in Philadelphia on December 19, 1776.  If I ever learned this, I did not pay attention.  Now, I am paying attention.

Quotes that I like today are these:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

“These are the times that try men’s souls.”

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered,” Paine wrote in that fraught moment, “yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

I then looked up “dearness” and this is what I discovered.  It is a noun. Duh.

er, dear·est

1. 

a. Loved and cherished: my dearest friend.

b. Greatly valued; precious: lost everything dear to them.

2. Highly esteemed or regarded. Used in direct address, especially in salutations: Dear Lee Dawson.

3. 

a. High-priced; expensive.

b. Charging high prices.

4. Earnest; ardent: “This good man was a dear lover and constant practicer of angling” (Izaak Walton).

5. Obsolete Noble; worthy.

6. Heartfelt: It is my dearest wish.

n.

1. A person who is greatly loved. Often used as a form of address.

2. An endearing, lovable, or kind person: What a dear she is!

adv.

1. With fondness; affectionately.

2. At a high cost: sold their wares dear.

interj.

Used as a polite exclamation, chiefly of surprise or distress: oh dear; dear me.

When I was a young student at the University of Georgia, I took a course in European history.  I had learned a lot about American history and Southern history, but never European.  I think that I avoided it because there was so much of it. And, everything was in a different language – people, leaders, and places.  All wars were significant for one reason or other, and I did not understand any of it. My grade point average was very important to me, and I did not know how I could make a good grade in so complex of a subject.  But it was a requirement for my degree, so I did not have much of a choice.  So, I signed up.

My professor was a man in his 40’s who was pleasant.  He smiled a lot.  But I did not look forward to his lectures.  My main worry was taking notes and not knowing how to spell anything. It was difficult at first, but I soon decided that I had to be selective with what I wrote down.  He planned to have pop quizzes frequently.  And, I had to use phonetics for spelling.  Lots of problems with complicated solutions.  But he seemed to understand that we would have problems.  So, he helped us out.

After he had made a factual point, he would say “and the significance of this battle (or this man, or this whatever….).  THAT WAS what would be on the test!!! Take a note. And that is the way I learned European History, what little I know.  France is complicated enough, much less all of Europe.

I don’t remember his name, but I will ALWAYS remember that course. And today, I find myself saying “And the significance of that is……”  Try it. It helps you understand life and living in these busy, confusing times. 

Last week, a friend asked me if I liked living in Paris in my 80’s, and was I glad I moved from Nice in 2020?

My answer is a resounding YES and YES. 

Why?  You are living there in a pandemic with lots of rules and you don’t speak the language well.  You are in an apartment on the edge of the city.

I cannot write about that now.  But I am changing BIGTIME.  Chapter 11 is amazing.  I have no idea where it will lead, but I am engaged in all of it.  And, the significance of all of this is……..  JAYSPEAK now has stats that are booming.  50,000 views, 14,000 visitors.  From all over the world.  Thank you very much. 

Happy Holidays to all of you.

Stay tuned.  I am expanding my universe and the significance of that is I am changing, like it or not. It gives new meaning to “kaleidoscopic shift”

Best, Jay