11/11/2007

Sunday...

I know Saturday is great, but for me, Sunday morning/afternoon is one of the best parts of the week. I usually get up between 8:30 and 9 AM, which for me is sleeping in. It is a time that I dedicate to relaxation and doing exactly what I feel like. If that means sitting around in my underwear under a blanket on the couch and watching worthless Sunday morning talk (The McLaughlin Group is on in the background right now) while looking at the intronets, so be it. I am committed to enjoying it guilt-free.

There wasn't much on earlier. I started watching "Hollywoodland" on cable. It looked like it could be a good movie, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood for it. Maybe some other time...

I then felt the urge to put something on the internet, so I am typing now. I now have the Packer/Viking game on, but I'm not really paying attention to it. I like the soothing sound of football play-by-play. Since I didn't really have an idea what to write about, I went and looked through the books in our little library for some inspiration.

I noticed a book someone once gave me as a gift. Unfortunately they didn't write their name in it, so I don't know who it's from. The title is "The Most Brilliant Thoughts Of All Time (In Two Lines Or Less)". I think it was one of those gifts that I thought was cool when I got it, but I never really looked at it. I decided to flip to a random page and see if there was a quote I could write about. After seeing a few of them, it was clear that calling them "The Most Brilliant" might be overstating things.

One of the quotes on the page interested me. It was by Carl Sandburg. It goes:
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes.

It wasn't so much the quote that caught my eye, but who said it. I was familiar with Carl Sandburg. He had lived in my hometown of Elmhurst at one time. My junior high was named after him. It was the same junior high bloggers Grant, Geo, Dave, and Phil went to. I Googled it to get the picture above. I looked at the staff list to see if there were any teachers still there that I remembered. Mrs. Beck, my old social studies teacher was the only one.

Back to the quote. At first glance, it seemed to me sort of cynical. It makes it seem like the past is useless - that it has no value. I wondered if I had the whole context, so I did another search. Sure enough, there is more to it:
I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, not just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future.

In its full context, I can appreciate the quote more. I like the idea living in the here and now. I think part of the fun of these blogs is their "here-and-nowness". Even if we write about something from the past, it's something we we're thinking about now and wanting to share with others now. It's such a cool new form of prose. There are no rules. You don't have to organize things by chapters or stick to a single subject. You can write what you want when you want and it can be as long or as short as you want. It could just be a picture or some video. I could be hilarious one post and deadly serious the next. And anyone, anywhere in the world has as much access to it as any book ever published. I think that's neat.

I hope you all enjoy your Sundays. I think I'll go check what y'all are up to.

11 comments:

Megan said...

Please note: I just came home from work (4:27 pm) and found Chris weatherstripping the windows in his underpants. Happy Sunday.

Anonymous said...

yeah, there's all that philosophy stuff on Sunday or football and Amazing Race--you judge how to spend your time.

GETkristiLOVE said...

You sit around in your underwear?

Shocking. Just, shocking.

BTW, it's not just on Sunday's right?

Moderator said...

Holy cow, Mrs. Beck!?

Jenna said...

Or maybe Hollywoodland was really just a bad movie.

I once had to sing a Carl Sandburg poem set to music in chorus. It was awful.

SkylersDad said...

What's the stain situation on those drawers there Bubba?

vikkitikkitavi said...

I love me some Sandburg! If Carl S. had known you, Chris, he would've written:

"A man prepares the portals of his home for the coming winter. As he works he thinks of his pants, and the protection that they might offer his stout and mighty limbs, on which all hope relies. Then slowly, his mind drifts to the Packers, and the pants, like in so many autumns past, are once again forgotten."

bubbles said...

O.K., first, I liked this post. I like blogs for the same reason.

Second, Vikki, why do you have to be so f'ing brilliant? I wanna be you.

Cap'n Ergo "XL+II" Jinglebollocks said...

there's a great quote by Fitzgerald that starts, "I'd rather be ashes than dust!" I'll let U google the rest so you'll stay out of the window in your knickerbockers.

Meanwhile, Sundays are the pits. Ever hear the Morrisey song about sunday??

Moderator said...

Vikkitikkitavi,

I hate, hate, hate Carl Sandburg. Read him in junior high, high school and college - the dude lived walking distance from where Chris and I grew up. Dullest American Writer Ever.

I'd even beat up Sufjan Stevens to prove this point.

Sincerely,
Grant Miller, Esq.

Valerie said...

nice post. i liked the tone of it.

don't ask me to explain what that means.