Writing – THE SPECTACLED BEAN

Of Black Coffee, Morning Clouds, and Self-Expression

EARLY THE OTHER MORNING about 6:00 a.m. the clouds floating over our house were so pretty that I decided to sit on the deck, drink my mug of black coffee, and photograph the clouds as they drifted overhead.

AS I WATCHED CLOUDS morph into one shape after another, I remembered a recent interview I’d heard with Carly Simon. She was on Here’s The Thing podcast with Alec Baldwin. [Interview here.]

WHENEVER I THINK OF Carly Simon I think of the lyrics to You’re So Vain, specifically: “I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee, Clouds in my coffee.” It seemed like the perfect thought for where I was sitting, what I was drinking while musing on clouds.

I HAD ENJOYED LISTENING to the podcast as Carly explained her life, her music, her memoir. Her conclusions. My impression was that she sees her past clearly, with a wit and wisdom that made me appreciate her struggles. And her triumphs.

AS I WATCHED THE CLOUDS, reflecting on what Carly Simon had said, I began to wonder about my own abilities to understand and describe myself to others. Would I ever be able to explain my past, either in verbal or written form, as eloquently and truthfully as she had explained hers?

NOT THAT I HAVE an overwhelming desire to tell all to everyone, but should I feel the need to do so for some reason, would I be able to do it? Would you?

Let The Remodeling Wild Ride Begin, Part 1 Of 2

WHEN I STARTED THIS blog years ago my intention was to write 80% about how we were updating our house + garden, then 20% about topics I was researching. I thought this would be more of a design + information blog, rather than a lifestyle journal-ish blog.

Well, that idea fell apart, didn’t it?

Early on I discovered that:

Even though I’m passionate about design, I don’t like writing about the involved decision-making process that goes on within all decorating + remodeling projects. I feel clunky and stressed when I try to write about design.
Even though I enjoy photographing nature and signs and building exteriors, I end up swearing at my camera when I attempt to take pics of inside rooms. I don’t have an eye for design photography, and my poor camera takes the brunt of my frustration.
Even though I had some fun blog followers who were interested in our ongoing home improvement stories, they, to a one, stopped keeping blogs and drifted away from the blogosphere. I now have more wordy followers who groove on topics other than design.

So I had a little sit down chit-chat with myself to reassess what I was doing here, realizing that my most popular fun-to-write blog posts were personal, often about my observations regarding the wack-o-ness of people OR about small glimpses into the ordinariness of my daily life.

And then, I pretty much stopped writing about or photographing what we’re doing around the house. No one cared, and I didn’t mind not writing about the angsty-ness and minutiae of design projects.

However…

[Part 2 will be tomorrow.]

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Because It’s Still February & I’m Bored: 10 Trivia Facts I Know

screen-shot-2017-02-03-at-5-29-08-pm — *{ photo by Alice Donovan Rouse via Unsplash }*

I don’t know if the following list is an example of useful information OR humblebragging.

I mean on the one hand, knowing some trivia can be fun and fill-in those awkward pauses in social conversations.

But on the other hand creating a list like the one that follows is a bit egotistical. I mean in essence I’m saying to you, here are things that I know and you probably don’t. Woo-hoo!

However, I have nothing else to write about today because February, the longest short month on the calendar, is never going to end and I am bored with it. So why not share some trivia?

Ten Trivia Facts That I Know

I know that on the Jetsons, Astro’s name before he came to live with the Jetsons was Tralfaz.
I know that Cosmic Latte is the name of the color of the universe.
I know that at one time Jell-O came in a Celery flavor.
I know that shoes used to be made with buttons on them, no laces or velcro; and that you needed a button hook to get the button-hole over the button on your shoe, so it would stay on your foot.
I know that a stoat is a kind of weasel that according to folklore, upon seeing one a person must say “hello” to it– or risk bad luck.
I know that coffee, not tired eyeballs, is an ingredient in red-eye gravy.
I know that baby squirrels in the nest chirp like baby birds.
I know that at one time in the English language you put a backward question mark at the end of a sentence when the question in the sentence was rhetorical.
I know that chromophobia is the word for the fear of color.
I know that you can make a passable martini using chardonnay instead of vermouth.

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NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO SHARE, MY GENTLE READERS. TELL ME SOMETHING TRIVIAL THAT YOU KNOW!

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The One About My Favorite Public School Teacher

screen-shot-2017-02-09-at-9-09-57-am — *{ tweet by @ericweiskott }*

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So which public school teacher inspired and encouraged me the most? Who had, and still has, the greatest influence on who I am today?

{ drum roll please }

My answer would be: Mrs. L——-, my high school sophomore English teacher.

She was the first teacher to ever tell me I knew how to write. All the other teachers before her, many good women and men, assumed we kids didn’t know what we were doing. But not Mrs. L——-, whose first + middle name was Clover May.

By the time I had Clover May she was nearing retirement– and didn’t give a rat’s tutu about what she was supposed to teach or how to teach it. She’d done this teaching gig for so long that she intuitively knew how to get kids to write.

So instead of closely following any textbooks or lesson plans, Clover May would tell us funny little stories from her own life*, then have us tell a similar story from our lives… in writing.

She believed anyone could write. It wasn’t a big deal. All you had to do was talk about what happened & BE SPECIFIC. Details like grammar and spelling could always be adjusted after you wrote down what happened specifically.

Yes, Clover May believed in all of us and our ability, perhaps yet untapped, to write a good story… as long as you were specific.

• • •

* One of Mrs. L——-‘s funniest stories had to do with her given name. From day one she insisted that we kids know her full name. While decorum dictated that we call her Mrs. L——-, she believed we should know her first + middle name because this was an example of how to BE SPECIFIC.

So when Mrs. L——- discovered that one of her less-than-enthusiastic students could not remember her name correctly, she was ready to be perturbed. However, she couldn’t be upset with this kid, who apparently lived on a farm, because the way he confused her name was so clever that she had to laugh.

You see, this kid, who had been sort of listening to what she said, thought that Clover May’s name was… Alfalfa June.

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QUESTION OF THE DAY

If you went to public schools, who was your favorite teacher? And why?

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Aging Gracefully: A Query, A Quandary, A Questionable Answer

“Explain the phenomenon of aging gracefully.”

You just never know, do you?

Looking at recent search queries that brought readers to this blog, the one written above caught my eye. It amazed me.

Usually people find The Spectacled Bean when they’re looking for answers to garden problems [deer eating pansies], self-awareness [Quaker questions], or vanity [V-beam procedure].

I know it’s odd, but it’s true; those are the three most popular posts on this blog. Not exactly what I’d consider to be my focus or my best-written stuff, but Google’s algorithm does what Google’s algorithm does.

All Hail Google!

My first thought upon seeing this query was to feel a little insulted.

Aging? Moi?! Pish posh, I say!

But then I remembered that one of my blog tags is Aging Gracefully so I had to lighten up on being insulted, and I shifted my thinking to “isn’t this wonderful?”

I was being asked to impart the wisdom of my many years so that others could learn from my depth of experience, keen observations about human nature, and buoyant spirit.

So I sat down at my computer ready to compose a post in which I’d answer that query in such a way as to goose Google’s algorithm. I’d write something so profound and pithy that anyone who asked a similar query, for years to come, would be directed here.

The dream, so close.

But here’s the thing, and it’s significant, I have no real answer to this query.

I mean, I dunno. Maybe the answer is to never stop exercising? Or maybe it’s to commit to being a lifelong learner? Or to attempt to let go of any person, idea, or thing that no longer serves you?

None of these? Some of these? All of these?

Or maybe, just maybe, the real essence of the phenomenon of aging gracefully can be summarized in one crotchety remark: “DON’T BOTHER YOUR ELDERS WITH SILLY QUESTIONS!”

You got that, you nosy little whippersnapper?

6 Small Thoughts Upon The 6th Anniversary Of This Blog

A glimpse into my personal blogging evolution…

1) I like my writing better now than when I started The Spectacled Bean. I’ve learned how to write in a smooth flowing chatty style that is genuine, not dry & academic. I express myself with more attitude, more gratitude, less awkwardness, and a propensity to use goofy big words that I love.

screen-shot-2017-01-20-at-2-55-08-pm

2) I write more in-depth now on one event or topic or person, instead of glossing over and combining many things into one post like I used to do. I’m more focused, definitely less ditzy.

3) I think of my blog as a newspaper lifestyle column now in which I share my observations, experiences + research, making sense of these things, so that I can start conversations which, I hope, add a bit of love + learning + laughter into the world. I no longer think of this blog as a diary or a variety show or a scrapbook.

4) My posts look prettier now thanks to the instant availability of font sizes, styles, and colors. Plus it’s so much easier to add images and videos now. I sometimes wonder why any of us read any blog considering how text-based and bland they all looked.

screen-shot-2017-01-20-at-3-03-18-pm

5) I find myself more engaged with my followers now than ever before. Lots of fascinating articulate people have found The Spectacled Bean, and I have found their blogs. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my posts, and thank you for making me part of your lives as well.

6) I’m much mellower now about this whole blogging thing. No more angst over what to write about, little worry about how to write it, still some concern that I’ll make a spelling or grammatical error. But overall, I’m chill– and comfortable in my role as a suburban blogger.

Image sources: |1| |2|

Well It Goes Like This, I Shredded My Past. Hallelujah!

dscn7915 — *Bifocal glasses, not mine, left on a picnic table in the park. Someone is not reading the fine print today.*

• • •

SO LAST WEEK while stuck at home because of this, I decided to go through all the writing ditherage I’ve kept over the years.

Much of it was in boxes in the basement.

Lots of it was spiral notebooks from the late 90s to mid-2003 filled with my handwritten Morning Pages a la The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

I was diligent about my daily 3 page writing practice for a while there.

Just about all the notebooks contained a repetitive selection of whiny, self-absorbed, humdrum scribblings that suggest to me now I was stuck and unhappy during those years.

My inner muse had not caught my attention yet.

• • •

AFTER SAVING THE few good or funny thoughts I’d captured years ago in these notebooks, I had an epiphany. I thanked the writing practice for guiding me to today, then as a way of making my life lighter I shredded these notebooks.

Every last one of them gone.

Thus I’ve freed myself, literally and spiritually, from a bunch of heavy negativity that I’d been saving in boxes in the basement for over a decade.

I tell ‘ya, if you’re feeling burdened by life I recommend shredding outdated thoughts. It may sound corny, but doing so has lifted a weight from me. And I feel free to get on with that which needs to be written now.

Muse, lead the way.

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