My Work Letter to Pen:

good morning pen,

so i left early and went to look at the lot in hwood and the plants were hanging in there despite the scorching heat of the week. though the hollyhocks look pathetic and i can only wonder if they're going to make it. i gave them a little water and went on my way. i'm wondering if there are things i could be doing in hollywood weekly- um hello working out- duh, i just thought of that, but its a nice welcome break on my trek into work. and of course thinking of "things we could do with the lot"... which involves trucks and hauling rubble. and too much for my brain to handle right now.

i've thought of two good work things- lolly loves covered parking. i'd forgotten that she's been viciously exposed to the elements for at least a year 1/2 of her young life. so the reprieve is nice. she barely even complained that she got sprinkled on this AM. she also noted a woman parked at the end of the lane get out to check her car and move it fwd twice only to then abandon the spot as she determined she was sticking out too far... still. she wasn't even in an suv. lolly was amused. the other thing we like is... i totally forgot so i was going to mention post-it notes and sharpies but supplies are at a premium. i did manage to scavange some. and then i tried to upload my week in pictures but this 2ndworld country computer (no offence lil 'puter) can't even recognize some basic drivers and oh, doesn't play dvds either. even though it clearly has it installed. awesome. so my netflixplancompletely-thwarted. also we were going to do some actual logging work, but that's out. oh so the other thing is i get to read this onlinebook on mysticism. its pretty fantastic so far- the author is fairly animated and blythe. one might say plucky? for a philosophically word laden book.

Where the philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks; and speaks, consequently, the disconcerting language of first-hand experience, not the neat dialectic of the schools....

“Oh, taste and see!” they [the mystics] cry, in accents of astounding
certainty and joy. “Ours is an experimental science. We can but communicate our
system, never its result. We come to you not as thinkers, but as doers. Leave
your deep and absurd trust in the senses, with their language of dot and dash,
which may possibly report fact but can never communicate personality. If
philosophy has taught you anything, she has surely taught you the length of her
tether, and the impossibility of attaining to the doubtless admirable grazing
land which lies beyond it.

Besides that I realized part of my hostility besides switching gears was not having worked out for a full week. I vertiably flew into the pool. My shoulder flared up as i finally got to swim but i persevered and have rescheduled yoga for sat. The scale has gone back down also and I can only hope for the next notch down so at to mark some real progress. And as to the quote I may make it my anthem. Though I may never realize my mystical output in creative form to a olympian degree, it seems so exactly to how i view the world... and i like the idea of not living in a neat dialectic world.

m.