{"id":15315,"date":"2014-03-07T11:31:11","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=15315"},"modified":"2014-03-07T11:31:11","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T16:31:11","slug":"the-immediate-the-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/the-immediate-the-real\/","title":{"rendered":"The Immediate, The Real"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/108151060?et=hUnvV3xgG0SCw8pNaNQiXA&amp;sig=c6EJIcRqls4yjn_T2zL0-lZb-hC6PtwNjaCR-RlsN_k=\" height=\"482\" width=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>From\u00a0<a title=\"whiskey river: Mark Nepo, on the immediate vs. the real\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2014\/03\/we-begin-so-aware-and-grateful.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We begin so aware and grateful. The sun somehow hangs there in the sky. The little bird sings. The miracle of life just happens. Then we stub our toe, and in that moment of pain, the whole world is reduced to our poor little toe. Now, for a day or two, it is difficult to walk. With every step, we are reminded of our poor little toe.<\/p>\n<p>Our vigilance becomes: Which defines our day &#8212; the pinch we feel in walking on a bruised toe, or the miracle still happening?<\/p>\n<p>It is the giving over to smallness that opens us to misery. In truth, we begin taking nothing for granted, grateful that we have enough to eat, that we are well enough to eat. But somehow, through the living of our days, our focus narrows like a camera that shutters down, cropping out the horizon, and one day we&#8217;re miffed at a diner because the eggs are runny or the hash isn&#8217;t seasoned just the way we like.<\/p>\n<p>When we narrow our focus, the problem seems everything. We forget when we were lonely, dreaming of a partner. We forget first beholding the beauty of another. We forget the comfort of first being seen and held and heard. When our view shuts down, we\u2019re up in the night annoyed by the way our lover pulls the covers or leaves the dishes in the sink without soaking them first.<\/p>\n<p>In actuality, misery is a moment of suffering allowed to become everything. So, when feeling miserable, we must look wider than what hurts. When feeling a splinter, we must, while trying to remove it, remember there is a body that is not splinter, and a spirit that is not splinter, and a world that is not splinter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Mark Nepo [<a title=\"Google Books: 'The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present in the Life You Have,' by Mark Nepo\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=bEdfDabRIs4C&amp;pg=PA57&amp;lpg=PA57#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a title=\"whiskey river: 'Place to Be,' by Robert Creeley\" href=\"http:\/\/whiskeyriver.blogspot.com\/2014\/03\/place-to-be-days-weather-sits-in.html\" target=\"_blank\">and<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Place to Be<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Days the weather sits<br \/>\nin the endless sky,<br \/>\nthe clouds drifting by<\/p>\n<p>The winter&#8217;s snow,<br \/>\nsummer&#8217;s heat,<br \/>\nsame street.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing changes<br \/>\nbut the faces, the people,<br \/>\nall the things they do<\/p>\n<p>\u2019spite of heaven and hell<br \/>\nor city hall &#8212;<br \/>\nNothing&#8217;s wiser than a moment.<\/p>\n<p>No one&#8217;s chance<br \/>\nis simply changed by wishing,<br \/>\nright or wrong.<\/p>\n<p>What you do is how you get along.<br \/>\nWhat you did is all it ever means.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Robert Creeley [<a title=\"Google Books: 'If I Were Writing This,' by Robert Creeley\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=OjvkBXw8jagC&amp;pg=PA65&amp;lpg=PA65#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not from\u00a0<em>whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>What is IMMEDIATE?<\/strong><br \/>\n1. Present; at once; without delay ; not deferred by any interval of time. In this sense, the word, without any very precise signification, denotes that action is or must be taken either instantly or without any considerable loss of time. Immediately does not, in legal proceedings, necessarily import the exclusion of any interval of time, it is a word of no very definite signification, and <span class=\"explannote\" title=\"What a phrase! I think, in contemporary language, it connotes something like 'well, it rather *depends*.'\">is much in subjection to its grammatical connections<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Black&#8217;s Law Dictionary [<a title=\"Black's Law Dictionary Free Online Legal Dictionary 2nd Ed.: 'What is IMMEDIATE?'\" href=\"http:\/\/thelawdictionary.org\/immediate\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>What is REAL?<\/strong><br \/>\nIn Civil Law, relating to a thing (whether movable or immovable), as distinguished from a person.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Black&#8217;s Law Dictionary [<a title=\"ibid: 'What is REAL?'\" href=\"http:\/\/thelawdictionary.org\/real\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>The Late Wisconsin Spring<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>(excerpt)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The loneliness comes and goes, but the blue holds,<br \/>\nPermeating the early leaves that flutter in the sunlight<br \/>\nAs the air dances up and down the street. Some kids yell.<br \/>\nA white dog rolls over on the grass and barks once. And<br \/>\nAlthough the incidents vary and the principal figures change,<br \/>\nOnce established, the essential tone and character of a season<br \/>\nStays inwardly the same day after day, like a person&#8217;s.<br \/>\nThe clouds are frantic. Shadows sweep across the lawn<br \/>\nAnd up the side of the house. A dappled sky, a mild blue<br \/>\nWatercolor light that floats the tense particulars away<br \/>\nAs the distraction starts. Spring here is at first so wary,<br \/>\nAnd then so spare that even the birds act like strangers,<br \/>\nTrying out the strange air with a hesitant chirp or two,<br \/>\nAnd then subsiding. But the season intensifies by degrees,<br \/>\nImperceptibly, while the colors deepen out of memory,<br \/>\nThe flowers bloom and the thick leaves gleam in the sunlight<br \/>\nOf another city, in a past which has almost faded into heaven.<br \/>\nAnd even though memory always gives back so much more of<br \/>\nWhat was there than the mind initially thought it could hold,<br \/>\nWhere will the separation and the ache between the isolated<br \/>\nMoments go when summer comes and turns this all into a garden?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(John Koethe [<a title=\"Poetry Foundation: 'The Late Wisconsin Spring,' by John Koethe\" href=\"http:\/\/www.poetryfoundation.org\/poem\/177662\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and (emphasis added):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;in the same way that accompanying interfaces can help make the <em>virtual<\/em> world more psychologically immersive, augmented reality has the potential to make the <em>physical<\/em> world more psychologically immersive&#8230; with <span class=\"explannote\" title=\"The London Charter for the Computer-Based Visualisation of Cultural Heritage: 'information about human processes of understanding and interpretation of data objects'\">paradata<\/span> about our surroundings we can become more part of them, not less; <em>psychological immersion<\/em> is increased though <em>immediacy<\/em> is decreased.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what I&#8217;m claiming anyway. Does that sound plausible though?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Mark Childs [<a title=\"The Body Electric (blog): Experiencing technology in education and elsewhere: 'Immersion, immediacy and augmented reality'\" href=\"http:\/\/markchilds.org\/2013\/04\/11\/immersion-immediacy-and-augmented-reality\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;and:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>On Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How do people stay true to each other?<br \/>\nWhen I think of my parents all those years<br \/>\nin the unmade bed of their marriage, not ever<br \/>\nlonging for anything else&#8212;or: no, they must<br \/>\nhave longed; there must have been flickerings,<br \/>\nstray desires, nights she turned from him,<br \/>\nsleepless, and wept, nights he rose silently,<br \/>\nsmoked in the dark, nights that nest of breath<br \/>\nand tangled limbs must have seemed<br \/>\n<em>not enough<\/em>. But it was. Or they just<br \/>\nheld on. A gift, perhaps, I&#8217;ve tossed out,<br \/>\nhaving been always too willing to fly<br \/>\nto the next love, the next and the next, certain<br \/>\nnothing was really mine, certain nothing<br \/>\nwould ever last. So faith hits me late, if at all;<br \/>\nfaith that this latest love won&#8217;t end, or ends<br \/>\nin the shapeless sleep of death. But faith is hard.<br \/>\nWhen he turns his back to me now, I think:<br \/>\n<em>disappear<\/em>. I think: <em>not what I want<\/em>. I think<br \/>\nof my mother lying awake in those arms<br \/>\nthat could crush her. That could have. Did not.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Cecilia Woloch, from Late [<a title=\"Google Books: 'Late: Poems,' by Cecilia Woloch\" href=\"http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=lKUVoHIqQW8C&amp;pg=PA67&amp;lpg=PA67#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n<p>___________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>About the image:<\/strong> I&#8217;ve been salivating for years over the images in the <a title=\"Getty Images: home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Getty Images<\/a> collection. Only very recently have <a title=\"The Verge: 'The world's largest photo service just made its pictures free to use'\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2014\/3\/5\/5475202\/getty-images-made-its-pictures-free-to-use\" target=\"_blank\">they opened the collection<\/a> for widespread use, by (a) removing the very distracting watermark they&#8217;d overlaid over all images (granted, they&#8217;d worked in recent years to minimize the obtrusiveness) and (b) including an &#8220;embed&#8221; option (for Twitter, Tumblr, and WordPress-ish blogs. This is my first dive into the Getty waters. Although there&#8217;s no way to suppress the credit\/marketing text and link, I&#8217;m pleased to see that those aren&#8217;t as prominent as they might have been. (No plans to use Getty images exclusively, however!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From\u00a0whiskey river: We begin so aware and grateful. The sun somehow hangs there in the sky. The little bird sings. The miracle of life just happens. Then we stub our toe, and in that moment of pain, the whole world is reduced to our poor little toe. Now, for a day or two, it is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,50,251,324],"tags":[3438,3750,3751,3752,3753,3754,3755,3756],"class_list":{"0":"post-15315","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-art","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-language-writing_cat","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-researchresources","13":"tag-john-koethe","14":"tag-getty-images","15":"tag-eva-serrabassa","16":"tag-mark-nepo","17":"tag-robert-creeley","18":"tag-blacks-law-dictionary","19":"tag-mark-childs","20":"tag-cecilia-woloch","21":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3Z1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15315"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15332,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15315\/revisions\/15332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}