{"id":19370,"date":"2017-06-16T09:40:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T13:40:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=19370"},"modified":"2017-06-16T09:40:41","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T13:40:41","slug":"a-careful-decoding-of-the-obvious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/a-careful-decoding-of-the-obvious\/","title":{"rendered":"A Careful Decoding of the Obvious"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'Now<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “Now this one shouldn’t be too hard to locate!,” by Photos of the Past — a\/k\/a user “whatsthatpicture” — on Flickr.com<\/a>. (Used here under a Creative Commons license; thank you!) This is one of a so-called “photo pool” by this Flickr user and others<\/a>; the series consists of over 5,000 old photos taken in what are (obviously or less so) specific locations. The modern-day user then attempts to locate that setting in our own time frame, via Google Street View. If you read the comments at the Flickr page for this specific photo, you can see what the process is. In this case, it included, ultimately, transferring the image to the Google Street View “overlay” site called Historypin<\/a>: there, a little slider gizmo at the top of the Street View lets you fade out the old photo, and fade it back in, in order to see how its subject fits into the latter-day scene.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away, and think this to be normal, is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Douglas Adams [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Death Again<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let’s not get romantic or dismal about death.
\nIndeed it’s our most unique act along with birth.
\nWe must think of it as cooking breakfast,
\nit’s that ordinary. Break two eggs into a bowl
\nor break a bowl into two eggs. Slip into a coffin
\nafter the fluids have been drained, or better yet,
\nslide into the fire. Of course it’s a little hard
\nto accept your last kiss, your last drink,
\nyour last meal about which the condemned
\ncan be quite particular as if there could be
\na cheeseburger sent by God. A few lovers
\nsweep by the inner eye, but it’s mostly a placid
\nlake at dawn, mist rising, a solitary loon
\ncall, and staring into the still, opaque water.
\nWe’ll know as children again all that we are
\ndestined to know, that the water is cold
\nand deep, and the sun penetrates only so far.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jim Harrison [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Clich\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n

My life is an open book. It lies here
\non a glass tabletop, its pages shamelessly exposed,
\noutspread like a bird with hundreds of thin paper wings.<\/p>\n

It is a biography, needless to say,
\nand I am reading and writing it simultaneously
\nin a language troublesome and private.
\nEvery reader must be a translator with a thick lexicon.<\/p>\n

No one has read the whole thing but me.
\nMost dip into the middle for a few paragraphs,
\nthen move on to other shelves, other libraries.
\nSome have time only for the illustrations.<\/p>\n

I love to feel the daily turning of the pages,
\nthe sentences unwinding like string,
\nand when something really important happens,
\nI walk out to the edge of the page
\nand, always the student,
\nmake an asterisk, a little star, in the margin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Billy Collins [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Rebus<\/strong><\/p>\n

You work with what you are given,
\nthe red clay of grief,
\nthe black clay of stubbornness going on after.
\nClay that tastes of care or carelessness,
\nclay that smells of the bottoms of rivers or dust.<\/p>\n

Each thought is a life you have lived or failed to live,
\neach word is a dish you have eaten or left on the table.
\nThere are honeys so bitter
\nno one would willingly choose to take them.
\nThe clay takes them: honey of weariness, honey of vanity,
\nhoney of cruelty, fear.<\/p>\n

This rebus—slip and stubbornness,
\nbottom of river, my own consumed life—
\nwhen will I learn to read it
\nplainly, slowly, uncolored by hope or desire?
\nNot to understand it, only to see.<\/p>\n

As water given sugar sweetens, given salt grows salty,
\nwe become our choices.
\nEach yes<\/em>, each no<\/em> continues,
\nthis one a ladder, that one an anvil or cup.<\/p>\n

The ladder leans into its darkness.
\nThe anvil leans into its silence.
\nThe cup sits empty.<\/p>\n

How can I enter this question the clay has asked?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jane Hirshfield [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

The abstract question you\u2019re lying there considering is whether you are truly justified in your confidence about the floor. The initial answer, which is yes, lies in the fact that you\u2019ve gotten out of bed in the morning thousands—actually well over ten thousand times so far, and each time the floor has supported you. It\u2019s the same way you\u2019re also justified in believing that the sun will come up, that your wife will know your name, that when you feel a certain set of sensations it means you\u2019re getting ready to sneeze, & c. Because they\u2019ve happened over and over before. The principle involved is really the only way we can predict any of the phenomena we just automatically count on without having to think about it. And the vast bulk of daily life is composed of these sorts of phenomena; and without this kind of confidence based on past experience we\u2019d all go insane, or at least we\u2019d be unable to function because we\u2019d have to stop and deliberate about every last little thing. It\u2019s a fact: life as we know it would be impossible without this confidence. Still, though: Is the confidence actually justified, or just highly convenient?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(David Foster Wallace [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “Now this one shouldn’t be too hard to locate!,” by Photos of the Past — a\/k\/a user “whatsthatpicture” — on Flickr.com. (Used here under a Creative Commons license; thank you!) This is one of a so-called “photo pool” by this Flickr user and others; the series consists of over 5,000 old photos taken in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19372,"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":"Douglas Adams, Jane Hirshfield, et al.: 'A Careful Decoding of the Obvious'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,593,250,37,5,251,4159],"tags":[270,1081,1141,1689,4306,4545,4546,4547,4548],"class_list":{"0":"post-19370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-history-in-the-news","10":"category-art","11":"category-onlineworld","12":"category-06_writing","13":"category-poetry-writing_cat","14":"category-essays","15":"tag-jane-hirshfield","16":"tag-david-foster-wallace","17":"tag-billy-collins","18":"tag-douglas-adams","19":"tag-jim-harrison","20":"tag-certainty","21":"tag-evidence","22":"tag-missing-pieces","23":"tag-the-obvious","24":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/nowthisoneshouldntbetoohard_photosofthepast_thumb.jpg?fit=480%2C629&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-52q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19370","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=19370"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19379,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19370\/revisions\/19379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}