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Archive for May, 2004

May 20

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Nana is my Mom’s Mom …

and my grandmother. In a reality of divorce, cross-country moves, and a new school every year, my Nana and her little home in Kentucky have been unlikely pillars in my life. The only place I can go to as an adult that I remember as a child. The only person I remember as a child that has not changed as I became an adult.

In a world of constant flux and speed, a Nana gives you perspective. I can sit and listen for hours to the stories she tells about the depression, the family farm, and how she met her first boyfriend, my Papa. During World War II she sewed and fit soldier’s uniforms down in Biloxi, Mississippi. After the war, she and my Papa moved back to Kentucky, their old home town and settled down and started a family.

Most of my life has been spent in large cities and most of my friends consider me a city boy. My heart, however, is in the country. My best memories are still in a little house in Kentucky where not much has changed and the potato salad and homemade ice cream is as good now as it was when i was just a child.

May 2

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Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

For over 10 years I’ve been bumping up against Arthur Schopenhauer just about everywhere. His influence on continental philosophy is everywhere. Though I somehow managed to get through Goethe, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, and Jung, for some reason I had just never picked up Schopenhauer. At Barnes & Noble tonight I decided to wade in slowly and picked up “Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction.” Maybe this is just what I need to get motivated to continue this next chapter of my studies in German Idealism. Read more

May 2

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I’d Pick More Daisies

If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.

You see, I’m one of those people who lived sensibly and sanely, hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I’ve had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I’d have more of them. In fact, I’d try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I’ve been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

by Nadine Stair, age 85