Curiosity Journal: July 27, 2011

Each Wednesday I’m recording a Curiosity Journal, a recap of the past week. Tag words are: reading, playing, learning, reacting and writing.

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Some of you have mentioned that you’re keeping a Curiosity Journal, as well. Leave your link in the comments so that we can visit and enjoy your weekly review.

Reading

The next two chapters in Breath for the Bones by Luci Shaw talked about metaphor and story. About story, she wrote:

As a Christian, I believe that life has meaning, that we are heading somewhere. And as an artist, a poet, I believe in giving voice and picture—record—to that meaning (Shaw 56)Story has the power to grasp bits of the past and carry them into the imaginative present, rescuing us from the pitfalls of abstraction. (57)Every time we tell a story or write a poem or compose an essay, we give chaos a way of reintegrating into order; we reverse entropy; pattern and meaning begin to overcome randomness and decay. (58)So why tell stories? To create readiness, to nudge people toward receptive insight. (61)

After citing all of those quotes, I feel that I ought to tell a story. But Luci set a high standard—at the moment I can’t think of anything worthy or capable of creating “readiness” or nudging people “toward receptive insight.”As an editor at The High Calling, however, I am pleased to work with powerful storytellers like Jennifer Dukes Lee, who wrote a charming personal narrative that will go live today at 8:00 a.m. ET. Since she first told me about it, 1980s hits by The Police and Duran Duran have been spinning in my head. More personally, I’ve been thinking back to that era of my life when I was dreaming of the future, wondering: With whom will I spend it? And here I am, living out that future with someone who was a dreamy mystery circa 1983. While I tuned into “Every Breath You Take” on my boom box, the man I dreamed about heard it on a car radio and speakers he rigged up in his attic bedroom in Belgium.Decades later, we might listen to U2 together. Or, if I’m lucky, I’ll get him to sit through part of Prairie Home Companion.

Playing

After composing numerous Curiosity Journals, this may be the first time I can report that I played an actual game!And I’m hooked.I played Bananagrams, a word game something like a board-less Scrabble or a simultaneous and complex version of Boggle that frees younger spellers to make words that they know how to spell while allowing adults as much challenge as needed to remain competitive and engaged.Each player uses their own tiles to build a combination of words, adding on as more tiles are drawn.I only won once, but that was enough to convince me to play more often.

Learning

Things I have either learned or been reminded of this week:

• In extreme heat, window boxes must be soaked at least once a day. Better yet, twice.
• When I have a sinus infection, it’s best not to run three miles in extreme heat.
• French braids just don’t work well on a 40-something-year-old mom…at least, that’s what my teen daughters have told me while stifling giggles.
• The garden wouldn’t be a jungle if I weeded more often.
• Cucumbers hide well under their own shady foliage.
• Cucumbers can grow really big.
• The Belgian Wonder makes really good coffee.

Reacting

When I felt like my head was jam-packed with rotting compost and a boggy swamp was collecting behind my ear drums—in addition to the lingering cough—I decided it was time to visit the doctor again. She agreed I probably had a sinus infection, and when she listened to my lungs with the stethoscope, she murmured, “I don’t like the sound of that.” I’d already had an X-ray a month ago that came back negative for pneumonia, but she “didn’t like the sound of it” because I still wheezed and crackled when I breathed out during the examination, the clatter emanating more from one lung than the other. I didn’t like the sound of it, either, but I’ve been hearing it since April, so I’m getting used to it.Anyway, she put me on an antibiotic. The pills are almost gone and things seem to have improved. I can hear and breathe better, which is certainly handy. When I speak, I still sound like I’m pinching my nose, but that’s improving, as well. I hope that when I take the last dose and continue to rest, everything dries up and disappears.

Writing

Hey, look! Another blog post!(That’s about all I can point to in the writing category.)Works Cited:

• Shaw, Luci. Breath for the Bones: Art, Imagination, and Spirit. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2007. Print.
• Images: “Question Proposed” photo by Ethan Lofton. Used under a Creative Commons license via Flickr.com.

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