A Mind for Paper Cranes

Abby hates ideas. 

She didn’t always know this about herself, but has been figuring it out over the last year.  I am sympathetic to being wary of valuing theory over practice, but I do love me some theory.  Sometimes I dream of drowning happily in hypotheticals.  To be honest, though, when I’ve had the opportunity, the isolation chafes and I run screaming to some manual labor.

Her new self definition surprised me.  In college we took many of our classes together, usually two a semester. I loved discussion in classes with Abby best of all, because this girl combines irreverence and passion like no one I’ve ever known.  Talking to her, old pieces are hilarious, ridiculous, meaningful, but most of all, relevant.  Abby’s not just the first one to say the emperor has not clothes, but she does so with complete openness, with no malice whatsoever towards those of us inadvertently playing at the charade.

The three of us sat in their hot tub last night, stars and trees above, the wood stove keeping the half barrel nicely in the mid nineties.  We talked about our childhoods, strange how little I’ve told them.  I realized at the Hootenanny that Eli didn’t know I’d been institutionalized at 14, nor do any of my other fiends from that era.

The conversation turned to the Yiddish Volk from which Abby is lately returned, to Mensa, to books we have recently read.

“So, I picked up this book on homesteading, which is something Adam and I are pretty interested in, we read a fair number of these things.  This one, though, was, like, somebody’s thesis, I guess, and it was just a bunch of categories into which homesteaders could be put, and then expounding on those categories.  Y’know, the tell you what they are going to tell you, then they tell you, then they tell you what they told you.  I hate that shit.  I want to read about how exactly one particular family gets water or heats their house, or makes cheese or whatever, not a bunch of definitions some girl made up... 

“...My favorite books are cookbooks, origami books, and Yiddish English dictionaries.  Once you read a novel, you are done with it, you know?.. 

“...I always hated writing papers in college.  I could do it, I always got a’s and b’s because they were grammatically and structurally correct, but I never had any *ideas*...”

We went inside after a half hour or so; made a German pancakes from the CSA apples and one of the beloved cookbooks.

This morning, I went out for one of the walks I am failing to make a daily habit, and noticed a red and white crane sitting on the steps.  I’d planned to take pictures of a small pier jutting into a dried pond I’d found along an overgrown path last night, but I was entranced by this geometric litter.  My camera and I don’t quite get along yet, I miss the control I had over my manual silver gelatin baby. 

I spent what must have been close to an hour fiddling with the few options and the light and my position and the software and deleting everything to head back out again for more pictures; all the while thinking about the intersection of facts and ideas, how sometimes they intertwine pleasantly but other times are best consumed as separate dishes.

Comments

[sage]

I've always wanted one of them there wood burning hot tubs! I spent Friday splitting wood. Suppose another load or two would be worth it if I had a woodburning tub (does your tub use a snorkel type of firebox?) And, I almost forgot, Michelle sent me.

[Yaeli]

Hi! Michele sent me! You have a great blog here! I'll definitely have to swing by regularly!
Hope you are having a great weekend! :o)

[tj]

I have an old Canon AE1 camera that gives me lots more control over my photographs and hands down beats my expensive digital cam. It's a good picture you took, I like it.

[Pearl]

Love the rich color in the picture. And love :-) the statement "Sometimes I dream of drowning happily in hypotheticals." Me too, theory alternating with manual practicality is profoundly satisfying. Someone who connects the ideals to the real is gifted. I can see what Abby means about one read sort of things. I avoided novels and light movies before I wanted to glean more meat off the bones than was there to pick. A dictionary did seem richer. I've rode a few novels that seem to make me question it lately.

Michele sent me but ya know, I was coming either way.

[Diana]

Here from Michele...Love the oragami!! TTYL

[kenju]

Michele sent me again; I love the origami too. I have a new digital camera that I have to learn to use, but I think I will still use my old Canon frequently.

[MorahMommy]

Love the origami, too. I love stuff like that, but I can never fold a straight line.

Michele sent me.

[Dave Diamond]

Hello from insanely beautiful New England -- Michele sent me! My favorite books are atlases, especially old ones. I like seeing how the world was years and years and years ago, before it was so completely messed up. OK, I guess it was messed up even then. :|

[Michelle]

Hi! Michele sent me today, but I stop by regularly :-)

[orionoir]

michelle never lets me go anywhere, but here i am nonetheless... pretty pic. my experience has been that whatever control the camera takes away the graphics software gives back in spades, i spose i'm a troglodyte ntb using photoshop, but macromedia treats me just fine.

as for "The three of us sat in their hot tub last night, stars and trees above..." -- sheesh, babe, couldn't you have painted that scene for a few pages at least? :-)

[Lindsay]

Holy crap! We had German apple pancakes yesterday!

Um. Michele sent me.

(No she didn't)

[djinn]

Has Abby seen this site?
http://pathtofreedom.com/journal/
Lots of good urban homesteading ideas, and how-tos to go with.

I'm loving your writing.

I feel like I've lived through echos of your experiences, in my life. But your prose speaks so quiet and clear. I can never articulate all those things inside. They come out like code, and confuse people, who think I'm always talking about something else.

[Ambumbciz]

Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy.

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