What the hell! Did anybody else have a week where you asked yourself,
“What the hell happened?”
When you’re talking to somebody on the phone and they’re suddenly not there, do you ask yourself, “What the hell happened? Did they hang up on me? Was it something I said? Are they angry? Did their phone lose power? Is the signal week? Should I call back? Are they calling me back?”
What the hell happened in these photos?
What the hell happened in the first photo above and the last one? First photo: We did a mindfulness exercise in a therapy group last week where we focused on a piece of paper we crumpled and then unfolded. Last photo: a group calling themselves “Gym Class” performed Lou Reed’s “Take a Walk on the Wild Side” at an open mic last night.
Over two years ago, when I was in the hospital dealing with pneumonia and heart failure, I wrote a blog post titled “Masks“.
Yesterday, in a therapy group, people talked about the relationships between the masks they wear on the outside and how they feel inside. I keep the identify of my group members masked because of confidentiality; therefore I only show what I create in group, including this mask:
Do you see masks in my other photos from yesterday?
My shameless appeals for applause in that song include having a heart condition, being a single mother, and who I did NOT vote for in the 2016 USA presidential election.
This year, I’ve been making shameless appeals for applause with my original songs on the first Friday of every month at an acoustic Open Mic in Arlington, Massachusetts (see here for my shameless appeals for applause there in August). However, I still have some laryngitis, so I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to appeal for applause this coming Friday.
In the meantime, do you see any shameless appeals for applause in my photos from yesterday?
I shamelessly included one of those photos above because it evokes the name of another song I’m writing: “Triggers.”
Is including this patriotic song — also evoked by a photo above — another shameless appeal for applause?
Now I shall make another shameless appeal, this time for comments on this post.
Thanks to the Hingham Shipyard, to those who serve, to every one else who helped me create today’s shameless appeals for applause here at WordPress and — of course! — to YOU, who deserve applause for visiting my blog.
For the first time in my life, I have laryngitis, which means most things are unspeakable for me right now.
After reading the news today, I can’t speak about some unspeakable stories. However, I can write my thoughts and feelings here.
It’s unspeakable to me how many mass shootings there are in the USA. When my son got into the University of Edinburgh and a few USA colleges in 2016, I spoke to him about my preference of where he might go to school. I spoke of my belief that he would be safer outside of the USA because of all the unspeakable school shootings and the unspeakble access to guns here.
1 : spinal column, spine
2 : something that resembles a backbone: such as
a : a chief mountain ridge, range, or system
b : the foundation or most substantial or sturdiest part of something
c : the longest chain of atoms or groups of atoms in a usually long molecule (such as a polymer or protein)
d : the primary high-speed hardware and transmission lines of a telecommunications network (such as the Internet)
3 : firm and resolute character
I hope I’m exhibiting firm and resolute character as I send you this blog post over the primary high-speed hardware and transmission lines of the internet.
Do you see any backbone in my other photos today?
There are several “Backbone” songs on YouTube, including this one:
Feel free to show some backbone in a comment, below.
Gratitude is a backbone of this daily blog, so thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.
What kind of number is 2018? The website Numbermatics tells us that
2018 is an even composite number. It is composed of two distinct prime numbers multiplied together. It has a total of four divisors.
2018 squared (20182) is 4072324
2018 cubed (20183) is 8217949832
The square root of 2018 is 44.9221548905
The cube root of 2018 is 12.6368953011
To count from 1 to 2018 would take you about thirty-three minutes.
It takes me about thirty-three minutes to create my daily blog posts, including one where the number of the post equals the number of the year.
2018 is also approximately the number of thoughts I had about how to mark this special number today. I spent about 2018 seconds searching for “mathematical puns” and I found Yan’s One Minute Math Blog,which included these mathematical puns from Stewart Francis:
I’m the youngest of three, my parents are both older.
Of the twenty-seven
students in my maths class,
I was the only one who failed.
What are the odds of that, one
in a million?
What are the odds of my blogging consecutively for 2018 days? What are the odds of 2018 being the kind of year it’s been?
The number of photos I’m sharing today is approximately the cube root of 2018:
After spending approximately 2018 seconds creating this blog, I can see glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. Can you?
re·al
rē(ə)l
adjective
1.actually existing as a thing or occurring in fact; not imagined or supposed.
“Julius Caesar was a real person”
synonyms: actual, nonfictional, factual, real-life
2. (of a substance or thing) not imitation or artificial; genuine.
“the earring was presumably real gold”
synonyms: genuine, authentic, bona fide
adverb NORTH AMERICAN informal
1. really; very.
“my head hurts real bad”
Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. — Henri Nouween
Character is like a tree and reputation is like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. — Abraham Lincoln
The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. — Mahatma Gandhi
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance. — Confucius
Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit. — Hosea Ballou
There is no real beauty without some slight imperfection. — James Salter
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows. — Buddha
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. — Albert Camus
Real magic in relationships means an absence of judgment of others. — Wayne Dyer
Nothing ever becomes real til it is experienced. — John Keats
The world is like a reverse casino. In a casino, if you gamble long enough, you’re certainly going to lose. But in the real world, where the only thing you’re gambling is, say, your time or your embarrassment, then the more stuff you do, the more you give luck a chance to find you. — Scott Adams
The truth is, as most of us know, that global warming is real and that humans are major contributors, mainly because we wastefully burn fossil fuels. — David Suzuki
Monsters are real, and ghosts are real, too. They live inside of us, and sometimes, they win. — Stephen King
People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil. The real conflict is between truth and lies. — Don Miguel Ruiz
Well, real estate is always good, as far as I’m concerned. — Donald Trump
To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. — Douglas Adams
Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing so gentle as real strength. — Saint Frances de Sales
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. — Marcel Proust
To keep it real, I try to have new eyes every day. Here’s what I saw with new eyes yesterday:
About six months ago (but who’s counting?), I published a blog post with the same title as this one. At the risk of somehow spreading the chaos in today’s news, I want to quote how chaos came up in my group therapy presentation yesterday. This happened in the question and answer period after I described how my open-access groups work in a primary care practice in a renowned teaching hospital in Boston.
Audience member: Ann, I am assuming you are comfortable with chaos. How do you deal with it in your groups, which people can attend as they choose?
Me: When you give people access to the behavioral health care they need, there is less chaos than you might expect.
I actually do not experience chaos in my therapy groups, but I do experience more of it, these days, in the world outside my groups. As I said in my presentation yesterday, I believe people need the support of therapy groups even more in today’s chaotic world.
