Word of the Week - 103

The no-art post.  Composed with my son's help on his iPad.  The computer is down, duration unknown.

Word of the Week:  VAMPING


Of course we make it up as we go along.  There is no clear path.   Of course we are frequently left to improvise, tread water and vamp, "repeat a short, simple passage of music," until rescue arrives or we grow weary and abandon the project.

What we forget when life is lurching along in a mostly familiar way is that we are generally vamping, too, for very little occurs on our schedule in the manner we would prefer.  When we are thoroughly becalmed, kept from our tasks and purpose, the business of making it up becomes an even more essential skill.  I miss my daily computer time, I miss my friends and the words we share, I miss the images of beauty which nourish me.  And I know this is likely a shallow response, a First World problem, yet in a quiet, not especially mobile and rather sequestered existence, I do feel it as a loss.

On the plus side, I had ample time to create mail art for an exchange (front AND back).  I've been rereading HOUSEKEEPiNG by Marilynne Robinson, in spite of finding it so much more bittersweet all these years later.  A quantity of experiences, once known, can be sobering.  I have not swept an afternoon nap into the corner in favor of just another hour, give or take, at the keyboard, only to feel rest's absence as the evening wears on.  I have even more time to commune with the combination of nothing and my silence.

"Take nothing for granted" is always giving me the knowing wink and pointy elbow.  "Count your blessings" is moment-by-moment thought.  Right now I'm not sure if the computer or it's unavailability is the blessing.