Old Nonsense, Be Gone!

I think I'm going to have this tattooed, in reverse script (Leonardo DaVinci style), onto my forehead so I can read it in the mirror while brushing my teeth every morning and at night. I saw this passage on another blog today and was delighted to find that it was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose essays I need to revisit again. Ralph was the original Zen master Yoda of the Transcendentalist movement in American philosophy and literature. Forget all of these New Agers out there with their recycled and retooled mantras, if Oprah needs enlightenment she should go to the source: God or Ralph.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I haven't been blogging because I've been settling. This seismic shift in our lives is not yet complete but when it is the dust can start to gather in the corners again and we can get back to the business of living. For now I have a refurbished computer that was brought back from the brink last week. Soon after arrival I discovered that my hard drive was in "failing" mode. Ronald, my amazing Yoda techie from afar at MetroMacSupport in NYC said he'd never seen that before in all of his years in Mac World. I searched high and low but found some great guys at Tier 3 Data & Web Services in London, Kentucky who can fix Mac hardware down here (it was harder to find them than you might think--I'm convinced Mac people in this state must have a secret handshake or something). So now I have the purring capabilities of Mac OS Leopard, updated Word and Office programs, and as much RAM as this baby can handle.

I realize that blogging keeps me connected in ways that other media can not. I also realize I need to step back more from the computer realm and use it more as a tool, and less as a means of a communication device, apart from work-related tasks (ok, an a select list of people who, like me, seem to prefer email). Let's bring back the handwritten note. I've been receiving many lately with our new move and it has inspired me to put pen to paper, also, in response. But even though we had to replace our cell phone (after four years it had died) for another basic model (it's about one step above Jitterbug status!), I still hate the phone!

Stay tuned! Life has also been somewhat quiet over on Cupcake Chronicles but I expect, after a busy August for all of us in different ways, that the cake will start crumbling again over there soon enough.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

- John Donne