"It's is lumber, man -- all lumber!"

I like words. I actually keep a list of words that really strike me in some way, and that list is quite short. It takes a lot for a word to get on that list. There has to be meaning to the word that goes well beyond ordinary usage, meaning that leeds me to ponder about life in some way. Today's post is about one such word -- Lumber.

At first blush this word must seem pretty ordinary. Lumber is, after all, so common a thing. Who doesn't know something of 2 X 4's and plywood sheets. Who hasn't made trips to the lumber yard for that bit of wood to finish a project.

But there is a rather archaic definition of the word lumber that caught my attention some time ago, and the older I get the more meaningful that definition becomes. I first came across this definition in a Dickens novel where some character is in a lumber room. I hadn't heard of that before, but by the context it seemed a sort of storage room or attic for cast of household junk. I looked up the word lumber and sure enough, that is an old definition -- cast off household junk.

Some time later I was reading a delightfully funny book suggested by an old English professor by Jerome K. Jerome -- Three Men in a Boat. (It is hilarious british humor for one thing, but also a poignant analysis of some of what is important in life. Three friends decide to take a boat up the river Thames for rest and relaxation, and what they do and what happens to them is great stuff!) I had not gotten far into my first reading of the book, I came across a real gem of philosophy and good living that I believe we could all stand to think about.

As the three friends are packing their boat for the trip, one of them speaks up . . .

George said:

'You know we are on the wrong track altogether. We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without.'

George comes out really quite sensible at times. You'de be surprised. I call that downright wisdom, not merely as regards the present case, but with reference to our trip up the river of life generally. How many people, on that voyage, load up the boat till it is in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber.

How they pile the poor little craft mast-high with fine clothes and big houses; with useless servants, and a host of swell friends that do not care a twopence for them, and that they do not care three ha'pence for; with expensive entertainments that nobody enjoys, with formalities and fashions, with pretence and ostentation, and with -- oh, heaviest lumber of all! -- the dread of what will my neighbour think, with luxuries that only cloy, with pleasures that bore, with empty show that, like the criminal's iron crown of yore, makes to bleed and swoon the aching head that wears it!

It is lumber, man -- all lumber! Throw it overboard. It makes the boat so heavy to pull, you nearly faint at the oars. It makes it so cumbersome and dangerous to manage, you never know a moment's freedom from anxiety and care, never gain a moment's rest for dreamy laziness -- no time to watch the windy shadows skimming lightly o'er the shallows, or the glittering sunbeams flitting in and out among the ripples, or the great trees by the margin looking down at their own image, or the woods all green and golden, or the lilies white and yellow, or the somber-waving rushes, or the sedges, or the orchis, or the blue forget-me-nots.

Throw the lumber over, man! Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need -- a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing.

You will find the boat easier to pull then, and it will not be so liable to upset, and it will not matter so much if it does upset; good, plain merchandise will stand water.

I think the above stands pretty well on its own and doesn't need much commentary from me. Let me just say that with my 52 years I have come to realize the George really is quite sensible here, quite sensible indeed. Read it again, and again. Think about it, about its implications, about your own lumber, whether it is things you have piled up or emotions you haven't gotten rid of. Think about it and then take Jerome K. Jerome's advice -- Throw the lumber over, man!

W Gets a Brain

It took a while, but G.W. has finally received a brain. I know, it is eight years too late, and untold suffering lies between then and now, but hey -- better late than never!

The brain he has received is, admittedly, rather small, but a small one is a large improvement over having no brain at all. As evidence of his new aquisition I point to his speech yesterday in Japan (ironic location, as you shall see) in which he pressed the leaders of the other G-8 countries to join together to cut in half greenhouse emmisions by 2050. This from the guy who swaggered into office eight years ago and, with a smirk on his face, brazenly and arrogantly tossed away the Kyoto (Japan!) Protocol that would have addressed greenhouse gas emissions eight years ago!

To what do we owe this sudden aquisition of a brain on the part of our President? I don't know, but it would have been nice if he could have gotten in a bit earlier in his Presidency, don't you think? Could have stayed focused on Afghanistan for one thing, rather than flying into Iraq with guns blazing on dubious intelligence and faulty Neocon reasoning. By taking his eye off Afghanistan he has screwed up two countries rather than saved one. Yup, an earlier brain would have been nice.

But now he has seen the light of global warming and want's the world to wake up to its threat and do something about it. Good for him. Icepacks of the world, rejoice! Your savior has arrived! Yes, I know you have pretty much melted away by now, but he got you before there was nothing at all left of you, right? So be happy.

Dolphins, whales, all small critters that have been threatened with extinction -- W is with you! Be not afraid! Eight years of irreparable degredation of your habitats and environment is a small price to pay for a President of the Untied States trying desperately to do something -- anything -- that will somehow raise him in the eyes of history above at least James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson!

You go W!

This Digital Imigrant Now Has a Blog (Inspired by my son and daughter in law)

Well I'll be (stopped in my forward progression!). I have a thing called a blog. It is entitled "Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost", a quote from Lord of the Rings and somewhat befitting my summer rambles through Europe and my disorderly reading habits. I've no idea why anyone would be interested in the least to read anything I have to say, but since I am free to say it, so I shall.



It is inspired in it's creation by my son Mark's witty, sharp blog posts and my daughter in law Stephanie's love-of-life postings. You should check them out!



I am a teacher of AP Art History and AP Economics, so you can expect much about art and much about politics and the economy from me. If you are a typical Utahn you're not going to like the politics much, but I do hope you like the comments you'll get about painting, sculpture, architecture, travel, and the lates book I'm reading.



Expect wandering of the world and wanderings of the mind, neither of which head toward any particular destination. Remember, "Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost."