Category: Written Word

The chair’s not always there: Observing Alzheimer’s 2

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Another fall. Another call.

Another emergency scan for the thin, frail man.

His eyes lie.

Nothing is where it should be. Nothing stays put.

Extreme vertigo. Even when flat-footed on flat floors.

His world resembles the topsy-turvy anti-gravity house at Wonder World.

But there’s no exit. And it’s not fun.

Recently reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, I was struck by a description of life when everything around you is askew:

…he now began to suffer spatial disorientation. Furniture advanced and retreated in the mechanical manner of a fun house. Like practical jokers, chairs offered themselves and then pulled away at the last moment….

Holding my hand to keep his balance, as trees and bushes made strange, sliding movements in his peripheral vision….

as his mind began to waiver, to short-circuit….

Sandra Cisneros letting sense of place shine

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Without a sense of place the work is often reduced to a cry of voices in empty rooms, a literature of the self, at its best poetic music; at its worst a thin gruel of the ego.

William Kennedy

 
If a statue of St. Joseph is buried somewhere in Sandra Cisneros’ yard, please unearth it.
That’s unfair and selfish, I know. But she’s not just writing about her neighborhood, it’s mine as well.
Her writer’s quill is one contributing immensely to this porcupine of a city.

Biennial summary of what you are reading on my blog

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Since I have not been as active a blogger, some of my older posts remain the most-read during the past year, July 2011-June 2012. In fact the top three from six months ago refuse to be toppled (ranking from six months ago in parentheses).

  1. Cheez Doodles as Art (1), posted on January 8, 2011
  2. Obsession preserves a slice of time in Mexico (2), posted on November 4, 2011
  3. “Nuit of the Living Dead” (3), posted on October 30, 2010
  4. Susan Toomey Frost stimulates a second revival of San Antonio’s traditional tilework (6), posted on June 24, 2011
  5. Ribbons of Gaudi-inspired steel ripple above the river, July 6, 2011
  6. Haunting the graveyard to unearth the past, April 4, 2012
  7. ‘1, 2, 3. What do you see?’ Too many toucans to count. (11), posted on August 9, 2011
  8. Please put this song on Tony’s pony, and make it ride away (6), posted on July 25, 2010
  9. Concrete artisans leaving lasting imprint in San Antonio, January 7, 2012
  10. Preserving the Art of ‘Papel Picado’ (8), posted on April 30, 2010
  11. Ban the Banner (10), posted on August 8, 2010
  12. ‘Loanership’ program leads to Texas Centennial series of prints opening at King William Art (7), posted on May 28, 2011

The moral of this list appear to be, if you want to be popular, write about Cheez Doodles. Spam does not have as many fans, even if he is my biggest fan. 

 Thanks for following and tolerating my undisciplined wanderings.