blue and gold dream
Tag Archives: ocean
lift
For photrablogger’s Mundane Monday #109. I took this photograph in 2011. This is a solo synchronized swimming routine. She lifts her legs out of the water to dance above it, while her arms are keeping her in place, lifted, against gravity,, never touching the bottom or the wall. Only the girl and the water and held breath and arms controlling the position and legs following the music and the lift…. it is not actually mundane, is it?
load
For photrablogger’s Mundane Monday #108, a truck being loaded on to the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry. It is mundane but amazing too, packing the vehicles in for a boat ride and with the narrow clearance at the top!
temperance
Temperance: for Blogging from A to Z, the letter T. What does temperance mean to you? Do you ever say “I feel temperate.” Do you call someone else temperate? Is it a virtue to you?
Temperance is one of the four Cardinal Virtues which go back to the Greeks, Aristotle and Plato. But it meant self control then, not abstinence from liquor. Self control, self-restraint, moderation…I think we could still value that but our culture of drama and advertising and self-promotion and stardom doesn’t very much.
noun
1.moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc.; self-control.
2.habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, especially in the use of alcoholic liquors.
3.total abstinence from alcoholic liquors.
But… let’s look at the word origin:
Word Origin and History for temperance
n. mid-14c., “self-restraint, moderation,” from Anglo-French temperaunce (mid-13c.), from Latin temperantia “moderation,” from temperans, present participle of temperare “to moderate” (see temper ). Latin temperantia was used by Cicero to translate Greek sophrosyne “moderation.” In English, temperance was used to render Latin continentia or abstinentia, specifically in reference to drinking alcohol and eating; hence by early 1800s it came to mean “abstinence from alcoholic drink.”
Webster 1913 from everything2.com: temperance
1. Habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions; restrained or moderate indulgence; moderation; as, temperance in eating and drinking; temperance in the indulgence of joy or mirth; specifically, moderation, and sometimes abstinence, in respect to using intoxicating liquors.
2. Moderation of passion; patience; calmness; sedateness.
[R.] “A gentleman of all temperance.” Shak.
He calmed his wrath with goodly temperance. Spenser.
3. State with regard to heat or cold; temperature.
[Obs.] “Tender and delicate temperance.” Shak.
Temperance society, an association formed for the purpose of diminishing or stopping the use of alcoholic liquors as a beverage.
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I want to take words back and use them again and expand them back to previous meanings. Why is Webster 1913 more elaborate and subtle in definitions than Dictionary.com? Have you used the word temperate? Try it today…I will be temperate in my emotions, temperate in eating, temperate when driving…what will you be temperate about today?
I took the photograph from Marrowstone Island… the colors used to paint the sky are not temperate at all, are they?
shy
This is for Virtues and views, Blogging from A to Z, the letter S.
There is more than one feeling that the fog could raise: shy, sneaky, subtle, sleepy. Scary if I am in a sailboat and the fog slides off Marrowstone Island and reaches fingers towards my boat. If I am smart, I am prepared with charts and radio and GPS and radar and I know that the ferry comes through and I will stay out of it’s way.
From dictionary.com: shy.
1. bashful; retiring.
2. easily frightened away; timid.
3.suspicious; distrustful:
I am a bit shy of that sort of person.
4. reluctant; wary.
5. deficient: shy of funds.
6. scant; short of a full amount or number:
still a few dollars shy of our goal; an inch shy of being six feet.
7.(in poker) indebted to the pot.
Yet these all seem negative. Can’t shy be a positive feeling? From everything2.com and Webster 1913:
The embarrassed look of shy distress
And maidenly shamefacedness.
Wordsworth.
That isn’t what I want either, that women should be shy and retiring.
No, I am thinking of the shy delight and mystery of the fog lying over Marrowstone Island while it’s clear on the water. And wondering shyly if the fog will expand as the tendrils reach down to the water… or will it dissipate slowly to a bright clear sunny day?
My shy and secret delight at the beauty of the world.
nasty
For the Blogging from A to Z, my theme is Virtues and views: two lists of seven virtues, but my goal is to write about emotions. Could feeling nasty ever be a virtue?
Have you ever felt nasty? Have you called someone else a nasty person? Have you ever felt that you behaved in a nasty way? And what did you mean by nasty?
Again, here are definitions from Dictionary.com and from Webster 1913. The definition changes over time.
Webster 1913 from https://everything2.com/title/Nasty
Nas”ty (?), a. [Compar. Nastier (); superl. Nastiest.] [For older nasky; cf. dial. Sw. naskug, nasket.]
1. Offensively filthy; very dirty, foul, or defiled; disgusting; nauseous.
2. Hence, loosely: Offensive; disagreeable; unpropitious; wet; drizzling; as, a nasty rain, day, sky.
3. Characterized by obcenity; indecent; indelicate; gross; filthy.
Syn. — Nasty, Filthy, Foul, Dirty. Anything nasty is usually wet or damp as well as filthy or dirty, and disgusts by its stickness or odor; but filthy and foul imply that a thing is filled or covered with offensive matter, while dirty describes it as defiled or sullied with dirt of any kind; as, filthy clothing, foul vapors, etc.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nasty
adjective, nastier, nastiest.
1. physically filthy; disgustingly unclean:
a nasty pigsty of a room.
2. offensive to taste or smell; nauseating.
3. offensive; objectionable:
a nasty habit.
4. vicious, spiteful, or ugly:
a nasty dog; a nasty rumor.
5. bad or hard to deal with, encounter, undergo, etc.; dangerous; serious:
a nasty cut; a nasty accident.
6. very unpleasant or disagreeable:
nasty weather.
7. morally filthy; obscene; indecent:
a nasty word.
noun, plural nasties.
9. Informal. a nasty person or thing.
I took the photograph in the evening on the beach, with a gorgeous front and the mountains taking turns being lit by the evening. Is the rain nasty weather or is it the spring coming and bringing flowers? Do you celebrate “nasty” weather? Some days I do….
Sea
Nearing the end of a beach walk with my daughter at Fort Worden, the Strait to the west had a line of silver at the horizon. Gorgeous in all weather….
The vote today by Congress would remove the minimum services that insurances must offer in the US. Steps backwards, where cancer screening or hospital services or life flights or pregancy may not be covered. VOTE NO!!!!
And we still need medicare for all, single payer, so that 20% of every healthcare dollar is not going to insurance company profit…..Can’t they see?
