Transfiguration? Unlikely in Everyday Ramblings

Yeah, well it seems apparent that it is Wisteria on the flower clock. This from my walk with Mrs. Sherlock this morning.

I don’t seem to be able to stop yawning. It is one of those afternoons. Reference glowering sky in above photo. I am sorry I haven’t been around to note this week. I haven’t been usually busy, but I have been doing more sort of hanging out and puttering.

There were a couple of League meetings, On Tuesday our discussion unit got together (mostly) in person and talked about our local school system, which has a 30-million-dollar deficit and just laid off 200 staff. It was a small meeting, only 6 of us but we shared what we knew and how we felt.

Yesterday on a Zoom call we met the two main people in charge of our local flood plain district. You would think, oh boring infrastructure, emergency management, engineering but it was interesting. Mrs. Sherlock and I talked about it on our walk. There is a property assessment on the ballot coming up for needed upgrades to bring us up to the standards FEMA put in place after Hurricane Sandy.

They had all sorts of fascinating tidbits about history and the relationship of the railroad to this whole project. They were trying hard to be diplomatic about that. The level of non-cooperation from the railroads is pretty breathtaking. Another thing I thought was interesting was not their planning to prevent flooding so much as their planning for when the flood comes. Particularly at our airport which is smack in the middle of the flood plain.

I also went for coffee with the guys. Two of our regulars weren’t there and I was surprised at how the dynamic was different. We each read a poem to the group, (Billy Collins has been a favorite all month), and we talked about Biblical stories, particularly the story of the transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. The church we are meeting in these days is colloquially called “Tabor Space” and is in the part of town we call Mt. Tabor. And we talked about the painting of the transfiguration by Raphael.

One of the guys is doing a gloss on it with us as the disciples. We also looked at a sketch books one of the guys has been working on the last few weeks. That is a thing when you hang around with artists. They draw you and photograph you. He is incredibly talented.

After we had been nattering on and laughing Walt asked us to go around and tell everyone what we thought our job was these days. Everyone in the room is retired or something resembling retirement. These are thoughtful kind people, and the answers were spontaneous and had a kind of sweetness to them.

One of the things I said was that I thought part of my job was to help people feel comfortable in their bodies. That resonates. Simple. The other thing I said was that I also thought the rest of my job was to try to fully articulate what makes me, me through the things I do. I am interested in other people, why wouldn’t they be interested in me? That is a new thought for me.

Walt’s partner said her job was as an observer, another fellow said his job was to be responsive. One, being there and providing a calm grounding presence for grandchildren, another being present for family members after a competitive career with lots of travel. We all talked about how any kind of ambition appeared to be slipping away.

It was congenial and Mr. Pedantic was not too obstructionist. I did notice that he corrected Walt’s partner as well. He doesn’t seem to be able to restrain himself. That seems to be a thing lately…i.e. the news.

The rest of the weekend is quiet for me. I hope to get down to the garden tomorrow morning. The weather will be improving as the week progresses. And that is something to look forward to.

Hope yours gets better as well. Or is at least tolerable.