No Secret

Down to every last grumble, every last ache and pain, I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing. Every smile, every silence, every sigh; every kindness, every slight — all are mine to choose. So why should I pretend otherwise? Why should I pose? Why should I lie?

Stop saying, “The secret to happiness is . . .”

There is no secret, only these nuthatches splashing in the birdbath.

Stumps, trunks, side limbs, and stems — the sunflowers are now in the recycling bin.

Thoreau’s journal, entries for March 10 and March 11, 1854. Fair weather after three rainy days. Air full of birds.

Shall the earth be regarded as a graveyard, a necropolis, merely, and not also as granary filled with the seeds of life? Is not its fertility increased by this decay? A fertile compost, not exhausted sand.

On Tuesday, the 7^th, I heard the first song sparrow chirp, and saw it flit silently from alder to alder. This pleasant morning after three days’ rain and mist, they generally forthburst into sprayey song from the low trees along the river. The developing of their song is gradual but sure, like the expanding of a flower. This is the first song I have heard.

This stained, battered volume was purchased many years ago at the Friends of the Salem Public Library book sale. It was published in 1852.

Ray’s Algebra, Part Second: An Analytical Treatise, Designed for High Schools and Colleges, by Joseph Ray, M.D. Stereotype Edition. Cincinnati: Sargent, Wilson & Hinkle. New York: Clark & Maynard.

From the Preface:

Algebra is justly regarded one of the most interesting and useful branches of education, and an acquaintance with it is now sought by all who progress beyond the more common elements. To those who would know Mathematics, a knowledge not merely of its elementary principles, but also of its higher parts, is essential; while no one can lay claim to that discipline of mind which education confers, who is not familiar with the logic of Algebra.

It is both a demonstrative and a practical science — a system of truths and reasoning, from which is derived a collection of Rules that may be used in the solution of an endless variety of problems, not only interesting to the student, but many of which are of the highest possible utility in the arts of life.

All of which goes to show, one man’s coaster is another man’s bible.

Read Bees and Their Keepers, by Lotte Möller, Pages 147-156. For the month of November: A Trip to Paris Remembered and A Report from the Village of Älghult. Includes photograph of a mummy portrait in encaustic paint, beeswax and pigment, c. 150 B.C.E., when Egypt was a Roman province.

The Rambler, Numb. 23. Tuesday, June 5, 1750, by Samuel Johnson. On the necessity of trusting in one’s own skill, and of not being swayed by multiple criticisms and opinions, especially if one is a writer.

November 16, 2023.

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