The Kingfisher

Halycon Days
---- Big Frank Dickinson

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds . . .

---- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Into the same river no man steps twice
When fire dies air dies
No one remains, nor is, one
Around an appearance, one common model, we grow up
many. Else how is it,
if we remain the same,
we take pleasure now
in what we did not take pleasure before? love
contrary objects? admire and/or find fault? use
other words, feel other passions, have
nor figure, appearance, disposition, tissue
the same?
To be in different states without a change
is not a possibility"
from "The Kingfishers" by Charles Olson


The kingfisher, sky diver of sharp bill and brilliant plummage
By legend gets two weeks each year
Of calm to hatch her eggs, haycon days, when
Aolus calms the seas and quiets the very sky.
Splendid days of hushed mind and even breath
That seem to settle in with a forever of ample
Blessings, of stable consistency - you think;
but your sea of tranquility has an upswell of change to
Go through; at first in peace, no wind or wave to tossle the
Rest at which you sit, yet it is a pause that poses you
To take pleasure in that which you have not,
To love what you before could not,
To find fault in that which you used to praise,
To be that which you did not used to be,
And in this way step into the rising wind
And welcome the curling wave in the familiar river
That you dive into for the very first time, again.

Big Cat Moan

[Photo by Big Frank Dickinson]

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Big Cat Moan

---- Big Frank Dickinson

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Big Cat stir and Big Cat moan.

The olives he eat, they all have stones;

Big Cat - he moan . . .

Big Cat look but no one there,

Egyptian eyes, the empty stare;

Big Cat moan.

Big Cat upright sit, he see

Sentinals are at his knee.

Still Big Cat moan.

The Cat he big, the soldiers small

Big Cat, he think he have it all.

Still, Big Cat Moan - he moan.

Lines

Lines

---- Big Frank Dickinson

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Lines around the world: the tropic of capricorn

The tropic of cancer; lines in the corners

Of your eyes; canary's feet, yes, not crow's

Because it is the canary that sounds the alarm

To tell you that it is hightime to leave the mine,

Give up the digging and get the hell out of there,

And go, where? Outside where grass grows up straight

In straight parallel lines, green flags of our disposition,

Striking out against the graying lines of a fallen tree

With its horizontal cracks expanding with the years,

Oblivious that it's on it's knees, tender without flight,

Embracing the growing half-met fight, yet hard

In its solid place as right; note the scrawl made

Across the gain; who came here and scratched

Those two bold upright lines on this withered log?

Was it the beginning of a game, a mark of time,

Or perhaps a note, a slowly fading memento

Of where two were - once.

.

[Photo by Big Frank Dickinson: Mt. Spokane]

Hopper's Evening Wind as poetry

Predicament
---- Big Frank Dickinson

This gust - so unexpected
Boldly entered her bedroom window
And was warmly welcomed by her
Just as she was climbing into bed.

With one knee on the bed's fully open covers,
She turns to face blast that caught her un-
Awares, her hair hiding her face in profile,
And long enough to cover her hidden breasts.

The wind creases the perfectly straight part
That holds all but the few stray hairs that are
Lifted aside in sympathy with the
Wild inward thrust of the white curtains.

She's comfortably nude but uncertain
Whether to rise to close the window,
Or to enjoy the cold embrace alone
Within the warmth of her waiting bed.

Four Quotations to Ponder

Big Frank gives you four quotations to ponder. They are all connected in one way and they all merit consideration.

1.
There is no prayer like desire.
---- Tom Waits
2.
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked
The selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
---- Kahlil Gibran
3.
Eros once again limb-loosener whirls me
sweetbitter, impossible to fight off, creature stealing up.
---- Sappho
4.
I might caress her, pass my hand slowly over her, but, just as if I had been handling a stone which encloses the salt of immemorial ocenas or the light of a star, I felt that i was touching no more than the sealed envelope of a person who inwardly reached to infinity.
---- Marcel Proust

The Face

The Face
---- Big Frank Dickinson

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"In the event of any event a mask will drop,

If it doesn't appear to inflate please do not worry.

Gravity will still be functioning. Please secure

Your own disguise before helping others with theirs."

---- Troy Jollimore

Prepare the disguise to meet the disguise.
Prepare the disguise to meet the face.
Prepare the face to meet the disguise.
Prepare the face to meet the face.

The face of adversity and the face of now;
The face of failure, and the face of how;
The face of whispers, the face of smoke;
The face of memory, the face uncloaked.

To face the face you gather hope;
To face the disguise you'll have to poke;
To face the failure will humble you fear.
To face your memory won't make it clear.

Disguise your face but face the diguise;
Disguise your disguise, no face to trace;
Face your disguise; it's your face but more;
Erase the disguise; erase and explore.

Can the walls come tumbling down?

Big Frank hosted the Social Adventurer's Meetup at his home. The discussion centered on the genuinely sane person as personified in the article by S.I. Hayakawa. Big Frank is not going to try to summarize the entire discussion of the group. However, he will center his few comments on issures relating to "walls". Hayakawa contrasts two forms of security: the static and the dynamic. "The static concept of security may be pictured by thinking of the oyster inside its shell, the frightened person behind his neurotic defenses. The main idea in the static concept of security is to build up lots of protective walls and then to sit still inside thim. The search for security for many people is the task of building and mending walls around oneself. On the other had, the genuinely sane person - the fully functional person, is capable of letting the walls come down, of not relying on set phrases, inflexible rules - never do this, or avoid that. They admit that each person, each situation, differs from its previous manifestion, and they allow for flexibility and change. The 'normal' (not fully functional person) deals with people and situation, not as they are, but via rigid categories that they impose on them. For them the map is the territory, people never change, situations are only what they first appear, and what happened in the past will always happen again. These are not realities encountered in life, they are only encountered behind rigid defensive walls of those living behind static lines of defense - people who don't experience life as it is, but rather as it is in their minds. It is the difference between a person who lives in a catalogue that freezes people, situations and relationships in predetermined categories (abstactions rule here not facts), and those who allow for change, for differences, and for truth to emerge - a truth beyond their preconceptions, a truth that exits outside their walls. In this case, as the group discovered, that defensive person maintains their vulnerable self-concept, impregnable behind its defensive walls, but living in a fictional world completely unconnected from realty and all the richness of life that comes with it.

Kreativ

Big Frank was graciously nominated for a Kreativ Blogging Awared by Chris. Accordint to the criteria of the award Big Frank should share seven things about himself and then nominate seven others for the same award. He is capable of the first; however, right now he only has four blogs to nominate.

Seven things about Big Frank:

1. Big Frank Dickinson is a psuedonym for this blogger.

2. Big Frank is a former mayor.

3. Big Frank is a part-time jewel thief.

4. Big Frank always refers to himself in the third person.

5. Big Frank loves to eat Hot Tamales!

6. Big Frank works in academia, but lives in home with a backyard full of weeds.

7. Big Frank has a mole on his elbow that looks exactly like Australia complete with Tasmania.

Blogs that Big Frank nominates. (Yes, Big Frank, knows that the award calls for seven. Here are three - 4 more to follow later.

1. http://www.secretions.net/ This is a superblog. Magne, the blogger, is Big Frank's inspiration. Not only a great blogger, but a great philosopher, and, in Big Frank's estimation, a genuinely sane individual!

2. http://www.scoopondan.blogspot.com/ This is a blog that traces the experience of Big Frank's brother with multiple myeloma. To read it is to get to know an extraordinary person dealing with an extraordinary disease. Oh, and, Dan, the blogger, is truly a fully functional person - despite his possible protestations to the contrary.

3. http://jeremylewit.blogspot.com/ This is a poetry blog. Jeremy writes a poem every day! The quality is high; he writes not only often, but . . . well!

These are three competely different blogs - each excellent in its own way!

Egyptian Welcome

Big Frank is doing his part to bring about world peace! He helped put together a successful U.S. State Department Grant to bring to the U.S. seven Egyptian students to study at Spokane Community College. They arrived Saturday, and were officially welcomed with a BBQ yesterday evening. What a great group of young men. While the skies were overcast the group had a great time!

Comfortable Anarchy

Speeding Home
---- Big Frank Dickinson

"The fully-functioning personality can be, when the objective situation calls for it, comfortably disorderly, anarachic, vague, doubtful, uncertain, indefinite, approximate, inexact, or incaccurate. . . They do not neglect the unknown, or deny it, or run away from it, or try to make believe it really is known, nor do they organize, dichotomize, or rubricize it prematurely They do not cling to the familiar, nor is their quest for truth a catastrophic need for certainty, for safety, for definitiness, and order."
---- A.H. Maslow

Ain't toeing the line, nor drawing it here,
Luck is not blind and won't have its
Writing on the wall, nor is the door
To call you or us -more is not merrier.
The sun has nothing to do with my disposition
And I may not have a place in it, nor does an
Ill wind blow ill or well -it just blows.
The sleeping dogs; I think I'll wake them.
And the cat in the bag; why not let it out?
I will not leave well enough alone because
It is for me to say, and no it
Does not stand to reason because
Sometimes when it rains it doesn't pour,
And the apple can fall far from the tree,
And I might just could bark up the right one,
Because two rights can make a wrong
Side of the bed to go to sleep on
Time that is waiting for all men
And women and children last, who
Live in glass houses and do throw
Out the towel with the bathwater.
So smile and the world will cry
A far far unsure thing. Oh yeah, look,
I just washed my hair and can do one thing with it.
Oh love, Oh love, you are a solitary splendored thing.

Are You Genuinely Sane?

The Genuinely Sane Individual

Are you genuinely sane? Answer these questions and find out. These are taken from S. I. Hayakaw's article entitled "The Fully Functioning Personaility". Don't peak - the answers are found at this link. If you are interested in why those are characteristic of a sane person then go to the article by S. I. Hayakawa referenced at the above link and find out.

1. Are you well-adjusted?
2. Are your feelings, emotions, resentments, tensions, attractions and dislikes accessible to your awareness?
3. Do you know a lot about yourself or a little?
4. Can you be comfortable with doubt, uncertainty, indefiniteness, approximations, inexactitude, or inaccuracies?
5. Do you see the difference along with similarities within categories?
6. Do you function at the high or low level of abstraction (do you see sunsets as sunsets, or is each one separately unique)?
7. Do you appreciate life at the animal level: hungry, lusty, and capable of enjoying yourself with great appetite mightlily without unnecessary inhibitions or regret?
8. Is most of what you do in life primarily motivated by the outcome or goal?
9. Are you creative in your own way in most of what you do in life?
10. Do you suffer ever from anxiety, fear, doubt and foreboding?

Turning Away
---- Big Frank Dickinson

As the face turns so turns the focus
Away from what was attended to before,
Now filed away, perhaps, in memory's
Storage bin next to unbought paintings and sunsets
Fading away into vague views of beautiful
And firmer notions of not here anymore.

As the heart turns so turns its grasp
Away from what was imbedded to afterward's
Release, set free to float until the weight of
Gravity pulls it down onto a waiting locus
Of attraction that draws it in and holds it
On the ground with a jarring new focus.

As time turns so turns the understanding,
A laggard that tidies up belatedly,
Sweeping the past into a pile, neat-n-clear.
The view's not 20/20, rather,
It's 60/40 backwards leading onward;
More fully formed now than then - Amen.

Coldplay

Big Frank has been listening to a lot of Coldplay lately. Especially three CDs: "Parachutes", "A Rush of Blood to the Head", and Viva La Vida". All are excellent - worth listening to many times and then many more. So Big Frank took a closer look at the lyrics of all the songs on these CDs to see how they stand up without the music. Short answer: not so well. Long answer: there are some good bits here and there. However, remember, this is a band, and their lyrics without their music is like, well, it's like a painting in the dark, or someting like that.

So first of all listen to one of their best songs: "Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love", off of "Viva La Vida". Big Frank, having spent considerable time in the land of the sliding doors especially like the lines:

"Tonight maybe we're gonna run/Dreaming of the Osaka sun . . . Dreaming of when the morning comes."

Here are the other lines that Big Frank likes - not full lyrics - just the best lines (the prevailing theme here is one is loss):

Off of "Viva La Vida"

Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love
Lovers keep on the road you're on
Runners, until the race is run
Soldiers, you've go to soldier on
Sometimes even right is wrong

42
You thought you might be a ghost
You thought you might be a ghost
You didn't get to heaven but you made it close
You didn't get to heaven but you made it close

Violet Hill
I took my love down to violet hill
There we sat in snow
All that time she was silent still
So if you love me
Won't you let me know?

Strawberry Swing
People leaving all the time
Inside
A perfectly straight line
Don't you wanna curve away
It's such
It's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

Off of "Parachutes"

Yellow
So then I took my time
Oh what a thing to've done

Trouble
Oh no, what's this?
A spider web, and I'm caught in the middle,
So turned to run,
The thought of all the stupid things I've done

Off of "A Rush of Blood to the Head"

Amsterdam
You can say what you mean
But it won't change a thing
I'm sick of the secrets
Stood on the edge, tied to the noose
And you came along and you cut me loose

Politik
Look at earth from outer space
Everyone must find a place
Give me time and give me space
Give me real, don't give me fake
Give me strength, reserve control
Give me heart and give me soul
Give me time, give us a kiss
Tell me your own politik

Open up your eyes
Open up your eyes
Open up your eyes
Just open up your eyes

The Scientist
Come up to meet ya, tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you, tell you I need ya
And tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets, and nurse me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start

A Whisper
Night turns to day and I still have thse questions
You just won't break, should I go forwards or backwards
Night turns to day and I've still got not answers

Just a whisper, whisper, whisper, whisper

Authentic Happiness

It is interesting that for much of the history of psychology, it focussed its research on abnormal psychology - a litany of the unhappy. However, that has changed in recent years, and Martin Seligman is one of those leading the charge towards learning more about authentic happiness. This study of positive emotions and positive character traits is called Positive Psychology. For those of you who are interested, Big Frank encourages you to visit Martin Seligman's website at the University of Pennsylvania. His website offers lots of information on what positive psychology is and on how it can actually be applied. His research has shown how it is possible "to be happier — to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and probably even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances." In addition, and this is the fun part. His site is full of great questionnaires, a list of some:

• Compassionate Love Scale


• Stengths Test


• Gratitude Questionnaire


• Optimism Test


• Close Relationships Questionnaire


• Meaning in Life Questionnaire


• Satisfaction in Life Scale


• Measurement of Current Happiness Questinnaire

Dr. Seligman is also looking for people to participate in research. When you go to his site - it will ask you to register (very brief number of questions - nothing intrusive), and then you have full access to all of the above, and much much more.

Talking to Yourself

Big Frank has been thinking (OK - look out) about life. Yeah, I know it's way too big a topic for most people - but, Big Frank can handle this - not to worry. So all those people out there - look at them as you pass them day by day, hour by hour, joy by joy, and pain by pain: they are gesturing the same as you are. Look at the people in the cars that you pass - they mirror you: some are singing, some are looking off into the distance - not really even being where they are, and some are so into this commuting thing that they are ready to jump out of their cars and vigorously negotiate such small details as who goes first. "So what?", some say - "What's the big deal?" No big deal - really no big deal whatsoever; just life. And what of that unending interior dialogue that never stops in everyone's head? What's that all about? People talking to themselves without talking - chewing their cuds, running the same old narrative over and over and over again. That's called: "Thinking". Funny - the word has connotations of some kind of task getting taken care of, as if - "What are you doing?" "Oh, I'm thinking things over here." But the random thinking that happens is like wallpaper - it's like the clouds that circle above us day in and day out that are not noticed at all, but ----- there they are! This internal conversation between different parts of yourself - and you actually believe that you - yourself, are unitary, some kind of solitary entity, when, in fact, you are a congregation of voices, a veritable society, . . . well this congregation of cacophony is YOU. This is your life - why not take the time to get to know what is going on? How many people have one - just one transcript of a representative conversation that they have with themselves? What happens when you talk to yourself? What's the topic and who talks to whom - or is it just one voice droing on and on - the boss, as it were? How many people have any idea that there are patterns in these conversations, and that these patterns tell them something revealing about who they are? So . . . take the time to get to know yourself ( yourselves) - and then , you will get to know something extraordinatry about life: you have lots of company there inside yourself, and you have definite preference in things that you talk to yourself about - over and over and over again. What is it? Why is it that and not something else?

Two from Troy Jollimore

Big Frank has been reading Troy Jollimore's "Tom Thomson in Purgatory". He is a real poet and this collection of poems sings loud and true. Here are two:

Prologue: Tom Thompson in Perspective

Let's see . . . He was in love. How much? Oh, much,
and fairly often. More than once? For sure.
With what? A woman, often. The same one?
Sometimes and sometimes not. And with what else?
With life. His own? Yes, being the one he knew
up close, but not only; something in him
lifted above that close-hemmed-in horizon
to try and take in Life Itself, and love,
to the extent he could, that too. And did
that work? well, no - his powers were too puny.
but still, he tried. That has to count for something.

Yes, that seems only fair. Let's put him down, then,
as Honorable Failure and an Honest Attempt.
Yes, I can live with that. And him? He'll have to.


Tom Thompson Inhospitable

Love pays a visit. Just to check on him.
Drops by quite unannounced, unfolds a chair,
sits in the corner. Folded hands. Expectant.
He pours a cup of tea for love. Says nothing.
An awkward silence. What is he to say?
Remembers what she'd said. "Dear, of course
you are enough for me--it's just that--you know--
I'm never quite contented with enough"
But that was then. Yes, that was long ago,
before he oversteeped the tea, before
he learned to read the fine print. Now, he know.
He tries to look like he is doing fine.
But love, contrary to the common talk,
's not blind. Love, she's got X-ray specs for eyes.

The Good Life and Carl Rogers

Big Frank has written before about what a great thing meetup.com is. He started a bloggers meetup a little over a year ago. Since then he's also joined a Philosophers meetup and then more recently he started another group called the Social Adventurers. This meetup's next topic for discussion is "The Good Life - Are You Leading It?" It centers on a discussion of what Carl Rogers calls a fully functioning person. Big Frank has included a fuller account of this below. If anyone in the Spokane area is interested, come and join us - it's going to be at Big Frank's house on Tuesday, August 18 at 6:30 pm. Join the group if you're interested: Social Adventurers Meetup.

Are You A Fully Functioning Person?

The Social Adventurers will take on the topic of "the good life". How good is your life? Carl Rogers, the eminent psychologist, believed that to the extent that a person fulfilled their full potential they lived "the good life." He provided a list of seven characteristics of a fully functioning person, and believed that such a person would be in the fluid process of "the good life": it being a process rather than a static state.

The Social Adventurers will discuss these seven characteristics at our next meetup. Take a look at them and consider to what extent it is that you possess these traits. Are you a "fully functioning person"? If so in what way and to what extent? If not, in what ways is it that you are lacking? Being a fully functional person, in Rogers opinion was not for the faint of heart, for such a person experiences the real fullness of life, and that means both the up sides and the down sides. And it involves growth and change. As Rogers put it:

"This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life."

The Fully Functioning Person (the seven characteristics of)
1. A growing openness to experience – they move away from defensiveness and have no need for subception (a perceptual defense that involves unconsciously applying strategies to prevent a troubling stimulus from entering consciousness).

2. An increasingly existential lifestyle – living each moment fully – not distorting the moment to fit personality or self concept but allowing personality and self concept to emanate from the experience. This results in excitement, daring, adaptability, tolerance, spontaneity, and a lack of rigidity and suggests a foundation of trust. "To open one's spirit to what is going on now, and discover in that present process whatever structure it appears to have"

3. Increasing organismic trust – they trust their own judgment and their ability to choose behaviour that is appropriate for each moment. They do not rely on existing codes and social norms but trust that as they are open to experiences they will be able to trust their own sense of right and wrong.

4. Freedom of choice – not being shackled by the restrictions that influence an incongruent individual, they are able to make a wider range of choices more fluently. They believe that they play a role in determining their own behaviour and so feel responsible for their own behaviour.

5. Creativity – it follows that they will feel more free to be creative. They will also be more creative in the way they adapt to their own circumstances without feeling a need to conform.

6. Reliability and constructiveness – they can be trusted to act constructively. An individual who is open to all their needs will be able to maintain a balance between them. Even aggressive needs will be matched and balanced by intrinsic goodness in congruent individuals.

7. A rich full life – he describes the life of the fully functioning individual as rich, full and exciting and suggests that they experience joy and pain, love and heartbreak, fear and courage more intensely.