Scraps...

The truth is ... I forget "stuff" ... sometimes "important stuff" ... so... I write things down on whatever is handy and end up with a pile of scraps of paper with words on them that I sometimes have difficulty interpreting. (I also sometimes carry a notebook around with me when out of the house just in case I want to jot down descriptions of the interesting things I see or ideas that pop into my head  -- all this for future consideration. Do the words "total nerd" come to mind?)

So today is the day to consider scraps. There are 15 in the pile and I have divided them into categories. I moved a few to the side right away -- like all the recipes that I probably will never try, the notes that I have no idea what they mean or why I wrote them, and the clippings that I may turn into blogs at some point like the one from a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan that is about combatting negative chatter inside your head. Anyway -- the categories for today are as follows... Interesting Words and Phrases, and Thought Provoking Direct Quotations.  (Oh -- I have decided to spare you my latest list of grievances against President Biden ... at least for now. That list remains in the current stack of scraps and it is long and detailed.)

Anyway -- starting with words and phrases -- Doromania (the unusual urge to give gifts), Cattywampus (something that is crooked or askew), and Coddiwomple (to head purposefully toward no specific destination) are interesting to consider. Did you know that Nurdle is the word for the "blob of toothpaste on the end of your toothbrush"? (My remarkable daughter sent me a meme about that fun tidbit of info.) "Weather Sissy" is self-explanatory and a good friend's brilliant term that definitely applies to me.  I also need to find some way to work "clutching her pearls", "slap upside the head", and "it seems like 100,000 o'clock" into my writing somehow.  I also like "To be Woke is to be a Whining, Wimpy  Weakling". (I made that one up myself when in an alliterative and ornery mode -- and tired of the Woke propensity for name calling. I left out the word Wuss because some find it offensive.) Is turn about fair play? I think so. The Woke have called me worse.  Moving on...

The direct quotes are the most fun for me even if I have no idea where they come from like "call a snail a snail" or  "Jim compared his 'To Do" list and his "Not a "F...ing Chance" list only to discover they were one and the same".

The most thought provoking of all the quotations in my scrap pile, however, is this one by an unknown someone (maybe Schopenhauer) and often misattributed to Mohandas Gandhi:

        First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you,         then you win. 

And finally... perhaps my most favorite ... are these words of Isabelle Allende:

      Maybe the most important reason for writing is to prevent erosion          of time, so that memories will not be blown away by the wind.                Write to register history and name each thing. Write about what              should not be forgotten. 

~~~~~

Thus the scrap pile is sorted out a bit -- at least for today.