I just finished Gabriel García Márquez’s posthumous book “Until August” coming out 10 years after his death. He said he didn’t want it to ever be published, but his two suns read it after 10 years and decided it was well worth publishing.
I related to the book in a number of ways – he was by far my favorite author in my lifetime – I was thrilled to read the book he wrote while struggling against memory loss. There is, of course, a literary flap about whether his sons did the right thing, all I can say is I am grateful to them.
(A goddess sculpture Maria made sits on the table where the fish used to be. Life with an artist. Only Maria could create a table like this. Snails are just to the right.)
It was not his best book he has written, but at that point, the only person he recognized was his wife. It was well worth reading, it was clearly a Marquez novel, however abbreviated. Genius is still there, and still can be read. I’m with the sons.
But it also made me sad. I’m 76 and my memory has been declining for the past couple of years, although the experts say it’s quite normal for someone my age, and has not inerrupted my writing or photography. Marquez told his sons that when his memory was finally gone, there would be nothing left.
I hope that doesn’t happen to me.
I got about 6 angry messages today about my typos and saw them just as I put the book down – all of them were angry and cruel – and couldn’t help wondering if either my Dyslexia or memory loss might get worse and make my writing even more difficult. If I overcome the Dyslexia (mostly), I can handle getting over the rest.
There will always be typos, there are actually a lot fewer than they were a couple of years ago. I think people who can’t handle them are not in the right place, for them or me.
The truth is, I never felt more vital or engaged or creative or happy. I’ve never done better work or more good. That’s what I need to focus on, not just another nasty message on social media.
People say my problem is that I share too much and am too open and shouldn’t write about the death of animals here like Suzy and Zip and Simon and Rockey and Orson and Rose.
I will always fight for what I believe, it is essential to who I wish to be. And it is not changing my mind, making me hide or being anything but honest about how I feel. When it comes to animals, this attracts people who can only be described as angry and trauma victims. I choose this life, I love this life. I get plenty of praise.
That will never change, that is what my wiring and my blog is all about – a life, not cute puppies and cats and sheep. In our world, somebody dislikes everything anybody writes. It’s call life, and I am living it. You don’t have to be open to be targeted in America in 2024. It’s just life.
The blog has never been better or stronger, and I have never been happier as a writer than I am today. My love for Maria is nothing less than a miracle. And it’s because I am open and try to be authentic. That can’t happen if I hide and lie about my life.
(Photographers often tell me not to photogoraph telephone wires in landscape photos, but they are part of our lives, they should be there.)
I don’t fully understand the anger people have execept these days, but people in America seem to be getting angrier, like a volcano waiting to erupt. The nasty messages don’t really both me, but the cruelty and hostility in the air all around are disheartening. I’ll just keep on doing more good for as long as I can.
I have to go inside to stay grounded. Perhaps when the volcano erupts, the anger will recede.
I went into a funk and went for a walk around the farm, along with the Black Dog and my white one. Then I came into the house and sat on the sofa with Maria’s head on my shoulder. It was a beautiful thing.
Happiness, I am coming to realize, is function of compassion and kindness. Love too. The more of that I give, the more I get. If I didn’t have compassion in my heart, I wouldn’t have any happiness at all.
I had a tough Leica Akademie lesson this morning, I have a lot to learn. I’m getting it bit by bit, but it’s a lot of work. I sometimes wonder why I am taking it on.
(Apple tree in the pasture, dusk.)
I think it was always in me, waiting to come out. Life is better now.
I can’t but help noticing that the people with little compassion or empathy are neither kind nor happy. I think it’s really true. Without compassion, there wasn no happiness for me. Now, I am understanding what happiness is, and the more compassion I feel, the happier I am.
This has been one of the most important struggles and challenges of my life. I fear I’ll always be working on it.
I did what I always do, I went out with my camera, Zinnia on one side, Zip on the other, my two amigos. And then came in to write.
I said some words to Marquez and thanked him for the wonderful hours he gave me reading his books. And then I began to feel better.
I took some different kinds of photos. Instead of using my bird and nature camera on birds, I used it on nature and the inside of the farm house, trying to capture the magic of Maria.
Maria is a compassion witch (the good kind). It goes wherever she goes, and wherever she goes, I want to be. Wherever Maria is, is a happy place. I can’t ever get to low when I can look up and see her face.
(Robin, our youngest sheep. She’ll get shorn soon.)
(My reading lamp in the living room.)
Rain Bird in the window.
Zinnia at my feet.
As always, beautiful photos (the skies are sublime) and what is with the *typo* police? Sheesh. give it up already, people! Your sharing and posts are above the typo police…..IMO. Their angry burden to bear, not yours. And I have put Marquez’s book on my *waiting* reserved list at local library…..thank you…and I will look forward to it (I’m #72 on the waiting list)!
Susan M
Your blog is beautiful. Authentic inspiring kind creative. A favorite part of my day. Thank you.
Those angry messages: it feels like people who cannot stand not being in control over what you do and don’t do. Kind of sad. There is probably a lot of fear and pain underneath the opinions that they have formed to hold onto. Life will always tickle you to change a point of view. Some can dance to that, others can’t. I know it is hard to unread or unhear something angry or even cruel, but please don’t let it pull you down. The inside look into your life that you give to us so freely is amazing and helps me keep an open mind. Not many have the guts to do it. And guts sadly triggers hot tempers. We can have compassion with them. Even when it is hard. Think it over, even. And maybe find something useful in it. But then we continue on our own path. Keep walking Jon! Your photography is improving leaps and bounds. Love it!
There are power lines that cross my hay field, they can glow silver or orange, sometimes black, depending on the sun and clouds. They can be beautiful against a sapphire blue sky 💙 This is one of your better essays. 💙 the pictures 📸 are stellar 👌 ✨️
The typo complainers should change their attitudes, instead of you having to change to accommodate them. There will always be typos in your blog. I accepted that a long time ago and now enjoy them. When the rats were occupying your stove, you wrote, “Rodents were texting in the stove’s insulation” — I love the mental image of rats busily texting on their tiny RatPhones(c) from inside your stove. How would I have that image if you had written that they were “nesting”?
E. DAY……I remember that post too and had the same mental image! It gave me a HUGE chuckle to be sure!
Susan M
I enjoy your blog. Have read it for years. Also enjoy your books.
I like your typos. It’s part of you in a good way. In fact I rarely notice them any more.
This why I love your blog. Your openness and authenticity are precious and encouraging to others. Be encouraged.
This blog has encouraged me so much.
I tend to say words wrong. Always have Always will. But now I just laugh and say I have hard time with words sometime. I helps with comments or embarrassed smiles I get. You have helped me with with you honesty and openness.
Your words are beautiful to me
You know why you are a photographer and you know why you are taking the lessons and it’s paying off. Just look at today’s pictures. I especially like your landscape photo but the shadow of the bird and the bird feeder is a close second. If we are to be limited by other peoples perception of what is correct or not we would be very limited in our views. I for one do not want to be limited and I’m not a writer or artist.
Keep on keeping on. I enjoy your blog, even if I don’t always agree with you on some things.
Your photos are nice. I do landscapes, and am always annoyed by power lines. Yes, they are there and realistically might just as well be shown, but they aren’t natural and nature is what I want to photograph! But that is just me.
I will be 76 this year and my memory isn’t what it was, either. My Dad didn’t know who I was at 80 and I am praying not to follow him down that road.
A good spelling/grammar checker might help with your typos. Wouldn’t catch everything but would correct most.
Keep on enjoying what you do and writing about it!
Thanks, Ted; as your message suggests, disagreement is not hatred; it’s practical and valuable. I do not need to disagree; it is good for me.
I find your typos interesting. Sometimes they are fun puzzles to work out. I expect that some of them aren’t even because of your dyslexia, but because your computer’s spell checker thinks it knows better than you do! If you were perfect, I wouldn’t enjoy reading your blog nearly as much as I do. Perfect people are really boring and hard to live with.
I always had typos, my editors used to laugh about it..
Your blog is a miracle. Don’t change a thing.
What a lovely note, thanks.
I just finished Kristen Hannah’s new novel The Woman. It is a remarkable book — well worth reading.
https://kristinhannah.com/books/the-women/
Thanks Janice I think Maria would love it also.
People are angry about TYPOS?! Good grief. I have several things to say about that:
1. Insisting that everybody spell every word exactly the same way is a VERY new thing; go read some of Shakespeare’s original manuscripts. Rumor has it that guy was a fairly good writer, but have a look at his spelling.
2. Englsh is vry infrmatn-rich nd reederz cn mak prfect snse uv sentnces tht r kmpletly “rong.”
3. If typos make you angry, I bet you can’t wait until every web page you visit is generated by AI. No typos, and also no soul.
4. To the typo-grouches, Instead of getting angry, show your mastery by punctuating this so it makes sense (there are loads more fun puzzles to work on if you like this sort of thing):
“John where James had had had had had had had had had was correct.”
Thanks Pete
I know you get so many comments that you might not have time to read mine but I couldn’t leave without commenting. I love reading your blog and Maria’s every morning. I don’t presume to tell you what to do with your life because I wouldn’t like anyone to tell me what to do with mine. I love that you share your life with your readers and allow us to look in the window of your life! As a retired teacher, typos don’t bother me because this isn’t a spelling or grammar lesson. It is an opportunity to communicate with others. I always told my students that if the purpose is communication, then don’t worry about spelling and grammar as long as the message is clear and understandable. I find a lot of enjoyment and entertainment in reading your blogs! Thank you for all that you do!
I make time to read messages, and I especially appreciate yours, Pat; thanks for taking the time to write me; it is an important and uplifting message to get. Thank you, I wish I had had you for a teacher.
I’m not so sure there’s more anger around now. What I think is happening is that we’ve accidentally created systems that amplify the anger that’s there. Before blogs and message boards and the like, there were naysayers, prigs, fault-finders, cranks, and grouches. But if they wanted to respond to a piece of writing, it took more time and effort. They often put that time and effort in, but it was also true that listening to them ALSO took more time and effort. You had to read their letters to the editor, or read their latest pamphlet, or go to the park and listen to their latest rant. And so they didn’t get much notice, and (I think) were often the butt of jokes.
I think what’s going on with our new systems of communication is a combination of easy access, where the cranks, etc, that have always been around had a low-effort way to express their crankiness, and an aspect of the way people work — we react to aggression automatically, and we pay more attention to the negative than the positive. “Sasmita had her best day ever” is never news, but “Sasmita had a car accident” is.
I believe it’s Stephen Pinker of Harvard who’s recently pointed out that by every objective measure — every single one! — the overall condition of the human race is better than it has ever been. We see plenty of news about war, hunger, disease, and misery, but if you look more closely, every one of those things is less bad than in the past.
We’ve invented the splinternet and its unintended consequences, and it’s here to stay, but I think we’re collectively learning how to live with it. It’s a slow process, probably generational, but it seems to me people are pretty much the same as they’ve always been, and getting better.
Attractive, Pete, thanks; I would add that the loss of everyday spirituality has also unleashed a lot of haters whose voices are magnified by new communications technology. In my experience here, people are amiable and thoughtful. like you
Ignore the haters. Your typos are wonderful, and sometimes add a surprising depth to your writing. Just in this post, you reference the author’s “suns” instead of “sons,” and that’s just perfect. My children are the warm, life-giving center of my world and my world revolves around them; my “son” is my “sun.” Your “typo” was so apt it made me smile. I think as we get older, the word we want when we cast our hand into our brain’s bag of scrabble tiles is not the one we come out with. But I wonder if the deeper parts of our brain knows better and sends a word back up that maybe fits the context better.
Can you imagine the frustration Lewis Carroll would have felt if he had tried to write “Jabberwocky” on a computer? His auto correct would have blown up!
I think of poor Thoreau, if Facebook was around when he built his cabin..he would have committed suicide..
With a degree in journalism and a sharp eye for grammar, I can say with complete confidence that your blog is WONDERFUL and full of wisdom, especially about human nature. Folks can just read over any spelling or grammatical errors and still understand your writing. I agree completely with all the comments from your readers (especially Eric and Pat). At age 82, I think of getting older as a great adventure, a territory never traveled before. Keep it up!
Great note Kaaren, and very thoughtful. I appreciate it. Stay in touch, we need you..
STAY HAPPY (Shouting it from the rooftops)
There are typos and errors all over the internet. I always know what you mean. Enough already to the typo-reporters.
They should go grow some flowers.
Jon, you are not alone in making typos. I attribute the errors I make in typing to my rush to put my thoughts on the page. Sometimes I’ll send it off without having checked. I’m pretty sure that happens to you, also. I say, “Big deal!”
Rarely does anybody contact me about the horrendous typos I’ve sent to them. And certainly nobody would have
been nasty about it.
In this message you just sent, you wrote ‘his two suns” and later wrote “his two suns.” I don’t care, since I know what you mean.
Keep writing!
I enjoyed your work, Pictures, Writing. Thank you for your creativeness. You are worth every cent I send you.
I just have to add-no one is forcing these people to read your blog. They complain-and yet they keep reading your words, it seems. Lol. That kinda makes me laugh-it’s like me going to the ice cream shop and complaining to them that it’s making me fat. I should just not go. And they can choose to not read. I feel bad for people who look for things to be angry about. Clearly many of us enjoy following your spiritual and personal growth journey and are sticking around-typos and all. Hope you continue to share for a long time. I leave with this quote by one of my favorite poets, Mary Oliver, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do/ with your one wild and precious life?” you’re choosing to live it fully and compassionately. Good for you and who cares what anyone else says. 😊