Mythos & Marginalia

life notes; flaws and all

j.g. lewis

original content and images ©j.g. lewis

a daily breath...

A thought du jour, my daily breath includes collected and conceived observations, questions of life, fortune cookie philosophies, reminders, messages of peace and simplicity, unsolicited advice, inspirations, quotes and words that got me thinking. They may get you thinking too . . .

look forward

The Tulips at St. James Park have run their course, the bulbs dug up and stored away until planting this fall.
    Right now it is just dirt, but I can feel potential.
    In the coming days, gardeners will fill the plant beds with a fresh crop of flowers to see us through the summer. I am anticipating beautiful things.
    Over the past couple of years, St. James Park has become a regular part of my landscape. It began during the COVID lockdown when I found myself passing through the park on my daily walks around downtown Toronto. It was more than a habit.
    The park became an oasis in my day; comfort within the concrete of the city. The shade of the magnificent trees always gave me a reason to stop.
    Sometimes I would sketch the flowers and trees, write a poem when the muse called out, or simply spend time with my journal or my camera.
    Some days I would just sit, as I did yesterday and the day before. Some days you only have to listen or look around.
    Yesterday, I noticed the water has been turned on in the bird bath after a two-year absence. It’s not quite a fountain but I know I’ll find myself, at some point, wasting time with my camera and capturing birds as they refresh themselves in the heat of the day.
    I look forward to it; time well-wasted is good for the soul. It’s always nice to have a place where there is the potential to do just that.

06/02/2023                                                                                                                   j.g.l.

?

We live in a world of what ifs.
What if we did something else,
or what if we weren’t there (as
sometimes we shouldn’t be
when it comes down to the
wrong place at the right time).
What if it never happened?
What if we had responded
differently or if we had taken
the advice we were told?
Would we have been so bold?

05/30/2023                                                                                        j.g.l.

Remembrance.

As it is, not
as we wish it to be.

You have days
to think back on,

and you do…

05/25/2023                                                                                           j.g.l.

listen

sit

just for a moment 

wherever you are

listen

look around

be present

 

take the time

a moment or two

don’t think

(or overthink)

simply be

 

you should do this more often

06/02/2021                                                                                  j.g.l.

Mondays are just young Fridays

It takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds for the light of the Sun to reach the Earth 93 million miles away.
   I know it takes about six days for a letter from Canada to arrive in the United Kingdom, but a few days more for correspondence to travel from Winnipeg to Toronto in the same country.
   Four minutes are required for a soft-boiled egg, but 14 minutes are needed for the water to reach a running boil.
   It takes roughly 14 minutes for me to walk to work or 17 minutes by streetcar (with, at least, a six-minute wait). I don’t drive because finding a parking spot downtown can, at times, take forever.
   It can take minutes or months for the answer to any question (depending on the circumstance), but even longer to muster the courage to ask.
   Politicians can make a promise in mere seconds, yet years to take action or hide from the obligation.
   Poems can generally be read in under a minute, but may take the entire day to be fully absorbed.
   A good novel may take a writer a decade to write, but it will be consumed over a weekend.
   Actual time is precise, but situations are variable. The importance of it all is subjective.
   Time equals duration or distance. Is it as relevant now as it was then?
   Time is time.
   How long does it take for my light to find its way to you?

05/29/2023                                                                                                     j.g.l.

 

grief and regret

News this week of the passing of Tina Turner was an unexpected shock to many of us, particularly those who had performed with her through the decades.
Social media was flooded with quotes, heartfelt remembrances and tributes from those she inspired.
    Many of us were.
    The words that particularly grabbed me were those of The Who’s Pete Townshend, who openly expressed grief and regret. Tina was the voice of the Acid Queen when his classic rock opera Tommy was transformed onto the silver screen in 1975.
    I, as a big fan of The Who, was infatuated by the original Tommy album and, admittedly, any of the music issued by the English rockers. Of course, I couldn’t wait to see the movie.
   The Ken Russell project was, in many ways, precursor to the music videos that flooded our screens at the end of that decade and well into the ‘80s. The movie was true to the storyline and, with a whose-who cast from the music industry, adequately told the tale of the deaf, dumb and blind boy.
    But one performance in the film affected me like no other and it was Tina’s seductive portrayal of the character. Sure, I had seen pictures of her in early issues of Rolling Stone magazine but the Ike and Tina Turner Review, like many of the stalwarts of early rock and roll, predated my intense interest in popular music.
    Tina came alive for me on the screen with her pure sex appeal: those lips, those legs, her entire presence was more than arousing for a young teenaged boy.
    And that voice; there was nothing like it. Ever.
    I didn’t hear anything new from Tina for years, but gained respect for the classic songs that would find there way onto the radio. Apparently there were a series of solo albums, but nothing charted.
    In 1982, while working at my first stint at a daily newspaper, I received a review copy of the soundtrack to the film Summer Lovers. This was at the beginning of the era where there was almost as much attention focused on the soundtrack as there was on the film itself.
    The Summer Lovers LP was, essentially, hit and miss (much like the movie) but among the artists of the day were two tracks by Tina, including a stunning cover of Robert Palmer’s Johnny and Mary.
    Aside those two tracks, I heard nothing else from Tina in those years, until I was driving to work in 1984 and What’s Love Got To Do With It? came on the radio. Her voice was unmistakable and I, like millions of others, rushed out to buy the vinyl.
    The rest of the story, as they say, is history.
    Tina became a major, empowering force in the industry and took her talents to stratospheric heights.
    Thankfully, her music will long live on.
    We all have Tina Turner moments now. As I read the tributes, the words of Townsend struck a chord. “I truly thought she would live forever,” he wrote on Facebook.
    His words about “meaning to track her down” hit me hard and should serve as a reminder.
    We all have people in our lives that were meaningful at one time or another, but we have lost track over the years. We think of them, sometimes at the strangest moments, and wonder where they are, what they are now doing, or if they even remember our presence.
    Perhaps now is a good time to find them and find out? Wouldn’t we be better off if we took the time, now, to make contact or at least try before we no longer have that chance?

R.I.P. Tina Turner

I'm like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.

j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.

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We Wait

Posted on June 3, 2023 Leave a comment

Undetermined hesitancy,

well past procrastination, yet far less than wasting time.

Waiting is less a function and more of a state.

It is not stillness; for that to occur the mind must settle, not

impervious, but free to allow thoughts in. And out.

Then become silence.

We, then, are waiting, knowing time will tick on anyway.

If we can stop even for a moment, to simply breathe,

we can find perspective.

It is searching for something meaningful

from something meaningless.

We seek further meaning,

knowing our lives are deeper than our pockets.

We understand there is greater nutrition in a shared meal,

that Friday will arrive each week, and a bicycle and a car

each have a purpose.

We wait; believing home has nothing to do with boundaries.

For our past to catch up with our ever-present worry, for

today to be the gift we were told it would be,

the future must unfold as it should.

In searching for this equilibrium,

have we become stuck in the balance?

Our mind is occupied.

Waiting.

We know there are people, who miss us as we miss them,

and we wait in one space thinking that one person may find us.

Waiting may be a reminder

they are not coming.

As we wait, we attempt to determine if

our response is an action, or a reaction.

We know inaction.

© 2019 j.g. lewis

 

 

 

 

choices

Posted on May 31, 2023 Leave a comment

Is there a price to independence? Freedom comes at a cost
emotionally if not financially. Choices not always obvious,
you take what you can, when something is taken from you.
A choice, again,but why must we always choose for others?
If it is not only for the self, it is mainly for you. No regrets.
If what you had were all you had lost, would you question
again the price and the costs of possessions and decisions.

© 2023 j.g. lewis

what is before us

Posted on May 27, 2023 Leave a comment

Rest your eyes.
You have seen so much
humanity and pain,
happiness or joy.
The eyes strain
to take everything in.
We see what is before us,
sometimes it is not easy.
Sometimes it is not all;
sometimes it is too much.
Our vision is not always clear.
We become weary
of dealing with it all.
Rest your eyes.
Give your soul a break.

© 2019 j.g. lewis

another breath

Posted on May 24, 2023 Leave a comment

Expression as permanent
as breath on the mirror, but more captivating

when you think of it that away.

You can’t take it back, nor
leave it any longer, as fog on the glass dissipates

you realize another breath will follow.

Optimism reminds you to hold the thought
and not your breath.

 

© 2023 j.g. lewis

Opinion

Posted on May 20, 2023 Leave a comment

I love opinion, even those I don’t agree with.
A good opinion shows character; and I mean a ‘good’ opinion not by right or wrong (or whether I agree with it) but by how it is expressed.
If a point of view is presented succinctly, mindfully, with conviction and personal belief, I can respect it (even if I don’t like it).
It is the wishy-washy opinions — those peppered with anecdote, references to assorted documents and dogma, quoting the views of others or reading off the script — that I have problems with. They are disingenuous, often cluttered, or conveniently slip off-topic by introducing argument and unrelated angles, as if they are not entirely certain.
I would prefer someone express no opinion than one that is half-assed or not fully thought out.
Say what YOU mean, but mean what YOU say: that is opinion.
It says what you stand for.
I’m of the opinion that if you listen to the opinions of others you will learn something.
If you listen to others, your personal point of view will be expanded, maybe even altered, or you will become more certain of your stance than ever before.

© 2019 j.g. lewis

 

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