On Being 80

oh yes. A new thing. My liver enzymes are up. The result of methotrexate for 20 years, and leflunomide combined with it, has a high rate leading to toxic liver disease but also, curiously, the combination is most highly effective in treatment of Rheumatoid arthritis which of course I have. The toxic effects are not bad at this stage but my doctor says to me, "Why don't you give up your nightly drink for a month and see what the enzyme levels do?" I say, "I only drink two finger widths." He says," It's only a month." I say, "Is that a suggestion or a command?" He didn't speak but looked at me until I felt foolish.  At any rate I stopped for a month and never really missed it, got new tests and lo', the high enzymes dropped a considerable amount. I guess it proves once again that two's company but three's a crowd. I'm giving up alcohol in favor of the duo of the pills but why do we always have to be sensible? Seems to me that that duality, of most dangerous, but also the most effective, has many analogs in life and if we concentrate on ducking the chances, wearing suspenders and belt at the same time, worrying about one's pants, we may miss the boat. No more scotch. Three is a crowd and I am adventurous, but I'm not stupid.

New Blog Site

If you want and don't find me wanting, my new blog site is on the web, www.jimwarren.ca  I am just getting started but my muse is dilatory; still I am not struggling but will wait.

Entelechia

There are two photographs of the pianist, one when she is probably six, playing the piano in a white blouse and a big ribbon in her hair and one when she is probably nine with long legs and loss of the chubby, holding a string of perch. Both pictures are a display of her concentration on the subjects, the piano and the fish. There is no self consciousness apparent. How is it possible to love the pictured? They are just a little girl on photographic paper. Still, there is a force vitale that compels and completes the potential that 70 years later has arisen in the actual. This dualism as described by Jung, potential and actually fulfilled, is called entelechia. It was first coined by Aristotle. The force and concentration is still abundant today 70 years later, expanded and modified by the bombardment of life events. Can one pull the veil aside for a moment and go to the photographs and reflect on what was and what is and know that the today's flesh and blood actual is the real source of the love of the images?