Punctuation

The grammarian within me rejoices, for today is National Punctuation Day! *cheers* A toast to wholesome grammar! *raises glass of apple cider*

On this informal holiday's official website, http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/, this day is hailed as "A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis."

Our generation's standards of grammar have fallen to abysmal depths. In honor of the English Language and how it has served millions of people for centuries, take the time today to punctuate properly.

Typewriter picture found on http://thegalleyslave.wordpress.com/

The Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive

Peter's Laws

The Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive

1. If anything can go wrong, Fix it!

2. When given a choice -- Take both!

3. Multiple projects lead to multiple successes.

4. Start at the top and work your way up.

5. Do it by the book...but be the author!

6. When forced to compromise, ask for more.

7. If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them.

8. If it's worth doing, it's got to be done right now.

9. If you can't win, change the rules.

10. If you can't change the rules, ignore them.

11. Perfection is not optional.

12.. When faced without a challenge, make one.

13. "No" simply means begin again at the next highest level.

14. Don't walk when you can run.

15. Bureaucracy is a challenge to the be conquered with a righteous attitude, an intolerance for stupidity, and bulldozer when necessary.

16. When in doubt: THINK!

17. Patience is a virtue but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.

18. The squeaky wheel gets replaced.

19. The faster you move, the slower time passes, the longer you live.


(notice: I did not write this; I found it on a poster somewhere. I mildly edited the list in order to remove a word of profanity)

sociopathic in the dark,
-whisper

"Now the towers are gone."

Of course, you all know that something unspeakably terrible happened on this day at this minute ten years ago.

9/11.
the world trade center.
a day of madness.

But in 1974, in that same place, something beautiful happened.

French tightrope walker Philippe Petit strung a cable between the two half-constructed towers and made a glorious walk between them. For forty-five minutes, he ran, danced, jumped, laid down, and gave knee salutes on a wire one thousand, three hundred, fifty feet above the ground.

I read a book on it - a children's book called The Man Who Walked Between the Towers.



It is my favorite children's book.

It tells a beautiful story. The pictures, and the very concept of being so entirely in the air, so isolated with the light rain and the wind and the sky and the city so infinitely far below... it's beautiful. It electrifies my mind in Owl-City-ish ways. It's just glorious.

To my dismay, as I researched this possible-new-hero, Philippe, I found that he was, of course, not perfect. He had (has; for he lives still) issues with immorality and narcissism (and obeying authority >_>). Nonetheless, his walk between the two unformed towers was courageous, and it is to me very beautiful.

Philippe was arrested for his stunt. Secluded from the astonished press, while cuffed to a chair in a police station, Philippe kept himself occupied by picking his handcuffs with a paper clip and balancing an officer's hat on his nose. Such classic mischief. :) He was later given the grave sentence of performing for children in a park.

Although the actual walk between the towers was not captured clearly on video, several pictures were taken. Good ones are in the news report below, as well as footage of his post-arrest stunt with the hat.

See the report to the confused and smiling world.

Philippe was not perfect, and his stunt was not exactly wise. But his walk between the fated towers made beautiful a place that, decades later, would be a scene of terror and chaos.

Go check out the book from your library - The Man Who Walked Between the Towers - and spend a few moments reflecting on the quiet awe of standing on an inch of steel, in the air atop the world, entirely alone and untouchable.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Now the towers are gone."



"But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky, the towers are still there. And part of that memory is the joyful morning, August 7, 1974, when Philippe Petit walked between them in the air."

Strangenesses

This is a time of strange situations. Matters of Strange Nature have infested my life like so many wombats, and I am forced to confront (sword in hand) things which do not happen everyday, nor even every year, but only-occasionally-once in a lifetime.

In swift succession over this past week, the following odd, sad-making events have occurred:

note - this is not my church. >_>
It's just a very cool-looking one found on Google.
1. We have left our church.

2. My Dad left his job.


These events go hand in hand. You see, my Dad is (ahem, was) a pastor. We went to that church for many years, and it's the only one I truly remember. Dad was a pastor there, but after some sad, sad, sticky situations and 2+ years of trying to fix the problems and bring in help and preserve the church and maintain his sanity (all at once! My Dad's a great multi-tasker ^_^), he and one other pastor (and several other families in the congregation) left, creating a small church schism. So now Dad and the other pastor - our families are good friends - have no jobs. They are unemployed. O_O

Planned/desired dinners and talks and friendships - hundreds have been snapped off. Sad, sad. Yet I confess that I am in part enjoying these Strange Things; I am enjoying the newness of it all. After all, this situation is the closest thing to an adventure this spy is going to get for a long time. My morbid side has come alive in spewing writings about this. ^_^ Of course, there is still the sad nostalgia and mixed-up-ness of the whole matter that makes one cry atimes. And with this situation came the awfulness of broken trust. I learned sad things about people I'd respected and admired and loved as brothers and sisters in Christ - people that I wanted to go on seeing as role models. There is something unreconstructably sad in realizing your heroes are fallibly far from perfect.

Yet there is one hero who, for me, has come to light in this whole mess: my Dad. Throughout the church-/job-leaving situation, my Dad has been, in so many ways, a hero. He has been inestimably gracious, humble, and brave, and my respect for him has grown so much. Love you, Daddy. (:

And then there is a third matter: as many of you already know, our very good friend, Jake, is leaving, going far-off. He and his family are moving to Liberia, Africa, and communication will be diminished significantly. Although I am quite happy for this splendid opportunity that the Sadaar Clan now has to participate in mission work in far-off lands, this is still unquestionably sad-making. As all who know him will agree, Jake is a marvelous elf, an epic writer, a heroic fighter, a wellspring of randomness, a summoner of turkeys, and a loyal friend. His Pen of Doom is respected and revered among all elf-kind. And his Battle Fought at Midday - a four part chronicle in which he quite literally duels with Procrastination -is a masterpiece in entertaining allegory ("Inspiration hit me over the head with my shampoo.") (read part 1 here)

Many goodbyes are happening; many things are being changed, and books are closed and burned. *snif* Two quotes (both from the illustrious 100 Cupboards series) seemed to suit various aspects of this week well:

- - - - - - - - ~ - - -

He sat up. "Your peaches," he said. "And your applesauce. How many pies do you think I've eaten in my life?" He looked down at her. "Not enough." He smiled. "If we get out of this, there needs to be more pie. That's all the complaining I've got."
- The Chestnut King

"Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself."
-Dandelion Fire

- - - - -

(a third quote that is not 100-Cupboards-ish but that I love anyway and pertains to farewells and thus ought to be said)

"For Christians, 'goodbye' always means 'see you later.'"
- Anonymous

- - - - - - - - ~ - - -

These times are still strange. o_O If you have any inspiring quotes and/or advice about sadness, farewells, friendships, and/or Aztecs, I'd love to hear them.

*sighs* What with the sadnesses of the aforementioned three things and the compounding frustrations of overloads of schoolwork, papers, deadlines, and information, this situation becomes evermore unpleasant. Sometimes I just want to vanish into a French monastery and become a nun, or maybe a part-time Russian Communist spy. Or perhaps move into the forest and become a librarian/warrior/hermit. If I disappear one of these days, know that Whisper the spy has donned the black robes and obliterated herself from the face of the earth and all its social quandaries.

Or gone LARPing. More on that later.

Standing at the top of, and blinking owlishly down at, the very-long spiky black glass staircase leading into the Depths of Despair,

-whisper