Comments for A Clean Surface.

Comment on Creative Designs For The Home by Adam @ Surface Solutions Dry Erase Whiteboard Paint

Adam @ Surface Solutions Dry Erase Whiteboard Paint — Wed, 23 May 2012 11:58:53 +0000

It is fun stuff! You can paint just about anything; some surfaces take more layers (so less total coverage) depending on how much they absorb – but you can paint wood, walls, desks, etc.

Comment on Big and Small by David Jensen

David Jensen — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:13:57 +0000

Fine item. Touch of lightness, reverse spin on an all-to-familiar, speaking for myself. Thanks.

Comment on Is It Worth It? by l0ve0utl0ud

l0ve0utl0ud — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:03:12 +0000

I like your philosophy to life and agree with it – after all, all the things you list are the important things in life.

Comment on Henry David Thoreau: Wise Philosopher or Ugly Skulker? by Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface

Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:10:28 +0000

Mr. Bergen, thank you so much for your lovely and detailed comment. Thoreau was a rather fascinating and intelligent person, to be sure, and some of his quotes are amusing. I am an introvert myself. Your point about annotations is a good one. There is so much we don’t understand when we read without awareness of the context of the writer’s life and time.
I hope you will visit again.

Comment on Henry David Thoreau: Wise Philosopher or Ugly Skulker? by Bob Bergen

Bob Bergen — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:44:16 +0000

Thoreau was a deeply introverted person. He was also, at once, a highly intellectual and immensely practical person. He was known primarily as a nature and travel writer. So if that doesn’t interest you, you will have a very hard time getting through Walden in its entirety.
He not only tutored Emerson’s children he also served as a handyman while Emerson went on the lecture circuit. He not only built the cabin at Walden, he and his father built the original family home together. He perfected his father’s pencil making process and had them certified as equal to anything from Europe. When his friends congratulated him on having found his fortune in life he declared he would never make another pencil as long as he lived. He supported himself (while living at home most of his life) by working as a surveyor.
When I think of Stevenson calling him a skulker I imagine Donald Trump calling Einstein a skulker. Einstein was known to sit all day in a chair thinking through a physics problem. Thoreau was known to stand all day in a waist deep pond observing a turtle or sitting in an apple tree all day observing his neighbor’s farm life. He was not, without a doubt, a “Hail fellow, well met” type of person. Introverts feel themselves more alone and drained of energy in company. They must have time alone to recharge. In Thoreau’s case, I think, he needed to find some meaning in all the observations he had made. Introverts value limited numbers of close relationships. Thoreau said he longed for one close friend he could share his deepest thoughts with. He wrote that he kept two chairs for friendship and a third for society.
Introverts also tend to internalize everything. I think of it as a condition half way toward autism. The normal interactions for extroverts can be torture for an introvert. When Thoreau’s older brother, John, died of tetanus he came down with sympathetic symptoms to the point where the family thought he would die as well. The retreat to the cabin was motivated in part by the death of his brother. He wrote A Week on the Concord and Merrimac Rivers while there. It was a book about a boat trip he and John had taken together. Walden grew out of his journal entries during the two years at the pond over a period of many years after the fact.
I believe Walden is loaded with humor but it is very subtle and tongue in cheek. I think anybody who wants to read the book should get a fully annotated version and try to pay attention to the references that have lost all meaning to us at this time. I have an audiotape version of the book that is read as though Thoreau was the effete Yankee snob some think him to be and I just can’t understand how anyone can miss the humor and humanity of the man. When the publisher returned unsold copies of one of his books he told a friend that his library had grown to over a thousand volumes, many of which he had written himself. That’s not a humorless person. His sister supposedly asked him on his deathbed if he had made his peace with god. His reply was, “I wasn’t aware we’d quarreled.” I have always found that statement loaded with strength, courage, humanity and humor.

Comment on Charmed by Indie Evie

Indie Evie — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 14:13:17 +0000

Love this piece. Really does make you think. Thank You.

Comment on Sometimes Those Good Things Do Not Happen, But Other Good Things Do by Harper Faulkner

Harper Faulkner — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:50:34 +0000

Yep, Mike’s a keeper. All joy. HF

Comment on Creative Designs For The Home by Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface

Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:34:16 +0000

I have seen chalkboard paint but not dry erase paint. Sounds fun.

Comment on Sometimes Those Good Things Do Not Happen, But Other Good Things Do by Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface

Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:33:23 +0000

It’s getting better. =)

Comment on Sometimes Those Good Things Do Not Happen, But Other Good Things Do by Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface

Rayme Wells @ A Clean Surface — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:32:49 +0000

My pleasure!