Being as I am momentarily relieved of the arm-twisting to perform any exercise or heavy lifting during the first week or so following my recent surgery, and similarly being proscribed to vacate domestic territory, I sought today – the 2nd day of the new year – to promote as much efficiency and as many advantages as able to be done. The overriding principle was to milk as much as credible from the currency at hand. This – in less abstract terms – is simply the function to act favourably and to devote oneself to the immediacy of life (not its future, nor its past).
More acutely – and more meaningfully – is the recognition that, contrary to the fiction we often regularly harbour, the object of life is not what is before our eyes but rather what is in our head. It may seem a trite distinction; but the definition is critical. One never escapes the confines of one’s mind. Not for a second; nor is there an alternative. Everything we perceive originates from and lingers within (and this is so notwithstanding any subsequent external contamination of the capital). It is truly an artistic secret (a summary of the power of expression). Nor is it purely tautological.
Armed with this rude but vital conviction – and duly persuaded philosophically, intellectually and psychologically – I ventured into the sunlight sometime shortly after the noon hour today, greedy for the opportunity to be productive and to reap the advantages of whatever was in store. Nothing stood in my way, neither physically nor mentally. I was primed for a fulsome performance on the road!
As you might expect, after correcting the heat controls and closing the windows, properly adjusting myself in the driver’s seat, and windshield wipers swiped, I turned on the radio. It is usually already tuned to SiriusXM. No longer does Car Play by Apple® work to “stream” (or whatever the proper word is) music from my iPhone library to the car. Instead one is limited by General Motors to use Google’s agents, among them SiriusXM which is a 6-month free subscription upon purchase of the car. The free ride expires within weeks (as I coincidentally exceeded 25,000 Kilometres today).
Though there are literally hundreds of channels on SiriusXM from which to choose, one of my favourites is Ch 745 SiriusXM Pops. I was instantly treated to Mendelsohn, A Midsummer Night’s Dream incidental; followed by Ludwig Minkus, Don Quixote Grand Pas de Deux with the Cincinnati Pops; then a variety of JS Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Gershwin and John Williams. All of them uplifting (as they are designed to be – and as unabashedly advertised).
It was during this background musical spectacle that I heightened my application to cultivate the ambient resources more personally. It was time to think. I make no apology for the trifling gratification I derive from using iPhone photography (camera and editing) mixed occasionally with ChatGPT artificial intelligence (the success of which I consider nonpareil). It was only earlier this morning that we printed and framed a photograph recently expropriated by me from my erstwhile physician’s private library. The photograph (which he naturally emailed to me) was “edited” for addition of my so-called technical talent (nothing more distinguished than hobby), following which we inserted into a Dollar Store frame then rested it on the drawing room console. The use of special photography paper clearly helps; but the entire photo failed to print on the 4″x6″ platform. But, as in all things, accommodation overcomes the dilemma. There was a time when the pursuit of a sterling silver frame would have been more commanding. No longer. The intimate flavour of the digestible is what counts.
Allow me, dear Reader, while I am on this shamefully complacent diet, to abbreviate the monotony of my remaining afternoon. First, best wishes to each of you who has the kindness and courtesy to visit me on occasion through the vehicle of this Substack publication. I would be a false candidate were I to pretend I haven’t an honour to include your subscription. Second – as though to punctuate the favour of life generally – upon returning home and opening the apartment door I was greeted by a chilled triple espresso at my desk along with a plate of sliced crisp green Granny apple. I cannot express my gratitude sufficiently to my partner for all that he contributes to my being. Quite honestly, words fail. Our relationship is a gift. Third, the faintly demonstrable but completely detectable elements of home and nationality cannot be ignored. These burgeoning ingredients supplement the commensurate limitations of age. I hasten to assure you, dear Reader, that this is not a confession of decline; quite the opposite: it is the acknowledgment of the real vehicle on the road.