Whenever I’ve had surgery in the past there was very little pre-operative attention given to or required of me.  No doubt because I was already in extremis (“Put this under your tongue and don’t move; we’re doing you tomorrow morning!”); or, I had had the courtesy to distract myself with an overwhelming concussion, punctured lung or broken ribs. This time however the surgery is in the nature of elective, having been scheduled over six months ago before we left for Key Largo in anticipation of fixing my deteriorating left knee.

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Although I began the day following my breakfast by stretching out on one of our new webbed patio chairs on the balcony in the blazing morning sunshine and shamelessly dozing, after the courier arrived with my stuff from Dixon’s, I got onto my bicycle.  I didn’t make it to the Village of Pakenham along the Ottawa Valley Trail (as did His Lordship).  Instead I contented myself to expiate my guilt by wheeling about the neighbourhood as I customarily do these days, just up and down the local roadways and along the river. My balance and control of the bicycle are not exact and predictable.  More and more I adhere to my first inclination upon returning home 2 weeks ago; namely, get a tricycle. Bill Barrie Jr is looking into it for me. He is extremely reliable. I am anxious to learn what he recommends.

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“And surely it would be the height of absurdity to say that we must accept submissively such usurpers as God sends in anger, but must pertinaciously withhold our obedience from usurpers whom He sends in mercy. Grant that it was a crime to invite the Prince of Orange over, a crime to join him, a crime to make him King; yet what was the whole history of the Jewish nation and of the Christian Church but a record of cases in which Providence had brought good out of evil? And what theologian would assert that, in such cases, we ought, from abhorrence of the evil, to reject the good?

On these grounds a large body of divines, still asserting the doctrine that to resist the Sovereign must always be sinful, conceived that William was now the Sovereign whom it would be sinful to resist.”

Excerpt From
The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3
Thomas Babington Macaulay

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Symbolic reasoning demands precision: Symbols can come in a host of different orders, and the difference between (3-2)-1 and 3-(2-1) is important, so performing the right rules in the right order is essential. Marcus contends this kind of reasoning is at the heart of cognition, essential for providing the underlying grammatical logic to language and the basic operations underlying mathematics. More broadly, he holds this extends into our more basic abilities, where there is an underlying symbolic logic behind causal reasoning and re-identifying the same object over time.

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To a Skylark
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from Heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

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It is I am certain an inevitable consequence of moving to a new residence that one confronts the convergent ineluctability of having to get rid of stuff. Often the same stuff one previously planned to get rid of. Or it may be that since the last decontamination you have unwittingly succeeded to build a reserve which inexplicably you set aside for some unspecified though propitious moment.

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Don’t ask me why, but for some reason I am reminded today of what was informally called “Closing day” when I was practicing law.  It was, like this, a Friday (though normally at the end of the month) in the spring or summer when people customarily traded in real estate and it was always frantic. It was a day dedicated to dealing with mortgage companies and banks, skipping to and from the Land Registry office, exchanging telephone calls between solicitors’ offices and with clients, preparing paperwork and delivering keys. In all, a busy day from start to end.  And usually regaled, as we were today, with balmy weather beneath blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  The sylvan image is in this instance all the more mindful because of our recent entitlement to a spectacular upriver view from our new apartment.

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Returning home from a holiday is ideally a matter of mixed attraction. That is, on the one hand, sorrow to abandon what has hopefully been an uplifting vacation; and on the other hand, solace to recapture familiar habits and territory. Assuming that being spoiled with service (meals, drinks, entertainment and tours) characterized much of the holiday, going home provokes more personal involvement in day-to-day carriage.  Although the detraction from such fleeting attention is a moderate deprivation, there is nonetheless advantage to regaining one’s own bearings to satisfy daily wants and necessities.

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Excerpt From
Thomas Babington Macaulay Macaulay. “The History of England, from the Accession of James II — Volume 3

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Crystallizing the moment has forever been an obsession of mine. The ambition has seemingly taken on a heightened interest and proximity wth age although I suppose it was no less evident when I was practicing law, calculating the explicit terms of a contract, partnership agreement or an inter vivos trust.

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