Immortality

Yesterday's high was 57, low was 45. Today's high is predicted to be 50, low 30. It is really cold here and it seemed colder yesterday, but maybe I'm just getting used to it. I am already developing a heater up and down and binds open and shut routine. I miss having a programmable thermostat. I turn the heat down at night and close the blinds to keep the heat in, then turn the heat up and open the blinds in the morning. Maybe I should keep the blinds closed all day, but I am too claustrophobic and the cats need a view.

I did not realize until I watched the John Adams miniseries that those drapes people used to have around their fourposter bed were to keep the heat in while they were sleeping. I would settle for drapes on the windows, those cheap mini blinds are not cutting it here.

I finished the study of Ludo, but can't photograph it until I have more daylight, so I will post that tomorrow. Then I started a larger painting of the Cowboys and a study of the Narrows in Zion.

This morning I wrote an email to Dan Loughrey, Republican candidate for Idaho State Representative. I wanted to complain about Idaho's property tax on personal property used for a business, which I think is excessive and anti-business. California doesn't even have that kind of tax. I sent him my resume, too, while I was at it. He sent a prompt personal response. The Idaho business property tax has been in the legislature's bullseye for several years now. Good. He did not send a job offer, but he hasn't been elected yet.

It's probably a good time for some enlightenment. The next topic is Immortality with a poem by Emily Dickinson that the author calls The Single Hound,

THIS quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies,
And Lads and Girls;
Was laughter and ability and sighing,
And frocks and curls.
This passive place a Summer’s nimble mansion,
Where Bloom and Bees
Fulfilled their Oriental Circuit,
Then ceased like these.

This poem is actually one of a collection of poems published in sections, each with a theme, and is poem number 74 in Part Five: The Single Hound. The Single Hound is the name of the section, not the poem. Emily Dickinson wrote close to 2,000 poems in her lifetime while she lived, according to the author, a "reclusive life dominated by a stern Calvinist father." Few of her poems were published during her lifetime. I seem to be more interested in the story of the writer when I read these topics than the enlightenment message.

We are spiritual beings taking temporary human form, then we will be dust again. I wonder if Emily really thought this, or if she was ever grateful that her father supported her so she could shut herself in her room and write poems all day. Dust or not, Emily Dickinson now lives on in her poems, while the father that made it possible is described as dominating and stern and somehow responsible for Emily's seclusion. I suppose we have no control over how we are remembered, and it doesn't matter because we are going to be dust anyway, or are we immortal? Too confusing and too morbid for me today. Anyone want to support me while I sit around and paint all day?