Rundy Purdy's Blog, page 2

The Next Step – Will You Join Us?

The cover is finished, the book is ready. Now I need your support. I’m looking for your help getting this book out to people facing Alzheimer’s. I want to bring them support and encouragement, but I can’t do it alone. If you are long time followers and know who I am and what I am doing, please consider supporting. Even just $10 would be a big help. For those who haven’t been long term followers, I’ll give it to you from the top.

The Short Story

When Rundy was twenty-four years old he began ca...

Cover Vote

The time has arrived. After much work (big thanks to my talented brother Justin who designed the covers and many more) and much agonizing, I must now decide what cover will go with my book The Sea is Wide: A Memoir of Caregiving. It will be a tough choice. In the end I must weigh the pros and cons of each possible cover and make the final decision myself. But feedback can help that decision making process, so I’m here to ask you all for your thoughts. Below are the cover choices that made it...

Troubling to Think

Jawaharlal Nehru on thinking

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. The full quotation is “Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions. But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.” I do not agree with the second half of that statement, so I only used the first part and left it as a wry commentary on people and thinking. A politician mi...

Joyce Kilmer, Poets

Joyce Kilmer’s poem, Poets

I really like this poem by Joyce Kilmer, titled “Poets.”

Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells

That the wind sways above a ruined shrine.

Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells

Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine.

Light songs we breathe that perish with our breath

Out of our lips that have not kissed the rod.

They shall not live who have not tasted death.

They only sing who are struck dumb by God.

It speaks to me, and for me.

Rundy Purdy on Exercise

Genghis Khan didn’t conquer the world by skipping bike rides when it was too cold.

I invented this quote to explain the reasons for going on a bike ride in subzero (fahrenheit) tempratures. The picture is a self-portrait I took a few years ago on just such an excursion. Remember, “Stop whining and go, because Genghis Khan didn’t conquer the world by skipping bike rides when it was too cold.”

Ivan Illich on Learning

Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting. –Ivan Illich

I came upon the quote by Ivan Illich “Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting” and that statement spurred me to look up more information about the man. He is an interesting thinker. While it is safe to say I don’t agree with him in every way, his critiques of both schooling a...

Keats on Imagination

I found this quote by John Keats, and decided to create this composition.

Worn Edges

credit: photoxpress.com

By 7:30 PM the sun sets behind the hill. It feels early, and yet the season has grown late. Summer is over, August winds down in its last days. The worn edges are showing. Autumn is coming.

I heard that some parts of the country were hit with a heat wave in August. No so around here. The end of August did warm up from the beginning of the month where it seemed autumn had begun a month early, but it hardly matters. Now the change has begun in earnest. The green in the lea...

Links for Today: Heinlein, Gaiman, and more!

For your perusal:

In 1955 Robert Heinlein offered fellow writer Theodore Sturgeon a helping hand in the form of some story ideas. A fascinating read.
Five lessons for authors and self-publishers from Neil Gaiman. Good points. The full video from which those points were extracted is also available for anyone interested.

The following two articles are a bit old when measured in the rapidly evolving digital sphere, but I found them thought provoking. The first looks at the possibilities of Kickstar...

Rundy’s Parcel for April 9th 2013

Credit: Photoxpress.com

Spring is here! Around these parts March was a bust in the weather department. Winter hung on with cold temperatures and the occasional snow. Now April is here, and that is past. Sunshine and warm weather make it a delight to be outside. I took a bike ride today and saw my first crocuses of the year.

I can’t leave the writing behind, but it’s time to start doing things outside!

Writing Progress

Speaking of my writing, here is an update on my memoir book about the time spen...