I met a neighbour in the garage today, she on her way to her car, I on my way back from depositing compost. We talked about puttering:

putter 3 t(he third meaning, after golf associations) verb: North American term for potter1.potter 1 (N. Amer. putter) verb: [ no obj. ] occupy oneself in a desultory but pleasant way: "I'm quite happy just to potter about by myself here." [ with adverbial of direction ] move or go in a casual, unhurried way: " I might potter into Nice for the day." noun [ in sing. ] an act or period of occupying oneself in a desultory but pleasant way: an afternoon's potter through the rooms and possessions of the rich. DERIVATIVES: potterer noun: ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (in the sense ‘poke repeatedly’): frequentative of dialect pote‘to push, kick, or poke’ of unknown origin.

That really doesn't describe what we do when we putter, does it? Putter is dropping the orange peel into the compost pail on the kitchen counter (Lee Valley, with a lid); tucking a lovely profile of the poet Mary Oliver from The New Yorker, into her new book of collected poetry, Devotions: the Selected Poems of Mary Oliver, 2017; folding the various shawls and sweaters I use during the day (I get cold easily) and putting them away - for a short time; rinsing and trimming strawberries to make French toast (egg whites only for the bread because I ordered two cartons of egg whites by mistake, but a little maple syrup on the strawbs); making a preliminary list for my next Grocery Gateway order and trying to remember what I need and what I have too much of and what I have to use up (leftover pork tenderloin) that always leads me to: checking online for recipe ideas. These activities, of course, have nothing to do with my agenda for the day. I 'm 20 pages from the end of my fair copy of my "masterpiece", the play I have been working on for twenty-some years. I live in hope.

As I always say, A girl's reach must exceed her grasp or what's s a metaphor?

“The old order changeth yielding place to new/ And God fulfils himself in many ways /Lest one good custom should corrupt the world. /Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?/ I have lived my life and that which I have done May he within himself make pure, but thou- / If thou shouldst never see my face again -

- buy some of my books!, IF you can find them; they're all OOP.

That's not the point I want to make. My point is, that things keep changing - trends and customs and fads and names. I have enough trouble keeping up with actors and writers. I have given up on music. I remember someone famous (?) saying he never read the newspaper. "If something important happens" he said, "someone will tell me." I have found that to be true. In fact, if you missed the news items, your informer is thrilled to be the first to tell you.

Along with my dwindling knowledge comes a bleak awareness of how many talented young people there are out there, so many! and more coming up all the time. But along with the increasing awareness of one's mortality, it's kind of comforting to know there are others, following in our footsteps, if in fact we have left any footsteps or that they are worth being followed. I mean, who cares? We each have a very tiny glimpse of truth and most of us do our best to spread the word, as far as we can, as long as we can. And after that?

"If thou shouldst never see my face again, Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”

anon, anon (also an abbreviation of anonymous)