sept 14, 2020 / 3 mile run / 67 degrees
Today (september 14, 2023) I found a delightful resource that I posted in 2020: a page from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ diary. Very cool and inspiring. Thanks past Sara! Not only did she post the image, but she found the full text of “The Journal and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins” online. Excellent. Here’s the text from the image, plus a little extra about some other f words — fly vs. flee, etc.
Flick^^\ fillip, flip, fleck, flake. Flick means to touch or strike lightly as with the end of a whip, a finger etc. To fleck is the next tone above flick, still meaning to touch or strike lightly (and leave a mark of the touch or stroke) but in a broader less slight manner. Hence substantively a fleck is a piece of light, colour, substance etc. looking as though shaped or produced by such touches. Flake is a broad and decided fleck, a thin plate of some- thing, the tone above it. Their connection is more clearly seen in the applications of the words to natural objects than in explanations. It would seem that fillip generally pronounced flip is a variation of flick, which however seems connected with fly, flee, flit, meaning to make fly off. Key to meaning of flick, fleck and flake is that of striking or cutting off the surface of a thing ; in flick (as to flick off a fly) something little or light from the surface, while flake is a thin scale of surface. Flay is therefore connected, perhaps flitch.
No great difference can be shewn, in spite of the purists, to exist between the verbs to fly and to flee. Originally they were just the same, but there is a difference in their inflexions. Fly and flee are both used as ^fug^ere, but flew is the past of fly {voUare), fled of flee {fug-ere), flown the participle of fly {vol-are),fled office {fug-ere.) Flee ^ndfly have only the difference of pronunciation which would be between English and Lowland Scotch.
Flit, vol-are, volit-are, fleet, to fleet, flight, flutter, flitter, etc. are variations. Fluster^^^ variation of flutter. Flatter probably to fan wdth applause, to flutter up — or else to inflate, blow out. Original connection with flow^^\ blow, flare, flamma, ^Xo^,fluere, flere, rrXtlv, float, flute {wind instrument), plavdmi, etc. Flag^^\ (droop etc), flaccere, notion that of waving instead of rigid- ity, flowing (as we say of drapery). Hence flag the substantive. Fledge^^^ to furnish with wings with which compBit fly, fled etc above.
The Journal and Papers of Gerard Manley Hopkins
sept 14, 2022 / 5.6 mile run / 62 degrees
Reading through my log entry from 2022, I was struck by the Beyoncé lyrics for her song, “Energy” — especially the line about Kodak that comes up twice:
Big wave in the room, the crowd gon’ move
Look around everybody on mute
Look around it’s me and my crew
Big energy
He was on stop mode, got froze
Froze front page Vogue, no pose
Chat too much, full clip unload
That’s that Kodak energy
Energy
Energy
Energy
I’m thinking about something I posted from A Good House for Children (note: I checked out the e-book in August, but wasn’t able to finish it in the 21 days and couldn’t renew it, so I’m waiting in the hold line to get it again):
Orla stood along by the window and watched the Polaroids develop in their enigmatic way, the images appearing as if through a clearing mist. Digital may have been sharper, but she generally preferred the texture of Polaroid, how it make everything look both blurred and hyper-real.
And I’m also thinking about something I just read in Trace of Evidence about polaroids (note: another book that I’m trying to finish in 21 days from the library, but I’ve only managed to read 22% of it and it’s due in 5 days. I used to be able to read quickly, but it’s amazing that I can read at all now with my central vision loss):
Natalie walked over to the breakfast table and studied the crime-scene photos spread across the polished oak surface. Along with hundreds of digital pics, Lenny had taken dozens of tamper-proof Polaroids as well.
As I typed up this passage, I was reminded that 2 of my favorite pictures of me as a kid are polaroids:
I’m thinking about the blurry dreaminess of these photos and how accurately they capture me — then, in 1979 or sometime in the early 80s, and now, as I return to the physicality of my younger self. The way that my knee is bent in the second picture reminds me of something my mom used to say about me as a baby — You HATED taking naps and going to sleep at night. You wanted to go go go! Often, you fell asleep in a running position.
That’s that Kodak energy (go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go)
Energy
Energy (go, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go)
Energy
(“Energy” / Beyoncé