medial // caesura

  Every act of perception, is to some degree an act of creation, and every act of memory is to some degree an act of imagination.  Oliver Sacks "Boys, tell you father what you did today," I offered casually over the dinner table, hoping to hear descriptions of nature that resonated with my recollection: sunlight shivering the yellow of the elm and sugar maple, the wind shaking out the leaves to compete with the waterfall's melody.  "We climbed a broken wall and jumped over a brick wall that had fallen into the water." And that is how they will remember today's field trip.  What I'll remember though are their expressions, their laughter, the way Ben said, "I love homeschooling.  This is so much fun."  and Knox, "We've had three side trips and we've barely started the trail.  This is great!"  I'll remember the picture Ben took (below right) of the trees and his "ladder vine" and how Knox described the trees...

This morning when I came home from teaching Kindermusik, some wonderful things had happened.  The boys had cleaned their rooms; the den was straight.  The laundry had been taken downstairs to the laundry room.  This afternoon when I came home from teaching Kindermusik, even more wonderful, the kitchen was spotless.  The den floor swept clean.  Loads of laundry had been washed and dried.  As I had some time to prepare for voice class and had resigned that the majority of that time would be spent taking care of the boys, the most wonderful thing of all happened.  My husband took the boys to the park with snacks, so I have TWO hours to myself.  That gives me lots of time to think about "One day. . ." topics. When I saw the den floor and the kitchen table, my first thought was, "Ah, a clean slate!"  That led me to Locke's phrase, Tabula rasa, an epistemological theory that began long before him.  The kitchen floor can be swept clean and th...