interlude
» find a seat in the crowded garden that looks over empty grass; bring a hat for rain and zyrtec for pollen » tell yourself to buy some flowers for a couple of weeks before you actually do it; a bunch of irises and none have opened yet » remind yourself to drink coffee and also water » listen to music listen to silence listen to birds and people laughing » breathe in vibrant orange flowers and bramble, life bursting out of dormant crevices; it smells like bell peppers » the crunch of the gravel coats your shoes in a fine silt, you could brush it off but only incompletely » sit on the edge of flowing water and get lost in the dancing sun’s reflection » sit on the floor while you read; the cool ground won’t hold you but it pushes you back up; you learned this from your dog after a walk » lean backwards in a low runner’s lunge » breathe out
Hi Anne, this is a pleasant interlude. The bit about sitting on the floor (or cool ground) while reading, particularly.
Talking of life bursting out of dormant crevices, I owe you some descriptions of the gems of Midwestern manufacturing. First, spring has sprung in Indianapolis and the small holding pond outside our facility is now filled with tall reeds and even a small tree. Birds of various sizes flitter about, though the Canada geese seemed to enjoy floating on it in the dead of winter more.
Just 100 feet away, there is a machine that can take images of objects just 1,000 atoms across (a not particularly frontier resolution nowadays, but perpetually cool nonetheless).
I gather that while I have come to manufacturing for the first time in the Midwest, lots of manufacturing practices are consistent everywhere things are made: safety, buying items vs having the talent to fabricate something custom in-house, a periodic presence of contractors and vendors maintaining and supplying the building. An ebb and flow of mood that, rather than being induced by one's personal life or mental musings or morning reads, is induced by the constantly varying challenges and victories of work with machines and devices and processes. It's a terrific bit of training in mental fortitude, if you have the temperament and curiosity to avoid becoming jaded.
Some uniquely Midwestern features are that half the people one hires used to work at places with names like "General Wire" that made, I dunno, intercontinental internet lines that're buried undersea. There're a range of Midwestern Men, which're different from Texans and Floridians and Californians. An honest-to-goodness Hoosier is something more. Hoosiers can be quieter, humble, and speak more slowly. As a professor who lived in the state 30 years ago advised me, don't let the fact that they don't talk quickly make you think they're slow or don't understand what you're saying. The opposite. It's similar to what one has to remember (or should I say unlearn) when talking with people for whom English is a second language.
Funnily enough, a consistent pronunciation of my name here has been gaw-bree-el, which is different than gab-ree-elle
Oh, and the Indy 500 qualifiers were pretty cool. Those cars are fast and loud. It's just a good time to see something go by at 234 miles per hour and everyone goes crazy because it was 234.5 mph rather than 233.9 mph. Not sure I'd do it all day, though. I think there's room for the quiet, contemplative, and intellectual while also enjoying things that're hard, fast, and loud.
J'espere que tout es bien en France (been a long time since I've used French. Ou est mon fromage?)