Just a Bite 6/22/10

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

There are two ways of spreading light:
To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
~ Edith Wharton

Resources to bite into

1. Reflected light

The current issue of Brain Aerobics Weekly focuses on light in its many incarnations, but the above quote is especially appropriate related to the story told by Robert Fulghum in his 1988 book It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, about Alexander Papaderos, founder of an institute for peace on the isle of Crete. When Mr. Papaderos was a child during the Nazi occupation, he found a fragment of a broken mirror from a German motorcycle. He scratched it on stone until he eventually had a circular mirror about the size of a quarter, and then he began to experiment with it. He said that he “became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine – in deep holes and dark closets.” As he grew up, he saw the mirror as a metaphor for his purpose in life. “I am not the light or the source of light. But light – truth, understanding, knowledge – is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.” He said that he was “a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know.” He could not change the world, but he “could change some things in some people,” by reflecting light into the dark places of this world and “into the black places in the hearts of men.”

What dark corners and hearts can you bring light to?

To order, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum, click here.

2. Light through a parasol

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly also highlights the paintings of American artist Frederick Carl Frieseke, who was one of the leaders of the Giverny Luminists. In the early 1900s, he and his wife lived for 14 years on property adjoining Claude Monet’s in the French village of Giverny. Pictured here is a detail from one of several paintings of women with parasols he made with the sun dappling through.


3. Dogs in the spotlight

Every June, as noted in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly, the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest is held in Petaluma, California, as part of the Sonoma-Marin Fair, a tradition that is now more than 20 years old and trademarked. One breed that has won in the past is a Chinese Crested dog, which is a largely hairless animal with spotted skin and odd tufts of hair around its head and ankles. It is interesting to note that the winner is not judged purely on ugliness – which would require only photos – but on which dog has a winning personality that makes its ugliness irrelevant. Is there a lesson here?

Tips/ideas/insights to savor

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly also features a word game using words that have to do with light – from starlight to taking a second job and moonlighting. The original exercise asks readers to fill in the blanks and gives clues within each sentence about the missing word. Here is a more difficult variation:

There are at least 10 kinds of electrical lights beyond the common light bulb. They are found on our streets, cars, homes, and theatres (and probably other places). How many can you name?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

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Answers: cars: headlights, brake lights, taillights cities: street lights, neon lights, traffic lights, search lights homes: porch lights, night lights, flash lights, flood lights
theatres: footlights, spotlights
Can you think of more?