Sunday, March 2, 2014

I really must try to post more often.

I managed to create only six posts in February. I haven’t had so few posts in a single month since...never.

Well, almost never, almost never being defined as the first month I began blogging back in September 2007.

I wrote three posts that month.

But, he hastened to add, I didn’t begin blogging until the 28th of September in 2007, so three posts by the end of the month comes out to, let’s see, carry the 4, divide by 7, one per day unless I am sadly mistaken.

As one grows older, one discovers that one is sadly mistaken more and more of the time. Perhaps that has contributed to my general feeling of melancholy.

But six posts in the entire month of February? When there were 28 golden opportunities?

It’s downright sad.

The more observant among you may note that I still have nothing to say.

But today that didn’t keep me from posting.

Today is the birthday of my youngest grandson, the last of the six wee bairns, who is now officially a teenager.

Never fear. The press has been alerted and the authorities have been put on notice.

He sits first-chair trumpet in his school band and also just learned that he has been accepted on the school’s golf team.

His whole life stretches out in front of him.

Mine is mostly behind me.

Perhaps March, especially when it comes in like a lamb, makes one melancholy.

Tomorrow I hope to be in a better humor (Brit., humour).

Below is a a work of art by Tom Lemmens portraying the four humors (Brit., humours). Created on June 3, 2013, it is included here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.


It reminds me of nothing so much as a stop sign.

According to Wikipedia, the four humors of Hippocratic medicine are black bile (Gk. melan chole), yellow bile (Gk. chole), phlegm (Gk. phlegma), and blood (Gk. haima), and each corresponds to one of the traditional four temperaments.

The four temperaments is a psychological theory that suggests that there are four fundamental personality types:

* Sanguine (pleasure-seeking and sociable)
* Choleric (ambitious and leader-like)
* Melancholic (analytical and literal)
* Phlegmatic (relaxed and thoughtful)

Here are the four temperaments - (L-R) choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic - on the wall of a house at the corner of Am Dornbusch and Eschersheimer Landstraße in Dornbusch, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The artist is unknown. The picture is a composite of four close-up photographs made by Peng on July 6, 2005, and is used here under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version.


I hope I don’t resemble any of those faces.

I am certain of one thing, though. None of them ever sat first-chair trumpet or was accepted on the golf team.

12 comments:

  1. As a classic fence sitter I suspect my personality type changes. Often. With the wind or for mysterious reasons.
    Six posts in a month seems pretty good to me - and now you have me wondering whether I am an underachiever. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm sorry to hear you are feeling low dear rhymes. If it makes you feel any better, that which you do post, even when you think you have nothing to say, is without doubt considerably more interesting than many other blogs I stumble across (but do not grace with my presence repeatedly mind), whose authors think they do have something to say.
    Six grandchildren. wow, by the time you're ninety nine you'll be spoilt rotten by them all as they should have reached an age of appreciation by then. Not to cast any aspidistras as I gibber here.
    Those 'humors', I've seen them all wayyyyyyyy too many times. Just reading the black one gives me the shudders. So thanks for that hahahaha. And no, you look nothing like the freaky mask faces, you have a very nice mask indeed. *smiles.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You wrote "GNU Free Documentation License" without clarifying in brackets (Brit: licence). Consequently, I didn't understand this post. If feeling slightly melancholic why not go to Sixes Tavern on Sixes Road and get sloshed with the other guys in there?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Elephant's Child, you are no underachiever. Your posts are stunning.

    All Consuming, you bolster my spirits with your kind comments. I'm not casting any aspidistras either.

    Yorkshire Pudding, I am so (Brit., sew) sorry (Brit., soary) you (Brit., yew) had some (Brit., sum) difficulty (Brit.,bubble and squeak) whilst translating my post into your vernacular (Brit., peculiar way of speaking). Oy'll troy ta dew bitter hincefawth, guv'nah, truly Oy will.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The poet had it wrong RWP, February is the unkindest month of all. Trust me. I have barely lived through most of them my entire life.

    Nothing good has ever happened to me there. A most melancholy month.

    Another is now in the books, survived but not thrived.

    Reamus

    ReplyDelete
  6. My dearest Mr RWP, you have done amazingly well given your recent adventures with your 'inner man'! Health issues definitely consume our good humor (humour?), and contribute in no small way to melancholy.
    I, myself, (redundant) feel old this year. I'm 54. I have never been this old and find it to be alarming. No doubt I'll get over it.
    Keep posting, you're doing a fine job. Imagine my disappointment when, like waiting for a much anticipated letter, I check for your posts and there are none! Anything will do....more of your poetry, perhaps!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree with All Consuming: even the posts in which you think you say "nothing", are entertaining, educating, and edifying. Besides, when in doubt, you can always share a poem or two! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lightexpectations, I didn't mean to overlook you - this reply is just for you! Always glad to see you here.

      Delete
  8. For someone who had not much to say, you said quite a lot. :) More, more!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi RWP. What an interesting Blog you have here! Very entertaining and highly readable.
    CLICK HERE for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

    ReplyDelete
  10. Welcome to Reamus (California), Hilltophomesteader (Washington), Pat (Arkansas), and first-time visitor bazza (U.K.) -- you're all very kind. The melancholy seems to be lessening. Before long I'll be what passes for normal around here again, and then you'll be sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sometimes all one needs is a few positive comments from some of your many blogger friends, perchance? I hope we have helped your homours regain some balance.
    Go Not Gently into that Goodnight.

    ReplyDelete

<b>Always true to you, darlin’, in my fashion</b>

We are bombarded daily by abbreviations in everyday life, abbreviations that are never explained, only assumed to be understood by everyone...