Knowledge

Miss Annie Maude Upchurch

/ James Browning / 1 Comment

Many people have made a positive impact on my life, but few as much as a handful of teachers.  I don’t remember college professor’s names particularly, but there are several teachers I recall fondly from grades 1-12.  In those preteen and teenage years, the whole world was unfolding before me and I was witnessing it with new eyes for the first time.

The year I was eleven I was in 6th grade taught by a young guy. Mr. Farr was only in his late 20’s and we all thought he was so cool.  Always in a good mood, played guitar and piano and just seemed to always enjoy us kids.  To this day he is still one of my heroes.  The opportunity to visit him and his wife to say thank you came about a dozen years after I graduated high school. During that time together I showed him I wore my watch “upside down” just like him.  To this day the watch on my left arm has the face on the inside of my wrist and the clasp on the outside.  This is my habit and my tribute to a great teacher who I loved like an uncle.

In Junior High I was very interested in science and Mrs. Levi taught that class and encouraged me to enter a regional science fair.  When the actual competition came around at a college about 50 miles from where I lived, she was the one who drove me there.  I remember her having more interest than my family did in my effort.  I was surprised (and so was my family!) to win the Zoology category and to this day that achievement is one of my proudest as a kid.  Without Mrs. Levi it would never have happened.

And there was the teacher who had much to do with the waking my romantic soul.  Miss Annie Maude Upchurch was not far from retirement when she taught the English classes of my high school years.  She was a very strict teacher, but also one respected by students and known generally as a kind woman.  Miss Upchurch was something of a local legend and had taught my Mother when she went through the same school.  Most in town knew her story like one would know the background of a famous star.

What was known:  Miss Upchurch took care of a sister whose health was somewhat frail and weak.  The two of them traveled to New York City for a week each year to get their annual dose of Broadway.  But what was most known is she never married, but wore an engagement right on her left hand.  Her husband-to-be had lost his life in Word War II and she had never moved on beyond him.

The story seemed to usually be told in a sad way by the adults, but for us teenagers hers was a true tragically romantic story we found inspiration in.  MIss Upchurch’s life seemed to be of the bittersweet type found in some of the literature she had us read.  It was her love of poetry from which the roots of my love of rhyming words sprouted.

From Miss Upchurch’s class I learned about “The Road Not Taken” By Robert Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference.

Then there was the beautiful poetry by the guy with the funny name.  Algernon Swinburne  in a poem called “The Match” wrote:

If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf,
Our lives would grow together
In sad or singing weather
Blown fields or floweful closes,
Green pleasure or gray grief;
If love were what the rose is,
And I were like the leaf

And it was Miss Upchurch who introduced me to Elizabeth Barrett Browning whose work I fell in love with then and carry that sentiment with me toward her work still today.  My bookshelves have at least a dozen antique books of her work and several newer ones.  Even after my personal experiences of the joy and disappointment of love I still swoon over the mystery and hope Mrs. Browning expressed in “Sonnets from the Portuguese”:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

All my teachers have my sincere gratitude.  Without them it would be impossible for me to be able to express myself here.  Among them all there was that special one who taught me about the beauty of words, how to find the feeling behind poetry, and how to harvest the wisdom found in stories.  Thank you Miss Upchurch.  Rest in Peace.

A good teacher is like a candle – it consumes itself to light the way for others.  Author Unknown

Home Sweet Home

/ James Browning / 1 Comment

My recollection is clear of the feeling when I caught sight of the house that would become the first home I owned.  The realtor was late and just being seeing the outside convinced us if the inside of the house was as appealing as the outside, we had found our first house to purchase.  We were not disappointed and soon were in happily in debt.  I know the realtor was pleased, as we had dragged her through over 100 homes over the previous months.  That little house truly was “love at first sight”.

After moving into the home, we worked constantly on the house taking down wall paper, painting, cleaning up the yard, planting and all the things that made that house a home.  It was the place my infant son came home to and where the retired next door neighbors became “shirt tail” grandparents.  Although we only owned the house a few years, it was a wonderful “first” that is burned into my treasured memories.

In recent times due to life changes I ended up renting half a duplex for several years and was the first time I had rented in several decades.  After a marital home was sold and the last bits of a divorce settlement were made I began looking for a house to purchase.  This search turned out to be much like my very first home.  I worked my way through one realtor and ended up on a second one before finding something I wanted to buy.  The search covered 18 months and at least 75 homes that I looked at and for a second time in my life I found a home that was “love at first sight”.

Once again, I knew this house was the one I wanted when I first saw it from the outside during my lunch hour.  I swear the house told me I was supposed to live here.  That evening when I was able to see the inside with my realtor, I absolutely loved what I saw but was sad there was already a contract on it.  In the end we stayed up late that night and made an offer anyway.  I thought there was only a slight chance the first offer would fall through and I might be able to buy it.  The next morning to my surprise, my contract was accepted by the sellers and I literally cried with joy.

So now I live in this wonderfully unique house that above you see the glass in one of the front doors.  Boxes are everywhere, nothing has been hung on the walls and only some rooms have semi-organized furniture in them.  I tell people I “live in the land of boxes” because I am taking my time to sort out my things and am lightening the load wherever I can.  That is a refreshing new start for me as I begin this new phase in my life.  I am so grateful to own a home again… Grateful like I was for the first home I managed to buy when I was in my 20’s.

The difficulty of the last few years is now settling into a mellow life filled with gratitude and humility.  I realize now that the challenges of my life have all been to bring me to this point where I can embrace myself just as I am.  Had I not experienced and endured the things that I have I would not have found this measure of wisdom I enjoy now that makes me the best I have ever been.  Given time gratitude has the power to make even the bitter taste sweet.

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest.
Henry Van Dyke

Late Gratitude

/ James Browning / 2 Comments

If you happen to see the image above pop up on your computer all I can tell you is I can relate to the frustration you are about to endure.  About 10am this morning I was sitting here starting to type today’s blog entry.  Suddenly my computer reset itself all on its own.  When the reset was complete, what I saw on my screen was what you see above:  a nasty virus called MS Removal Tool had invaded my desktop computer.  Crafty nasty people somewhere created it and today it slipped past my anti-virus and anti-malware software.

I have now spent the majority of the last 12 hours trying to beat this bugger.   I did take about 5 hours off in bits and pieces to eat, meet a friend for coffee and finish a small project.  Each time I thought maybe the virus would just go away or I’d be able to come back fresh, do a new search and find the solution that works.  In the process of one of the “fixes” I found on the net I managed to spread the virus to my laptop via a flash drive.  No fun.  Now both those computers need expert ‘healing” I can not give them.  So into the shop they go.

You may be thinking this is a gratitude blog and so far tonight it does not sound like one.  It would be easy at this moment to turn this into a rant or a complain blog.  However, I have discovered it is within difficulty and challenge that a good lesson can be well learned.   So I open myself up to the wisdom I can glean from my experience today.

First, I know my computers will get repaired.  All I have to do is take them in and pay for the virus removal.  I am grateful there are skilled tech’s who can do the repairs and thankful too that I have the ability to pay them for it.  Neither computer is completely trashed like they would be if lightning got them, so I am grateful to be able to look on the bright side.   Further, if something like this had to happen, now is a good time as I will be distracted by a busy work week while the virus removal is taking place.  There will be little time to be on the computers.

By taking the high road and finding something to be grateful for, even in the face of something malicious like a computer virus, I give myself the gift of peace.  There was a time when after going to bed I would have fretted and kept myself awake for an hour or two over something like this.  But letting it go, putting it into perspective and realizing in the grand scheme of things it really does not matter much is the healthiest and best choice.  It is a gift I choose to give myself.   For that lesson learned well, but the hard way I have great gratitude.

If we will allow it, the friction of life can smooth us like the friction of rushing water in a river can smooth a rock.  JB


BEWARE:  MS Removal Tool is a computer infection that pretends to be an anti-virus program, but is actually a program that displays fake security alerts and scan results in order to make you think your computer is infected. MS Removal Tool is installed through the use of malware that will install the program onto your computer without your knowledge or permission.

Learning to Love a Book

/ James Browning / 1 Comment

 

Early in my childhood I developed an acute love of reading.  It became my way of exploring further the world I saw on TV, in films and in magazines.  I developed the ability to be able to see in my mind what I was reading in a sort of movie in my head.  Through that ability I read in “full color”.  I have had wonderful adventures and have met the most intriguing people.

I have spent time along the Mississippi with Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and journeyed to many other destinations with Samuel Clemens.  I learned about how challenging life could be from Charles Dickens and will always be grateful for his introductions to Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Timothy Cratchit and for the first love story that touched my soul in a “Tale of Two Cities”. 

From reading I learned how to save the day with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.  When Jim Hawkins taught me about pirates and buried treasure I could not put the book down.  “Treasure Island’s” Jim Gunn was not my first meeting with a castaway.  That was Robinson Caruso who begins as an aimless wanderer and ends as a pilgrim.  From him I learned about perseverance.

As a child, the Bible was just too difficult to read for me in its original form.  But there was Vacation Bible School at the Lineville Baptist Church in the summer that brought the stories in the book to life.  When the tales were translated to a kid’s level I was amazed as I read the books they gave us.  David and Goliath, Samson and the lion, Noah’s ark, Jonah and the whale and more were all great adventures I learned from.

By junior high I was reading James Bond novels and fancied growing up and being some sort of a cross between Bond and Albert Einstein, doubling my chances to save the world.  Soon I discovered Jules Vern, H. G. Wells and before long graduated to the scary stories of Edgar Alan Poe (and remember seeing Vincent Price star in the movie versions of several of them).  I will never forget the far out journeys I took with Isaac Asimov to deep space, with Arthur C. Clark to the monolith, visiting Mars with Ray Bradbury and or the trip to a brave new world compliments of Aldous Huxley.  These authors stretched my concepts of reality and made me think and ponder deep questions I had never considered before.

As the years passed I traveled through the beautiful writing of Kahlil Gibran during my hippie days and then into the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett which touches my heart today more than ever. Now I read to grow and focus mostly on philosophy by every one from Epictetus, Aristotle and Socrates to Thoreau, Russell and Carl Jung along with books with a more spiritual theme by writers like Tolle, Walsh, Lama Das and the Dalai Lama.  My exploration of Eastern Spirituality has been going on for over a decade now and still takes up a good bit of my time.  I am deeply indebted to Huston Smith and others who expanded my view of religion and spirituality to the broad perspective I have today.

I have said all this to express great gratitude for four women who were instrumental in my learning to love reading so much.  They were the teachers I had my first four years in grammar school:  Mrs. Pruett, Mrs. Levi, Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Wood.  I will always be grateful.

Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.   John Henry Jowett