June 7, 2023

Sky hazy, warning on the radio concerning air quality, because forests in Canada are aflame. 

The spice bush grows huge and overwhelms the end of the drive. I have to roll down the window to listen for traffic, and so get smacked by a branch of flowers every time I exit. 

Storage of my finished paintings becomes a real problem. Part of the problem is that I want to look at them any time I want.

Unexpected thoughts of a student, a Goth girl in my senior seminar years ago. She introduced herself to class as asexual, and gave a little speech about how, since sexual relations were objectively disgusting, the only reason to have them was to reproduce, and she had no desire to reproduce and was the only person in class honest enough to admit that sex wasn’t repellent. Many students made no distinction between “memorize” and “remember,” but she was especially vehement about it, vocally resenting anything that smacked of “rote memorization.” The specific instance I remember was her anger at having to know the names of figures of speech (Metaphor, metonymy, onomatopoeia, etc) when such things could always be looked up. Angrily fighting off the education she (or somebody) was paying for.