Journaling

Lately, my favorites have been those that specialize in Japanese paper goods; there are so many adorable, and useful, little amusements to discover. I recommend starting out in midtown, at Kinokuniya USA, a giant bookstore whose basement level is almost entirely devoted to notebooks, pens, and letter-writing sets. You can then trek to the East Village, to niconeco zakkaya, a cute-as-a-button spot that specializes in journals, sticker books, rubber stamps, and washi tape.

The New Yorker Daily                     By Rachel Syme

There are many platforms for the many disciplines of self-expression.

Journaling is a way to get control of your life or at least chronicle its natural disarray. Generally, the journal is used to report to oneself on oneself.

In my books, it’s separate from the  blog posts I share with others. [There is an intended pun in there.] My writing is often a chronicle of my life, but the one I post is more organized than it would be in a journal.

Here, I try to make some order of it all. My posts, whether poems or opinions, intend to make a point.

My preferred “journal” is Samsung Notes. I type, therefore, I can read what I wrote. In my long hand, yesterday’s entry would remain a mystery; well, not just yesterday’s but most days’.

Nonetheless, I am attracted to the paperback book journals Rachel Syme describes and recommends.

Greetings

Describe your life in an alternate universe.

I never noticed this before, but we oldies nod and smile as we pass on the street.

I was going to blame my lack of attention to this being a new phenomenon or to me being new to oldness.

Truly doubt either proposition.

It is kind of nice, a recognition of our cohort in a population of carriages or bikes.

Too much? Nah!

What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?

Back in the day, a splurge was a splurge for us. Obviously, for us, this wasn’t a regular occurrence.

We ate out regularly, but our meals, while indulgent, were not usually expensive.

We had bargain lunches at one of Jean Georges’ restaurants on Fridays.

The over-the-top meals we had were for birthdays or Thxgiving. We went to one of Daniel’s many fabulous eateries a few times.

Dinner with J-G or Daniel always came with a high-ticket cost. Was it worth it?, you asked.

In a few words: Yes, for the memories.

Connecting

Describe one habit that brings you joy.

The topic was conversation and connection on Melissa Kirsch’s NYT The Morning. She called it Easy Listening. I felt the tug of  connection when her trip home took her past Worcester.

She kept going as you have to from Maine to New York.

There was more geography to recognize. Worcester, however, was where I spent four [plus] years. Formative, informing years I might add. It’s where I went to college. It’s where I learned how to grow up.

Melissa Kirsch’s rental car took me back to a kind of beginning.

To bring us back on topic, it’s the habit of reminiscing that brings me joy. 

I have a habit of taking another’s experience as a jumping off point to recall some of mine.

Makes me feel happy and, yes, connected.

Language please

In every transaction, we humans have created specific languages. The vocabularies of business are a case in point. The language of love is another [and very, very different] one.

Let’s address the business model first. I worked in marketing, to be exact, direct mail marketing. The language was one that addressed [see the pun and move on] the needs of our industry.

We were busy targeting audiences and anticipating percentages of response. It’s been ages, so I have lost mastery of what all we were on about.

Your banker and realtor have business vocabularies linked to returns. It’s likely that you’ll always be intetested in % in any biz.

Lawyers no doubt understand tort and litigation as I, for one, do not.

My doctor had better have some knowledge of arcana not easily accessible to me.

All of this is conducted in English,  by the way. [If you’re Catholic, your priest may be reverting to Latin, although it’s as likely not.] So, under an umbrella of English, we have little pools of business dialects. As it were.

Just sharing the obvious for you to elaborate.