Ravensong Poetry And Writing Blog by Donovan Baldwin

 BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Over the years, I have been an instructor in many different situations, specifically as an Army NCO, and a truck driving instructor. I have also had to train new employees at various jobs, one fairly technical (optician in an optical lab), and several other general, retail sales, customer service, food preparation and service, etc.

One of the more common attitudes that I encountered was, "I never realized this was so complicated..."

Or, "So THAT'S why you do that!"

Of course as a truck driving instructor, another common attitude was, "Those people in the little cars are crazy, and I used to drive like that..."

I guess the key point is "ignorance". Now, ignorance, unless intentional, is not a sin. It just means that, for some reason, you just don't "know".

Maybe you haven't had a chance to learn, maybe there was no reason to learn, or opportunity.

And yet, up until the epiphany of enlightenment of my instruction, they were certain they were "right"... even though "wrong".

Well, maybe not even "wrong", just the information perhaps did not apply to their life's needs, decisions, or purposes.

You usually don't know you're lacking something until you've had it and THEN lose it. So, if you didn't know the knowledge existed, or that it might do you some good to have it, why should you feel any lack in your life for not having it?

I guess my point is, I've stepped into many situations in my 75 years, and still do from time to time, where I suddenly realize that I have just learned something that I've lived three-quarters of a century without knowing... and suddenly something made sense, and I realized that something had been missing.

Epiphany.

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Labels: donovan baldwin, enlightenment, epiphany, essay

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

I am still (quite slowly) reading my way through "Seven Discourses on Art" (1772) by Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Once or twice I have previously taken thoughts of his and, in general, if not agreeing with them, at least, using them as starting points for other comments.

However, I have to specifically disagree with Sir Joshua on this one, "If you mean to preserve the most perfect beauty in its most perfect state, you cannot express the passions, which produce (all of them) distortion and deformity, more or less, in the most beautiful faces."

I CAN understand, in his era an artist's representation of a face in a stylized manner WAS the cat's meow. There was even a time when I might have agreed with him (and had a lot fewer years and wrinkles and scars).

Even more so, however, I have come to believe that many of the "passions", some of which ARE ugly, are also what help make us "human"... I like humans. I think I would rather see a passionate human, than a stylized one.

Sorry, Sir Joshua.

Labels: art, beauty, donovan baldwin, essay, Joshua Reynolds

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Artist and Poet, Frida Kahlo

I was reading an article in which the author (truth, it was a speech, ergo, the speaker) took the position that a poet had more leeway to produce his or her effect than a painter.

Labels: art, discussion, donovan baldwin, essay, painter, poem, poet, poetry, the message

Grandma Blue in her kitchen

It's January 1, 2025, and, for those who can get their eyes open, I give you a toast.

No, not the one you did last night, but bread, buttered and browned.

When I was a wee lad, my mom made toast in the oven, in the broiler pan. Gas range, real flames above the buttered bread. Had to light it with one of the kitchen matches we kept beside the stove.

That's the toast I grew up with.

You would butter the bread first, then arrange the slices on the rack, and slide it under the flames. Every few minutes you would open the door and pull the rack out, checking to see if the toast was done.

Of course, "done" had different meanings to each family member, and mom wasn't always worried about whose expectations were being met.

Eventually, I achieved an age and leveled up (as they say these days in video games), to the point where I could be entrusted to oversee the making of toast.

Everybody got what I liked. Yellow and buttery in the middle, golden brown along the edges with streaks of delicious, buttered, crunchiness running to the middle in spots.

Toast was not only my first cooking experience but, in a way, my first exposure to art. MY toast was not only functional and factual, but it was fantastic in appearance as well.

Disclaimer here; I said "buttery"... actually, Mom used oleo, margarine... artificial stuff. I loved it.

My maternal grandmother lived in Atlanta, Georgia, 330 miles away from our home in Pensacola, Florida. We only got to visit her every other year or so, but, when we did, I was introduced to something strange... a toaster AND real butter.

Although I held my tongue, I really didn't like Grandma Blue's toast. It came out a dull, universal brown, and you smeared this pale stuff with little or no flavor on it. Still, over the years, I learned to look forward to it, because it was at Grandma's... like the steel shower from Sears in her basement.

At least at Grandma Blue's, the butter went on the toast while it was still hot from the toaster. When I went into the army, you ran the bread through a toasting machine, grabbed some butter, and hoped it would still be warm by the time you got your other food, your drink, found a seat, and settled down to eat.

But, this did not complete my toasting... New Year's or otherwise.

At a small hotel in London, they brought cold slices of toasted bread to the table in a wire rack. I would smear the cold butter on the cold toast, and it would crunch as I bit into it.

English people: I love England, and London was fantastic (even if I did nearly kill myself and others turning down the wrong way RIGHT in front of Buckingham Palace.)

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, happy new year, humor, New Year's, toast

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Happy New Year 2025

I'm 79 [80 in 2024], and I'm going to be a year older in March. I know that it's easy, and fun, to try to imagine the new year better than the old one, but, the fact is, and it took me years, decades, to learn this... not just know it, but to feel it in my being... each day is the start of a new year.

Labels: article, donovan baldwin, essay, happy new year

 BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, German, hooplah, language, oops, opinion

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

When I'm thinking, like many people, I don't necessarily reach conclusions, or solve problems, every time.

In fact, I may create more problems and leave myself with more questions.

Still, that's sort of implied by the word "thinking". It's an ongoing process. Also, as we encounter "problems", things to think about, some may be new. We may not have been aware of the problem/question before, or maybe only in a peripheral way. Now, it meanders to the forefront of our mind, and, like a new acquaintance, or even a friend we haven't seen for a while, we have to learn, or re-learn, information about it.

Learning is also an ongoing, open-ended, experience.

So, our thinking about the "thing", an ongoing process, involves "learning", also an ongoing process, which means that the "conclusion" or "solution", may become a bit of a moving target.

When we read, listen to, or encounter, a great thinker, that someone or something that makes us think, we tend to expect their great thoughts to enlighten us... solve the problem, provide the conclusion which we can then use to show ourselves to be "thinkers" as well.

Nope.

Tain't necessarily so.

Usually, they just show us how much we don't know yet, and start us thinking and learning.

That's a "maybe", not a conclusion or solution.

Just thinking out loud.

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, opinion, thinking

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, writer, writing

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

As often happens, I was thinking about things I have experienced, encountered, and, sometimes, learned (rightly or wrongly) in my 73 years on this planet.

"Change" is the word that popped into my mind at first.

I have seen so much change, in knowledge, customs, technology. Things which were only imagined when I was a child are real today. Things which WE, at that time, could NOT imagine happening, have occurred, become reality, and will continue to.

We change. Societies change. Even the Earth changes.

Still the thing that really struck me, was, despite 73 years on that changing Earth, despite a college education, work experience in many different fields at many different levels, despite life experiences (direct and indirect) of all kinds, despite an intense interest in everything around me, there is so much I do NOT know.

There is so much out there, still to be learned.

Perhaps that's why I tend to take a step back from certain discussions where the intent seems to be to beat one's "opponent" into submission. like knights in armor, too heavy to be graceful, even about killing, who must be declared "winner" based on sheer weight and number of blows.

While I DO have my personal beliefs, and take my stands based on what I feel is right, I still haven't learned enough to be ready to tell everybody else they're wrong.

Not even in another 73 years.

Labels: change, donovan baldwin, essay, opinion

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Early in the beginning hours of a new day, a Monday, the start of OUR working week, it's NOT strange to muse a bit about "newness".

Newness can be good, I guess.

What I'm thinking, is that, in today's world we ARE flooded, "inundated" by such a constant and overwhelming stream of "new" information, we sometimes forget what is "new" to us, may have been around for a long time. May already be known to many other people in fact.

Doesn't necessarily lessen the importance of the lesson (Catch that wordplay?).

The fact that we have learned a fact, or been inspired to give thought to a thought, has an importance of its own beyond the value of the information itself.

Years ago, I first read this statement by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) "Reading maketh a full man; conference [discussion or debate] a ready man; and writing an exact man."

The point being, I guess, that, just as with physical fitness, mental exercise is of value in keeping a healthy mind.

The body doesn't care how old the barbells are that it lifts, and responds to.

Lifting, moving, and examining the thoughts of others, can help make OUR minds stronger and better prepared to live in this often contradictory world.

Exercising, even with old thoughts, might just give us new strengths.

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, opinion, thinking, thoughts

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Interesting where thoughts, perceptions and insights, come from, and, how altering one can change an entire outlook.

Despite years of studying human nature, trying to be mature and reasonable things, and learning several methods of "letting go", including meditation (which I first began practicing in high school), I used to take a lot of things personally.

Somebody would say or do something, not even directed at me, or arising out of my actions, and I would feel personally involved... in a bad way. Even just "events" pushed personal buttons.

This created a lot of unnecessary frustration, anger, and just plain unsettled feelings within me.

One day, while driving a big truck through the mountains, coming from Oregon into California, I became upset with another driver. I would pass him, and, a while later, he would pass me, then, after a while, he would lose speed, and I would have to pass him again.

I became more and more angry, at him, a total stranger, because of his inconsistency, which was causing me to have to keep passing him whenever I could.

Since there was a lot of traffic around us, and this stretch of road was tricky, this was more work for me.

Suddenly, for some reason, in my growing anger and frustration, it dawned on me.

My trailer was nearly empty, though my truck's speed was governed so that I could not go at a high speed under the best conditions.

He had a bigger, stronger truck, but, apparently, I realized, was probably heavily loaded. So, going uphill, I was able to catch and pass him. On the downhills and flatter stretches, he was able to speed up and pass me.

I was actually the one in HIS way.

Still, we were each doing our personal best, just trying to move our loads forward, operating with the equipment we had to work with.

Nothing personal is involved.

Big change in my outlook after that, not just there and then, but, I've tried to carry that lesson through as I lived my life since then... sometimes, we're just doing our best, with the equipment we have to work with.

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, insights, opinion, perceptions, thoughts

BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

Once again, looking back over the 79+ years of my life, I come to a conclusion... of sorts... almost.

Right?

Wrong?

I can only say that it makes sense to me. Maybe not to you.

Just, as I like to say, thinking out loud.

I hear a lot today that one topic or another is a "minefield"... meaning, anywhere you wander in it, you are risking something, or somebody, exploding in your face... injuring, if not your body, then your mind, your beliefs, your equanimity, your relationships... your view of yourself and the world.

I personally believe a lot of the "explosions" come from the ability of anybody to put any thought up on the internet... or take exception to someone else's thought or opinion, but, not all. Some have been happening all along,

I don't believe these "minefields" are new. In fact, looking back over my life, and the history I've lived through, life itself is a minefield.

There is always the chance to take the "wrong" step, to move in a "dangerous" direction. The actual chance of "explosion" depends to some extent on a person's volume of activity in living.

There's sayings I've seen from various sources that essentially say that if you haven't made a mistake, or made someone angry, or caused someone to think, you haven't done anything.

A certain amount of truth there, I believe.

Hope that opinion doesn't blow up in my face.

Labels: current events, donovan baldwin, essay, opinion

 By Donovan Baldwin

Over the years, I have been an instructor in many different situations, although most specifically as an Army NCO, and a truck driving instructor. I have also had to train new employees at various jobs, one fairly technical (optician in an optical lab), and several other general, retail sales, customer service, food preparation and service, etc.

One of the more common attitudes that I encountered was, "I never realized this was so complicated..."

Or, "So THAT'S why you do that!" (And why YOU will do it THAT way, Padawan."

Of course as a truck driving instructor, another common attitude was, "Those people in the little cars are crazy, and I used to drive like that..."

Or, "They're going to get somebody killed..."

I guess the key point is "ignorance". Now, ignorance, unless intentional, is not a sin. It just means that, for some reason, you simply don't "know"... haven't been enlightened yet.

Maybe you haven't had a chance to learn, maybe there was no reason to learn, or opportunity, or, maybe, no one to teach you. No Obi-Wan Kenobi to your Luke Skywalker...

Okay, enough already with the Star Wars references.

And yet, up until the epiphany of enlightenment of my instruction, or whatever showed them "the light", they were certain they were "right"... even though "wrong".

Well, maybe not even "wrong", just the information perhaps did not apply to their life's needs, decisions, or purposes.

You usually don't know you're lacking something until you've had it and THEN lose it. So, if you didn't know the knowledge existed, or that it might do you some good to have it, why should you feel any lack in your life for not having it?

How do you know what you don't know?

I guess my point is, I've stepped into many situations in my 78 10/12 years, and still do from time to time, where I suddenly realize that I have just learned something that I've lived over three-quarters of a century without knowing... and suddenly something made sense, and I realized that something had been missing.

Epiphany.

-----

Copyright January 14, 2024 by Donovan Baldwin

Labels: donovan baldwin, epiphany, essay, ignorance, right and wrong

By Donovan Baldwin

A teenager recently died as the result of injuries sustained when he and his buddies took turns being the target while wearing a bulletproof vest.

Tragic, but points up a fact I've seen time and again in 3/4's of a century masquerading as a human.

People will do stupid things. (Some) people (although I believe ALL of us sooner or later) will do (some) stupid things. Substitute "inane", "idiotic", "pointless", "poorly thought out", "what the HELL were you thinking?"... whatever fits your narrative and/or thought/belief patterns.

Witness me, who's done a few myself... and, in one or two instances, lucky to still be here... or at least lucky to have all the original equipment... except for... well, that's another story.

Anyway, I am sure that when cavemen Ohg, and Oog first learned to sharpen sticks and make them into weapons, there were a few self inflicted, or mutually inflicted, "test" wounds... some of which may have been fatal... either at the moment, or later, due to infections, etc.

In fact, I've never been sure whether Cain intended to kill Abel, or if two brothers were having a game of "who can hit the other hardest with the rock"... an early version of "rock, paper, scissors".

Point, or blunt instrument, is, we humans often try things without full knowledge of possibilities, or the consideration of consequences.

This is sometimes the result of immaturity, lack of experience, failures (intentional or otherwise) in education, or simply due to the very human, "err now, repent at leisure" ethos... also known as "let's try it and see what happens"... a popular ploy with politicians.

No sense blaming those who manufactured the tools used in the perpetration of the stupidity of the moment. We don't need to work on more effective bulletproof vests, rocks, papers, scissors, or less effective guns.

We need to work on preparing our humans to function in a world that's been full of danger since temptation first appeared in the Garden of Eden... and, to me, that might be Eve, rather than the serpent.

#people #experience

Labels: article, donovan baldwin, essay, stupidity

By Donovan Baldwin

I wrote the mini-essay below on December 31, 2018.

Labels: 2022, donovan baldwin, essay, happy new year

 By Donovan Baldwin

Thinking Out Loud... Revisited (From Dec 29, 2018)

In "Seven Discourses On Art" (1769), Sir Joshua Reynolds uses the phrase, "...art worthy of his notice that tends to soften and humanise the mind."

This has long been what I have understood about "art", ever since the genteel nuns of my youth tried so hard to beat the concept into my rather unmalleable brain.

I guess that's the point, at least mine.

The goal of "education" was to learn to earn. You were supposed to become someone who could contribute realistically to the common good, and make a living doing it. You also learned how everybody else thought and followed in their footsteps.

Rather a harsh reality to my mind.

Yet, concurrently, it was somehow assumed that there would be, should be, a strange group of admirable, if weird, individuals who would stray from this straight and narrow path, and produce... "art".
It was further assumed that art WOULD "soften and humanize" us humans.

Yet again, over the decades, I have come to notice that sometimes, it seemed to me, we artistes (so to speak), see and comment on the real, the painful, the difficult to deal with and/or understand.

I think maybe, in that way, we contribute to the "humanizing" of the human hordes.

Softening?

Toughening?

Perhaps both... concurrently.

Introduction of the concept of intentional malleability, at least.
Open our mind to the "other"... another way of thinking or viewing reality. Just thinking out loud... as often happens.

Come to think of it, isn't "art" sort of just "thinking out loud"?

Labels: art, article, donovan baldwin, essay, humanize, Seven Discourses on Art, Sir Joshua Reynolds

By: Donovan Baldwin

I love reading essays of all kinds.

Most of what passes for the essay today is generally in the form of magazine articles, and may have more to do with weight loss, or sex than the human condition.

However, it has been my pleasure for many years to read, not only current authors, but giants of literature such as Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Thomas De Quincy, Thoreau, Santayana, and so on.

I read for both enlightenment and amusement, and have enjoyed the insight and humor of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Washington Irving, Mark Twain, James Thurber, and Richard Armour, to name just a few.

Over the last few years, life has forced me, or I have let it force me, to concern myself with more practical matters, and my enjoyment of a few minutes with a great mind has suffered for it. I have, in the past, read and written poetry, and this too has been superseded by other activities.

But, I have come to a time in my life when downsizing and downshifting are taking precedence. Therefore, it was not surprising when recently, while going through a box of books, most of which were destined to be sold at Half-Price Books, I uncovered a hardbound copy of "A Treasury of the Essay From Montaigne to E. B. White", edited by Homer C. Combs. It wound up in the "to be sold" box, but later the same day, I recovered it and placed it on my desk.

It was a few days later that, while running a tub of hot water in which to soak, and looking for a book to occupy my mind, I noticed this treasury waiting patiently, as good books will do.

I slid into the water and opened at random to an old friend, the aforementioned Dr. Johnson, and read the following words.

"I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful. For, not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such an uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill but is common to human kind. A great part of the time of those who are placed at the greatest distance by fortune, or by temper, must unavoidably pass in the same manner; and thought, when the claims of nature are satisfied, caprice and vanity and accident begin to produce discriminations and peculiarities, yet the eye is not very heedful or quick which cannot discover the same causes still terminating their influence in the eh same effects, though sometimes accelerated, sometimes retarded, or perplexed by multiplied combinations. We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure."

- Samuel Johnson, Biography

As with many essays, there was a great deal of common sense and insight in that paragraph which would have been given an "F" in many modern classes on how to write. It was a great example of why I love the essay so much, but it was also a great example of why so many today hesitate to read thoughtful pieces.

We expect the meaning of a piece of writing, or even of a movie, to be made clear to us immediately. The longer the work, the more the modern reader or viewer expects, perhaps even hopes, that all meanings will be made visible and understandable in an unfolding manner, much as is seen in a recent car commercial in which the actors comment on the big words floating around them and on the voice of the announcer.

compounding the difficulty are two facts:

1. Essays, at least those of intelligence and insight tend to be written in some form of scholarly jargon and directed at a special audience, not the average citizen. This was true of Samuel Johnson in his day, and is still quite common today.

2. Many essays which may be considered classics were written at a time when English sounded, and was written, much differently from today's forms. Once again, the quote from Johnson, above, illustrates this point.

Our schools do not teach, and society does not seem to see a need to learn, either the ability and patience to interpret any sort of difficult concepts or to understand thoughts and wisdom expressed in older forms of the language. That is left to scholars.

However, reading, as pointed out by the Abbe Ernest Dimnet in his great little book, The Art of Thinking, should always be active. That is, the reader should be willing to make an effort to understand what has been written. Also, a modern reader should understand that the knowledge or information contained in a work will probably not be understood on the first pass, or even, probably, the second.

Good writing often contains within the visible words merely a summation of the thoughts and ideas of the author. As a practice for myself, I wrote a paraphrase of the quote above.

"I have often thought that it has seldom occurred that someone has lived whose life and experiences could not be useful if presented in a judicious and thoughtful narrative.

You see, when you stop to consider the vast number of individuals in the world, there are going to be many in the same condition. Presenting to these people a story of HIS mistakes and miscarriages, HIS escapes and solutions could provide them with immediate insight into their own state, which could be of value in ordering their own lives.

While there are exceptions due to personal states, conditions, and actions; there are still areas in which all men live similar lives. In fact, there is hardly any sort of good or bad that cannot be considered, at least possibly, common to all men. Even the lives of those who could be considered the best or worst, the highest or the lowest of mankind, or those most greatly influenced by chance, personality, or accident, most of the time will be spent in the same manner as that which could be called the life of the "common man".

Once the basics of life, and even the special circumstances and events of these people, have been accomplished and observed, it is not hard for most to see that the same basic sets of events play out in much the same way as with anyone else, and end in the same manner.

We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure."

That would appear to give at least an overview of Dr. Johnson's intent, and I am happy with my "translation". However, even as I wrote the words, having read and "understood" the original paragraph, I made changes and adjustments. A couple of times, I deleted what I had written and rewrote it to better express my understanding of the message.

To be honest, however, were I to perform the same exercise tomorrow, I would probably find that I had written an entirely different piece which still, somehow, contained the essence of the author's original work but expressed in yet another manner.

Most thoughtful writing is actually written and rewritten several times in order to make the piece say what the author wants it to say. It is commonly necessary for the reader to read and reread several times in order to more fully understand the message broadcast over time by the author.

Essays can be particularly challenging because the author is generally challenged to insert so much meaning into such a small package. It can be equally challenging for the reader to extract all the meaning on the first try. While for me, one fun part of the essay is simply in the reading, following the ebb and flow of the wordsmith's art, another type of fun is working the puzzle the author has set before me. Often, in fact, the harder he has worked to make the subject easy to understand, the more meaning he has hidden within his work.

I have left the essay behind for many years, but now my Treasury of the Essay is either beside my bed or on the end table beside me. I will be visiting my friends much more often in the future.

Labels: donovan baldwin, essay, poetry, reading essays, Richard Armour, Samuel Johnson, Thoreau, writing