Monday, September 15, 2014

Who I Am and Why I'm Here


The Daily Post

The following paragraph is my original introduction to my blog...

"One of my favorite quotes from my grandfather is, "I'm going to have to study on that." He was a man who fixed things. Cars, toys, household items --- anything that had the ability to break. Occasionally he would be temporarily stumped by a situation, but giving up was a last resort. He would "study on" the problem and figure something out. He was also inclined to favor the rapid solution over the elegant one. He was not a detail person. Lack of time and materials led to some memorable creative solutions. Like the time he made a rack for our firewood. When the drilled holes didn't quite match up, he bent the bolts to fit. It seemed odd that the bolts and holes were labeled as pairs until it was time to assemble the rack. And when we paid our final respects, laughter joined our tears when we noticed that he had fixed the loose button on his good navy suit with kelly green thread. Hey, it worked. I've been fortunate to be able to make "study" the central part of the first half century of my life. From my days on the Sunday School Cradle Roll of Wylam Baptist Church to my career as a math professor, I get the opportunity to read, study, teach and learn something almost every day. What a gift! This blog is my attempt to add writing to the list. It begins with the 2011 season of Lent, and then afterwards, well, I'm going to have to study on that."

My name is Case and I like to study, so Case Studies seemed like an appropriate name for my blog. It's public instead of private because I like to hear different viewpoints and listen to other people's stories. I don't expect to draw a large audience, but I do hope to find some kindred spirits who know how to spin a yarn. 

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Digging Up Your Digs


Today's daily prompt is called Digging Up Your Digs and it asks;


500 years from now, an archaeologist accidentally stumbles on the ruins of your home, long buried underground. What will she learn about early-21st-century humans by going through (what remains of) your stuff?
I haunt estate sales like an archaeologist on the down low. Why do people keep the things they do? I find the question endlessly fascinating. At one sale, there were thousands of margarine and Cool Whip containers. I imagined the now deceased lady as one who hated to waste things and who often cooked for friends and sent them home with plastic containers full of leftovers for the next day's lunch. Even though that's an image that pretty much describes me too, I still went home and tossed all my saved margarine and Cool Whip containers into the recycle bin. For some reason it seemed sad. Maybe it hinted to me that one day I either wouldn't be able to cook for friends or wouldn't have friends for which to cook and would die with thousands of would-be leftover containers. So, whatever is found in my stuff 500 years from now, it won't be margarine or Cool Whip containers!

So what will it be? Pots and pans and fragments of dishes...turquoise jewelry....mah jongg tiles....baseballs....calculators....tools for straightening hair.....bicycles...and images of birds and nests. The obvious solution is that I am a curly haired math teacher who is married to a baseball coach, likes to play games and ride a bicycle, and gets inspiration from the life that springs forth from a bird's nest. But it might be just as logical to the future archaeologist that she has found a birdwatching gypsy fortune teller accountant circus performer chef who juggles while riding a bicycle.