Thursday March 6th.

So, if anyone out there has taken a metals class from me you all know that I subscribe to the approach that if you are having a bad soldering, fusing or cutting day walk away and try again later on. Do not force it. I had that day yesterday. VERY FRUSTRATING!

(My actual advise is to go have a cocktail!)

I was told a story by a very sage person about 30 years ago that supports this approach: One day a friend of mine was watching a person try to fold a map and this person was having a very difficult time trying to get the map back into it’s nice, neat little package. The friend was amused by this and just simply stated, “don’t fight the fold”.

There are times when you fight the fold and times when you don’t. Make sure of that that you know which is which! But when it comes to fusing metal, don’t fight the FLOW! I got up this morning and tried again and quickly got my feel back in line!

On another note; There are several things that I have come to enjoy in my daily life, I had forgotten how much pleasure I take in reading poetry:

I loved thee, Atthis, in the long ago,
When the great oleanders were in flower
In the broad herded meadows full of sun.
And we would often at the fall of dusk
Wander together by the silver stream,
When the soft grass-heads were all wet with dew,
And purple-misted in the fading light.
And joy I knew and sorrow at thy voice,
And the superb magnificence of love,-
The loneliness that saddens solitude,
And the sweet speech that makes it durable,-
The bitter longing and the keen desire,
The sweet companionship through quiet days
In the slow ample beauty of the world,
And the unutterable glad release
Within the temple of the holy night.
O Atthis, how I loved thee long ago
In that fair perished summer by the sea!

Sappho