I thought about this last evening as I sat in a dinner presentation about investments with our financial advising group. I should probably have been thinking about "return on investment", "percentage growth", "caps", "REITs", "leveraging ratios", "weighted average capitalization rates"....whatever. I married a man who speaks "math". I don't.
The Illinois Public School System lost me at long division in 4th grade and never bothered to make me learn much beyond that. I believe, these days, I'd be diagnosed with a significant learning disability in math skills, but back then putting me in "general math" classes for the rest of my school life basically allowed me to meet the requirements for graduation with no fuss or muss on my part -- or the school's.
Anyway, I trust my husband and our advisors to keep us solvent into a ripe (riper?) old age (which really goes against my feminist grain, but I'm lazy about this and basically trusting....bad combo, I know). And this disregard for taking responsibility for my financial well-being frees up significant day-dreaming time at these head-spinningly-confusing-money-talk meetings.
As luck would have it, our table-mates at last night's gig included a woman about my age (they are ALL "about my age" at these things..) who is also a poet!!! This has certainly never happened to me before, and I would guess was a rare occurrence for her as well. We were sitting too far apart to whisper to each other throughout the presentation (ahhh....just like Sue and me in 7th grade!), but we were able to exchange a few words about our respective writing groups, fun writing exercises, what other poets we like, etc., etc. It was a brief, but delightful, exchange -- all the more so for being so totally unexpected.
So, next time "Hub" insists we go to one of these events, I will be much more open to it. The sneaky muse of the poet is always lurking...even when math is involved.
At least, that's the view from here....©
*************
My new poet friend from last night told me about this terrific TED Talk with one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins, in which he featured 5 of his poems accompanied by animated shorts. It is a delight!
http://www.ted.com/talks/billy_collins_everyday_moments_caught_in_time.html
Hello Ivy, Linnea here (wink!) I just came across your blog and haven't taken the time to give it the attention it deserves. A marvelous gift you have given to us, with your thoughts and experiences. On one Sunday, soon, I would like to talk with you about your blog, and also getting the courage to do this. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI am also a Billy Collins fan. Thanks for the link. Do you know of George Bilgere? He's another daily life sort of poet often featured on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac.
ReplyDeletehttp://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/author.php?auth_id=1543
Molly Lou
I don't know George Bilgere... thanks for the link and the urge to check him out!
ReplyDelete