Category Archives: between books

The Land o the Leal

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Jack makes it on time again – – –

2020 has been a year of surprises. Some were terrifying and others were poignant, as was one earlier this week.

I went out to check our mailbox and there was a large thin stiff envelope there. I immediately recognized it as containing a calendar and had a very eerie feeling. The only person who sends us calendars is my old friend Colin Stuart in Scotland. But Colin died suddenly and unexpectedly in January of sepsis – –

Sure enough, when I opened the package it did contain a calendar with Scottish scenes. Turning it over, I noticed the sender name on the back of the envelope. Colin’s sister had mailed it but I’ve no idea how she found our address – maybe in some of Colin’s things at his house I suppose. I thought it was a lovely thoughtful way to keep his memory alive in a way that will continue throughout the year.

Something very similar happened when my older sister Margaret passed away a few years ago. I made contact with her old school chum Christine not long before Margaret passed. Christine, who lives in England, re-connected with one of her old friends who lives here in SW Virginia simply because they are both Facebook friends with Wendy and me. All part of the great kaleidoscope of life.

Margaret had always sent electronic greetings cards to us for our birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Somehow Christine got wind of this and she has carried on the tradition. We get lovely online greetings from her for each occasion and it reminds us not only of our friendship with her but of Margaret.

As I get older (and older) it’s inevitable that many contemporaries pass away and it reminds me of a much shared observation. You die three times – 1) When your body dies 2) When you the last person who remembers you dies 3) When the last thing you impacted is gone.

I’m pleased to have known so many friends and relations whose third death is yet a long way off.

Of course the calendar can’t go on the wall until Friday; any earlier would be bad luck, and we’ve had enough in 2020 – another Scots tradition.

Zoom me up Scottie – –

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Jack makes it just in time again – –

For a good few months we’ve been holding Zoom meetings every Sunday with some close friends in North Carolina, Virginia and Scotland. It’s an odd way to connect but better than nothing.

It’s kind of amazing for me that what seemed like science fiction just a few years ago is now normal – speaking to folk across the world while seeing them.

I worried back when we first started that we’d run out of things to talk about but it’s turned out quite the opposite – we actually tend to run on beyond the allotted hour. We all know each other’s houses so there’s often a conducted tour to show what’s been happening, holiday decorations and such. Our cats and dogs usually make an appearance as well. Some of us eat breakfast while we talk and others drink coffee, although the five hour time difference between the US and Scotland makes that weird as well.

Wendy is much more used to Zooming than me and she has a goodly number of different groups that she interacts with, and I occasionally wander past her and say hello. Our good friend Liz in Ireland hosts a massive Zoomed storytelling event every Saturday night and often has thirty or forty folk connecting from all over the world, whereas we just have four lots of two and we only chat.

Of course there are lots of examples of folk wandering into the bathroom with their i-pads while remaining connected, but we’ve managed to avoid that – although only just!

The biggest problem is the latency issue, so there’s a slight delay which makes natural conversation really difficult, and I am sure that the most-used phrase of 2020, besides “Do you have toilet paper?” is “Your mic is on mute.”