Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 3 1 2 3
#118071 12/23/03 02:38 PM
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
W
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
This has been amusing to read.

On a slightly serious note, there are times our efforts to thrust forward and achieve go through fallow weeks and months. A shaman of sorts once told me that we should embrace those fallow periods as necessarily as we do those in which we achieve. With a big, warm smile on the shaman's face, she then gave me permission to rent a stack of the video's wow was asking about here a few weeks back. It was glorious going through that fallow period for almost two months, stacks of weedy video cases all about the living room.


#118072 12/24/03 12:14 AM
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Z
Zed Offline
Pooh-Bah
Offline
Pooh-Bah
Z
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
: to plow, harrow, and break up (land) without seeding to destroy weeds and conserve soil moisture

It just sank in, this was the theory that was responsible for the Great Dust Bowl in the Canadian Prairies. During the drought the farmers were advised to plow and harrow the land then leave it fallow to conserve the moisture. Instead the soil, without the root system of either weeds or crops to hold it, dried to dust and the most valuable topsoil simply blew away in the hot summer winds.


#118073 12/25/03 01:58 PM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
G
addict
Offline
addict
G
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
i only know a smidgeon about cows.

Perhaps.

But you know an encyclopedgen about everything else, de Troy. [U never cease to amaze.]




#118074 12/25/03 02:30 PM
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
W
wwh Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
W
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
An effort at a bit of volksetymologie: "fallow" sounds a bit like "furlough" so I looke that up. Not related.

furlough

SYLLABICATION: fur·lough
PRONUNCIATION: fûrl
NOUN: 1a. A leave of absence or vacation, especially one granted to a member of the armed forces. b. A usually temporary layoff from work. c. A leave of absence from prison granted to a prisoner. 2. The papers or documents authorizing a leave: The soldiers had their furloughs in their breast pockets.
TRANSITIVE VERB: Inflected forms: fur·loughed, fur·lough·ing, fur·loughs
1. To grant a leave to. 2. To lay off (workers).
ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of vorloffe, furlogh, from Dutch verlof, from Middle Dutch. See leubh- in Appendix I.



#118075 12/26/03 12:27 AM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
G
addict
Offline
addict
G
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
i love how sheep look

Reminds me of a poem [urging fallowness of mind a la Wordwind's shaman]:

What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows

BTW, de Troy, when you say you love the way sheep "look", do you mean you love the way they look [as in "stare"], or you love the way they appear to you as you look at them ... or both?

As the poet says, "standing and staring" may be something we can learn from sheep and cows.

As an aside, when we "stare", are we not doing more than merely "looking"? Are we not in "awe"?

There is awe to be experienced, complexity and beauty, in the simplest and most mundane of things, wouldn't you say?

How often we miss it. [As another poet said, "one glimpse of it within the tavern caught, better than in the temple lost outright".]

Is it not revealing that even as we have less and less time in the blur of modern life to "stand and stare", we also have less poetry in our lives, and none in our schools?

#118076 12/26/03 01:39 AM
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
well said, g.



formerly known as etaoin...
#118077 12/26/03 01:06 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
when you say you love the way sheep "look", do you mean you love the way they look [as in "stare"], or you love the way they appear to you as you look at them ... or both?

mostly its i like looking at them... there is a farm museum in queens, (it was a working farm until the early 1970's!--and dates from the early 1790's!) that keeps sheep in the orchard (which as a few wizzened old apple trees that don't produce much in the way of a harvest).

i can't say i visit the museum often (once a year at best) but just driving by, one can gaze upon sheep in a meadow...

somewhere in the past annals of this board, Capital Kiwi had a wonderfully funny mini essay, which should have been enough to remove any doubts about 'gentle, docile sheep'--and while i recognize the truth to his experiences (and about sheep in general) i prefer to view them (literaly and figuritively) as gentle, soft, fragrent, docile animals.

(maybe i have been knitting with wool too much of late!)


#118078 12/26/03 01:37 PM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
G
addict
Offline
addict
G
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
gentle, soft, fragrent, docile animals

Yes, which is why we have the term "like sheep to slaughter".

There must be something tranquilizing about sheep, de Troy. People count sheep to fall asleep.

When we do something "sheepishly", we are reluctant to do it at all.

Is it perhaps that sheep are the terrestrial equivalent of fleecy white clouds?

Ah, but, did you have to mention "fragrant", de Troy?

Like most things revered in our imagination, they are best revered from afar ... in a well-ventilated meadow beneath a sky ascudder with clouds, pillow-soft, billowing, azure blue grazing, fleecy white clouds.







#118079 12/30/03 11:51 AM
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526

thanks for the comments on this. i think i'm clear on fallowing now.

k



#118080 12/30/03 01:32 PM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
G
addict
Offline
addict
G
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 619
i think i'm clear on fallowing now

Maybe you just needed to fallow out.




Page 2 of 3 1 2 3

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,271
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
1 members (A C Bowden), 285 guests, and 4 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,502
LukeJavan8 9,915
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5