My New Year’s resolutions have been made and clearly stated. First, “Stop shaming myself”. (read my post “A Cup of Kindness” for more) Second, “Stop spending so much time playing Solitaire”. I realize that organizing cards and Mahjong tiles is not a bad thing necessarily. I get a certain satisfaction out of putting them all to rights or trying again until I do. But it’s kind of an OCD thing, too, so I don’t want to get sucked into doing it when I could do something else. Like bring chaos to order. I’ve been researching right brain/left brain behavior a bit (I recommend Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED talk “My stroke of insight”), and I’ve decided that I need to exercise my right brain more. My creativity — expansiveness, inclusion and collage-thinking. Here’s an exercise I came up with: take a familiar, well-known and memorized quote and mix it up. Use the same words in a different order, add new punctuation. Voila! Chaos out of order poetry. Here are a few:
“What twilight’s proudly gleaming light,
Early hailed by the dawn’s last ‘Oh’
We can see, so say at you.”
“The forefathers, four score and seven, conceived new, created and brought forth years ago,
dedicated in proposition to all men on this continent that a nation are equal – our Liberty.”
“No other shalt have me, before thou gods.”
“The beginning: the word, the word, the word.
God was God. And was. And was with.”
My daughter Emily tells me that Facebook provides a random generator to make something new of words you’ve posted, too. Hers are quite poetic. So maybe it’s not an entirely original exercise, but it’s a start. A beginning. A way to set off on a new adventure, to shed habit and convention and embrace the unpredictable nature of life unfolding. Stepping off into 2014 — we can create and uncreate a new beginning. What will chaos bring to you this year?
Good luck with these! I just realized that it’s been over a year since I’ve played a game of solitaire…for me it was a great way to delay writing. Yeah! It’s quite freeing.
An interesting exercise. I will have to play with it later today.
I’m thinking that one thing that happens with solitare and with Mahjong is that it forces a narrow focus and there’s a certain relief in that. It’s probably not unlike the focus that happens in the course of creating a poem or piece of art.
Did you know that some people use Mahjong tiles to tap into intuition in the same way that others do using playing cards and Tarot? I used to have book on it and just looked it up on Amazon but I don’t see it there. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the book or the name of its author.
I can imagine that…Mahjong tiles are fascinating, including elements of magic, earth, seasons, and numbers described in different ways. It is kind of a cosmos.
scillagrace 
Enjoyed your insights and thoughts coupled with the image.
Thanks, Sally! I took the photo last January at the arboretum in Madison.
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Good luck with these! I just realized that it’s been over a year since I’ve played a game of solitaire…for me it was a great way to delay writing. Yeah! It’s quite freeing.
Yup, a great way to procrastinate, I don’t need!
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I think Facebook generates a lot of randomness from all the weird things it does and changes it sneaks in. 🙂 I hope 2014 is a wonderful year for you.
janet
I don’t have an account, myself. Thanks for your good wishes!
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Love by the looks of it Scilla xxx
Then Chaos is my friend! xo 😉
😀
You’re off to a great start!
Thanks, Elena!
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An interesting exercise. I will have to play with it later today.
I’m thinking that one thing that happens with solitare and with Mahjong is that it forces a narrow focus and there’s a certain relief in that. It’s probably not unlike the focus that happens in the course of creating a poem or piece of art.
Did you know that some people use Mahjong tiles to tap into intuition in the same way that others do using playing cards and Tarot? I used to have book on it and just looked it up on Amazon but I don’t see it there. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the book or the name of its author.
I can imagine that…Mahjong tiles are fascinating, including elements of magic, earth, seasons, and numbers described in different ways. It is kind of a cosmos.
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